Phil Hilson Photography

07/25/2026

After reprocessing my close-up Elephant Trunk Nebula with the Askar PHQ 130 and getting lot of positive feedback, I decided to revisit my earlier wide-field PHQ 65 data in an SHO palette also. The two images now tell the complete story—from the intricate pillars of gas and dust to the vast star-forming region of IC 1396 that surrounds them.

07/24/2026

Rock Wren Portrait Day!

Five energetic little Rock Wrens kept me entertained as they hunted insects, sang from their favorite perches, and posed for a few portraits. I found them gathered around several large rocks along the lakeshore.

07/23/2026

After redoing the Andromeda galaxy, I’ve been inspired to revisit the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) data with the processing skills I’ve gained over the past year. It’s amazing how much more detail can be revealed by reworking the same data with a fresh approach.

This image also includes the beautiful Fish Head Nebula (IC 1795) in the lower right, part of the same vast star-forming region about 7,500 light-years away in Cassiopeia. At the center of the Heart Nebula, the young star cluster Melotte 15 lights up the hydrogen clouds and builds the dark pillars of gas and dust where future stars will form.

07/22/2026

Time for our yearly Pinnacle bank calendar contest.  Please click on the following links and vote a like or a love for my two pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/share/198v5uhdVq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.facebook.com/share/1HBKLdHjSo/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Autumn Along the Shoshone

07/21/2026

After completing my original image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), I decided to return to the data and completely rework the processing from the ground up. With fresh eyes and new techniques in PixInsight and Photoshop, I focused on preserving the galaxy’s delicate outer halo while bringing out the intricate dust lanes, glowing hydrogen star-forming regions, and the subtle blue spiral arms that make our nearest large galactic neighbor so extraordinary.

Located about 2.5 million light-years away, Andromeda contains an estimated one trillion stars. That’s a mind blowing twice as many as our own Milky Way. It is also on a slow-motion collision course with our galaxy, with the two expected to merge in about 4.5 billion years. Too bad we won’t be around to see that!🤣

07/21/2026

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉

Helen Lewis, Kim Norby, Cindy Gifford, John Brown, Jennifer Taylor, Suvi Kristiina Vainionpää, Rey Parris

07/20/2026

A few days ago I shared my first processing of the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) done with my 1000mm telescope. As is often the case in astrophotography, I kept looking at the data and wondered what another approach might reveal.

For this second version, I completely reprocessed the image using an HSO (Hydrogen, Sulfur, Oxygen) narrowband palette. Starting from the original data, I remapped the narrowband signals, refined the contrast, enhanced the intricate dust structures, darkened the background, carefully balanced the stars, and settled on a warm golden interpretation that gives the glowing gas and dark dust lanes a very different character.

One of the things I love about astrophotography is that the data never changes, but the artistic interpretation can.

Which version do you prefer—the original processing or this new HSO interpretation?

07/18/2026

Birds, birds, birds!

From a Great Blue Heron low over the water, to a singing Common Yellowthroat, a vibrant American Goldfinch, and a vocal Bullock’s Oriole, seems like every stop offered another opportunity.

07/17/2026

The same Russian olive tree keeps surprising me. Over the past few weeks it’s hosted chats, orioles, warblers, chickadees, flycatchers. Today, before the rain, it was a Broad-tailed Hummingbird pausing just long enough for a portrait.