Around the Flaming Star



This image depicts a region in the Auriga constellation, including multiple deep-sky objects. I aimed for the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) and the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410), but the wider framing of the lens includes the star clusters M36, M38, and NGC 1907, as well as the nebulae IC 417, Sh2-235, LdN-1512, LdN-1522, and LdN-1523.



As with my previous DSO images, this image was taken without a tracker but with sporadic manual tracking with a standard DSLR setup with a 105 mm macro lens. This time I used 1360 × 2 s frames, resulting in 45 m 20 s exposure time.



This relatively short integration time is near the limit of what is possible for me, as the large number of frames requires a lot of storage during processing (>700 GB in this case). Details of the nebulae are not obtainable with this method, but the general shape can be seen. It also only works well with larger objects, as the relatively wide tele, noise, and resolution limits do not allow capturing details of smaller DSOs.



Despite the limitations, it is fun to experiment without a tracker and see what is possible.



The workflow included #Siril, #GraXpert, #StarNet, and #GIMP.



Nikon D500, Sigma 105mm EX DG OS HSM, 105 mm, f/2.8, 1360x2 s, ISO 3200, tripod, no tracker

#Nebulae #StarCluster #astrophotography #photography #germany #digikam

Around the Flaming Star



This image depicts a region in the Auriga constellation, including multiple deep-sky objects. I aimed for the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) and the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410), but the wider framing of the lens includes the star clusters M36, M38, and NGC 1907, as well as the nebulae IC 417, Sh2-235, LdN-1512, LdN-1522, and LdN-1523.



As with my previous DSO images, this image was taken without a tracker but with sporadic manual tracking with a standard DSLR setup with a 105 mm macro lens. This time I used 1360 × 2 s frames, resulting in 45 m 20 s exposure time.



This relatively short integration time is near the limit of what is possible for me, as the large number of frames requires a lot of storage during processing (>700 GB in this case). Details of the nebulae are not obtainable with this method, but the general shape can be seen. It also only works well with larger objects, as the relatively wide tele, noise, and resolution limits do not allow capturing details of smaller DSOs.



Despite the limitations, it is fun to experiment without a tracker and see what is possible.



The workflow included #Siril, #GraXpert, #StarNet, and #GIMP.



Nikon D500, Sigma 105mm EX DG OS HSM, 105 mm, f/2.8, 1360x2 s, ISO 3200, tripod, no tracker

#Nebulae #StarCluster #astrophotography #photography #germany #digikam

Cat's Paw Nebula



This is my attempt at the James Webb Space Telescope data of the Cat's Paw Nebula NGC 6334. Many stars were removed or oversaturated in the filter data downloaded from MAST, resulting in a lot of artifacts in the short- and long-wavelength composite images created with #Siril. I combined both images in #GIMP and tried to fix some of the artifacts. After different tries, also on the raw data, I decided to run #StarNet++ on the combined FITS file created with GIMP and then painstakingly clean the rest (felt like 10000) of the star artifacts up. I tried to stay true to the nebula by interpolating what the area behind and around the stars most likely looks like. GIMP's heal brush worked really well, but it took many hours to complete.



The full-resolution image can be seen on my website when choosing the original size in the upper right corner (warning: it is 77 MB in size): https://www.picturavis.com/picture?/391/categories



Telescope: JWST/NIRCam

Proposal ID: 6778

Observation description: NIRCam observations of a star forming nebula

Release date: 10.07.2025

Filters: F090W (blue), F187N (light blue), F200W (blue-green), F277W (yellow-green), F335M (yellow), F444W-F470N (red)



#CatsPawNebula #NGC6334 #JWST #JamesWebb #NIRCam #Nebula #SpaceTelescope #astrophotography #DeepSky #DigiKam

Cat's Paw Nebula



This is my attempt at the James Webb Space Telescope data of the Cat's Paw Nebula NGC 6334. Many stars were removed or oversaturated in the filter data downloaded from MAST, resulting in a lot of artifacts in the short- and long-wavelength composite images created with #Siril. I combined both images in #GIMP and tried to fix some of the artifacts. After different tries, also on the raw data, I decided to run #StarNet++ on the combined FITS file created with GIMP and then painstakingly clean the rest (felt like 10000) of the star artifacts up. I tried to stay true to the nebula by interpolating what the area behind and around the stars most likely looks like. GIMP's heal brush worked really well, but it took many hours to complete.



The full-resolution image can be seen on my website when choosing the original size in the upper right corner (warning: it is 77 MB in size): https://www.picturavis.com/picture?/391/categories



Telescope: JWST/NIRCam

Proposal ID: 6778

Observation description: NIRCam observations of a star forming nebula

Release date: 10.07.2025

Filters: F090W (blue), F187N (light blue), F200W (blue-green), F277W (yellow-green), F335M (yellow), F444W-F470N (red)



#CatsPawNebula #NGC6334 #JWST #JamesWebb #NIRCam #Nebula #SpaceTelescope #astrophotography #DeepSky #DigiKam

Orion



Orion photographed under suboptimal conditions. It was relatively low over the horizon, there was haze, thin clouds, and light pollution. But I like the glow it gave the bright stars. The Orion Nebula (M42 and M43), the Running Man Nebula (S279) the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) and the Horsehead Nebula (B33 and IC 434) are visible. Especially the latter surprised me, although there is just a long red blob with a small black blob visible.



I chose too long an exposure time for pixel peeping, so please ignore the oblong stars.



Image created from 99x10s exposures (16 minutes, 30 seconds) with #Siril, #GraXpert and #GIMP.



Nikon Z50, Nikkor 17-28/2.8, 28 mm, f/2.8, 99×10 s, ISO 3200, tripod, no tracker

#constellation #orion #nebulae #stars #photography #astrophotography #digikam

Orion



Orion photographed under suboptimal conditions. It was relatively low over the horizon, there was haze, thin clouds, and light pollution. But I like the glow it gave the bright stars. The Orion Nebula (M42 and M43), the Running Man Nebula (S279) the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) and the Horsehead Nebula (B33 and IC 434) are visible. Especially the latter surprised me, although there is just a long red blob with a small black blob visible.



I chose too long an exposure time for pixel peeping, so please ignore the oblong stars.



Image created from 99x10s exposures (16 minutes, 30 seconds) with #Siril, #GraXpert and #GIMP.



Nikon Z50, Nikkor 17-28/2.8, 28 mm, f/2.8, 99×10 s, ISO 3200, tripod, no tracker

#constellation #orion #nebulae #stars #photography #astrophotography #digikam

Hey #astrophotography , I'm trying #Siril live-stacking function and... It doesn't work at all. The log in the terminal is telling me it's seeing/adding the new pictures, but the GUI does nothing... any idea?

Zäh geht es mit der Ausarbeitung (mit #Siril) - ist bei Kometen etwas komplexer, da sie sich im Verhältnis zu den Sternen bewegen.

Hier nun die Animation von #Komet C 2025/R2 #Swan.
Aufnahmen erstrecken sich über 1 h 52 min.

#C2025R2Swan #KometSwan #Astrofotografie

Zäh geht es mit der Ausarbeitung (mit #Siril) - ist bei Kometen etwas komplexer, da sie sich im Verhältnis zu den Sternen bewegen.

Hier nun die Animation von #Komet C 2025/R2 #Swan.
Aufnahmen erstrecken sich über 1 h 52 min.

#C2025R2Swan #KometSwan #Astrofotografie

Look into the past 2.0



Ruins of the ancient cretan city of Itanos ( Ίτανος) in front of the Milky Way.



This is a second attempt at photos taken in 2022.



The Milky Way was photographed with an integration time of 38 x 8s = 5m 4s and processed with #Siril, #GraXpert, #StarNet and #GIMP. The ruins were taken with 30s exposure and light painted with a flashlight, then processed with #RawTherapee and GIMP. Final composition was done in GIMP.



Milky Way: Nikon D500, Tokina AT-X 11-20 f2.8 PRO DX, 11 mm, f2.8, 38x8s, ISO 3200, tripod

Ruins: Nikon D500, Tokina AT-X 11-20 f2.8 PRO DX, 11 mm, f2.8, 30s, ISO 800, tripod, light painted

#astrophotography #ruins #nightscape #milkyway #photography #greece

Look into the past 2.0



Ruins of the ancient cretan city of Itanos ( Ίτανος) in front of the Milky Way.



This is a second attempt at photos taken in 2022.



The Milky Way was photographed with an integration time of 38 x 8s = 5m 4s and processed with #Siril, #GraXpert, #StarNet and #GIMP. The ruins were taken with 30s exposure and light painted with a flashlight, then processed with #RawTherapee and GIMP. Final composition was done in GIMP.



Milky Way: Nikon D500, Tokina AT-X 11-20 f2.8 PRO DX, 11 mm, f2.8, 38x8s, ISO 3200, tripod

Ruins: Nikon D500, Tokina AT-X 11-20 f2.8 PRO DX, 11 mm, f2.8, 30s, ISO 800, tripod, light painted

#astrophotography #ruins #nightscape #milkyway #photography #greece

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) (bottom of the image) and Gemma (main star in the constellation Corona Borealis) (top of the image) on 24 October at 20:33 CEST from Wedemark, north of Hanover, Germany.

The straight, bluish plasma tail is visible over a length of ~6° (12 full moon diameters). The curved dust tail is a lot shorter.

Crop from a stack of 51 2-second images at ISO 5000, f/2.8, and f=200 mm.

#CometLemmon #Comet #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Photography #Siril #Gimp

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) on 24 Oktober at 20:28 CEST from Wedemark north of Hannover, Germany.

Cropped from a stack of 51 single exposures of 2 s at ISO 5000 and at f=200 mm.

Used Siril, Gimp, and NeatImage to improve stacked image afterwards.

Edit: Added newly edited version of the image with less color shift added.

#CometLemmon #Comet #astrophotography #Siril #Gimp

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) (bottom of the image) and Gemma (main star in the constellation Corona Borealis) (top of the image) on 24 October at 20:33 CEST from Wedemark, north of Hanover, Germany.

The straight, bluish plasma tail is visible over a length of ~6° (12 full moon diameters). The curved dust tail is a lot shorter.

Crop from a stack of 51 2-second images at ISO 5000, f/2.8, and f=200 mm.

#CometLemmon #Comet #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Photography #Siril #Gimp

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) on 24 Oktober at 20:28 CEST from Wedemark north of Hannover, Germany.

Cropped from a stack of 51 single exposures of 2 s at ISO 5000 and at f=200 mm.

Used Siril, Gimp, and NeatImage to improve stacked image afterwards.

Edit: Added newly edited version of the image with less color shift added.

#CometLemmon #Comet #astrophotography #Siril #Gimp

If there's someone here doing #astrophotography with #siril , there's something I can't do: I'd like to export a whole sequence as a MP4 . I've found the option alright, but I need to apply a stretch first (I've tried, I get an all black video otherwise). How can I apply the same processing to a whole sequence and save it as a new sequence? I can't export as FIT or TIFF because I don't have enough disk space, and image magick doesn't read fit.fz :(