Image Description and Details :

Sh2-155 (also designated Sharpless 155 or S155) is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Cepheus, within a larger nebula complex containing emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity. It is widely known as the Cave Nebula. Sh2-155 is an ionized H II region with ongoing star formation activity, at an estimated distance of 725 parsecs (2400 light-years) from Earth.

Copyright: Sergiy Vakulenko

Image Description and Details :

A year-long project done! Here’s the product of several days of taking photos of the Sun from the same spot at the same time throughout the year and combining these images into one striking photo.

It’s called an analemma, a diagram of the Sun’s position in our sky that varies over the course of the year because of our planet’s tilt and elliptical orbit.
The loops resembling the figure of 8 actually represent the seasons we experience here in the Northern Hemisphere: the narrow loop shows where the Sun is traveling in our sky during the summer months (June-early September), while the bigger loop shows the position of the Sun during the winter months (December-early March).

I took the 43 photos of the Sun that made up this composite image. These were taken every week from January 9 to December 25, 2021, with the Ak Sadeem Observatory as the foreground element. Post-processed in Photoshop 2020.

Equipment used: Canon Ra DSLR, Tamron 14-24mm lens, Baader solar filter. Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Copyright: Aldrin B. Gabuya/Al Sadeem Observatory

Image Description and Details :

This image has been made from 343 hours of exposure through broadband (LRGB) and narrowband (H-alpha & OIII) filters, composed as an 8-panel mosaic. The result covers an area of approximately 3.50° x 5.10° at 2.09 arc''/pixel resolution. Placed on the surroundings of the constellation Cepheus, this area is rich in several DSOs: We can see Sh2-129, also known as the Flying Bat Nebula, a large and faint HII region showed here in its characteristic H-alpha deep red line.

Superposed to Sh2-129 we see the even fainter Ou4 nebula, colloquially the Giant Squid Nebula, discovered in 2011 by Nicolas Outters, a French amateur astronomer. At first identified as a planetary nebula emitting in the OIII blue-green doublet, it would be in fact the largest in apparent size yet identified, extending over one degree (Acker et al. 2012 - arXiv:1206.2477). However, Corradi et al. (2014 - arXiv:1407.4617) describe Ou4 as the result of a bipolar outflow emanating from a massive component of HR 8119, a triple system located 2,300 light-years away, thus about as far as Sh2-129. If confirmed, this would make it a truly perplexing object.

On the right side of this image appears Barnard 150, or Seahorse Nebula, a dark nebula distant 1,500 light-years, composed by three dense star forming cores, part of an elongated molecular cloud complex. Finally, close to the lower-left end we have identified HD 203025, a Be type star surrounded by a diffuse red nebulosity, captured here through the H-alpha filter. It was catalogued according to its colour and morphology as an IR centred nebula by Bodensteiner et al. (2018 - arXiv:1806.01294), resulting from a massive star member of an interacting binary system.

Technical data:

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106 ED 530mm f/5
CCDs: QSI683 wsg8
Filters: Baader Planetarium -LRGB Ha OIII
Mount: 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Imaging Software: Voyager
Processing Software: Astropixel, Adobe PS, PixInsight

Imaging Data:

8-panel mosaic captured through July 2021 to December 2021


RGB: 170 x 600” (each). Total 84 hours.
Luminance: 280 x 900”. Total 70 hours.
Ha: 316 x 1200”. Total 106 hours.
OIII: 165 x 1800”. Total 83 hours.

Total Project : 343 hours

Copyright: Remote Observatory "FarLightTeam"
Team: José Esteban, Jesús M. Vargas, Bittor Zabalegui, Marc Valero.

Image Description and Details :

Here is a mosaic of 2 images with the main galaxies of the group NGC 4725 (located at about 55 million light-years) and the planetary nebula LoTr5, discovered in 1980 and located "only" at 1650 light-years from us!
The small galaxy NGC 4712, to the right of NGC 4725, is located more than 200 million light-years away.

A beautiful "cosmic perspective" with these different objects!

Mosaic of 2 images in LRGB + OIII. !

The framing of the first image was not intended for a mosaic with the nebula field, so an important part of the final field had to be cropped. The difference in sky quality resulted in a poor homogeneity of the sky background and a difficult connection between the two images, which did not facilitate the processing of this one.

A lot of time spent on processing to achieve a homogeneous result and highlight the nebula.

LRGB+OIII version
TSA102 - AtikOne6.0 - AZEQ6
L : 32 x 600s bin 1
RGB : 72 x 300s bin2
OIII : 18 x 600s bin2
Total : 14h20

Copyright: Jean-Baptiste Auroux

Image Description and Details :

It took me 2 months to acquire enough lights to make anything out of it.

Indeed, I shot 14 winter nights between November and January (5 of which played with my nerves with the fog lifting at nightfall without being able to do anything).

So I shot from the Vosges, I camped in 0 ° C in Alsace, I shot from my astrobro Christope in Moselle, I went south of France to Valensole and I moved on several spots on several nights in this region.A total of 3,600 km of road to acquire the 55 hours of lights retained which consist of:

Tile 1:
Ha -> 71x600 ’’
Oiii -> 78x600 ’’
R G B -> 90x10 '' per filter

Tile 2:Ha -> 94x600 ’’
Oiii -> 78x600 ’’
R G B -> 90x10 '' per filter

While the acquisition was long and complex, so was the processing, I had to work with 400GB of data for a final image of 15 000 x 12 000px.Suffice to say that the PC has smoked!
Once again a big thanks to Christophe who illuminated me with his advices during the processing and gave me invaluable help, thanks also to Nico for his always correct eye!

Technical part:
Takahashi FSQ106 EDX4 with 645-QE super reducerAsi 2600MM Pro
Barilla (Antilla) RGB + H and O 3nm filters
Eq6r-pro
Altaïr 60/225 guide + asi 290mm mini
Sky bortle 3-4

Acquisition: N.I.N.A + Phd2
Processing: Siril + PixInsight + Photoshop

Taken in several parts of France between 2021/11/10 and 2022/01/03

Copyright : Yann SAINTY

Image Description and Details :

Tak FSQ-106ED F/5SBIG STF-8300M + QHY CFW3 Filter wheelAstrodon L Channel 180sec x 116, 1binAstrodon H-a, R, G,B each Channel 300sec x 50, 1binBias, Dark, Flat processedOrion CT80 + ZWO ASI 120miniFLI Atlas focuserSkywatcher EQ8 mount (with EQ Drive standard4 TCS)

Copyright: Kim Young Dae

Image Description and Details :

NGC 2442 is located around 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Volans. The galaxy is 75,000 light-years wide and has quite an peculiar shape featuring two dusty spiral arms extending from a central bar that gives it a hook-like appearance. Given its appearance it is often referred to as “The Meat Hook Galaxy.” The galaxy’s distorted shape is most likely the result of a close encounter with a smaller galaxy some time in the past. A considerable amount of IFN is present in the field proximate to the galaxy and the image shows faint star streams at the ends of the arms of the galaxy.Imaged in LRGB and H alpha OTA CDK 1000 Luminance, RGB and H alpha. Additional RGB RiDK 500.Imaged at Observatorio El Sauce, ChileIntegration time: 47 hoursImage Processing: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby

Copyright: Mark Hanson_Mike Selby

Image Description and Details :

This image shows a marvelous and busy area in the constellation Cassiopeia. It contains a large amount of dust, several dark nebula and several reflection nebula along with two interesting stars. Near the top center is the star SU Cassiopeiae which is a Cepheid variable at Mag 5.94. SU Cass is a Yellow giant with a spectral class of F5:lb-11. It's 19 times larger than our sun. SU Cass lies 1289 light years distant. Surrounding it is the blue reflection nebula VdB 9 which is lit up by SU Cass. The blue wisps extend quite a ways around this area. The other interesting star in the lower center left is the star RZ Cassiopeiae. RZ Cass is a white A3V main sequence star at mag 6.26. It's an eclipsing variable star which is 219 light years distant. The bluish nebulosity surrounding it is listed as VdB 7. However RZ Cass is apparently not the source to light up VdB 7 but another smaller 11th mag star nearby. Several dark nebula are right of center in the image. The upper part of this nebula looks like an opened hand, hence the nickname (The helping hand). The dark area of the hand, near the top finger is designated as LDN 1357 and below it near the palm, LDN 1355. The long dark area near center right is the dark nebula LDN 1358. Throughout this entire area encompassing the field of view is lots of molecular dust of varying thickness and color. This image was taken under the dark skies of the Okie Tex Star Party in October 2021. It encompasses 14.3 hrs of exposure time using LRGB filters.Scope: Stellarvue SVX 152T, Camera: ZWO ASI 6200mm Pro, Mount: Paramount MyTExposures: Luminance 59@300sec, Red 39@300sec, Green 38@300sec, Blue 36@300secProcessing: PixInsight

Copyright: Jonathan Talbot

Image Description and Details :

Abell 13 is highly evolved planetary nebula in Orion. It is sometimes known as the Orion Ring Nebula because it's morphology resembles the better known Ring Nebula, M57. However Abell 13 is much fainter at around mag 16. In both cases their oval shape is believed to be a result of them being bipolar nebulae viewed offset from their axis, making their ring structure appear oval. Abell 13 is 2.9 arc minutes in angular size and around 3,500 light years away. It was first catalogued as Abell 9 by George Abell in 1955, but renumbered as Abell 13 in his 1966 paper.
Image captured on my remote dual rig at Fregenal de la Sierra in Spain between 13-29 December 2021.
Scopes: APM TMB LZOS 152 Refractors
Cameras: QSI6120wsg8
Mount: 10Micron GM2000 HPS
A total of 53 hours image capture (HaRGB)

Copyright: Copyright: Peter Goodhew

Image Description and Details :

You can find many beautiful galaxies in Pegasus. These two objects are especially beautiful. In september 2021 i took this picture in three nights.Equipment: Newton-Telescope 200/800. Camera ASI2600mcPro. Mount EQ6RPro. Exposure 132 x 300s (11h). Location: Hildesheim, Germany.

Copyright: Ralf Dienst

Image Description and Details :

I was very lucky to be able to capture all the full moons of 2021. The image represents 12 full moons of 2021 with their popular names, distance from Earth and angular diameter. The centre piece is a mosaic made with strips from all the 12 full moons.All the images were captured with the same camera (Nikon D5600) and lens (Sigma 150-600c) at a same focal length (600mm). The individual moons are a stack of 300 images each.

Copyright: Soumyadeep Mukherjee

Image Description and Details :

This field is the LBN923 region, the dusty nebulosity in center of this field. NGC1788 is the most prominent blueish bright nebula near to LDN1616 and LDN1615. Locate between Orion and Eridanus, its a beautiful red, blue and brown nebulae region.● Exposure: 32x 300s (L) + 14 x 300s (R) + 14 x 300s (G) + 14 x 300s (B). ● Processing: PixInsight Core 1.8. ● Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106EDX3 on EM-200Temma2M. Seletek Armadillo / Focusmax. ● Camera: Andor Apogee U16M / AFW-50-7S ( - 20ºC ). Astrodon E-Series genII filters. ● Guiding: FS-60CSV, QHY-5, PHDguiding.

Copyright: Iñaki Lizaso

Image Description and Details : Sh2-132 is one of the 312 bright emission nebulae catalogued by Stewart Sharpless. This large area of emission nebula in the constellation Cepheus glows from the characteristic red light of ionized hydrogen. Sh2-132 is about 1,200 light years away. Dark patches within it are due to soot blocking out the light. There are also some prominent dark nebulae blocking out the light of the stars behind them outside the main area of Sh2-132.

Acquisition, focusing, and control of Paramount MX mount with N.I.N.A., TheSkyX and PHD2. Focus with Optec DirectSync motors and controller. Equipment control with PrimaLuce Labs Eagle 4 Pro computer. All pre-processing and processing in PixInsight. Acquired from my SkyShed in Guelph. Average transparency and seeing. Acquired November 23 – December 19, 2021, mostly under a moderately moonlit sky.

Sky-Watcher Esprit 150 f/7 refractor and QHY600M camera with Optolong H-alpha, O(III) and S(II) 3nm filters

Chrominance: Takahashi FSQ-106 ED IV @ f/5 and QHY367C Pro one-shot color camera with Optolong UV/IR filter.

Ha: 22 x 20m = 7hr20m
O3: 22 x 20m = 7hr20m
S2: 22 x 20m = 7hr20m
OSC: 123 x 5m = 10hr15m
Total: 22hr for narrowband image; 37hr45m for broadband/narrowband blend

Image scale 0.72 arc sec per pixel

Copyright: Ron Brecher (astrodoc.ca)

Image Description and Details : 2 Panel Mosaic of the Witch Head nebula

As the name implies, this reflection nebula associated with the star Rigel looks suspiciously like a fairy tale crone. Formally known as IC 2118 in the constellation Orion, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from the star. The color of this very blue nebula is caused not only by blue color of its star, but also because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. A similar physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue as well.

Telescope : Astro Physics 12″ Riccardi-Honders f3.8
Camera : ZWO ASI6200
Mount: Software Bisque Paramount ME II
Pixel scale : 1.07 arcsec/pixel
FOV : 88 x 66 arcmins
Filters :LRGB
Integration: 28h00m
L 30x20m R 18x20m G 18x20m B 18x20m
RA center: 05h05m52s.3
DEC center: -06°43′01″
Accquistion: NINA
Processing: PixInsight

Copyright: vikas chander

Image Description and Details : Sharpless 126 (Sh2-126) is the designation of a large emission nebula in Lacerta, which appears in this image as a red background and exceeds the edges of the image. The source of its ionization is the intense ultraviolet radiation from the star 10 Lacertae, a blue main sequence star.

The nebula, which forms a "stellar funnel" in the center of the image and snakes away to the right, is designated LBN 437. It is a molecular cloud whose densest part is associated with some bright young stars. Its most striking feature is a symmetrical reflection nebula associated with the Herbig Ae / Be star V375 Lacertae. This star is also responsible for the bipolar Herbig-Haro objects within the nebula. Herbig-Haro objects are small nebulae around young stars. They form when gas ejected by the star hits dust clouds.

Telescope : ASA - Astro Systeme Austria ASA 10'
CMOS : ZWO ASI2400MC
Mount : Paramount MyT
Filter : IDAS LPS P3 2" LPS-P3
Softwares : PHD2 · Astro Pixel Processor · N.I.N.A. · Adobe Photoshop CC · The SkyX Pro · PIXINSIGHT
Guiding : Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED Evostar 72ED and ZWO ASI290MM Mini
IDAS LPS P3 2" LPS-P3: 128x600" (21h 20') (gain: 145.00) -10C bin 1x1
IDAS NBZ Nebula Boost Filter: 20x600" (3h 20') (gain: 145.00) -10C bin 1x1
IDAS NBZ Nebula Boost Filter: 19x900" (4h 45') (gain: 145.00) -10C bin 1x1
TOTAL EXPOSURE : 29 hrs

Copyright: Thomas LELU

Image Description:

I have updated my large mosaic of the Milky Way with the high resolution imaging I did in 2021. The upper image is taken through H-alpha, SII and OIII filters and the lower one through HaRGB. All the major nebulosity is now taken at a focal length of 530mm. This gives the image very crisp detail when viewed as a whole. Other images around the major nebulosity were taken at focal lengths of 85mm and 14mm. This mosaic has a total of 216 panels and over 2200 hours of imaging time. It uses data taken over the last 3 years which is why in the HaRGB image Jupiter (which looks like a very bright star) is above Sagittarius and in the SHO image which I took 12 months later it is below. That's how far it moved in a year.

Equipment Used
Telescope Canon 35mm L Series Lens, Sigma 85mm Lens, Takahashi TOA-130/FSQ 106 (Detail for the Nebulae)
Camera STL-11000M/STXL-11002M (Detail of the Nebulae) and SBIG STF-8300 and Canon 6D DSLR for the Widefield

216 image Mosaic with ~2268 hours of imaging through RGB. H-alpha, SII and OIII filters.

Copyright: Alistair Symon

Location: Upper AustriaPhoto taken on: December 2021Distance: 7500 light yearsExposure: RGB each 11 x 300 sec.Luminance: 30 x 300 sec.H-alpha: 51 x 900 sec.O-III: 25 x 900 sec.S-II: 58 x 900 sec.Total: 38.7 hoursCalibration: Darks / Flats / DarkFlatsMount: Skywatcher EQ6-R PROTelescope: Lacerta Fotonewton 250/1000Corrector: Lacerta GPU coma correctorFilter: Antlia LRGB-V ProAntlia 3nm Pro H-AlphaAntlia 3nm Pro O-IIIAntlia 3nm Pro S-IICamera: QHY268m @ Gain 0/60 at -15 ° CGuiding: QHY OAG with QHY5III462c and PHD2Software: APP / Photoshop CC

Copyright: Daniel Nimmervoll

HAPPY NEW YEAR!