Galaxies & Nebulae

Living in northern Europe has some serious disadvantages for astrophotography. We mostly miss out on seeing the galactic core, with all its incredible sights. Light pollution is pretty bad. We’re also forced to down tools as twilight veils the night sky for a couple of... Read More

With the whole world battling through the coronavirus pandemic, most nations are in lockdown mode. If you’re reading this now, maybe you’ve found yourself with some free time on your hands. Time to do things other than work. More time to indulge in old pastimes. More... Read More

I finally had a chance to photograph Comet Catalina after what seems like a solid month of cloud. By chance this happened to be a night when the comet passed close to the Pinwheel galaxy (M101) forming a brief but beautiful conjunction. Catalina is already an attractive comet,... Read More

The Pacman nebula is named after the classic 80’s arcade game character, but to me it looks much more like an angler fish! The little nebula (officially named NGC 281) sits alongside the bright yellow star Scheder, inside the familiar W constellation of Cassiopeia. A... Read More

The ragged remains of a 7000 year old supernova explosion make up the Veil nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. A 72 minute exposure (144 x 30 seconds) over two nights was enough to pick up some of the intricate details of this huge and complex structure. The Western Veil or... Read More

Cutting through the Milky Way, the constellation of Cygnus is home to some of the best sights in the night sky; the North America Nebula, the Dumbell nebula and another one I plan on tackling soon, the Vail nebula. At the heart of the constellation, bright star Gamma Cygni (Sadr)... Read More

The short nights of spring reveal a view unobstructed by the Milky Way, with slim pickings for wide-angle astrophotography. But there are some distant giants to be seen. The Pinwheel galaxy is one of them. The massive galaxy stretches 180,000 light-years edge to edge. Despite... Read More

After giving up on it a couple of weeks ago, I decided to have another try at the Flaming Star nebula, this time under better conditions… Heading a few miles out of town to darker skies makes a huge difference for such a faint subject. The darker background not only make... Read More

The plan was to capture the flaming star nebula in Auriga last night, with it being overhead. I set the tracker up, took a few shots and immediately realised just how faint it was!.. As an antidote to this disappointment, I aimed the camera at the brightest nebula in the sky, the... Read More