Night photography – Page 2 – Semper Iuvenis Photography

IC 2177: The Stunning Seagull Nebula Explained

The first thing that struck me was the vast number of stars. I noticed them as I began to see this image unfold in the illuminated sky. Varying temperatures are seen in the gases with hot Hydrogen gases glowing in reddish hues with cooler gases expanding outward.

IC 2177 is a region of nebulosity that lies along the border between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. The name Seagull Nebula is sometimes applied by astronomers to this emission region. It resembles a gull in flight. It also includes the neighboring regions of star clusters, dust clouds, and reflection nebulae.

Astronomers catalog the nebula as IC 2177. This cosmic cloud is one of many sites of star formation within the Milky Way galaxy. It is located 3,800 light-years away from Earth. It resides inside the Orion spur. This is the same partial spiral arm of the Milky Way where our solar system is located. The nebula is nearly 240 light-years across.

NGC 2327 is located in IC 2177. It is also known as the Seagull’s Head, due to its larger presence in the Seagull nebula. The region near the seagull’s eye (or lizard’s hip) is listed as NGC 2327 by astronomers. It contains a cluster of stars born about 1.5 million years ago. The eye is the brightest and hottest of the newborn stars in the entire nebula. It heats up the dust. Consequently, the dust glows in infrared light.

The complex of gas and dust clouds is dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen. It spans over 100 light-years. Bright young stars are within it at an estimated distance of 3,800 light-years.

Astrobin link for acquisition details and annotated image.

Exploring The Great Lacerta Nebula – Sh2-126

Sh2-126, also known as the Great Lacerta Nebula, is a large red emission nebula located in the constellation Lacerta. It is part of the massive star-forming region Lacerta OB1, approximately 1,200 light-years from Earth. The nebula’s glowing hydrogen gas is ionized by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the bright, blue star 10 Lacertae.

A unique feature is a “stellar funnel” in the center. It appears greyish in this image as it reflects light from nearby stars. It is part of the LBN 437 molecular cloud. Another striking feature is a bright reflection nebula associated with the young star V375 Lacertae, which also produces Herbig-Haro objects.

APT managed and controlled my imaging sessions. It helped acquire 148 300s subframes. This amounts to a touch over 12 hours of exposure during our few clear nights in October. PixInsight was used to calibrate, debayer, integrate, and process to its natural color.

Astrobin link for the details.

Sh2-158 Northern Lagoon Nebula

SH2-158 is also known as the Northern Lagoon Nebula or NGC 7538. It is an active star-forming H II region in the constellation Cepheus. This nebula is located about 9,100 light-years away. It is home to massive young stars and protostars. It includes one exceptionally large O-type protostar. It is part of the Cassiopeia OB2 complex in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.

Sh2-158 is often overlooked by amateur astrophotographers due to its proximity to the larger and more famous Bubble Nebula. However, it is a challenging and rewarding target. I was intrigued by the name alone. I have imaged the Lagoon Nebula and hadn’t heard of the Northern Lagoon Nebula. A quick search led to a few examples but not many, so I set my sights on the target.

Sh2-158 is an active star-forming region embedded within a large molecular cloud. As an emission nebula, Sh2-158 glows. However, its light is spread out over a large area. This distribution makes its surface brightness very low. Long total exposure times are needed. Often, multiple hours are required to gather enough light. These times help distinguish the nebula from the sky’s background noise. The surrounding dust clouds absorb and scatter light, further diminishing the nebula’s brightness and obscuring fine details within it. This makes revealing the nebula’s structure challenging and requires advanced processing techniques. The dust also causes reddening, altering the color balance of images and requiring careful calibration during post-processing.

Image acquisition details in astrobin image

I imaged it over the course of three nights in Sept 2025. I used a RC8 telescope at 1625 mm paired with an AI071MC camera atop an Eq6r Pro mount. I used a Radian Ultra Quadband filter.

Sh2-86 Cloud Sculpting Star Cluster

Sh2-86 is a faint emission nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, located approximately 6,000 light-years from Earth. It contains the young, hot open star cluster NGC 6823. This cluster illuminates the surrounding nebula. It gives the nebula its distinctive shape.

The nebula has “pillar-like” structures. These structures are similar to “elephant trunks.” It also has Bok globules. These globules are denser regions of gas shielded from the intense radiation of the young stars.

This image consists of 81 exposures. Each exposure was 5 minutes long. They were taken from my driveway with an Esprit 120ED telescope and ZWO ASI2600MC camera. Image acquisition using APT. Image processed manually in PixInsight. Acquisition details in this astrobin link.

IC 434 – The Horsehead Nebula

The Horsehead Nebula (B33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. It is perhaps the most recognizable nebula because of its resemblance to a horse’s head. The Nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt.

IC 434 is an active star forming H II region located at a distance of approx. 1,260 ly from the Sun. This is an H II region that is being ionized by ultraviolet radiation from the nearby Sigma Orionis multi-star system. The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula that is silhouetted against the diffuse background of IC 434.

The photograph consists of 300 180s subs. They were acquired from my driveway using the APT session control software. I used a RC8 telescope and an ASI071MC Pro camera. The camera was riding an Eq6r pro german equatorial mount.

M 15 – Great Star Cluster in Pegasus

Messier 15 or M15 (also designated NGC 7078 and sometimes known as the Great Pegasus Cluster) is a globular cluster. It is located in the constellation Pegasus.

M 15 is about 35,700 light-years from Earth, and 175 light-years in diameter. It has an absolute magnitude of −9.2, which translates to a total luminosity of 360,000 times that of the Sun. Messier 15 is one of the most densely packed globulars known in the Milky Way galaxy. Its core has undergone a contraction known as “core collapse.” It has a central density cusp. An enormous number of stars surround what may be a central black hole.

The cluster is home to over 100,000 stars. It is notable for containing a large number of variable stars (112) and pulsars (8). One of these pulsars includes a double neutron star system, M15-C. It also contains Pease 1, the first planetary nebula discovered within a globular cluster in 1928. Just three others have been found in globular clusters since then.

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula – IC 1396

The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula in the constellation Cepheus is a popular object for Astro photographers. It is ideal for imaging during late summer and early fall. The trunk itself is a dark, dense, and elongated globule cloud. It consists of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396.

This globule is commonly called the Elephant’s Trunk nebula. The name comes from its appearance at visible light wavelengths. It is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A. This globule features a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud. A very bright, massive star (HD 206267) just to the east of IC 1396A illuminates and ionizes it.

The massive blue star is in the center of the image. This star ionizes the entire IC 1396 region. Dense globules can protect themselves from the star’s harsh ultraviolet rays.

I chose to photograph this with the Skywatcher Esprit 120 telescope. I used an ASI2600MC Pro Astro camera. Additionally, I used a Radian Ultra Quad-band Narrow band filter. My session management software is APT 4.56. Running on a mini-pc mounted on the telescope it controls everything, coordinating the activities of several pieces of technology. This photograph contains 248 subs for a total exposure of 13.88 hours. Two entire nights, Sept 8 & 9, 2024.

I’m presenting the image in two color palettes. The first is its natural color, with no color mapping applied. IC 1396 is a large cloud of faintly glowing gas, composed mainly of hydrogen which appears very red in long exposure photography. The second palette is known as the Hubble palette, HOO. In this the Ha and Oiii channels are blended to achieve a more pleasing optical presentation of the image. Very common approach.

I hope you enjoy!

M 8 – Lagoon Nebula

NGC 6530 / Messier 8 – Lagoon Nebula

I used the star cluster as the central focus for this image. 112 3 minute exposures with an 840mm Skywatcher Esprit 120ED refractor telescope paired with a ZWO ASI2600MC astro camera.

NGC6530 is a young, open cluster of stars. It is in the southern constellation of Sagittarius. It is located some 4,300 light years from the Sun. The cluster exists within the H II region known as the Lagoon Nebula, or Messier 8. More than two dozen stars are visible.

Like many nebulae, M8 appears reddish in time-exposure color photos. However, it looks gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope. This is because human vision has poor color sensitivity at low light levels.

The nebula contains a number of Bok globules. These are dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material. The most prominent globules have been catalogued. The platesolved and annotated version in this astrobin link shows everything within the frame. https://astrob.in/y6m8f5/0/

The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula.

M 63 – Sunflower Galaxy

M 63

Messier 63 or M 63 is also known as NGC 5055. It is sometimes called the Sunflower Galaxy. This spiral galaxy is in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It contains approximately 400 billion stars. The galaxy is located roughly 27 million light-years from Earth.

This colorful image is composed of 157 2 minute exposures, or 5.2 hours of exposure. It was taken using a GSO RC8 at 1627mm fl and ASI071MC Pro camera riding an EQ6r Pro mount.

Caldwell 3 – Faint Galaxy in Draco

NGC 4236 – C 3

Caldwell 3 is located just north of the Big Dipper. It is one of at least 34 gravitationally bound galaxies in the Ursa Major galaxy group. This barred spiral galaxy, also known as NGC 4236, sits 11.7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco and has an apparent magnitude of 9.6. Although faint, Caldwell 3 can be spotted using a small telescope from a dark-sky site. The best views are seen through large telescopes. They show the galaxy as a large, diffuse glow that’s brighter toward the center. It appears highest during the spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

As far as galaxies go, this is by far the faintest I have tried to image. This image consists of 115 5 minute subframes, for a total of 9.5 hours of exposure. Colorful dust lanes did appear. Imaged the evenings of May 12th, 27th and 28th, 2024.