Bernhard Schaefer

A bright star at the top left and a reddish gas cloud below, the latter obviously being eroded away by the stars stellar wind.

Another example of a gas cloud that is both ionized and at the same time dissolved by intense stellar winds. Here, it is the star Gamma Cassiopeia that shapes the nebula IC 63, also known as the 'Ghost of Cassiopeia'.

Newton 300/1350, Panasonic S5 mod, 30 min Ha/OIII, ISO 800.

🔭 #astrophoto

🔭 #astrophoto

In the center of the image is a cluster of bright stars surrounded by reddish gas clouds and dark dust clouds, both being shaped by the intense winds that are emitted by the stars.

The result of yesterday's cloudless night: The emission nebula NGC 6820 with star cluster NGC 6823. The hot, young stars of the cluster erode the surrounding gas and dust.

Newtonian 300/1350, Panasonic S5 mod, 65x30s RGB + 130x30s Ha/OIII, ISO 800.

A second dome houses the world's largest heliometer which was used for determining the distances of the stars, also well worth a visit.

A second dome houses the world's largest heliometer which was used for determining the distances of the stars, also well worth a visit.

The box contains the pendulum-driven tracking mechanism for the mount.

The box contains the pendulum-driven tracking mechanism for the mount.

Photographic plate holder at the end of the smaller refractor

Karl Schwarzschild performed the first photographic astrometry on the smaller refractor mounted parallel.

The large refractor in the observatory's dome

If you ever come to Vienna, I recommend a visit to the Kuffner #Observatory on the outskirts of the city. We had a special tour there last night from a dedicated club member. Central is the large refractor (270/3500) from 1887, the third largest in Austria.

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🔭 #astrophoto

The moon, 70% of it still hidden in the earth's shadow

My take of tonight's #lunar eclipse. The totality was hidden by clouds, unfortunately. 🤷‍♂️

The sun, yellow coloured, with many small dark spots, some of them grouped together

Our #sun, which currently displays numerous spots and a particular large, complex group of sun spots. It's great that the peak of solar activity seems to persist for a while longer!

Panasonic S5 mod, Skymax102/1300, 5% of 260 frames, 1/400 sec each, ISO 100

🔭 #astrophoto

A red nebula with distinct dust lanes across and a star system in the center. Above a blueish nebula with a single central star.

Trifid Nebula (M20), imaged 2 nights ago before it hid behind the rooftops. The red part is an emission nebula, ie hydrogen ionized by the central star cluster - while the blue part is a reflection nebula

Panasonic S5 mod, Skymax102/1300, 30 min, ISO 800, Siril/Starnet/Graxpert/Gimp

🔭 #astrophoto

Overview of the milky way in the region around the aforementioned objects.

The emission region Sh2-54

The Eagle Nebula

The Omega Nebula

I added some H alpha to my recent image of the nebulae Sh2-54, Eagle, Omega, and Messier 24. The HII emission regions stand out a lot clearer. Also, the colors are a bit more realistic now.

🔭 #astrophoto

Section of the Milky Way in the constellation Scutum. The myriad of stars in the background is partially obscured by dark clouds. Various open star clusters are scattered throughout the image, and individual red emission nebulae are visible.

The Milky Way between the open star clusters M11 (left) and M26 (bottom). Here, no dark clouds obstruct our view into deeper regions of our galaxy.

Panasonic S5 mod, Redcat51/250, 80x30sec, ISO 800, dualband filter

🔭 #astrophoto

A large spiral galaxy, with its spiral arms opened widely, amongst foreground stars from our own galaxy

Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, is roughly the size of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. We see it from a distance of 22 million light years.

Panasonic S5, Skymax 102/1300, ISO 800, 80 min total

🔭 #astrophoto

Stars against the dark background sky. The marked dot in the center is Pluto.

Our former ninth planet #Pluto as seen in constellation Capricorn last night. Pluto's position against the night sky noticeably changes from night to night. Magnitude ~15.5 mag, distance 34.4 AU (AU = distance earth-sun)

Panasonic S5, Skymax 102/1300, 233 x 10 sec = 40 min, ISO 800

🔭 #astrophoto

Truly a wonderful image!

Colourful gas nebulae and myriads of stars together with dark dust clouds

A look into the plane of our Milky Way: HII region Sh2-54, Eagle Nebula, Omega Nebula and Messier 24.

Panasonic S5 mod, Redcat51, 222 x 30sec = 1h 50 min, ISO 800

Full picture:
app.astrobin.com/u/bernhard.s...

🔭 #astrophoto

Reddish nebula in the shape of an eagle coming down on its prey. A star cluster located in its center.

The Eagle Nebula (Messier 16) with the famous Pillars of Creation.

Panasonic S5, Skymax 102, GTi, ISO 1000, 10 sec/frame, 75 min total. Siril, Starnet, Graxpert, GIMP.

The Skymax is not optimal for deep sky imaging (plus full moon, by the way), but Graxpert helps. 🙂

🔭 #astrophoto

Two red emission nebula structures surrounded by myriads of stars

Rework of my image of the Heart and Soul Nebula taken two weeks ago. Now with stars... I like it a lot better. Thanks to Dennis Marso and his very good Youtube tutorial on Siril+Graxpert+Gimp!

🔭 #astrophoto

Orange coloured sun disk with numerous dark sun spots

The #sun shows a number of bipolar sun spot groups these days, the sun spots themselves being relatively small.

Panasonic S5, Skymax 102, 6% of 375 frames, 1/100 sec each, ISO 100

🔭 #astrophoto

To the left, a reddish, diffuse nebula resembling the video game character Pacman. To the right, a bright star.

Close-up of the nebula. The dark dust lanes in the nebula are well visible

The Pacman nebula (NGC 281) - obviously trying to catch Schedar 😉, the brightest star in Cassiopeia.

Pacman is an emission nebula almost 10,000 ly away. At its center it hosts prominent dust bands and an open star cluster.

Panasonic S5, Redcat51, ISO 800, 80 min total

🔭 #astrophotography

Two reddish nebula structures. The left one resembles an embryo as seen in ultrasound, the right one looks like a heart.

Starless Version of the Heart and Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia. The Soul Nebula to the left is also called the Embryo Nebula, a name which suits its appearence better, I'd say.

Panasonic S5, Redcat51, ISO 800, 70 min, 30 sec per frame. Stars removed with Starnet/SIRIL.

🔭 #astrophotography

A large spiral galaxy with dust lanes surrounding the bright core. A small elliptic galaxy to the top, another one at the bottom. Surrounded by numerous foreground stars

Our nearest large neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, accompanied by two small satellite galaxies, as seen from a shore in Brittany. Here, they fortunately switch off street lights at midnight 🙂👍

Redcat51, Panasonic S5, 75 min total, 30 sec per frame, ISO 800.

🔭 #astrophotography

Good luck!

So definitely no ideal deep sky imaging setup! But it shows you can get "decent" pictures without using always big stuff. 😊

A pair of galaxies linked together. The one to the left exhibiting a pronounced spiral structure

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy - a spiral galaxy interacting with irregular companion NGC 5195 which triggers intensive star formation in M51, both at distance of 24 million ly.

Lumix S5, Skymax 102 (1300 mm, f/12,7!). StarAdventurer GTi. 280 images, 15 sec each, ISO 800, 70 min.

🔭 #astrophotography

It was a Coronado 70/400 Solar Max III, if I recall correctly (not mine)

Solar disk exhibiting a number of prominences reaching out into space. Dark filaments visible across the disk.

Today's sun in H alpha light. Note the huge solar prominence to the left.

Sorry for the quality, had only my mobile phone available to capture the Coronado's image.

🔭 #astrophotography

Globular-shaped accumulation of stars against background of field stars.

Globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules. Approx. 25000 light years away from us and consisting of roughly half a million stars. M13 actually was the target of the #Arecibo message sent 1974. 👽

Panasonic S5 on a 30 cm Newton. 25 min in total. ISO 800.

🔭 #astrophotography