Astrophotos & more

If you want to meet a cosmonaut, launch a rocket, work in a team, enjoy good moments with people from all over the world or learn something new about space and rocket engineering, then the European Space Camp is for you! You’ll be able to build, name, launch and control a sounding rocket at the Andøya Space Center, 2° North...

My first decent photo of the Moon that also shows all the colours produced by minerals on its surface!

A perfect photo of the Iris Nebula, a reflection nebula in Cepheus!

Three faint objects - the Ring Nebula, NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 - photographed from my light-polluted backyard. Let’s see them!

Let’s photograph the Sunflower Galaxy under a 95% illuminated Moon and very high light pollution! Who would win?

Pretty excited about these photos! The giant Rosette Nebula in Monoceros and the faint NGC 2403 Galaxy in Camaleopardis! Five-minutes subs, good processing in Astro Pixel Processor and Darktable. Read more about these two fantastic objects!

My first attempt to a wide nebula with an apochromatic telescope: the EvoStar 72. Good but disappointing result: the object is itself very bright but has few details, while the photo has a great noise-to-signal ratio even if I took only six frames. I wouldn’t buy this telescope, and I’ll explain why.

My photos of the Horsehead, Flame and Crab Nebulae under strong light pollution, taken from my backyard in Italy during these cold days (thanks remote control!). My usual gear and a lot of efforts… but the result is unbelievable and very good for my setup and imaging location!

A short review of UHC filters, when they are useful to increase colour balance and contrast and when you should avoid them.

I’ve taken some 45 seconds exposures (ISO 800, for about one hour, with some delay between each photo) from my backyard and then I made this timelapse. Since the comet was really fast (long focal length, 1000, and APS-C sensor), I had to delete several frames, so the video has only 19 frames, manually processed in Astro Pixel Processor and...

The Great Orion Nebula and the Pleiades: when the UHC filter must be used. I’m happy with the photo I took to M 45, but I’m also disappointed by the colour balance and the contrasts of the Orion Nebula: I didn’t use the light pollution filter this time…

34x 360 seconds at ISO 1600 (a record!), dark, flat, dark-flats and bias frames, processing in Astro Pixel Processor and The GIMP. Nikon D3300 with UHC filter from a very light polluted area, Sky-Watcher Newtonian 200mm f/5, EQ5. Due to the long focal length, the nebula is partially cropped, but the result is very satisfying!

I must say that I’m really proud of the results I got at the Star Party of Campo Catino! Targets photographed: the Andromeda Galaxy, the Dumbbell Nebula, the Triangulum Galaxy, the Pinwheel Galaxy and the Pacman Nebula! Check them out in the post!