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These targets are a bit too small for my astrophotography gear (until my new equipment comes off extended backorder), so not one of my better images. But larger targets are hard to come by this time of year so you take what you can get. These 3 galaxies are Bode's Galaxy (top-center, aka M81)...

Thanks, Jim!

Since I know that @JimFox has been waiting patiently to see this... Messier 3 (M3, aka NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of about 500,000 stars, centered about 32,600 light-years from Earth and estimated to be 11.4 billion years old. Although it may be difficult to see in these images due to the...

The Orion Nebula (aka M42), with about 4 more hours of open shutter time added to the images taken last year. This version has more detail; if you zoom in on the core of the nebula, you can see the "Triangulum" (a tight-knit collection of 4-5 stars). Capturing the Triangulum, the bright colors...

I love NINA - it's a very flexible, powerful, and reliable utility. Additionally, the developers are very supportive when issues arise.

No external filter on this one since this is a reflection nebula. The ASI2600MC-Pro has a built-in IR/UV cut filter, though.

Both DSS and PixInsight have tools that stack a set of subs on stars and again on the comet. Then you need to blend them, which can be tricky. Getting the backgrounds to match is the key.

43 subs at 120 sec each

From what I've seen, the L-eNhance yields pretty nice results. It's not as good as the L-eXtreme at filtering out light pollution since the pass bands are a bit wider, but halos around bright stars are not as prominent with the L-eNhance, which is a major pain-in-the-butt with the L-eXtreme.

We have another comet - Leonard. This one's not as bright as NEOWISE, but I managed to capture it as it passed in front of M3 (a large Globular Cluster consisting of about 500,000 stars, 32,600 light years from Earth). The last time Comet Leonard passed by us was 70,000 years ago. It will be...

The very familiar Horsehead Nebula (aka Barnard 33) is ~1,375 light-years from Earth and is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of its resemblance to a horse's head. It's a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The super-bright star to the left of the Horsehead is Alnitak, the...

The Soul Nebula (aka IC 1848) is an emission nebula about 6500 light-years from Earth. It's a star-forming region that includes several open clusters of stars and large evacuated bubbles formed by the winds of young massive stars. This image is the result of 6-2/3 hours of exposure time (50...

The Heart Nebula (aka IC 1805). It's an emission nebula ~7500 light years away, shaped like a heart consisting of glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes. The nebula's intense red output and shape are driven by radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's...

The Pleiades (aka “The Seven Sisters” and M45) is an open star cluster - a group of stars that were all born around the same time from a gigantic cloud of gas and dust. It contains more than 800 middle-aged, hot stars. The cluster is dominated by hot blue stars that formed within the last 100...

The Triangulum Galaxy (M33) from Bortle5/6 skies east of San Diego, CA. Equipment: iOptron CEM40 mount SkyWatcher Esprit 100 ASI2600MC-Pro imaging camera ASI290MM-mini guide camers (on OAG) Pegasus FocusCube2 Captured with NINA Processed with Pixinsight Lights: 87 x 240sec (rejected 34 of 121)...

The Andromeda galaxy (M31), with its two satellite galaxies M110 (bottom-right) and M32 (fuzzy ball just above and left of the core). M31 is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way. While it is barely visible to the naked eye under very dark skies, it spans a surprisingly large swath of the...

I envy you. I would love to do a multi-night session in the dry desert of AZ or NM with a few other astrophotographers. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Good info, Mike. But in addition to living in the heavily light polluted skies of suburban San Diego, I'm only 3 miles from the ocean. That means on the few nights when we don't have a marine layer obscuring the view, the atmosphere is quite humid so the seeing is always poor. I've tried...

I would consider the jump over to mono if I had easier access to clear, dark skies. But I'm limited to a 90 minute drive (each way) to the desert in southern California for my imaging sessions, and that's twice a month if I'm lucky. Mono imaging would limit the number of images I can create to...

Thank you, Jim!