Observations

The image shown here was acquired by Martin Myslivec with a first C2-9000 production camera on the 400mm Newtonian telescope. Despite rather modest exposure times, just 2.5 hours per LRGB channel, the resulting image shows the famous M51 in incredible details. (more...)

Famous M20 “Trifid” nebula images by CielAustral group show this iconic object in real colors, captured through red, green and blue filters, as well as in somewhat unusual combination of real-color data with images acquired through narrow-band filters. (more...)

If there is a contest for the most aesthetically pleasing image of a deep sky object, this image of M16 “Eagle nebula” by Wolfgang Prompter would be among the finalists, at last according to our opinion (esthetics is subjective). The chosen false-color palette and framing of the faint structures in the nebula create beautiful artwork. (more...)

The M51 “Whirlpool” galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici belongs among the most famous spirals on the sky. In fact, this is the first galaxy, which spiral structure was discovered. Also, this object in fact consists of two interacting galaxies in the process of merging, which makes it even more interesting. (more...)

M27 is just a perfect planetary nebula to observe. It is bright enough to be easily visible even in small binoculars. It is also large enough not to be mistaken for a star. It is also not just a round shape, but shows distinct brightening on the sides (hence the “Dumbbell” nickname, although “Apple core” is much more suitable in my opinion). (more...)

Moravian Instruments astronomical cameras are often presented as tools for getting beautiful pictures of the deep sky wonders. But Moravian cameras have also other side — they are often used to gather scientific measurements leading to world-class research. (more...)

We present one more totally breathtaking image from Wolfgang Prompter. Imaging this iconic duo of interacting galaxies NGC4038, appropriately nicknamed “Antennae”, in a few spare hours after capturing another object, lead to surprising result. (more...)

We present breathtaking images of three galaxies, captured by Wolfgang Promper with his new C3-61000 PRO camera on ASA telescope. World class instruments, located in Namibia — a place with very low light pollution and dark sky, combined with Wolfgang’s experience, explain the exceptional quality of these images. (more...)

We received another “first light” image, taken with the C3-61000 camera. This time it is the SH2-171 nebulosity complex imaged in real (reg, green and blue) colors by Andrea Lucchetti. (more...)

This incredibly detailed image of the NGC6992 Veil Nebula in Cygnus was captured by Martin Myslivec with his new C3-61000 camera on the 40 cm f/4 corrected Newtonian telescope. In fact, this is the very first image captured with the very first C3-61000 camera sold. (more...)

How far can amateurs go in the pursuit to perfect their images of deep-sky objects? Consider the image of the M104 galaxy, nicknamed “Sombrero”, below. The iconic image of M104, captured by the HST, surpasses it in resolution and details, but this is expected from multi-billion dollar orbiting observatory with 2.4 meters mirror. Otherwise, this image is very close to the best images from ground-based telescopes ever captured. (more...)

There was a time when the KAF-1600 CCD sensor was an indisputable king among solid state detectors. It was a dream sensor for every amateur astronomer — huge resolution of 1.5 mega-pixels and 14 × 9 mm photo-sensitive area seemed like a miracle. Even the ¼ area, 400 kilo-pixels KAF-0400 offered twice the horizontal resolution compared to cameras available to amateurs these days. (more...)

The CielAustral group of astro-photographers chose to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021 in a very specific way – by imaging NGC2020 and NGC2021 together. (more...)

We already published an image of NGC6188 nebula complex on our title page, taken by a famous group of astro-photographers named CielAustral. But this was only a partial image of this large cloud of interstellar matter. Now the same group presents almost 48 megapixels image mosaic, covering much wider portion of the sky and allowing us to admire incredible details in the gaseous structures. (more...)

NGC4725 and NGC4747 galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices are angularly smaller and also dimmer compared to big and bright spirals like M31 or M81. Therefore, these galaxies are much less often imaged and generally less known. Still, high quality image shows them in their full beauty and details. (more...)

Comet C/2019 Y4 (Atlas) disappointed northern-hemisphere observers by breaking into pieces and thus it will not reach the brightness everybody hoped. But another comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN), visible from the southern hemisphere, evolves into beauty and brightness. (more...)

The M82 is also known as “The Cigar Galaxy”. It can be seen close to more famous spiral M81 “Bode” galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. While the bigger and brighter M81 shows nice spiral structure, somewhat chaotic appearance of the smaller M82 caused the galaxy was considered to be irregular. Only recent observations in infra-red light revealed also M82 has spiral arms, only not that prominent, because we see the galaxy almost edge-on. (more...)

NGC2264 in the constellation Monoceros is both star cluster and nebula. Visual observers nicknamed the cluster “Christmas Tree”, because the brightest stars create a wedge-like shape, resembling lights on a Christmas tree. Astro-photographers often use another nickname — the “Cone Nebula”, because of a distinctive cone of dark nebula, extending from the tree top. It is visible on long-exposure images as a silhouette on the deep-red glowing hydrogen clouds on the background. (more...)

CTB 1 nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia is a remnant of an ancient supernova explosion. The nebula very low brightness is obviously a cause it is imaged much less frequently than brighter and thus more popular nebulae. (more...)

If we rank nebulae in the constellation Orion according how bright or known they are, M78 nebula in probably only on the third position, after famous “Great” nebula M42 and “Horse Head” with “Flame” nebulae duo. Being smaller and dimmer than their counterparts, imaging of M78 requires more effort to get good image, but the result may be more rewarding. At last, there are far less images of M78 all around the Internet. (more...)

Today we present another masterpiece from the CielBoreal/CielAustral group of astro-photographers (Laurent Bourgon, Jean-Claude Canonne, Nicolas Outters, Philippe Bernhard and Didier Chaplain) — the NGC1365 barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Fornax. (more...)

Is the Universe empty or full of stars and nebulae? This depends on what “empty” means to individual people. If you imagine a star like a small water drop, another water-drop sized star will be tens or hundreds of kilometers away. And this is valid only for galaxies — rather isolated islands of matter millions of light years apart. Space among galaxies lacks even these “water drops”. (more...)

The best Christmas gift for us is to hear from users satisfied with our cameras and to see their wonderful images acquired with them. Leonardo Orazi acquired the G4-16000 camera just prior Christmas and now we received very short e-mail from him, just two lines. The first line says “Incredible camera … great job” and the second line is the link to the first-light image taken with the camera. (more...)

“Scientific” and “aesthetic” astronomical imaging split only recently. Images of galaxies, star clusters and nebulae, published in popular astronomy books only a few tens of years ago, were mostly captured for research purposes. When a state-of-the-art technology like CCD cameras, wide-field optics, precision telescope mounts and powerful computers become accessible to amateurs, the very best images of deep sky wonders start to be captured by amateurs for pure joy and satisfaction from beautiful universe. Still, sometimes they illustrate some interesting and important astronomical phenomena, like the birth on new stars on the Rosette Nebula image acquired by Thomas Lelu. (more...)

This beautiful image of part of the Corona Australis constellation shows numerous dark nebulae, barely glowing in the scattered light of remote stars belonging to our Milky Way galaxy. Some portions of interstellar dust, reflecting the light of a nearby hot stars, shine in blue-green color. The globular cluster NGC 6273, visible in the right portion of the image, is much farther than the nebulae, beyond the Milky Way disk. (more...)

It is virtually impossible to find a deep-sky object, which remains out of sight of amateur astronomers these days. While everything on the sky is already imaged many times, taking astrophotography ourselves brings joy and satisfaction, when mysteries of the universe reveal themselves during processing and stacking of acquired images. (more...)

Small camera — great image. Thomas Lelu uses his G2-4000 on 10” corrected Newtonian telescope to produce beautiful images. Three galaxies in the constellation Leo are often denoted as “Leo triplet”. (more...)

We all used to the fact, that long exposure photography reveals cosmic structures so dark, that human’s eye cannot see them even in very large telescopes. What’s more, light from gaseous nebulae can be “enhanced” using narrow-band filters (more precisely, narrow-band filter of course cannot gain the light from nebula, but it very effectively suppresses disruptive background sky light, so it cannot overwhelm faint nebula glow). (more...)

NGC 7023 “Iris” nebula in Cepheus is a popular target for astro-photographers. Its blue-green color is caused by reflection of a light from a 7th magnitude star in its center. But the nebula itself is much greater than the shining part around the bright star, only the majority of its gaseous clouds remains hidden in shadows. (more...)

CCD cameras caused revolution in astronomical research, similar to introduction of telescope and more recently to the usage of photographic plates, capable to accumulate light during long exposures. We very well understand that the beautiful pictures of the deep-space objects, out of the reach of human eye regardless of telescope used, are very attractive and majority of our users enjoy them. But still, astronomy is a science and scientific research is very important application for our cooled CCD (and CMOS) cameras. The image presented here shows so-called light curve of recently discovered double-eclipsing quadruple star system. (more...)