Bright emission nebula (Orion Nebula, M42) with a luminous central core surrounded by red and blue gas clouds. Dark dust lanes cut through the nebula, with numerous embedded young stars visible. Dense star field across the background.

M42 (Orion Nebula) captured with a Seestar S30. ~1 hour total integration from 10s sub-exposures. Short subs preserve core detail while stacking reveals faint outer nebulosity. Emission from ionized hydrogen (Hα) and oxygen (OIII) traces active star formation. False color palette. #Astrophotography

Astrometry from my M101 image. It's a busy part of the sky!

@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Deep-sky image of M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy), a face-on spiral with a bright central core and faint, extended spiral arms showing patchy star-forming regions, set against a dark starfield with scattered foreground stars.

M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy)
Seestar S30 (EQ mode)
70 min integration | 60s subs

Face-on spiral ~21 million light years distant in Ursa Major.

#Astrophotography #M101 #DeepSky #Space

Poster for International Day of Human Space Flight.

Happy International Day of Human Space Flight to all my fellow Space nerds!

Aurora photo.

My second image published in the April 2026 issue of Astronomy Ireland 🌌

Aurora Borealis over Newbridge, Co. Kildare
Captured Jan 19, 2026 at 21:53 — Orion watching overhead.

Ireland under northern lights… still doesn’t feel real.

#Astronomy #Aurora #Ireland #Astrophotography

Pac-Man Nebula (NGC 281), a glowing red cloud of gas surrounded by stars, captured with a Seestar S30.

Just got published in Astronomy Ireland magazine 🚀

My image of the Pac-Man Nebula (NGC 281), captured with a Seestar S30 — 64 mins of data bringing out those deep H-alpha reds.

Seeing it in print hits different. Backyard astronomy lives on 🌌

#astrophotography #space #NGC281

The Moon

Tonight's nearly full moon as the crew of Artemis 2 prepare for lift off! Godspeed!

Astrometry for my image of M97.

@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Planetary nebula M97 with teal OIII core and faint red outer shell, surrounded by dense star field; captured with Seestar S30.

Seestar S30 observation of planetary nebula M97.
~60 min integration resolves OIII-dominated inner shell (teal) with surrounding Hα emission.
Processing kept conservative to preserve photometric integrity and faint structure.

Golden equinox sunset over a calm lake with the Milky Way rising overhead and “Happy Vernal Equinox 2026” glowing across a star-filled sky.

At the vernal equinox, Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the Sun, placing it over the celestial equator. Day and night are nearly equal worldwide. From Ireland, winter constellations set as spring rises.

Happy Vernal Equinox 2026!

#equinox

Lots of interesting astrometry in my image of the Monkey Head Nebula. It's amazing what one can capture from one's suburban back garden.

NGC 2175 emission nebula with embedded star cluster in a dense Milky Way star field, captured by a Seestar S30.

NGC 2175, an H II emission region, shows ionized hydrogen shaped by radiation from embedded young stars. This broadband view resolves diffuse structure and stellar content within a dense Galactic field, captured with a Seestar S30.
#astrophotography #astronomy #deepsky #seestar #emissionnebula

Three spiral galaxies of the Leo Triplet—two tilted and one edge-on with a dark dust lane—set in a dense star field.

Leo Triplet (M65, M66, and NGC 3628) captured with a Seestar S30. This wide-field view shows the contrasting structures of two bright spiral galaxies and the edge-on dust lane of NGC 3628 within a dense background star field.

#astrophotography #deepsky #astronomy #galaxies #seestar

Bright blue-white star Castor centered in a dense starfield with subtle diffraction spikes and a faint halo.

Castor (α Geminorum), ~51 light-years away in Gemini.
What appears to be one star is actually a hierarchical sextuple system: three gravitationally bound binary pairs. The two brightest A-type stars orbit each other every ~467 years.
#astrophotography

Screenshot of an astrophotography app capturing a dense star field, with the faint galaxy NGC 147 circled and labeled near the center while the image is being enhanced during a 39-minute exposure.

Out doing what I love, capturing the beauty of the cosmos #astrophotography

Screenshot from weather app, showing clear skies tonight.

I might actually get the chance to do so imaging tonight!

Thanks!

Sure was.

Thin waxing crescent Moon with sharp crater detail along the terminator and faint Earthshine visible on the dark side.

Thin waxing crescent Moon captured with a Seestar S30.

Low solar incidence along the terminator enhances crater rims and highland relief through elongated shadow contrast. Subtle Earthshine is visible on the night side, caused by sunlight reflected from Earth.

This is the earliest moon phase I've ever captured.

Astrometry for my Whirlpool galaxy image. 👍🏻🔭

@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Galileo gazes through a modern smart telescope beneath a star-filled twilight sky.

February 15, 1564 — the birth of Galileo Galilei.
He lifted a telescope to the night sky and changed humanity’s understanding of the cosmos forever. Every deep-sky image we capture today echoes that first act of wonder. Look up tonight and celebrate the curiosity that started it all.

The beginning of astrophotography.

A planetary system with four planets circling around a star. In the foreground, a large reddish-brown rocky planet with craters is visible. Behind it, there are three smaller planets: one with blue and white colours, another with blue and brown bands, and the third with a rocky surface. In the top right corner of the image, a small but bright red star illuminates the scene, with space dust and distant stars visible in the background.

‘Save the best for last 😋’, a little rocky planet discovered by our #ESACheops might think – born later than its gaseous sibling-planets, it might flip our understanding of how planets form upside down.

Our full story 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭🧪
#exoplanets
#milkyway
#planetsci

Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and companion NGC 5195 with visible spiral arms and faint tidal bridge, surrounded by a dense field of stars.

M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) and NGC 5195 — 9.35 hours of 1-minute subs with a Seestar S30. Extended integration reveals spiral arm structure, HII regions, and the faint tidal bridge between the interacting pair, set in a dense Milky Way star field.

#astrophotography #deepsky #astronomy #seestar

Dense open cluster Messier 52 (NGC 7654) in Cassiopeia, showing a tight concentration of bright blue-white stars against a darker surrounding star field.

Messier 52 (NGC 7654) is a young open cluster in Cassiopeia, ~5,000 light-years away. Roughly 15–20 light-years across, it contains hundreds of stars, including hot B-type members. Captured with 20-second sub-exposures, 73 minutes total integration using a Seestar S30.

#astrophotography #astronomy

Seestar s30 app screenshot.

Out under clear skies, imaging the cosmos.