AstroAF

Work-In-Progress (but wind is not playing well)

1 day ago | [YT] | 25

AstroAF

Orion Nebula (M42 & Running Man)
A stellar nursery carved out of a vast molecular cloud ~1,350 light-years away in the constellation Orion.

What looks like an “explosion” is actually a blister nebula — intense UV radiation from the Trapezium stars ionizing gas and pushing outward where the surrounding cloud is thinnest. The dark lanes are dense dust still resisting that pressure, sculpting the nebula’s dramatic shape. New stars are forming here right now, even as radiation erodes the cloud around them.

This region has been observed since antiquity and cataloged by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1610, but modern narrowband imaging reveals just how dynamic and layered it really is.

Integration
H-alpha: 6 × 900s — 1h 30m
O III: 8 × 900s — 2h 00m
S II: 7 × 900s — 1h 45m
Total integration: 5h 15m

Gear
‪@CelestronDotCom‬ EdgeHD 8 @ 1440mm
‪@playeroneastronomy2772‬ Artemis-M Pro
‪@astroasis2020‬ Oasis Focuser and Filter Wheel
‪@svbonyoptics‬ SHO
‪@SkyWatcherUSA‬ HEQ5 Pro

Processed in PixInsight

#astrophotography, #orionnebula, #m42, #runningmannebula, #sho, #narrowband, #deepsky, #space, #nebula, #pixinsight, #amateurastronomy, #nightscape

1 week ago | [YT] | 38

AstroAF

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and a great start to 2026.

Here’s to clear skies, steady guiding, successful projects, and new ideas worth building. Thank you for being part of the AstroAF community and for supporting the work, the experiments, and the open-source projects along the way.

Clear skies in the year ahead.

Cheers!
Doug

#HappyNewYear #newyear2026 #astrophotography #clearskies

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 36

AstroAF

🎄 Merry Christmas from AstroAF! 🎄

Wishing you and your friends and family a joyful, peaceful Christmas and a wonderful start to the new year. May it be filled with good health, clear skies, and time to enjoy the things that bring you inspiration.


I also want to take a moment to sincerely thank the companies that have supported my work this year. Your gear, encouragement, and willingness to engage with the community make a real difference—not just in what we capture, but in how accessible and enjoyable this hobby can be. I truly appreciate the trust, support, and collaboration, and I’m grateful to be able to share what’s possible with the tools you build.


To mark the season, I’m sharing two views of the Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264)—a festive holiday card version and a full deep-sky image that shows just how much structure and depth this region holds. Even with limited integration time, the hydrogen emission and dust in this area really came alive, making it a perfect celestial subject for Christmas.


Gear
​‪@CelestronDotCom‬ EdgeHD 8 @ 1422 mm
‪@playeroneastronomy2772‬ Artemis-M Pro
‪@optolongastronomyfilter1999‬ LRGB + Hα filters
‪@astroasis2020‬ Oasis focuser (Rose) & filter wheel
‪@svbonyoptics‬


Integration
3h 45m total
• 7 × 900 s Hα
• 6 × 300 s each L, R, G, B
Captured at 2×2 binning

Captured with NINA

Processing
PixInsight

Thank you for following along and sharing this journey—here’s to more photons, more learning, and more beautiful nights under the stars.
Cheers!
Doug

#MerryChristmas #AstroAF #ChristmasTreeCluster #NGC2264 #Astrophotography #DeepSkyAstro #HydrogenAlpha #LRGB #PlayerOneAstronomy #PixInsight #NINA #ClearSkies

Skip the Carousel

1 2

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 31

AstroAF

Jupiter with the GRS, Io, and Dual Moon Shadows with Io (top right limb) and Europa (bottom right limb) transits and a crop of Jupiter — Captured with the Player One Astronomy Mars 662M
(click images for full view)

After a long night (and longer processing sessions), I’m excited to finally share this Jupiter capture featuring the Great Red Spot, Io resolved as a disk, and two simultaneous moon shadows on the planet.

This image is the result of a full end-to-end planetary workflow — from careful optical setup, thermal stabilization, framing, and filter sequencing, through high-frame-rate capture, meticulous stacking, WinJUPOS derotation, and restrained final processing. Planetary imaging always presents challenges, but working through each step is where the real learning (and satisfaction) happens.

The ‪@playeroneastronomy2772‬ Mars 662M continues to be an absolute pleasure for planetary work. Its sensitivity, clean data, and consistency across filters made it possible to pull subtle belt structure, shadow detail, and even resolve Io cleanly alongside Jupiter — all with an 8” aperture.

This session really reinforced how much detail is achievable when solid data acquisition meets patience and disciplined processing. A great reminder that planetary imaging is as much about workflow and refinement as it is about the final frame.

More to come — but for now, I’m calling this one a win.

Gear
‪@CelestronDotCom‬ EdgeHD 8 @ 4064 mm
‪@AstroPhysicsCorp‬ BARADV Barlow
​‪@playeroneastronomy2772‬ Mars 662M
​‪@optolongastronomyfilter1999‬ LRGB Filters
​‪@astroasis2020‬ Oasis Focuser (Rose) & Filter Wheel

Integration
LRGB — Best 35% of ~32,000 frames
Captured with SharpCap

Processing
Stacking: AutoStakkert
Measurements & De-rotation: WinJUPOS
Pre-processing: AstroSurface
Post-processing: PixInsight & Photoshop

#PlayerOneAstronomy #Mars662M #Jupiter #PlanetaryImaging #Astrophotography #Io #GreatRedSpot #MonoImaging #WinJUPOS #AstroImaging #FromCaptureToProcess

Skip the Carousel

1 2

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 12

AstroAF

Jupiter session tonight with the Player One Mars 662M on the Edge, running at 4064mm of focal length.

Great seeing for once, so I pivoted to planetary and went after Jupiter. I'm having a really solid run of multiple sequences as the great red spot looks to be rotating into center. The bands are snapping into focus nicely and Io hanging out in the top right is a fun bonus! Things seemed to have settled in well and dialed in.

I’m enjoying working with the ‪@playeroneastronomy2772‬ Mars 662M for planetary. It’s fast, responsive, and just easy to work with — exposure and gain adjustments are straightforward and frame rates are excellent. I'm super happy with the individual frames from the live view. Great camera and I'm looking forward to processing these sequences tomorrow!

Planetary always feels chaotic compared to deep sky, but when the seeing cooperates, it’s absolutely worth the effort. More to come once this data goes through processing.

Cheers!
Doug

#astrophotography #planetaryimaging #jupiter #greatredspot #Io #playeone #mars662m #solarsystem #planetarycamera #highspeedimaging #seeingconditions #astroaf

Skip the Carousel

1 2

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 17

AstroAF

Still looking for a last-minute Christmas gift?
The AstroAF Gift Card is a great option for astrophotography fans and makers. It can be used on anything in the AstroAF shop, with multiple amounts available, and any remaining balance can be saved for future purchases.
Gift cards also help support ongoing AstroAF content, tutorials, and open-source DIY astrophotography projects. It’s a practical way to give something useful while supporting independent, community-driven work.
Available here: astroaf-shop.fourthwall.com/products/astroaf-gift-…

Cheers!
Doug

#astrophotography #giftcard #contentcreation #diy #opensource

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 11

AstroAF

3I/ATLAS

Tesseract?
Interstellar self-replicating probe?
The mothership?

Probably not.

Much more likely, this is an interstellar comet — a visitor from outside our solar system, moving at roughly 130,000 mph, passing through once, and then gone forever. A true one-time encounter on a hyperbolic trajectory, never to return.

What makes objects like 3I/ATLAS special isn’t just what they look like, but where they come from. This material formed around another star, in another system, long before it briefly crossed our skies.

This image captures the compact coma and faint dust tail as it streaked through a dense star field — a small, fast traveler reminding us how dynamic (and interconnected) our galaxy really is.

Gear
‪@CelestronDotCom‬ EdgeHD 8 @ f/1.9 (388 mm)
‪@zwoastro‬ ASI533MC Pro
‪@optolongastronomyfilter1999‬ Astronomy Filter UV/IR
‪@svbonyoptics‬ SV226 filter drawer
‪@astroasis2020‬ Oasis Focuser (Rose)

Integration
UV/IR (RGB): 131 × 60 s
Total Integration: 2 h 11 m

Cheers!
Doug

#astrophotography #comet #interstellar #3IATLAS #deepSky #space #astronomy #nightSky #cosmicVisitor

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 19

AstroAF

Astrophotographer life

#astrophotography #imaging #nighttimephotography #nosleep

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 17

AstroAF

Messier 31 — The Andromeda Galaxy

This image captures Messier 31 (M31), the Andromeda Galaxy — the nearest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way and the most distant object visible to the unaided human eye under dark skies.

Andromeda was first recorded around 964 AD by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, and later cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764 as Messier 31. Modern measurements place it at a distance of roughly 2.5 million light-years, with a diameter of about 220,000 light-years, making it significantly larger than the Milky Way.

Annotated in the image are several notable features and companions:
• M31 (NGC 224) — the main Andromeda Galaxy
• M32 (NGC 221) — a compact elliptical satellite galaxy, visible just below the core
• M110 (NGC 205) — a larger, diffuse elliptical companion located above and to the right
• NGC 206 — a massive star-forming region (OB association) embedded within Andromeda’s southern spiral arm, appearing as a bright knot inside the galaxy rather than a separate object

One of my main goals with this processing was to highlight the dark dust lanes and the faint emission structures within the spiral arms. With careful use of Hα and OIII data, subtle Hα emission “nodules” become visible along the arms and within the darkest dust features. There are also hints of OIII emission near the upper portions of the galaxy where the arms transition into surrounding Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN). Additional IFN can be seen faintly at the upper left and lower right of the frame.

Color calibration for this image is based on SPCC, with processing focused on controlling the galaxy core, reducing magenta bias, and balancing red emission against the surrounding stellar population, while keeping the overall scale and structure intact.

A fun fact: Andromeda and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and are expected to merge in roughly 10 billion years, forming a single massive elliptical galaxy.

This image also represents first light data from my newly installed pier. Andromeda will be featured in an upcoming video where I finish the pier installation and finalize the alignment and setup of the scope.

Image Details

Telescope
‪@CelestronDotCom‬ EdgeHD 8 @ f/1.9 (388 mm)

Camera
‪@zwoastro‬ ASI533MC Pro

Filters
‪@optolongastronomyfilter1999‬ UV/IR | Hα/OIII

Filter Drawer
‪@svbonyoptics‬ SV226

Focuser
‪@astroasis2020‬ Oasis Focuser Rose

Integration
Hα/OIII: 605 × 30 s
UV/IR (RGB): 998 × 30 s
Total Integration: 13 h 21 m 30 s

⸻

Cheers!
Doug

#Astrophotography #deepskyobjects #andromedagalaxy #M31 #messier31 #ngc206 #galaxies #astronomy #nightphotography #telescopepier

Skip the Carousel

1 2

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 17