Deep Sky Astrophotography

Deep Sky Astrophotography My name is Dave Rager and I am an Amateur Astrophotographer
Here you can get items with my images

I'm gonna call this one a wrap for now with just over 18hrs integration time.WR 134 is a massive, variable Wolf-Rayet st...
07/23/2026

I'm gonna call this one a wrap for now with just over 18hrs integration time.

WR 134 is a massive, variable Wolf-Rayet star located approximately 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, famous for its intense stellar winds and surrounding bubble nebula. Star Facts
Distance: About 6,000 light-years from Earth
Constellation: Cygnus
Temperature: Over 63,000 Kelvin
Luminosity: 400,000 times brighter than the Sun
Radius: 5 times the size of the Sun

Had a full night of imaging last night to bring this one up to a total of 15Hrs of integration time. Last night I switch...
07/20/2026

Had a full night of imaging last night to bring this one up to a total of 15Hrs of integration time. Last night I switched it up and was taking 2X the O to the S & H channels.

WR 134

I was going to wait to share a more complete version of this one, but the weather has changed and I probably won't get m...
07/15/2026

I was going to wait to share a more complete version of this one, but the weather has changed and I probably won't get more clear skies this week. So here's a couple more hours on WR 134. It brings out a little more detail than yesterday's version. I will be coming back to this one. But I'll print this version for Kecksburg UFO Fesival this weekend.

WR 134 is a volatile Wolf-Rayet star located roughly 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. Shining 400,000 times brighter than our sun, it is famously surrounded by a faint, glowing bubble nebula sculpted by intense stellar winds and radiation.Key details about the star and observing it include:

Specs: It is 5 times the radius of the sun with a surface temperature over 63,000 K.

Discovery: Discovered in 1867, it was among the first three Wolf-Rayet stars ever identified.

The thing about art, photography, and even astrophotography is, there's never only one way to do things.This is another ...
07/13/2026

The thing about art, photography, and even astrophotography is, there's never only one way to do things.

This is another rendition of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.

I used the same data from 2023/2024, but there have been some updates in PixInsight, the software I use to process the images. Primarily, the Multiscale Gradient Correction tool which removes background noise. I was able to bring out a little more color with subtle blue hues around the perimeter of this celestial giant.

I started with the usual RGB color image, then added Ha for the red highlights signifying the nebula within that galaxy. I also have a lot of Oiii data which is used to identify oxygen. So next I took that data and combined with the resulting RGB+Ha image. It was difficult to get the right balance of all the channels. But I finally came to something I liked.

I included a previous version for comparison. While I do kinda like the older one I think the newer one has a softer stretch with finer detail with a softer stretch.

Let me know what you think.

Please feel free to like and share.

Thank you,
Dave

The clear nights ended this week and I still need a lot more time to bring out the details on this elusive target. This ...
07/06/2026

The clear nights ended this week and I still need a lot more time to bring out the details on this elusive target. This is a five-panel mosaic which started out as a two-panel. But there was a gradient I was unable to remove between the two frames. So, I decided to get more data using a three-panel sequence that overlays the two panel. This way, the center panel can even out the gradient that is present from the little bit of light pollution we have around here.

I doubt we'll have clear skies again before next week and this target is only in the sky during the summer, so I need to prioritize this one until I get enough data so the panels blend seemlessly. You can still see the seems in this one and on the left, it fades off with the narrowband and only the natural colored stars complete the image.

I cropped the original image to remove where the end panel fades out and it's not bad. Still, I'll work on getting more data with the three panel sequence when the skies clear again.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Dave

M101 - The Pinwheel GalaxyDistance: 21 Million Light YearsM101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 21 million...
07/03/2026

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy
Distance: 21 Million Light Years

M101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 21 million light-years away from Earth . Located in the constellation Ursa Major , it spans 170,000 light-years . This "face-on" galaxy is nearly twice the size of our Milky Way . It contains about a trillion stars.

This region of the sky has a lot of colorful stars and I like that. Almost as if they are the bling that makes this beautiful galaxy pop.

Scope: Apertura 8" Carbonstar RC
Camera: Touptek 2600M
Mount: EQ6
Composition: RGB + Ha
Integration Time: 15Hrs

I'm going to stick a fork in this one and move on to other targets when the skies clear again. I'd love to know your thoughts on this one. Please feel free to like, comment, and share any of my images.

Thanks,
Dave

As you may know I recently installed an All Sky Camera out back and it has a feature that attempts to identify meteors i...
07/03/2026

As you may know I recently installed an All Sky Camera out back and it has a feature that attempts to identify meteors in each image. Meteors are straight and usually short. Satellites leave long, thin lines. I can see two satellite trails to the left. Planes leave long lines with a dot pattern in the long exposures from the blinking lights. What do you think this is?

You can see this yellow line is that seems to have made a very fast turn and fizzled out. Up to the right of that is another, much smaller line that is similar right on the edge of the image near the tree limb. I also notice another small squiggly yellow line between the trees at the bottom left.

This image was taken on 6-21-26 at 3:42AM. The moon is low on the horizon as it's setting.

Any ideas?

Turns out the explanation is much simpler than you may think.

Lightning bugs!

I'm reprocessing some old data tonight because I can't sleep.This is the Rosette Nebula in SHO with RGB stars.I didn't d...
07/02/2026

I'm reprocessing some old data tonight because I can't sleep.
This is the Rosette Nebula in SHO with RGB stars.
I didn't do much on this except tweak the blue and red color a little to bring out a warmer feel with less harsh tones than I had before.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Not feeling great this week. This is my distraction from chronic pain. There's a new Color Adjust script available in Pi...
07/02/2026

Not feeling great this week. This is my distraction from chronic pain. There's a new Color Adjust script available in PixInsight I was playing with while my scopes are busy imaging their targets.

Take a look and tell me which one you like best with a simple like for the best image below.

Thanks

Here's a new project I'm working on. M101 - the Pinwheel galaxy.I imaged this galaxy years ago when I first started, but...
07/01/2026

Here's a new project I'm working on. M101 - the Pinwheel galaxy.
I imaged this galaxy years ago when I first started, but have better cameras and scopes now. I was never happy with this one before. I call it my nemisis because it always seems a bit blurry for some reason. It is a distant galaxy at 21 million light years away so the detail will be lacking until I get more time on it. This is with about 9hrs at 1060mm using Ha and RGB filters. The light pink/red areas are hydrogen clouds in this galaxy. Still not entirely happy with it, but I'll keep at it for a couple more nights. Hopefully the seeing conditions are better than the last couple nights this week.

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