Barnard 171 dark nebula in Cepheus

Dark nebulae Barnard 171 and LDN673

Dark nebulae are not as popular and spectacular as emission or reflection nebulae, but still, there are many astronomy amateurs who are fascinated by…


Veil nebula in HSO palette

Cygnus Loop mosaic

There are several constellations considered autumn objects, and Cygnus is definitely one of them. And there are several popular astroimaging targets…


IC5146 Cocoon with B168

IC5146 Cocoon nebula with Barnard 168

It has been already ten years since I imaged the IC5146 Cocoon nebula with the neighboring Barnard 168 dark cloud for the first time. This time my…


Sh2-171 nebula HSO palette

Sh2-171 aka NGC7822 emission nebula

NGC7822 star-forming complex in the constellation Cepheus is located about 3,000 light-years away from us. It contains Berkeley 59 star open cluster…


IC1805 Heart Nebula HORGB

IC1805 Heart nebula

There are more and less known objects in the sky, and one of the measures of popularity is the target’s number of names and symbols. The IC1805…


IC410 and IC405 nebulae

Tadpoles and Flaming Star nebulae

Flaming Star (IC405) and Tadpoles (IC410) nebulae are well-known objects in the constellation of Auriga. Both are emission nebula types, and their…


Christmas Tree cluster and Cone nebula

The Christmas Tree star cluster (NGC2264) was named for its triangular shape made of young stars, that look like a tree. A bit below that cluster…


CCD photometry with medium size setup

Photometry does not require a large telescope or a perfect sky – especially if you do the photometry with a CCD camera. Medium size refractor…


M45 Pleiades

M45 Pleiades (Seven Sisters)

About 450 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus there is a famous Pleiades cluster, that landed in the Messier catalog under the M45 symbol…


M44 open cluster annotated

M44 Beehive Cluster

There were several clear nights at the end of February this year. I was not able to take a trip to dark locations, unfortunately, so I have just set…