My latest image.... #astrophotography sweetmanastrophoto.com/ic-5146-the-...

The Cocoon Nebula: A Stellar Nursery in Cygnus

I captured the Cocoon Nebula to reveal its rich star-forming structure, intricate dark dust lanes, and vibrant emission clouds, while sharing the story and techniques behind creating the image.

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My latest photo #astrophotography sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/09/08/t...

The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023)

The Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula located in the Constellation of Cepheus. A reflection nebula is a cloud of gas and dust that is illuminated or excited by a nearby stars. It was first discove…

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Finally got a chance to do some quick work with the SeeStarS50. About 1 hour of exposure on M 20, post processed in PixInsight.

sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/06/22/m... #astrophotography

M13 – The Great Cluster in Hercules

Shown above is my second attempt at imaging M13, the Great Hercules Cluster. I decided to revisit it because both my skills and equipment have improved significantly since my first attempt, and I k…

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I spent some time this past spring refining my galaxy workflow, here's the writeup. sweetmanastrophoto.com/osc-one-shot... #astrophotography

OSC (One-Shot Color) Galaxy Workflow

This year I’ve really leaned into “galaxy season,” and in the process I’ve rethought my entire approach to processing OSC galaxy data. I found myself moving away from some of the more elaborate wor…

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sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/05/11/t... #astrophotography

The Cocoon Galaxy (NGC 4490 & 4485/Arp 269)

Note: I chose this photo to write up for my astronomy club’s astronomy journal, so the write up is a little longer than my typical. March through May is often referred to as ‘galaxy season’ a…

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sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/05/07/m3/ Enjoyed photographing M3. Globular clusters are one of my favorite objects, but can be challenging to photograph well. This is my second attempt to capture one. #astrophotography

M3

M3 is the first object in the Messier list to have been discovered by Charles Messier himself on 3 May 1764.  Messier mistook it for a starless nebula, and it was William Herschel who correctly ide…

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My images of NGC 5907. This contains a recently discovered supernova, which was first seen on 22 April #astrophotography sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/04/29/n...

NGC 5907 (5906)

NGC 5907 is another yet another galaxy discovered by William Herschel, on May 5, 1788, although it seems he may not have seen the entire galaxy. In 1850 George Stoney definitely identified the othe…

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Another galaxy group, Hickson Compact Group 61. #astrophotography sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/04/25/h...

Hickson Compact Group 61 (The Box)

HGC 61 was first discovered by William Herchel in April of 1785. In 1981, Paul Hickson added it to his list of compact galaxy groups, and it became known as HCG 61. Hickson’s criteria was at least …

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My latest image. #astrophotography sweetmanastrophoto.com/2026/04/24/n...

NGC 4725, 4747, and 4712

NGC 4725 is another galaxy discovered by William Herschel, in 1785. It is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy approximately 40 million light years from earth. Interestingly it appears to have only…

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First light on my new ZWO FF 80 Astrograph. M63, the Sunflower Galaxy. A galaxy rich in dust and star formation. #astrophotography

I've been focusing lately on creating images of unusually shaped objects and multiple objects...NGC 3718 certainly fits that bill as in interacting and S-shaped galaxy. #astrophotography sweetmanastrophoto.com/ngc-3718-an-...

NGC 3718, an S-Shaped Interacting Galaxy with NGG 3729

NGC 3718/3729 NGC 3718 is an unusually shaped galaxy located approximately 48 million light years from earth, appearing in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy has an S-shape and a dust band cr…

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sweetmanastrophoto.com/m94-the-cats... Finished M94 that I forgot about from last year. Very bright core and faint outer ring, a tough one to process. #astrophotography

M94, The Cat’s Eye Galaxy

From Wikipedia: is a spiral galaxy in the mid-northern constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781, and catalogued by Charles Messier. The galaxy has two ring structur…

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M97, M108 and a gaggle of other galaxies. I’ve recently been concentrating on framing multiple principal objects in the same image… I’ve also been working on cataloging my work in a more organized fashion on my website…check it out! sweetmanastrophoto.com/m97-m108/ #astrophotography

NGC 2805, the most prominent spiral galaxy in the image, is likely deformed by interactions with the nearby galaxies. This is image is full of galaxies, many of which are visible with careful inspection. #astrophotography

Lunar & Planetary Photography Since the weather has been generally poor, with only small windows of clear sky, I've been experimenting with Lunar and Planetary photography. The skill set and capture techniques are quite different, however the equipment I already own, particularly the 8 inch SCT is…

Lunar & Planetary Photography

Since the weather has been generally poor, with only small windows of clear sky, I've been experimenting with Lunar and Planetary photography. The skill set and capture techniques are quite different, however the equipment I already own, particularly the 8 inch SCT is a reasonable setup for beginners. The capture technique emphasizes quick and quality image capture and extensive post processing with completely different software tools.

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Comet 3I/ATLAS and Asteroid 109 Felicitas On November 28th I got an opportunity to shoot Comet 3I/ATLAS. This comet is pretty faint, so many of the typical techniques for generating a single comet image didn't work very well. The above image shows the comet trail against a static background of…

Comet 3I/ATLAS and Asteroid 109 Felicitas

On November 28th I got an opportunity to shoot Comet 3I/ATLAS. This comet is pretty faint, so many of the typical techniques for generating a single comet image didn't work very well. The above image shows the comet trail against a static background of stars. I also animated the motion. Here is a zoom in the comet: I also noticed in the lower left corner of the full image that there was an asteroid visible. That is a main belt asteriod known as 109 Felicitas.

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Had some spare time waiting for other targets to rise, so I returned to Andromeda, about 7 hours total captured over 3 nights in late November. #astrophotography

The Triangulum Galaxy, M33 is the 3rd largest galaxy in our local group. It is a spiral galaxy and is approximately 3 million light years from earth, and approximately 60,000 light years across.  #astrophotography

First Try at Lunar Photography I'm still way behind in processing and writing up so many of the deep space photos I've taken, but since it's a full moon, I decided this month to give that a try. I took two minutes of video with SharpCap, stacked it in AutoStakkert! using this workflow. I'm pretty…

First Try at Lunar Photography

I'm still way behind in processing and writing up so many of the deep space photos I've taken, but since it's a full moon, I decided this month to give that a try. I took two minutes of video with SharpCap, stacked it in AutoStakkert! using this workflow. I'm pretty pleased with the results for my first try.

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Supernova SN2025rbs It's been a while since I imaged this in early August. I'm really happy with how this turned out given all the struggles I had. I managed to get lucky with the weather, and get a smoke free night. Then I had a few self-induced struggles. I forgot to put the IR/Cut filter back…

Supernova SN2025rbs

It's been a while since I imaged this in early August. I'm really happy with how this turned out given all the struggles I had. I managed to get lucky with the weather, and get a smoke free night. Then I had a few self-induced struggles. I forgot to put the IR/Cut filter back in the imaging train which caused the stars to blow up and aggravated an issue with stars spikes that I've been struggling with.

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I haven’t finished processing yet, but after 3 nights of collecting data on the Cygnus Loop I think I’ve got enough. #astrophotography

NCG 7331. This is a spiral galaxy about 40 million light years away from earth. On July 14th a supernova was observed in this galaxy. It is the blueish star just to the lower right of the galaxy core. The second photo is a zoom in on NCG 7331 #astrophotography

Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, capture a supernova. There is a recently discovered supernova in nearby galaxy NGC 7331, and I finally got an enough of a break in the weather an wildfire smoke. Below is single 3 minute subframe, stacking in process. #astrophotography

The Crescent Nebula and some of the surrounding nebulosity. Capture details: Celestron AVX mount, Apertura 60mm FPL-53 doublet with flattener, Optolong L-enhance filter, ZWO ASI2600mc pro, and ZWO ASI120mm mini guide camera. #astrophotography

Starless and star-filled version of the North American Nebula. This is a first quick cut a processing in the Foraxx Palette. Weather looks promising for later in the week, I plan to collect more data, and include the nearby Pelican Nebula #astrophotography

Reworked some data from over a month ago, fought through a thick smoke cover. About 3 hours on the Elephant Trunk Nebula. I’ve been experimenting with the Foraxx Palette, I feel I really struggle to get stuff not looking like washed out goo…reasonably happy with this. #astrophotography

The weather has been very uncooperative, and I'm also struggling with backfocus, but I finally managed to collect for about 3 hours on the Tulip Nebula. #astrophotography

Here is my (likely) final shot for galaxy season, NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy. This is about 3 hours with the ZWO ASI 2600mc and Apertura 60mm FPL-53. The Needle Galaxy is an edge-on spiral galaxy, between 30 and 50 million light years away. #astrophotography

Another one for galaxy season. M94 is a spiral galaxy about 16 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. #astrophotography