during covid when we were all trying to find new hobbies, i tried to pick up paper cutting. i was not very good at it, but i did enough of it to understand how stunning this is

No, I'm not rich enough to trot around buying 130 APOs. I did pay for it, but it was as much an inheritance as a purchase.

Our long Madison nightmare of clouds finally over?

NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula (for the record, I don't see it), about four hours each of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen emission wavelengths. Shot from my urban back yard with my gorgeous 5-inch refractor.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

A young boy holds a sign that simply states in plain handwriting: Trump hit on my girlfriend

when i say that i yelped in shock at this kid’s sign

IDS! IDS! IDS!

Thanks, Boilermakers. And it's nice to know that my first newspaper still has a spine.

A dog at the No Kings protest in Madison, WI wearing a sign: I GO #2 ON #47

I will have a ton of #NoKings pics from Madison, but for now here's just one, which may be my favorite. Funny, gentle, peaceful, but perfectly captures the contempt we have for people who would make peasants of American citizens.

Got our signs. I've got my photojournalist gear.

NO KINGS!

Maybe I'll send video of tens of thousands of people protesting peacefully to Kimmel's (hashtag)showusyourhellhole!

BTW the Madison Astronomical Society's big community star party was a HUGE success. Thanks to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center for hosting Moon Over Monona Terrace again this year. 1300+ attendees! Free event, over a dozen telescopes, electronic astronomy, kid activities, talks.

Saturn with rings edge-on. Bit oversharpened.

1st go at last night's data. Think I can do better. Best 40% of 18,000 frames, AutoStakkert2!, sharpened (maybe too much!) in WaveSharp. Acquired with SharpCap with a 12" Richey-Chrétien, 2.5X PowerMate, and Uranus-C camera.

Will follow up if I manage better!

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Hydrogen-alpha emission near the star Rucba (45 Cyg), with reflection nebulae (including VDB 134) and the bubble-shaped planetary nebula PK86+5.1. Stars are photometrically color-calibrated.

Some more data on this field -- it's really shaping up! I like this orientation better. Also, I just noticed the "hobbit door" toroid in the lower left. What's up with that? Star Rucba, reflection neb VDB 134, and "bubble" planetary PK86+5.1.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Centered on the star Ruchba, this work in progress will include reflection nebula vdb 134 (not visible yet), planetary nebula PK86+5.1 (small bubble at lower-center-right), and a bleep-ton of hydrogen.

My pal Bonnie just got a Photoline APO, my scope's little brother. Found an Astrobin pic of this field and suggested a two-scope collab. This is a quick 'n dirty of my first 2 nights' data, I think it's gonna be spectacular! Stars RGB, H-alpha is red. Note spherical planetary nebula PK86+5.1.

I probably should! Then again that 300-character limit is a challenge for me even when I'm writing telegraphically.

Oh, you think you're *so clever*, don't you?

Fortunately you appear to be perfectly correct. Good one.

Black and white image of the Crescent Nebula imaged at the 656nm hydrogen-alpha wavelength, showing surrounding nebulosity.

And ANOTHER one! One night's worth of Ha data with that gorgeous, reliable 130 APO. What a rock star! This is the hydrogen data (Crescent Nebula) with the stars removed, and cropped off-center to give the impression of motion. Very much in-progress. More soon.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

I find that BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, and StarXTerminator really make the PixInsight purchase worthwhile. I love Astro Pixel Processor but I'm using it less and less as PI acquires new features.

I used to use the free standalone Python script Starnet++, and got good results. But I switched to PixInsight for almost all of my processing early this year, so I tried out Russell Cronan's StarXTerminator. Same idea, a machine-learning program trained on astrophotos, but visibly better results.

Thank you.

The Cygnus Wall in Ha, OIII, SII, and RGB.

The Cygnus Wall in Ha, OIII, SII, and RGB, with stars removed.

Finished this one just today: The Cygnus Wall portion of the North America Nebula. Liked the starless version so well I decided to keep it too. 4.5 hours NB, 1.5 RGB. PixInsight, then combined channels with Astro Pixel Processor's HSORGB preset.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

The Dark Shark Nebula

The Dark Shark is another dim one that the 130 just casually brought to life. "No big".

I kept stretching until I was amused by the result. 2 hours of LRGB. Love the eyeliner.

Someone beat me to APOD with their Dark Shark, or else I would have submitted this.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

The Phantom of The Opera Mask emission nebula

The 130 APO continues to just keep cranking gorgeous data. Here's the Phantom of The Opera Mask, very dim but the 5" pulls it out. My own synthetic color for hydrogen, stars are catalog-calibrated. 4.5 hours of H-alpha, 1.5 of RGB for stars.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Saturn with its moon Titan, with the moon's shadow transiting the face of the planet

Up next: Titan, with its shadow transiting Saturn. There are a handful of these transits, visible for a few weeks only every 15 years.

12" Richey-Chrétien with 2X Televue compressor, color planetary camera, couple hundred frames from several minutes of video.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Cocoon Galaxy and companion, Arp 269

Boy, I've gotten behind in my posting! This pair of interacting galaxies is one of the closest such to us, at 85M LY. The Cocoon Galaxy and its companion have passed by each other with stellar stream trailing between them. Uncooled color planetary cam and the 8" RC.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Details in the alt-text. It turned out that the hydrogen-alpha filter really made the supernova pop, so the inset is 25 minutes of that.

Deer Lick galaxy group, with NGCC 7331 at left. Inset is a hydrogen-alpha image showing supernova 2025rbs. 130mm APO refractor, mono camera, about 3 hours of total imaging time.

Here's the latest one-night wonder. From 40M LY away, NGC 7331 featuring supernova 2025rbs, here for a limited time! This imaging session was going great even with encroaching clouds till it started RAINING ON MY TELESCOPE. That was a charlie-foxtrot of car-stuffing.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Welp, several clear nights around the new moon and nothing is broken. I'm pretty amazed how productive the new scope and camera make me. Actually I've imaged a dozen targets so far in 2025, but quite a few just didn't pass the so-what test so I've actually finished and published half of that.

Hey, we're all learning, here. Pretty amazing what a cell can do, eh?

M20, the Trifid Nebula, red hydrogen emission and blue reflected starlight, with M21 star cluster at upper left.

M20, Trifid Nebula with stars removed from image (RC Astro StarXTerminator). Calibrated RGB image with red hydrogen emission and blue nebulosity by reflected starlight.

New scope won't quite frame both Trifid and Lagoon. So here's M20 (Trifid) & M21 star cluster. Couldn't stop looking at the starless image so finish-processed that too. Neighbor's comment ruined it forever, though: "South end of a northbound baboon?" Dammit Sue!

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

Thanks. I should have mentioned BlurXTerminator in the original post, but I promise the original was pretty sharp to start with.

M16, the Eagle Nebula, in narrowband false color (HSO palette).

Took the new 130mm APO refractor out for a good trot over several nights. The Eagle Nebula, H𝛼=R, SII=G, OIII=B. About 5 hours total. Really quite taken with how sharp this scope is.

#redwolfastro #astrophotography

I should point out that these are basically unprocessed. An "autostretch" to raise the levels and enhance contrast, and that is is. No sharpening or deconvolution or any of that tricky stuff.