Image Title: Lagoon and companion from Bortle 0 sky

Copyright: Piotr Czerski

Upload Image File (Max Size 10MB): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LfJxtA7BDa83NKVB1cU5FKkPgMBF0hOC

Date image was taken: June 17, 2026

Location: Rooisand Desert Ranch, Namibia

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Taking photos under Namibian skies is a completely different level of experience. Here are only two hours of integration time without any filter, and I could not be happier seeing the result.

Telescope: Askar 103 APO + 0.6x reducer
Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
Mount: ZWO AM3
Time: 2 hrs

Name: Piotr Czerski

Email: piotr@czerski.org

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.astrobin.com/users/PiotrC/

Image Title: LDN 43 The cosmic bat nebula

Copyright: Cédric Humbert

Date image was taken: June 29, 2026

Location: texas

Data Acquisition Method: Remote Observatory (Commercial)

Description and Details: Nestled in the constellation of Ophiuchus, LDN 43 is a dark nebula listed in Beverly Lynds' catalog. Nicknamed the "Cosmic Bat Nebula," its striking silhouette resembles a bat spreading its wings across the rich star fields of the Milky Way. This spectacular appearance is caused by a dense cloud of interstellar dust that blocks the light from the background stars.

Located approximately 1,400 light-years from Earth, LDN 43 is much more than a striking cosmic silhouette—it is an active star-forming region. At its core, young stars still embedded within their cocoons of gas and dust locally illuminate the cloud, while the faint surrounding reflection nebula (LBN 7) reveals the intricate structures of this vast stellar nursery.

**Note:** LDN 43 is primarily a dark nebula, so the Hα signal is not dominant as it would be in a typical emission nebula. However, a faint diffuse Hα emission can still be detected in parts of the field, blending with the dust and the surrounding reflection nebulosity.

 Location: Starfront Observatories, Texas
 Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4
 Mount: ZWO AM5N
 Camera: Player One Astronomy Poseidon MM
 Filters: Antlia Astronomy Filters
Hα: 57 × 600 s (9 h 30 min)
L: 98 × 300 s (8 h 10 min)
SII: 64 × 600 s (10 h 40 min)
RGB: 3 × 36 × 300 s (1 h 30 min)
 Total integration time: 26 h 30 min

Full : https://www.astrobin.com/6qeyap/

Name: Cédric Humbert

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.instagram.com/astro.berto54/

Image Title: B228 - Wolfs Dark Nebula

Copyright: Nico Gärtner

Date image was taken: June 14, 2026

Location: Rooisand Desert Ranch, Namibia

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Barnard 228 is a large Dark Nebula in the southern constellation Lupus, a very dusty area in the sky, quite close to Scorpius / Rho Ophiuchi.

This is a deep three panel mosaic of the region - the images were taken during various nights between April 2026 and June 2026.

Barnard 228 is an active star forming region located roughly 600 light years away.
The bright, yellowish reflection nebula is PP 81. It stands for Parsamian Petrosian.

Combined Exposure Time in Bortle 1 Skies: 45h

Name: Nico Gärtner

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.sternwarte-meckesheim.de

Image Title: Abell 6 and HFG 1

Copyright: Greg Meyer MD

Date image was taken: April 08, 2026

Location: Starfront Observatory, Texas

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: HFG1 is a faint and ancient planetary nebula located in the constellation Camelopardalis, also known as the Giraffe. With an expansive diameter of over one light-year, HFG1 is the remnant of a dying star that has shed its outer layers. Due to its age, it is relatively diffuse and faint.ion. At its core, is a white dwarf and a companion star, which produces a prominent wake as the system moves through space.
Lower left is Abell 6 is another planetary nebula. Like HFG1, it is located in Camelopardalis, though it is visually smaller and slightly younger. Abell 6 is known for its spherical structure and distinct shell of ionized gas.
Espirt 120mm, QHY268M, Ioptron CEM70 mt.
HaORGB 51 total integration.

Name: Greg Meyer

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.gregmeyerphotos.com/

Image Title: SH2-115 / PN G086.1+05.4 / PN G084.9+04.4

Copyright: Jose Luis Bedma

Date image was taken: July 06, 2026

Location: Spain / Almeria/ Huercal de Almeria

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED (0.77x) / QHYCCD QHY268 M
Chroma H-alpha 5nm Bandpass 36 mm: 60×300,″(5h) bin 2×2
Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 36 mm: 60×300,″(5h) bin 2×2
Chroma SII 3nm Bandpass 36 mm: 60×300,″(5h) bin 2×2

Are there bucolic landscapes in the cosmos? Could this be one?... A hidden spring in the constellation Cygnus, pure hydrodynamics in its wild state, the central structure of the nebula cascades like a waterfall of interstellar fluid. It is a hydrogen ionization front, relentlessly eroded by ultraviolet photons. Romantic violence sculpts such beauty, and two rogues, trying to remain unnoticed from above, bear witness to it: the small planetary bubble "PN G086.1+05.4" (top left) and the small nebula "Abell 71" (top right). In the small nebula "PN G086.1+05.4" (on the left), a tiny blue dot can be seen—a white dwarf star with a very faint apparent magnitude (around 18.7). This much-debated nebula originated from the death and demise of this low- to intermediate-mass star, similar to our Sun. Regarding Abell 71, or "PN G084.9+04.4" (on the right), it was once thought to be a planetary nebula, but recent studies confirm that it is an H II region (emission gas), a stellar nursery, ionized by young stars in its vicinity.

Name: Jose Luis Bedmar Rodriguez

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.astrobin.com/users/jlbedmar/

Image Title: Boogeyman nebula LDN162

Date image was taken: November 02, 2025

Location: Wirikuta dessert, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: 13 hrs in toral HaLRGB, telescope Skywatcher 150p in mount AM5, filters Optolong and Camera ZWO ASI2600MM.

Name: Jesus Juarez

Email: jejs.81@gmail.com

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/lalo.juarez.39

Image Title: Clavius crater

Copyright: Massimiliano Pedersoli

Date image was taken: February 26, 2026

Location: Bassinale 1800 mt Montecampione, Brescia ,Italy.

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: A reprocessed image of the Clavius ​​crater. It is one of the largest craters on the Moon's near side—ranking third in size—with a diameter of 230 km and a depth of 3.5 km. It can easily be spotted with the naked eye in the southern region, two days after the Moon reaches its first-quarter phase.
It is named after the German astronomer and mathematician Christopher Clavius.
It is a very ancient structure, dating back to the Nectarian period, approximately 4 billion years ago.
A significant 2020 NASA study, utilizing the infrared SOFIA telescope, discovered the presence of molecular water there, making it a crucial site for future lunar missions under the Artemis program.
Images captured on February 26, 2026, at Bassinale (1,800 m elevation) in Montecampione, Italy, under excellent seeing conditions (7/10).
Equipment: Sky-Watcher 355/1650 Flex-Tube GoTo Dobsonian; ToupTek G3M662M camera with a 685nm IR-pass filter and an Artesky 3x Barlow lens.
Software: SharpCap Pro, AutoStakkert, Registax 6, Photoshop.

Name: Massimiliano Pedersoli

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/massimiliano.pedersoli/

Image Title: Saturn's dance

Copyright: Juan Luis Cánovas Pérez

Date image was taken: July 04, 2026

Location: Murcia (Spain)

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Saturn’s axis of rotation is tilted 27 degrees relative to its orbit around the Sun. This causes the tilt of its rings—as viewed from Earth—to change over the course of its nearly 30-year orbit. Last year, the rings became invisible to us as they appeared edge-on, but in the coming years, we will once again be able to admire them in all their splendor. The following GIF summarizes the last nine years, from 2017 to 2026.
Newton 200/1000 and 305/1500
Asi 120Mc, Asi 224 Mc and Asi 462 MC
Powermate x5

Name: Juan Luis Cánovas Pérez

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146549985@N08/55379465471/in/album-72177720313748128/lightbox/

Terms and conditions: I agree

Image Title: CG4 – Cometary Globule (The Hand of God) – Gum Nebula

Copyright: Dilan Rosa

Date image was taken: March 15, 2026

Location: Dois Córregos, São Paulo, Brazil (Bortle 4.7)

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: CG4 has always been one of the most incredible targets in the southern sky, in my opinion. Its intricate network of emission nebulae, dark dust, and the famous cometary globule make this one of the most fascinating regions to image. Sculpted by the intense radiation from nearby massive stars, its distinctive shape often sparks the imagination, resembling a mysterious creature silently drifting through the depths of space.
Capturing this object required a two-hour drive from my city to reach Bortle 4.7 skies, where its faint structures could finally emerge. Every kilometer was worth it.
This image combines 74 × 300-second exposures, totaling 6 hours and 10 minutes of integration, captured with an Askar SQA55 (264mm f/4.8), Player One Poseidon-C Pro, Antlia Tri Band RGB Pro 2" filter, and a ZWO AM3 mount, guided with a William Optics UniGuide 32 and a ToupTek GP CMOS O2000 KMA guide camera. The final image was processed in PixInsight using a natural HOO palette to preserve the delicate balance between hydrogen and oxygen emission.

Name: Dilan Rosa

Website or Facebook Profile: https://app.astrobin.com/u/DilanRosa

Image Title: Sole del 05 luglio 2026

Copyright: rossana miani

Date image was taken: July 05, 2026

Location: Villa del Bosco - Correzzola (PD)

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Daystar Quark cromosfera, ERF, 80ED Skywatcher, Player One Filtro ERF, ASI174MM, ZWO AM5.
Software: SharpCap, AutoStakkert!, ImPPG.

Name: rossana miani

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/rossana.miani

Terms and conditions: I agree

Image Title: NGC 6888 • Crescent Nebula

Copyright: Douglas J Struble

Date image was taken: July 05, 2026

Location: Taylor, MI USA

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: I started doing astrophotography in 2016 and of course NGC 6888 (Crescent Nebula) was one of my first targets, as it is bright and pretty easy to do well. I decided to go really deep with integration time on it this time just to see how much fainter detail I could pull out. This will probably be the last time I attempt this object. The majority of integration was captured this year, but did add on data from previous years. As with any object, you do reach a point in capturing with diminishing returns. It was a bit of an ordeal bringing all these data sets together.

Name: Douglas Struble

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.astrobin.com/b76o5a/

Image Title: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

Copyright: Rodney Watters

Date image was taken: April 21, 2026

Location: Glanmire Observatory, Glanmire NSW, Australia

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Messier 83 – The Southern Pinwheel galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy located on the boarder of the constellations of Hydra and Centaurus. It is 15 million light-years from Earth and is approximately 50,000 light years in diameter, which makes it about half the size of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

Data for this image were captured with a Takahashi TSA120 OTA and ZWO ASI2600 mono camera. Filters were LRGB and Ha. Total exposure times came to 24 hours and 3 minutes.

Name: Rodney Watters

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.astrobin.com/users/Ryderscope/

Image Title: Cat's Eye Nebula

Copyright: Dan Kokind

Date image was taken: June 04, 2024

Location: Arcadia, IN, USA

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: The Cat's Eye Nebula, an active planetary nebula, was first light for me at a longer focal length (1645mm) and was one of the most difficult images I've ever processed due to the brightness of the core with respect to the surrounding gasses. It took many, many failed processing attempts before I finally found a method that worked. There is only one exposure length (no HDR) and no masks used. This was captured between April 17, 2024 and June 4, 2024 using an Edge 9.25 @0.7x, a Poseidon C Pro and an L-Enhance filter. There are 322*360s light frames (32.2h).

Name: Dan Kokinda

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.astrobin.com/users/dkokinda/

Image Title: The Fighting Dragons of Ara - NGC 6188

Copyright: Erly Alexandrino da Silva Neto

Date image was taken: June 26, 0202

Location: Vitória - ES, Brazil

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: The Fighting Dragons of Ara

Some deep-sky objects remain on my imaging wish list for years. NGC 6188 was one of them.

At first glance, this immense complex of emission nebulae and dark molecular clouds looks unmistakably like two dragons locked in combat. The resemblance is so striking that I sometimes wonder whether the Universe occasionally chooses forms capable of conveying a glimpse of its own gargantuan nature.

Located in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar), NGC 6188 is shaped by the powerful stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation of young massive stars. Just below the Dragons lies NGC 6164/6165, often nicknamed the Cosmic Egg, a shell of gas expelled by a massive star approaching the end of its life. Together they reveal different chapters of stellar evolution, from active star formation to the recycling of stellar material into space.

This image is a personalized SHO composition created from 42 × 480-second exposures through an Optolong L-Ultimate (Hα + OIII) and 23 × 480-second exposures through an Askar ColourMagic D2 (SII + OIII).

The acquisition itself was as challenging as the processing. Most of the Hα integration was obtained with the target only 30–35° away from a Full Moon, under variable transparency. Careful frame weighting, background modeling and channel combination ultimately allowed the dragons to emerge from one of the brightest skies imaginable.

Equipment
Telescope: Askar FMA135
Mount: Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi
Camera: ToupTek ATR2600C (Sony IMX571), cooled to −10 °C
Filters: Optolong L-Ultimate + Askar ColourMagic D2
Guiding: ToupTek OAG + ASI220MM Mini
Software: N.I.N.A., PHD2, PixInsight and Adobe Lightroom Mobile
Acquisition
Dates: June 23, 28 and 29, 2026
Location: Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil
Sky Quality: Bortle 9 skies
Integration: 42 × 480 s (L-Ultimate) + 23 × 480 s (ColourMagic D2)

Name: ERLY ALEXANDRINO DA SILVA NETO

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/erlyneto/

Image Title: Milky Way core from the Oregon Outback

Copyright: Dave Doctor

Date image was taken: June 18, 2026

Location: Crump Lake near Plush, Oregon

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: The Oregon Outback encompasses 2.5 million acres in south central and southeast Oregon and is the largest contiguous Dark Sky Sanctuary in the lower 48 states. The skies here are among the darkest in the world. Equipment used was a Canon R5 with Sigma 14mm f 1.8 lens and a Vixen Polarie star tracker. 46 x 30 sec exposures at ISO 3200, f/2.2

Name: Dave Doctor

Website or Facebook Profile: http://daveandtelescope.wordpress.com

Image Title: NGC 5866 - Dust and Light

Copyright: Oli B.

Date image was taken: May 23, 2026

Location: Imsbach, Germany, B4-5

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: NGC 5866, often referred to as the Spindle Galaxy (and historically linked to Messier 102), is a striking edge-on lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Draco. This LRGB image highlights its most defining characteristic: the sharp, narrow dust lane that cuts precisely across the bright, central stellar core. Captured during the clear nights of May with an 8-inch Ritchey-Chrétien telescope, the processing focused on maintaining a clean background while preserving the subtle details within the galaxy's faint outer halo and the various small background galaxies scattered across the field.

Equipment:
>Optics: RC 8" with 0.67x Reducer
>Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
>Camera: QHY minicam8
>Filters: LRGB
>Software: Siril, Adobe Photoshop, RC-Astro Tools
Exposure Details:
>Luminance: 175 x 120s (5.8h)
>RGB: 240 x 120s total (8.0h)

Total Integration: 13.8 hours

Name: Oliver Betha

Image Title: SNR G65.3+5.7 (Little Veil Nebula)

Copyright: Jose Luis Bedmar Rodrigue

Date image was taken: June 14, 2026

Location: Spain, Andalucia, Huercal de Almeria

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: This is by far the most challenging image I've taken.

It's a 2x4 mosaic (8 tiles) taken on days with challenging weather conditions. Due to its faintness, I had to use BIN2X2 to obtain a sufficient signal; there are 50 exposures in Ha and 50 exposures in OIII per tile. I used dithering during capture and drizzle x2 during processing. Combining and matching them all was a minor ordeal for me. Using Spectrophotometric Flux Calibration + Multiscale Gradient Correction was essential to match the backgrounds of the 8 tiles once they were joined. Even after obtaining the master mosaic in Ha and OIII, the problems didn't end. Handling such a high resolution pushed my computer and my patience to the limit. The rest was the usual HOO process, and the stars were colored using RGB to NB.

Name: Jose Luis Bedmar Rodriguez

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.astrobin.com/cmkazn/

Image Title: Mandel-Wilson 5 - The Hook Nebula

Copyright: JAUME ZAPATA RIOS

Date image was taken: April 17, 2026

Location: Ager (Lleida, Spain)

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: This object is rarely captured (only a few images on Astrobin), so I decided to try adding the Ha filter, since everything else is in LRGB. This allowed me to capture hydrogen-alpha clouds, which are also present in the area.

Telescope: Askar SQA 85
Mount: Skywatcher Wave 150i
Camera: Player One Poseidon-M
Filters: Astronomik 36mm 6nm L-Ha-RGB
Total Integration: 48h

Name: Jaume Zapata

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Zapo/

Image Title: M33, the Triangulum Galaxy

Copyright: Marco Martinelli

Date image was taken: November 01, 2024

Location: Altopiano della Vigolana, Trento, Italy

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: M33 is the third biggest galaxy in the local group, and is the most distant object visible with the naked eye at 2.9 million light years. The characteristic of this galaxy is the abundance of nebula visible here with the addition of narrowband data blended with the RGB.

Aquisition days: 29/10 - 1/11
Total:22.3h 59x600s, 153x300s
Takahashi FSQ 106N
QHY 168C
Gemini G53f
IDAS NBZ nebula booster

Name: Marco Martinelli

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095334939118

Remote AstroPals’ sixth project moves away from the bright emission structures of previous targets and enters a very different kind of deep-sky landscape: Bernes 149, a delicate reflection nebula embedded in the dark molecular cloud Lupus 3. Located near the border between Lupus and Scorpius, this field is not defined by glowing hydrogen filaments or strong narrowband contrast, but by the quiet interaction between starlight and dust.

Bernes 149 is the small blue reflection nebula near the heart of the region, illuminated mainly by the young stars HR 5999 and HR 6000. Their light scatters through fine interstellar dust, producing the soft blue glow visible around the central part of the image. Around it, however, the field opens into something much larger and more complex: a wide network of brown, grey and almost black dust clouds stretching across a dense background of stars.

This is what makes Lupus 3 such a fascinating target. The nebula itself is subtle, but the surrounding molecular cloud gives the image its real depth. The darker lanes mark regions where dust is thick enough to block the light of stars behind it, while the warmer brown structures reveal thinner layers of material suspended in front of the Milky Way’s stellar background. In a wide-field composition, Bernes 149 becomes less a single object and more a window into a nearby stellar nursery, where light, shadow and dust overlap across the frame.

For this project, we worked with remote data provided by Aygen aimed at capturing the full dusty environment around Bernes 149 rather than isolating only the brightest reflection nebula. This choice made the target especially rewarding, but also technically demanding. Unlike emission nebulae, where strong signal can often be separated through narrowband filters, this field relies on very faint broadband structures. The dust has low contrast, the background is crowded with stars, and the blue reflection regions need to remain soft and natural without being overwhelmed by the brighter stellar halos.

The image contains several visually distinct layers. Near the centre, Bernes 149 appears as a compact bluish glow emerging from a darker ridge of dust. Around it, long dusty structures cross the field diagonally, creating a sense of movement through the image. Some areas are almost opaque, with black tendrils cutting sharply into the star field, while other regions appear as faint translucent veils. These differences give the final composition a strong three-dimensional feeling, as if several sheets of dust were floating at different distances in front of the background stars.