Image Title: PN LoTR 5 in Coma Berenices

Copyright: Stefan Thru

Date image was taken: April 17, 2026

Location: Germany

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Hello AAPOD2 Team,

I would like to show you my current picture of the PN LoTr 5 in the constellation Coma Berenices. The picture was taken from the garden here in my home on the North Sea coast in Germany.

I collected most of the data in 2023. In this spring 2026 I decided to visit the PN again to collect more data from the OIII.

Total exposure time is 40 h

Filter Baader Filter OIII/Ha/UVIR/RGB

Telescope TS-Optics Photoline 130 mm f/7 FPL53 Triplet Apo - 3.7" Focuser (APO130F7-DEL)

Camera ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

Name: Stefan Thrun

Image Title: The Headphone nebula

Copyright: Alcino Sousa

Date image was taken: February 10, 2026

Location: Pie Town

Data Acquisition Method: Remote Observatory (Commercial)

Description and Details: Astropgraph 300 F3.8
10 Micrpo GM3000
ZWO ASI 2600MM
Ha: 100x300' OIII: 100x300'
R:6x300' G:2x300' B:6x300'

Name: Alcino Sousa

Website or Facebook Profile: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197943010@N03

Image Title: The Occultation of the Moon and Venus with Clouds (Black and White)

Copyright: Phil Ostroff 202

Upload Image File (Max Size 10MB): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hk-phen8_3Pt7XG6M03RgqEwRSTDzxej

Date image was taken: June 17, 2026

Location: Liberty Hill, Texas, USA

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: Taken with a William Optics 61mm refractor mounted on a Celestron CGEM mount, with a ZWO ASI2600MC camera. Single exposure.

Name: Phil Ostroff

Email: postrofftx@gmail.com

Website or Facebook Profile: https://centexastrophoto.blogspot.com/

Description and Details: This suspected unknown SNR is located in the optical vicinity of Tycho 8994-4005 (RA 13h14mn44.39s and Dec -63deg34”51.7”) in the region of Centaurus / Crux, close to the Coalsack dark nebula and appears in my images acquired on 9 April 2026 early morning through an OIII filter for a total of 4 hours 10 minutes ( Integration of 25 images of 10 minutes single exposure.)

Imaged from a personal remote setup in the Warrumbungle National Park, Australia on 7, 8 and 9 April 2026.
Imaging was done through Hydrogen II (6h10mn imaging), Oxygen III (4h10mn imaging), and Red, Green and Blue filters, with a Zwo ASI 2600MM camera and an Astro-Physics AP130 mounted on an Astro-Physics Mach1 mount.

Nebulae are rendered as an HOO image and the stars retrieved from the RGB image.
Processing done with Pixinsight.
Cederblad 122 is a very faint and extended emission nebula located in the southern sky, in the region of Centaurus / Crux, close to the famous Coalsack dark nebula. It is part of the Cederblad catalogue, a list of diffuse nebulae compiled in 1946.
Unlike brighter nebulae, Ced 122 does not stand out easily, it blends into a dense star field and is spread over a large area of sky, making it more of a subtle glow than a defined object.

This image covers roughly one quarter of Cederblad 122 along its Northern frontier.

Imaging through an Hydrogen II filter brings out the nebulosities in the brightest parts such as RCW 75 in the bottom left of the image.

In the center of the image, a blue/green OIII nebulosity appears, typical of a Supernova Remnant, the expanding cloud of gas and dust left behind after a star explodes, sending shock waves through space.
These remnants enrich the universe with heavy elements and often form intricate, glowing structures, like here in OIII wavelength.

‍ ‍Name: Jean Yves Beninger

‍ ‍

‍ ‍Description and Details: The active region AR 4419 has just produced another X-ray flare, this time reaching X2.52. The suddenly hyperactive sunspot region continues to rotate as it approaches the northwest limb.

‍ ‍Name: rossana miani

Description and Details:‍ ‍

The Sombrero Galaxy, cataloged as M104, is one of the most recognizable galaxies in the night sky. Located about 31 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, it is distinguished by its brilliant central bulge and the prominent dark dust lane that encircles its disk, giving it the appearance of a wide-brimmed Mexican hat. Although often classified as a spiral galaxy, M104 exhibits characteristics of both spiral and elliptical galaxies, making it an intriguing object for astronomers studying galactic structure and evolution. Its luminous core contains billions of ancient stars packed tightly around a supermassive black hole estimated to contain roughly a billion times the mass of our Sun.

Beyond its striking appearance, the Sombrero Galaxy offers a rich laboratory for exploring the life cycles of stars and the assembly of galaxies. The dark band slicing across its bright halo is composed of cold dust and gas, the raw ingredients for future star formation, while its vast population of globular clusters suggests a dynamic history shaped by mergers and interactions over cosmic time. Deep images reveal the galaxy's expansive stellar halo extending far beyond its familiar silhouette, highlighting the immense scale of this island universe. M104 stands as a reminder that even the most elegant objects in the cosmos are shaped by billions of years of change, growth, and gravitational influence.

Imaging Telescope
Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P / 10-S
Imaging Camera
ToupTek ATR585C
Mount
Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro
Filter
ZWO UV IR CUT 2"
Accessories
Sky-Watcher Quattro Coma Corrector · Starpoint Australis SP3 EAF · ZWO CAA Camera Angle Adjuster

‍ ‍Name: Carlos Taylor

‍ ‍Description and Details: The Antennae Galaxies are among the most spectacular objects in the deep sky. Located about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Corvus, they are the result of an ongoing collision between two spiral galaxies, known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039.

Their nickname comes from the long, luminous structures shaped like antennae that extend on either side of the system. These “antennae” are actually tidal tails, formed by the intense gravitational interaction between the two galaxies. As they draw closer, their stars, gas, and dust are violently disturbed, creating these stretched and elegant shapes.

This galactic collision does not occur in total chaos: stars rarely collide directly due to the enormous distances between them. However, clouds of gas are strongly compressed, triggering intense star formation activity. The Antennae Galaxies thus act as a true cosmic laboratory where thousands of new stars are born, often grouped into very bright stellar clusters.

Observed in detail by telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, these galaxies provide astronomers with a valuable glimpse of what the future of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, might look like when it collides with the Andromeda Galaxy in several billion years.

Eventually, the Antennae Galaxies will fully merge to form a single large galaxy, likely elliptical in shape. This process, although violent on a cosmic scale, is actually a fundamental mechanism in the evolution of galaxies in the universe.

Thus, the Antennae Galaxies are not only a fascinating spectacle; they are also an essential key to understanding how galaxies are born, evolve, and transform over time.

To capture this photograph, I took 100 exposures of 240 seconds using a ZWO ASI 533 MC Pro camera equipped with an Astronomik L2 UV-IR Block filter, mounted on a 250/750 Newtonian telescope.

‍ ‍Name: Mathieu Geffroy

Description

The Iris Nebula, cataloged as NGC 7023, blooms within the northern constellation Cepheus as one of the sky's most striking reflection nebulae. Unlike emission nebulae that glow from ionized gas, the Iris shines because fine grains of cosmic dust scatter and reflect the light of the hot young star HD 200775 at its center. The nebula's delicate blue hues arise through the same process that gives Earth's daytime sky its color, with shorter wavelengths of light scattered more efficiently by microscopic dust particles. Surrounding the bright core, intricate filaments of dark dust weave through the scene, revealing the complex structure of the interstellar medium from which stars are born.

Located roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth, the Iris Nebula offers a glimpse into the transitional relationship between stellar birth and the environments that nurture it. The central star's energetic radiation is gradually sculpting and dispersing the very cloud from which it formed, carving cavities and illuminating hidden textures within the dust. Deep exposures unveil faint brown and golden dust clouds extending far beyond the familiar blue petals, exposing a rich tapestry of cosmic material that bridges the gap between reflection nebula and dark molecular cloud. The result is a celestial portrait that combines scientific insight with extraordinary beauty, capturing a fleeting stage in the ongoing cycle of stellar evolution.

Setup :
▸ Askar FRA600 f/3.9
▸ ZWO ASI6200MC Pro @ −10°C
▸ Filtre Antlia Ultra RVB
▸ 151 × 300s + 150 × 60s (~15h au total)
▸ iOptron GEM45 / ZWO ASIAir Plus
Traitement : Siril · PixInsight · Photoshop

‍ ‍Name: Christian BERTINCOURT

Description and Details: The Crescent nebula or NGC 6888 , (or Caldwell 27) is an iconic and often imaged astrophotography subject, I've imaged it before at least 4 times, and this one was imaged by my new CDK14 with x0.6 reducer which gives a focal length of approx. 1500mm

Why does it look like that ? At the center lies a rare and gigantic type of star, WR136 , a Wolf-Rayet star so energetic that it has already been a red super giant and blown out a shell of stellar material around 250,000 years ago. You can see the star just above the little dust clump in the middle.

A lot of stuff has been said about this subject, so here's some less common observations on NGC 6888.
The two "shells" surrounding the star WR136 can clearly be seen; they are caused by a fierce stellar wind pushing out and hitting and rebounding from the previously ejected stellar materials.
The dark spot and filament are not connected to the nebula; they are part of the ISM. A lot of the visible glow comes from dust heated by the stellar wind. This is not a Supernova remnant -yet! but one day it will explode in a massive supernova event. The progenitor star ( WR136) was originally about 50 times the mass of our sun and about half of that now forms the nebula .

If you get chance to look through a decent sized telescope under a dark sky, it's quite a sight, I did this a few months ago through a 30" Dobsonian under Bortle 1 skies in New Mexico and it was great !
The outer ( blue) shell is sometimes difficult to image, and in this image, I've used Ha , and OIII filters to image this, with RGB for the stars.

Also of interest in this image is the very faint but almost perfectly spherical planetary nebula known as the "Soap bubble" nebula (bottom left in this image). This was only discovered in 2008 by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich.
I hope you like it.

Techy stuff:
Ha ( 3nm)  27 x 900 s
OIII (3nm) 43 x 900 s
R,G, B  each 30 x 30 s
Scope : Planewave CDK14 with 0.6 reducer (f4.2)
Mount : AP 1600 GTO -AE
Camera : QHY 600 SBF
Location : dark Sky New Mexico, Animas, NM

‍ ‍Name: Richard Whitehead

Description and Details: This image shows the impressive spiral galaxy NGC 5907 and a much rarer event: the supernova SN 2026kid. The light from this stellar explosion traveled tens of millions of years through the Universe before reaching the sensors of the telescopes used to capture this image. A supernova is the cataclysmic death of a star and, for a brief period, can shine as brightly as its entire host galaxy.

‍ ‍Name: Sandu Val Cosmin

Description and Details: Located in the constellation Cygnus, Sharpless 2-114 (Sh2-114) is a faint and highly complex HII emission nebula famously nicknamed the "Flying Dragon Nebula." It features an intricate, filamentary structure of ionized gas that remarkably resembles the expansive wings of a mythical dragon sweeping across the cosmos. Rather than a supernova remnant, this wispy appearance is believed to be shaped by stellar winds from hot, massive stars interacting with magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. Due to its extremely low surface brightness, it represents a highly challenging yet rewarding target for deep-sky astrophotographers, requiring substantial exposure time to reveal its delicate crimson details. Sharing the same field of view is Kronberger 26 (Kn 26), a tiny bipolar planetary nebula discovered by Austrian amateur astronomer Matthias Kronberger in 2006. This object is a spectroscopically confirmed member of a rare subclass of quadrupolar planetary nebulae, exhibiting two distinct pairs of lobes that point to a complex evolutionary history of its central star. While visually nestled near the glowing filaments of the Flying Dragon in this frame, Kn 26 is physically unrelated to Sh2-114, appearing together only as a beautiful line-of-sight projection

‍ ‍Name: Michał Kania

Description and Details: Venus May 31th 2026

Good seeing and trasparency conditions. Interesting cloud features in IR and UV bands
​​​Setup:C14 Edge HD, Fornax52 mount, Player One Uranus-M, FFC Badder, Baader Sloan z-s' 820-920nm, Chroma-U Bessel 350nm

Agerola-Amalfitan Coast-Italy

‍ ‍Name: luigi morrone

‍Description and Details: Known as the Blowdryer Galaxy, M100 is a magnificent grand design spiral galaxy located approximately 55 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices. As one of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster, its elegant spiral arms are lined with clusters of hot, young blue stars, glowing pink hydrogen regions, and intricate lanes of dark interstellar dust. These sweeping structures trace waves of star formation moving through the galaxy's disk, where gas clouds are compressed and transformed into new stellar generations. At its core lies a compact central bulge surrounding a supermassive black hole, hidden beneath layers of densely packed stars.

M100 has played an important role in modern astronomy beyond its visual beauty. Observations of Cepheid variable stars within the galaxy by the Hubble Space Telescope helped refine one of the first highly accurate measurements of the expansion rate of the universe, contributing to our understanding of the cosmic distance scale. It has also hosted several observed supernovae, offering astronomers valuable opportunities to study stellar death and galactic evolution. Detailed images of M100 reveal not only the graceful symmetry of a classic spiral galaxy, but also the dynamic processes that continue to shape it across millions of years.

Data:
RGB: each 81x 130sec.
Lum: 506 x 60sec.
Total integration: 17,20 hours

Camera: QHY268M
Filters: Baader LRGB
Mount: EQ6-Pro
Telescope: modified 10“ Newton

‍ ‍Name: Alexander Huber

‍Description:

The nebula is comprised of dense clouds of dust and gas which obscures the light from the stars in the background, unlike emission nebula which glow due to ionized gas. It’s located in the constellation of Cassiopeia and is approximately 700 to 3,000 Lys from the gravity-well. It gets its nickname from the appearance of an outstretched hand reaching up (orientation of this picture). There are a number of Lynd’s Dark Nebula (LDN) within frame including LDN 1355 (palm), LDN 1357 (the fingers) and 1358 (the shoulder) along with the blue reflection nebulae VdB 9 which is located to the left of the hand and VdB 7 located in the lower left corner of the frame.

Total Integration Time- 70hr 20min
RGB- 32Hr 20min- 300sec subs
Lum- 38Hr- 300 sec subs
Antlia V-Pro Series LRGB
Bortle 4
Clear skies my friends!
Shot On
9/7, 26, 28, 29/25
10/13, 14, 15/25
11/13, 15, 16, 22/25

That Equipment
Telescope- Orion 8” F/4 Newt- “The Rocinante”
Mount- Skywatcher CQ 350- @skywatcherusa
Camera- ASI 2600MM-Pro- cooled to -10, Gain-100
Controlled by the ASI Air Plus
Guiding System:
Orion 60mm Guide Scope- f/4.0
ASI 120mm Mini
Calibration Frames Darks- 30 Flats- 30 Dark Flats- 30
Processing PixInsight- calibration and stacking PixInsight-post processing plus add-ons and ritualistic sacrifices (plants only, no animals or humans were harmed in the acquisition or processing of the data)

‍ ‍Name: Matt Rebeck

Description and Details: NGC 4535, nicknamed the "Lost Galaxy," is a large, barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation, about 50 million light-years away, known for its faintness in small telescopes but revealed in stunning detail by the Hubble Space Telescope as a vibrant system with bright blue star clusters, pink H II regions, and red nebulae, indicating active star formation. Its blue spiral arms contrast with a yellower central bulge of older stars, and it's a key target for studies like the PHANGS survey, which links gas, star formation, and galactic structure. (Source: Google Gemini)⁣
——————
This image was created with data captured across 4 nights in March, 2026. I used my remote, 8” reflector telescope and a cooled, monochrome camera with broadband filters from Starfront Observatories.
⁣
⁣18 hours, 37 minutes and 30 seconds total exposure time⁣
⁣
311x 90” L⁣
73x 180” R⁣
82x 180” G⁣
62x 180” B⁣
⁣
10x Darks⁣ / Biases⁣
40x Flats⁣
03/18-21/2026⁣
Bortle 1⁣
Rockwood, TX, USA⁣
⁣
Setup: LRGB⁣
1624mm Focal Length⁣
Apertura ⁣RC 8” f8 Carbon Fiber⁣
TS Optics TSRCFlat2 1.0x corrector 2”⁣
Antlia L, R, G, B V-Pro⁣ ⁣
DeepSkyDad OFP2 Observatory Flat Panel ⁣
Skywatcher CQ350 mount ⁣
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro, unity, -5C⁣
Primalucelab ESATTO 2” Robotic Focuser⁣
ZWO EFW 7x2”⁣
ZWO OAG⁣-L⁣
ZWO ASI174MM-mini⁣
⁣
⁣Captured with NINA⁣
⁣Stacked and edited in APP, PI⁣, PS, MLR⁣

‍ ‍Name: Andrew Lesser

‍ ‍

‍ ‍Description and Details:‍ ‍

The Bat Nebula, cataloged as Sh2-129, stretches across the constellation Cepheus as a vast and intricate cloud of ionized hydrogen glowing deep within the Milky Way. Its nickname comes from the dark dust lanes and sweeping arcs of emission that resemble the outstretched wings of a bat in flight. Energized by the intense ultraviolet radiation of nearby young stars, the nebula's hydrogen atoms emit the characteristic red glow captured so vividly in narrowband astrophotography. Embedded within this sprawling region are pockets of ongoing stellar evolution, where dense concentrations of gas and dust may eventually collapse to form new generations of stars.

One of the Bat Nebula's most remarkable features is the faint bipolar outflow known as Ou4, often called the Giant Squid Nebula. This enormous structure extends across a significant portion of the sky and remains one of the most intriguing deep sky objects discovered through amateur imaging efforts. The juxtaposition of Sh2-129's delicate filaments, dark molecular clouds, and the ghostly tendrils of Ou4 creates a scene rich in both beauty and scientific mystery. Images of this region reveal the dynamic interplay between stellar birth, powerful stellar winds, and the gradual reshaping of the interstellar medium over millions of years.

Telescope Lacerta 250 F4 Carbon
280 x 180s RisingCam IMX571 Couleur
Processing Siril, ix and Ps

‍ ‍Name: Thierry BOUFFLET

‍

‍ ‍Description and Details: Complete Milky Way arch captured from the highlands of the Cumbre de Gran Canaria. In the foreground: Roque de Cuevas del Rey, Roque Bentayga (1,414 m) and Roque Nublo — part of the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape of Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria. Camera: Fujifilm X-T3 (astro-modified), Artisan 10mm f/2.0, Benro Polaris motorized head. Sky: 8x2 stacked frames, 120s, ISO 1250, f/2.0. Foreground: 5 frames, 120s, ISO 850, f/2.0. Stacked with Starry Landscape Stacker, stitched with Hugin, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

‍ ‍Name: Iván Cárdenes Muñoz

‍

‍ ‍Description and Details: Outters 4 (Ou4), also known as the Giant Squid Nebula, is a very faint planetary nebula in the constellation Cepheus, discovered only in June 2011 by amateur astronomer Nicolas Outters. Ou4 appears to be completely surrounded by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, but its true distance and nature have been difficult to determine. A recent investigation suggests that Ou4 is actually located within Sh2-129. If so, Ou4 would represent a spectacular outflow generated by HR8119, a triple system of hot, massive stars that can be observed near the nebula's center and would have a physical diameter of nearly 50 light-years.

Sh2-129 is an extensive emission nebula visible in the constellation Cepheus, located on the southern edge of the constellation, northwest of the large nebulous complex IC 1396.
This nebula has a very pronounced arc shape, almost a large ring; due to its shape, it is sometimes nicknamed the Flying Bat Nebula. Despite its size, it appears rather faint, with the densest and most visible part coinciding with its eastern side. Its distance has been estimated at around 1300 light-years, placing it a short distance from the edge of the Gouldian Belt.

Konus 200/1000 @950mm, f/4.8
Player One Poseidon-C camera @-5 °C
Sky-Watcher Eq6-r Pro Mount
Optolong L-Ultimate filter 1440x300"
Optolong L-Quad Enhance filter 256x180"
N.I.N.A., APP, PixInsight, PS

‍ ‍Name: Massimo Di Fusco

‍ Description and Details: NGC 7008 is a bright planetary nebula located in the constellation Cygnus and approximately 2,800 light-years away. It is commonly known as the Fetus Nebula because its shape resembles a human fetus. It is the remnant of a sun-like star. These stars do not have enough mass to explode in a supernova, and when the star ran out of fuel, it began to pulsate and "blow" its outer layers into space, like gigantic bubbles of gas. This gas detachment began between 4,000 and 5,700 years ago, and since then the gas has continued to expand until it formed the shape we see today.

Equipment:

Celestron C9.25 Edge HD and an ASI1600MM camera, in RGB and in Ha and Oiii for a total of approximately 8 hours.

‍ ‍Name: Aldo Zanetti

‍Description and Details: A supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus, formed approximately 27,500 years ago, with a pulsar hidden at its center. Often overlooked due to its brighter neighbor, the Veil Nebula, there are very few images online with such short exposure times and taken under polluted skies. For me, this shot represents a great achievement: both for the evanescence of the subject and because I had never accumulated so many hours on a single target!


Photography characteristics
21h 20min total exposure
-Light HA: 64 of 1200s
-Light OIII: 37 of 1200s
(Gain 120 Offset 8 T -10° + calibration shots)
.
Telescope Features
Samyang 135mm f2.2 f2.8 lens
ZWO - FD - EOS filter tray
ZWO AM 3 harmonic equatorial mount
ZWO ASI 294 MC PRO Color cooled camera
L'Para filter
30/120 guide scope
ASI 120 MC large guide camera

Date: May 17, 22, 23, 25, 26, 2026
Castel Morrone, Campania, Italy
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop 2025

‍ ‍Name: Francesco Ianniello