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The Dark Matters

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The Dark Matters

✨ Astrophotography rookie exploring space-armed with a scope and a mild sense of existential dread ✨

19/09/2025

M8 - the Lagoon Nebula

A massive emission nebula about 4,000 light-years away in Sagittarius. Active star formation and dark dust lanes cutting through glowing hydrogen gas.
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That bright patch in the middle is an open cluster—NGC 6530—filled with young stars sculpting the nebula from the inside out.
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It spans over 100 light-years wide, but it’s still a small piece of the Milky Way’s larger star-forming structure.

03/08/2025

💠 NGC 7023 – The Iris Nebula
About 1,300 light-years away in Cepheus, the Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula—its light comes from dust scattering the glow of a young, hot star at its center.
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The blue hue is from starlight bouncing off microscopic dust grains. The surrounding dark clouds? That’s cold, light-blocking interstellar matter—future star stuff just hanging out, waiting.

27/06/2025

🔗 Markarian’s Chain – Virgo Cluster

This is Markarian’s Chain, a stretch of galaxies about 55 million light-years away in Virgo.
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In this shot alone, you can see fifteen galaxies, at least the ones I've tagged—ellipticals, spirals, and lenticulars—linked up in that gentle arc. Slide to the second photo to see their names.
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The two big ellipticals near the bottom are M84 and M86, but there are over a thousand galaxies in the wider cluster, all drifting together like a slow cosmic river.
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Each one holding billions of stars. Just floating out there.

PS: For my armenian fam, it was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.

22/06/2025

🦅 M16 – The Eagle Nebula
Back after a few months of garbage weather and struggling to stay up late with these endless sunsets. Not my best shot, but I wanted to get something out there regardless.
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Around 7,000 light-years away in Serpens, the Eagle Nebula is a massive star-forming region shaped by radiation, gravity, and time.
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At the center: the Pillars of Creation—columns of gas and dust where new stars are forming inside. You’ve seen the Hubble version. Here’s mine, from Earth—at 0.00000443% the cost.
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The bright cluster near the core is NGC 6611, carving those shapes with its radiation.

I'm going to aim at it again tonight if weather permits and get some more details.

PS: I mentioned in May I wanted to get my favourite galaxy, M104, sombrero galaxy...but I may have missed the window for it, thanks weather. It lies a little too low on the horizon when it gets dark.

24/05/2025

So it's been quiet here. Not for lack of motivation but a combination of bad weather and the summer hours (later sunset, it's only pitch dark past 10pm) means I have less opportunity to use the scope. C'est la vie. But my favourite galaxy, the sombrero galaxy is showing itself...and I want to try capture it in the coming weeks.

06/04/2025

🌌 NGC 2362: The Tau Canis Majoris Cluster
Tucked in the tail of Canis Major, this young open cluster is only about 5 million years old—basically newborns by cosmic standards. Anchored by the brilliant Tau CMa, the surrounding stars still wear the faint glow of the gas and dust they were born in.
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What you're seeing here is a tight, youthful stellar family just getting started. No red giants, no drama—just fresh stars lighting up the dark.
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🔭 Imaged from Earth, but this scene is 5,000 light-years away.

18/03/2025

✨ IC 447 & Neighbors ✨

IC 447, a reflection nebula in Monoceros about 2,700 light-years away, glows blue as starlight scatters off cosmic dust. It shares the stage with NGC 2245, NGC 2247, and IC 446—brighter patches above—forming a small cluster of reflection nebulae in this active star-forming region. I'll be revisiting this one in the coming evenings...more data...= better picture 🌌

08/03/2025

🌻 The Sunflower Galaxy – M63 🌻

About 29 million light-years away in Canes Venatici, M63 is a spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms filled with young blue stars and dark dust lanes. Its bright core and swirling structure give it a resemblance to a sunflower, hence the nickname.

T'was tricky—I only managed to spend half the time I wanted on it so I will revisit it in a week or two when the next passage of cloudy nights passes but I was still quite pleased with what came out so far so I wanted to share it. Can't wait to double the exposure and get more details from this one 🌌

06/03/2025

🌌M106🌌

A galaxy far far away... about 22 million light-years away in fact, with its bright core powered by a supermassive black hole. You can also spot its neighbor NGC 4248 just above.

there was a very visible and larger galaxy (NGC4217) to the top right but I had to crop it out as that part of the image was too damaged by light pollution and field rotation (Field rotation happens when your telescope tracks the stars but isn't aligned perfectly with Earth's rotation. As a result, over time, the stars and objects in your image slowly rotate around the center, making long exposures or stacked images look twisted or smeared unless you correct for it...which I cannot do really, maybe one day...and light pollution? Well it just sucks)

They are all a part of the Canes 11 galaxy group but with my little scope it's difficult to see the ones further out.

This one is the result of stacking almost 1,000 images, but... I feel like the light pollution (thanks, village street lamps) washed wash out some of the finer details and make space look a little blotchy. Oh well. C’est la vie!

02/03/2025

✨ M51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy ✨

Say hello to one of the most iconic and photogenic galaxies in the night sky! Located about 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, M51 is a stunning example of a grand-design spiral galaxy interacting with its smaller companion, NGC 5195.

M51’s graceful spiral arms are actually being pulled and distorted by the gravitational tug-of-war with its neighbor. That interaction triggers waves of star formation, lighting up the galaxy’s arms with newborn stars and glowing clouds of gas.

Even though this duo is millions of light-years away, it’s surprisingly easy to spot with a small telescope under dark skies. Just look near the end of the Big Dipper’s handle, and you’re in the neighborhood.

I only got about 30 minutes exposure tonight to capture this...so I am looking forward to making an even better image of it in the coming days.

21/02/2025

🌹 The Rosette Nebula – NGC 2237 & NGC 2244 🌹

Roughly 5,200 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros, the Rosette Nebula is a vast, intricate cloud of gas and dust spanning about 130 light-years. At its heart lies NGC 2244, a cluster of young, hot stars that formed from the nebula itself. These stars blast the surrounding gas with intense radiation, sculpting the nebula’s distinctive shape while also making it glow.

This is my Everest of astrophotography so far—the hardest target I’ve imaged and processed yet. Still not fully happy with it, but this is the best I’ve got (for now). And of course, those damned satellite 🛰 trails (thanks, Elon) didn’t make things any easier.

16/02/2025

"✨ NGC 2175 – The Monkey Head Nebula ✨

Located about 6,350 light-years away in the constellation Orion (again!), this vibrant stellar nursery is home to young, massive stars shaping the glowing clouds of gas and dust. Want to know where exactly it is? Look south after 9:30 p.m. (from the northern hemisphere). Find Orion and look just above his raised club. You won’t spot it with the naked eye, but it’s pretty cool to imagine it up there!"

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