LDN 1235, the Dark Shark Nebula in Cepheus: a cloud of cold dust about 1,100 light-years away, lit only by reflected starlight. Stars are still forming in its dark eye. That little spiral off its fin is a galaxy ~60,000x farther away. 71.5 hours, two-panel mosaic. #astrophotography #astronomy

HB9 (SNR G160.9+2.6): the shattered shell of a star that exploded about 6,600 years ago, ~2,000 light-years away in Auriga. 43h20m of exposure time to pull this out of the dark. Not a commonly imaged target, mostly because it's faint and enormous (about 2 degrees across).

LBN 420: a molecular cloud in the constellation Lacerta, the kind of gas and dust that eventually forms new stars. Not a heavily imaged target, but it's got a small following, some of whom call it "Galileo's Finger" for the shape. 70h40m of total exposure on this one.

Supernova remnant CTB 80 in Cygnus, ~6,500 light years away. The star blew up about 65,000 years ago; the wreckage is still expanding. Red is hydrogen, teal is oxygen. Inside is a neutron star spinning 25x a second, fleeing the blast at 150 miles per second. 38 hours of exposure.

Markarian’s Chain: a sweeping arc of galaxies ~50 million light-years away. Named after the Armenian astronomer who proved in 1961 they’re not just lined up by coincidence; they’re actually moving through space together. Every smudge in this frame is an entire galaxy. There are hundreds of them

IC2118, The Witches Head Nebula. About 900 light years out, glowing blue because it’s reflecting light from Rigel. This is a two-panel mosaic, ~89 hours of integration across 1,067 five-minute subs. Really happy with how this one came together. #astrophotography #space #nebula

SH2-174 is a planetary nebula in Cassiopeia. The star at the center has exhausted its fuel and shed its outer layers. The teal is ionized oxygen in the inner shell and the red is hydrogen in the more diffuse outer envelope. The central star has drifted off-center within its own nebula over time.

The Pleiades star cluster (M45) captured over 25 hours. The blue glow is starlight reflecting off interstellar dust. The surrounding brown structures are the Integrated Flux Nebula, incredibly faint clouds lit by the glow of our entire galaxy. #astrophotography #astronomy #space #m45

This is the cosmic Spaghetti Nebula! This ionized gas is a remnant of a star that exploded 3,000 light-years away! It spans 160 light-years across. Captured in hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue-green), it’s a testament to the universe’s powerful artistry. #SpaghettiNebula #Supernova #Astrophotography

NGC 1499: The California Nebula A detailed look at a cosmic shoreline, where a hot star's energy illuminates and carves away a giant cloud of gas and dust. The brilliant colors map out the hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gases within this massive stellar nursery. #CaliforniaNebula #space #nebula

This is the Heart Nebula, a star-forming region 7,500 light-years away and over 300 light-years wide. The colors reveal ionized gases energized by a cluster of large young stars at its core. This represents 99 hours of data gathered by my remote observatory. #HeartNebula #Astrophotography

Yesterday's solar storm caused aurora to be visible all the way down in central Texas, where I have my astrophotography equipment hosted. Here is a timelapse from my pier cam where you can see the Aurora glow to the north for quite some time. www.youtube.com/shorts/xpKtr...

Starfront Observatories Timelapse - 2025-11-12

YouTube video by JavanAstro

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My AT115’s 'last light' shot: the iconic Horsehead & Flame Nebulae in Orion. This 48-hour exposure shows clouds of dust and gas where new stars are born. The famous 'horse' is a dark dust cloud blocking the light from the glowing ionized gas behind it. #astrophotography #space #nebula #orion

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), showing off its two distinct tails! The thin, blue ion tail is gas blown straight back by the solar wind. The yellow tail is made of dust particles reflecting sunlight along its orbital path. It's on a ~1350-year orbit, so catch it now—it won't be back for a while :)

The New York Times did a profile on the observatory where I currently have two telescope setups. Very cool. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/s...

An Army of Robot Telescopes in Texas Makes the Stars Feel Closer Than Ever

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Chasing cosmic ghosts! This is IC63, a cloud of gas and dust being sculpted by a brilliant nearby star. The pink is glowing gas and the blue is starlight reflecting off dust. Captured from my remote observatory in Texas over 34 hours! #astronomy #space #astrophotography #nebula #science

The Milky Way's core from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The dark lanes aren't empty space; they are massive clouds of interstellar dust obscuring the stars behind them. This view was created by stacking 30 minutes of exposures. #Astrophotography #MilkyWay #Space

The Flying Bat Nebula (red hydrogen) surrounds the faint Giant Squid Nebula (blue-green oxygen). They appear together but are a line-of-sight illusion. This deep image required many hours of exposure with a telescope to capture the Squid's incredibly dim light. #Astronomy #Space #Astrophotography

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy! ~31M LY. Its iconic profile comes from a nearly edge-on view & that incredible, dark dust lane. The bright core holds a supermassive black hole & the halo hints at thousands of globular clusters. A cosmic masterpiece! #SombreroGalaxy #M104 #Astrophotography #Galaxy #Space

New image from my latest deep-sky project: SH2-114, the Flying Dragon Nebula. This faint and intricate nebula lies in the constellation Cygnus, and was captured over six weeks in a remote observatory in Texas.

You can see a full-resolution version of this photo, and all of the astrophotography that I have done, at my Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/u/javanpa#ga... #astrophotography #astronomy #eaglenebula #starfrontobservatories

I’m excited to share this deep-sky portrait of NGC 2403, a gorgeous spiral galaxy located about 9 million light-years away. Though lesser known than its famous cousins, this galaxy is brimming with star-forming regions and dotted with clusters of young, hot stars.

Check out the stunning duo of M81 & M82—Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy— which I was able to capture in incredible detail from Starfront! With 36 hours of integration time, this image reveals these cosmic neighbors, located about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

Big news! My telescope has officially moved to Starfront Observatories - its new home at a remote observatory in the heart of Texas! With incredibly dark skies and over 200 clear nights a year, I’ll have many more opportunities to capture the cosmos.

This is Messier 1 (the Crab Nebula). What you see is the remnants from a supernova in our galaxy that happened over 1,000 years ago. It’s ~6,500 light years away from earth, and ~11 light years from edge to edge. This image represents 11 1/2 hours of data. #astrophotography #astronomy #crabnebula

Had a clear night down in the Florida panhandle so I was able to get my scope out for a night of shooting. This is the Rosette nebula. It also was a great night getting my equipment tested before sending it off to Starfront observatory. Lots of astrophotography is in my future… very exciting.

I'm watching some zero-trust sessions from the Cloud Security Alliance and a friendly face shows up as a presenter on a session. What a pleasant surprise @jjx.bsky.social

At the old site I tried to keep my feed tech related. A reboot here removes any expectation. Freeing. So I’ll still be talking tech when it makes sense but I’m planning on sharing more of the other parts of my life as well. This pic is from earlier this year in the Tetons. One of my fav places.

Just watched a session where the speaker tore apart an entire industry, their motivations, etc… but offered no value, no way forward, no suggestions for getting better. IMHO, an absolute waste of time. Don’t be the ass with hot takes about problems unless you have some thoughts on how to fix it

My family is currently “stuck” in Elkhart, IN waiting for our RV to finish repairs (we live in that RV if you didn’t know…). The weather here leaves a lot to be desired so we’re all dreaming about the Florida keys, where we’ll be a couple weeks from now. This pic is from there last year.