I have listed below some space and astronomy apps, some of which I have used personally and some I have not. The world of astrophotography and astronomy can be overwhelming for beginners. It certainly was for me. There are countless apps, tools, and software options, and choosing the right one can often make all the difference in your stargazing or imaging experience, ultimately making it slightly less frustrating. Here's a beginner-friendly guide to the top 20 apps you might want to consider and in no particular order I hasten to add. SkySafari 7 Pro Price: £19.99 Why Beginners Will Love It: Intuitive and easy-to-use interface for identifying stars, planets, and constellations. Perfect for beginners learning the night sky. I sometimes use the light version of this app and it's realy easy to use. Expert Appeal: Rich with information and advanced tools, such as telescope control, and detailed historical data. Key Features – - Massive star database with detailed descriptions. - Night vision mode. - Telescope control for advanced users. Stellarium Mobile Plus Price: £12.99 Why Beginners Will Love It: Visualise the night sky from any location, at any time. It has a sleek UI that’s simple for newcomers. Expert Appeal: Highly accurate with 3D visualisation and comprehensive sky maps. Key Features – - Over 1.4 million stars, planets, and deep-sky objects. - AR integration for real-time sky identification. - Ideal for use with telescopes. SkyView Price Free / £2.99 Pro Why Beginners Will Love It — Point your device to the sky, and instantly identify stars, constellations, and planets. This is a great little app and I sometimes stil use it from time to time even to this day. Expert Appeal: Reliable companion for quick object identification, with a clean and straightforward interface. Key Features– - Augmented reality sky overlays. - Time travel mode to see the night sky at any date. - Simple and user-friendly. Photopills Price:£9.99 Why Beginners Will Love It: Plan your astrophotography shots with ease. It helps determine the best time and place for shooting you deep sky images. Expert Appeal: Packed with planning tools like sun and moon positions, star trails, and augmented reality overlays. Key Features– - Precise planning for Milky Way, lunar, and solar shots. - AR overlays for planning compositions. - Deep integration with camera settings. Polar Align Pro — iOS Price: £2.99 Why Beginners Will Love It: Simplifies the tricky task of polar alignment with clear instructions and visual aids, making it beginner-friendly. I used this for a while before I upgraded to my current ASI Air sytem, and it was a great way to help PA. I used this astro app with my EQ5Pro mount shown in the image above. I also had to make a small jig to hold my phone in the saddle of the mount. Expert Appeal: A must-have for fairly accurate polar alignment, especially for those using equatorial mounts. Key Features – - AR-guided polar alignment. - Comprehensive tools for checking alignment accuracy. - Optimised for all levels of astrophotographers. Star Walk 2 Price: Free / £2.99 Pro Why Beginners Will Love It: Beautiful graphics and an engaging interface makin the experience of stargazing exciting. Expert Appeal: In-depth information and loads of detail, from deep sky objects to satellites. Key Features – - Real-time star maps. - Customisable sky view. - Augmented reality feature for identification. Heavens-Above Price: Free Why Beginners Will Love It: Accurate and detailed predictions of satellite passes, including the ISS. Expert Appeal: One of the most accurate sources for satellite tracking, making it perfect for astrophotography setups. Key Features – - ISS and satellite tracker. - Detailed star charts and maps. - Offline use and customisable settings. Light Pollution Map Price: Free Why Beginners Will Love It: It shows the best dark-sky locations nearby for capturing pristine images of our night skies. Expert Appeal: Essential for finding remote, low-light areas. Key Features– - Global light pollution data. - GPS integration for finding dark sky locations. - Heat map overlays for dark sky sites. AstroAid Price: £4.99 Why Beginners Will Love It: A handy calculator that helps with astrophotography settings and field-of-view calculations. Expert Appeal: Perfect for precise focal length and sensor calculations. Key Features– - Field-of-view, resolution, and exposure calculators. - Presets for common camera and telescope setups. - User-friendly interface. StarTracker Price:Free / £2.99 Pro Why Beginners Will Love It: A minimalist app that’s excellent for beginners to explore the stars. Expert Appeal:A great option for those looking for lightweight apps that don’t drain battery life. Key Features– - 3D star map. - Night mode to reduce eye strain. - Smooth and fluid graphics. Astrospheric Price: Free / £6.99 Pro Why Beginners Will Love It: Offers precise weather predictions for stargazing and astrophotography. Expert Appeal: Data from multiple weather models, including seeing, transparency, and cloud cover. Key Features– - High-resolution weather forecasts. - Data overlays for sky conditions. - Cloud cover and seeing conditions. Sky Map Price: Free Why Beginners Will Love It: An open-source, easy-to-use star map. Just point and learn. Expert Appeal: Lightweight and highly accurate. Great for quick checks on constellations and planets. Key Features– - Point-to-sky learning tool. - Quick identification of celestial objects. - Open-source, community-driven. ISS Detector Price: Free / £2.49 Pro Why Beginners Will Love It: Never miss an ISS pass again! Simple alerts for ISS and satellite passes. Expert Appeal: Highly accurate timings and notifications for both satellites and the ISS. Key Features– - Customisable notifications. - Detailed information on passes. - Easy to use for all levels. Clear Outside Price: Free Why Beginners Will Love It: Check weather forecasts specifically tailored for stargazing. This is my goto for checking upcoming weather, but like most weather apps can sometimes get it a little wrong. Expert Appeal: Detailed cloud cover predictions and night-time forecasting. Key Features– - Cloud cover, temperature, and humidity forecasts. - GPS-based forecasting. - Nighttime mode for astronomers. Lunar Phase Pro Price: £4.99 Why Beginners Will Love It: Track the moon’s phases, rise/set times, and best viewing dates. Expert Appeal: Detailed lunar data, making it perfect for planning lunar observations and photography. Key Features– - Lunar phase calendars. - Rise, set, and transit times. - Customisable notifications. Sky Tonight Price: Free / £1.99 Pro Why Beginners Will Love It: A beautiful app for skywatching, with a focus on ease of use. Expert Appeal: Offers detailed object information and dynamic sky maps for precision observations. Key Features – - Real-time star maps. - Night vision mode. - Customisable notifications for events. Whether you’re gazing through a telescope for the first time or planning complex astrophotography shoots, these apps might simplify the process a little and help you to make best use of your time during your imaging or planning sessions. Investing in the right space app for astro will help you enjoy and appreciate the night sky even more—no matter your skill level. Happy stargazing, astronerds!

Image above by Jorge Segura - probably one of the best planetary imagers I know! Astrophotography can be divided into a few main types: Planetary imaging Deep-sky imaging including widefield imaging Bightsky landscape including Milkyway images Let me try and focus on the fist two; planetary and deep sky. While planetary astrophotography focuses on capturing images of objects within our solar system, such as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Moon, and the Sun, deep-sky astrophotography allows amateur astronomers and astrophotographers to image distant celestial objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. Each branch of astrophotography requires slightly different software to process the images to get the best images of the data taken. Software for astronomy processing and planetary images Planetary astrophotography would typically involve capturing high frame-rate videos of planets and then using software to select and extract the sharpest and best frames to then 'stack' them together to produce a high-quality image. I'll run through a few of the different types of software available to you to help with the process of getting amazing images of planets and deep sky objects. Most of these I have used and still use on a regular basis. RegiStax Best for : Planetary and lunar image stacking and sharpening RegiStax is probably one of the most popular software programs for processing planetary images. It allows you to stack video frames and apply sharpening to bring out the finer details of planets, the Moon, and even the Sun (DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE without appropriate filters). Key Features - Free to use - Sharpening tools for fine detail enhancement - Multi-point alignment for improved stacking accuracy Why Beginners Like It RegiStax simplifies planetary image processing by offering easy-to-use stacking and sharpening tools. Its wavelet sharpening feature is especially useful for bringing out surface details on planets like Jupiter or Saturn. This software is only available for PC and not Mac computers. AutoStakkert Best for : Automatic stacking for planetary and lunar images AutoStakkert is designed to automatically choose the sharpest frames from a video and stack them into a final image. It is often used in conjunction with RegiStax, where AutoStakkert handles the stacking, and RegiStax is used for sharpening. Key Features - Free to use - Automatic frame selection and stacking - Multi-point alignment for improved accuracy Why Beginners Like It AutoStakkert makes the process of stacking pretty simple, allowing beginners and experts alike to produce clearer planetary images without needing to manually select frames. It’s a great tool for anyone capturing video of planets. Siril Best for : Processing both planetary and deep-sky images Siril is a hugley versatile astrophotography software package that can handle both planetary and deep-sky image processing. For planetary imaging, Siril can convert video files into frames and then stack them, offering tools for post-processing as well. I have used this software a few times and I know a few friends who swear by it. Key Features - Free and open-source - Video-to-frame conversion for planetary processing - Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux) Why Beginners Like It Siril provides a user-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate. It’s also one of the few free programs that can handle both planetary and deep-sky image processing, making it an excellent option for those looking to try both types of astrophotography. FireCapture Best for: Video capture for planetary and lunar imaging While FireCapture is technically a video capture tool, it’s worth mentioning for planetary imaging because it offers specialised settings tailored to capture high-frame-rate video files of planets like Jupiter and Saturn etc. You can then export these videos to software like AutoStakkert! and RegiStax for processing. Key Features - Free to use - Capture videos optimised for planetary photography - Automatic tracking and stabilisation during capture Why Beginners Like It FireCapture is often used by planetary astrophotographers to ensure they capture high-quality, high-frame-rate videos. This software works seamlessly with AutoStakkert! and RegiStax for the next stage of your astro image processing workflow. Software for Processing Deep-Sky Images Deep-sky astrophotography involves capturing long exposures of distant celestial objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. This requires stacking multiple frames to reduce noise and enhance detail. Below are some of the best software tools for processing deep-sky images. DeepSkyStacker (DSS) Best for: Image stacking and noise reduction for deep-sky objects DeepSkyStacker is a widely used software for stacking deep-sky images. It combines multiple exposures to reduce noise and improve detail, making it ideal for capturing objects like galaxies and nebulae. Key Features - Free to use - Stacks light, dark, flat, and bias frames - Basic post-processing options Why Beginners Like It DSS is known for its simplicity and effectiveness. It automates much of the stacking process, allowing beginners to focus on capturing quality images and letting the software handle noise reduction and detail enhancement. This software is also only avaulabel for PC and I use it a a lot. AstroPixel Processor (APP) Best for: Complete deep-sky processing workflow, including stacking and calibration— AstroPixel Processor (APP) is designed for astrophotography and offers an all-in-one solution for stacking, calibrating, and processing deep-sky images. It supports advanced features like mosaic creation and multi-band processing, making it versatile for both wide-field and detailed astrophotography. Key Features - Complete stacking, calibration, and post-processing workflow - Tools for multi-channel processing and mosaics - Batch processing capabilities Why Beginners Like It APP is user-friendly and allows beginners to perform all necessary post-processing steps within a single platform. Its powerful features make it a great option for both novice and intermediate astrophotographers. This software is available for mac and PC users. PixInsight Best for: Advanced deep-sky image processing PixInsight is considered one of the most advanced tools for deep-sky astrophotography. While it has a steep learning curve, it offers complete control over the entire processing workflow, from stacking and calibration to noise reduction and colour adjustment. Key Features - Advanced tools for stacking, calibration, and noise reduction - Powerful post-processing options - Batch processing and scripting capabilities Why Beginners Like It Although Pixinsight has a steep learning curve it offers precision and flexibility unmatched by other software. Beginners who are serious about improving their deep-sky images often turn to PixInsight as they gain more experience. StarTools Best for: User-friendly deep-sky image processing StarTools is the new kid on the block and designed specifically for astrophotography and offers a range of tools to make deep-sky image processing easier. It provides modules for noise reduction, sharpening, and colour correction, with an interface aimed at making complex tasks simpler for beginners. Key Features - Specialised tools for deep-sky image processing - Modules for star removal, sharpening, and noise reduction - Free trial available Why Beginners Like It StarTools simplifies many of the technical aspects of astrophotography image processing, allowing beginners to enhance their deep-sky images without needing in-depth knowledge of astrophotography. Adobe Photoshop (or Affinity Photo ) Best for: Fine-tuning deep-sky images with detailed editing While not specifically built for astrophotography, both Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo are powerful image-editing tools that can be used to fine-tune deep-sky images. I find myself sometimes using Photoshop's built-in Theycamera Raw to reduce the noise a little more when I export my images from Pixinsight. Photoshop and Affinity Photo also provide detailed control over colour, contrast, and sharpness, making them perfect for the final touches on my astrophotography images. Key Features - Layer-based editing for advanced workflows in astronomy image processing - Extensive tools for brightness, contrast, and colour adjustments - Supports advanced post-processing techniques like star reduction and noise removal Why Beginners Like It Both Photoshop and Affinity Photo offer immense flexibility for beginners and advanced users alike. Affinity Photo is a budget-friendly alternative to Photoshop, offering similar features at a one-time purchase cost. My preference is towards taking images of deep sky objects, but whether you're focusing on planetary or deep-sky astrophotography, the right software can make a huge difference in the quality of your final images. If you're a beginner I would suggest starting with simpler programs and gradually beginning to explore more advanced options as you gain experience. Pixinsight has probably the largest learning curve, but no matter which type of astrophotography you choose to undertake, the key is to experiment with different software packages, practice consistently, and enjoy the process of bringing your amazing images of the night sky to life through your images. Other software is available for planetary imaging and deep sky stacking and processing and include: StarTools , Winjupos which is de rotation software and mostly used for planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, Sequator , AstroPixelProcessor

I first imaged this deep sky object in 2023 using my one shot colour camera, and I remember the seeing being very good that evening. This is my longest integration so far on this object in our night sky! But the image below was taken in 2024. Total Integration time : 23 hours 25 min Moon coverage : 80% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The heart of the heart nebula : The Heart Nebula or Melotte 15 is an emission nebula, 7500 light years away from Earth and located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. Other object sthatare in this contellation include the Pac-man nebula and more. Melotte 15 was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. It displays glowing ionised hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes. Source Wikipedia I absolutely love this deep sky object in our night skies. The details I have managed to tease out from over 23 hours worth of image time is crazy. The dark dust structures, the faint dark nebulous details and the gaseous pillars simply blows my mind! The indiviudal images shown below are what are called master lights and these are output from the astro software. I will then combine these to produce the image that you see above. The blue colour tends to signify oxygen, the red, hydrogen in the visisble spectrum of colours, and I am pretty sure there are a vast range of colours in here we can't actually see beyond the visible spectrum. UV, IR and more! Shown above are what the individual master images or master lights look like when I process them in Pixinsight. These individual master frames were produced by digitally stacking lots and lots of exposures to combine in to one master frame. When I combine these master lights they make one full colour image as you can see on the last image above. I then process this image to produce the deep sky image you see below. It all sounds very complex, but once you get used to using the software for a while it gets a little easier to do. Promise :-) Pixinsight does have a huge learning curve however! The image above is a close tight crop on the same object, Melotte 15 but cropped and processed again using something called drizzling which essentialy increases the overall images size. I then use a feature in the Pixinsight software called drop shrinking which then reduces the overall pixel size to make the image feel sharper overall. I was so lucky, as this image was picked for image of the day on the ZWO astronomy app! I hope you enjoy seeing my space images.

I imaged this galaxy from my back garden in 2023 using my one shot colour camera and my light pollution filter and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 9hours 25 min Moon coverage : 60% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The Sunflower galaxy or Messier 63 : The Sunflower galaxy was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain and was the first of 24 objects that Méchain would contribute to Charles Messier’s catalog. The galaxy is located roughly 27 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has an apparent magnitude of 9.3 and appears as a faint patch of light in small telescopes. The best time to observe M63 is during May. Source NASA Shown below is an image in SkySafari showing the location of M63 in our night sky. Some other objects that lie in the same region of space include the Whirlpool galaxy, and I have also imaged this galaxy. This was the fourth Messier object I imaged in the summer months of 2023 - I think I managed to get around 10 Messier objects that time. The summer nights were particularly warm with ambient temperatures around 15 or 16 degrees which is actually pretty warm for Scotland, but I soldiered on nonetheless, with my cooled astronomy camera, to try and get more objects from the Messier Catalogue, of which there are 110. See here for the full list. I hope you enjoy seeing these images.

I have imaged some of these Messier objects from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. The full Messier list of deep sky objects listed shown below. Messier Catalogue : Charles Messier Number of objects : 110 Above is shown an image of Messier 51a – The whirlpool galaxy which is essentially two galaxies colliding, that I took from my back garden in 2023. This is a total of 12 hours or so made up of lots of 180 second exposures, stacked and combined to give one final image. If you look very carefully you will spot a few other galaxies surrounding this deep sky object. The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is 7.22 megaparsecs away and 23.58 kiloparsecs in diameter. Source: Wikipedia The Messier Catalogue is a list of 110 astronomical objects compiled by the French astronomer Charles Messier in the 18th century. Here’s a summary of each object, including its type and brief description: M1 – M10 M1 (Crab Nebula) – Supernova remnant in Taurus, known for its pulsar at the centre. See my image here M2 – Globular cluster in Aquarius, one of the largest and oldest in the Milky Way. M3 – Globular cluster in Canes Venatici, rich in variable stars. M4 – Globular cluster in Scorpius, close to Earth and bright. M5 – Globular cluster in Serpens, very bright with a dense core. M6 (Butterfly Cluster) – Open cluster in Scorpius, named for its butterfly shape. M7 (Ptolemy Cluster) – Open cluster in Scorpius, visible to the naked eye. M8 (Lagoon Nebula) – Emission nebula in Sagittarius, contains a large star-forming region. M9 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, relatively close and dense. M10 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, slightly elongated and bright. M11 – M20 M11 (Wild Duck Cluster) – Dense open cluster in Scutum, named for its V shape. M12 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, has fewer dense stars than other globulars. M13 (Hercules Cluster) – Bright globular cluster in Hercules, easily visible in binoculars. M14 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, with a large, dense core. M15 – Globular cluster in Pegasus, contains a planetary nebula. M16 (Eagle Nebula) – Emission nebula in Serpens, famous for its "Pillars of Creation." M17 (Omega Nebula) – Emission nebula in Sagittarius, rich in star formation. M18 – Open cluster in Sagittarius, small and sparse. M19 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, elliptical in shape. M20 (Trifid Nebula) – Emission and reflection nebula in Sagittarius, with a distinct three-lobed structure. M21 – M30 M21 – Open cluster in Sagittarius, contains young stars. M22 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, among the brightest and closest to Earth. M23 – Open cluster in Sagittarius, rich and large. M24 (Sagittarius Star Cloud) – Dense star cloud in Sagittarius. M25 – Open cluster in Sagittarius, contains a yellow giant star. M26 – Open cluster in Scutum, has a noticeable dark patch. M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) – Planetary nebula in Vulpecula, shaped like an hourglass. M28 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, compact and bright. M29 – Open cluster in Cygnus, small and sparse. M30 – Globular cluster in Capricornus, asymmetrical with a dense core. M31 – M40 M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Andromeda, closest large galaxy to the Milky Way. M32 – Elliptical galaxy in Andromeda, satellite of M31. M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Triangulum, part of the Local Group. M34 – Open cluster in Perseus, loosely packed. M35 – Open cluster in Gemini, large and rich in stars. M36 – Open cluster in Auriga, sparse but bright. M37 – Open cluster in Auriga, rich and the brightest in its constellation. M38 – Open cluster in Auriga, with a cross-shaped pattern. M39 – Open cluster in Cygnus, scattered and sparse. M40 – Double star in Ursa Major, part of a failed search for a nebula. M41 – M50 M41 – Open cluster in Canis Major, visible to the naked eye. M42 (Orion Nebula) – Emission nebula in Orion, known for active star formation. See my image here M43 – Emission nebula in Orion, part of the Orion Nebula complex. M44 (Beehive Cluster) – Open cluster in Cancer, bright and easily visible. M45 (Pleiades) – Open cluster in Taurus, among the nearest and most visible clusters. M46 – Open cluster in Puppis, includes a planetary nebula. M47 – Open cluster in Puppis, bright but loosely packed. M48 – Open cluster in Hydra, relatively sparse. M49 – Elliptical galaxy in Virgo, one of the brightest in the Virgo Cluster. M50 – Open cluster in Monoceros, heart-shaped with bright stars. M51 – M60 M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, famous for its spiral structure. M52 – Open cluster in Cassiopeia, dense and rich. M53 – Globular cluster in Coma Berenices, dense and distant. M54 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, actually part of a satellite galaxy. M55 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, sparse and loosely packed. M56 – Globular cluster in Lyra, small and dim. M57 (Ring Nebula) – Planetary nebula in Lyra, known for its ring shape. M58 – Barred spiral galaxy in Virgo, bright and part of the Virgo Cluster. M59 – Elliptical galaxy in Virgo, compact and dense. M60* – Elliptical galaxy in Virgo, one of the largest in the Virgo Cluster. M61 – M70 M61 – Barred spiral galaxy in Virgo, bright with active star formation. M62 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, elliptical and compact. M63 (Sunflower Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, with bright spiral arms. See my image here M64 (Black Eye Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, known for a dark dust lane. M65 – Spiral galaxy in Leo, elongated with a prominent core. M66 – Spiral galaxy in Leo, part of the Leo Triplet. M67 – Open cluster in Cancer, very old and compact. M68 – Globular cluster in Hydra, bright and dense. M69 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, close to the Galactic centre. M70 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, very dense with a concentrated core. M71 – M80 M71 – Loose globular cluster in Sagitta, almost like an open cluster. M72 – Globular cluster in Aquarius, faint and distant. M73 – Asterism in Aquarius, four stars forming a Y-shape. M74 – Spiral galaxy in Pisces, almost face-on with delicate spiral arms. M75 – Globular cluster in Sagittarius, dense and distant. M76 (Little Dumbbell Nebula)*– Planetary nebula in Perseus, resembles M27. M77 – Spiral galaxy in Cetus, one of the largest in the catalog. M78 – Reflection nebula in Orion, bright with young stars. M79 – Globular cluster in Lepus, compact and bright. M80 – Globular cluster in Scorpius, one of the densest known. M81 – M90 M81 (Bode’s Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, very bright and large. M82 (Cigar Galaxy) – Starburst galaxy in Ursa Major, bright with high star formation. M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy)** – Barred spiral galaxy in Hydra, large and bright. M84 – Elliptical galaxy in Virgo, located in the centre of the Virgo Cluster. M85 – Elliptical galaxy in Coma Berenices, slightly flattened. M86 – Elliptical galaxy in Virgo, in the Virgo Cluster. M87 – Giant elliptical galaxy in Virgo, known for its supermassive black hole. M88 – Spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, bright with well-defined arms. M89 – Elliptical galaxy in Virgo, nearly spherical in shape. M90 – Spiral galaxy in Virgo, part of the Virgo Cluster. M91 – M100 M91 – Barred spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, faint and difficult to observe M92 – Globular cluster in Hercules, very dense and bright. M93 – Open cluster in Puppis, rich and bright with young stars. M94 – Spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, with a bright core and faint arms. M95 – Barred spiral galaxy in Leo, with a ring structure. M96 – Spiral galaxy in Leo, bright and large. M97 (Owl Nebula) – Planetary nebula in Ursa Major, resembles owl eyes. M98 – Spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, faint and elongated. M99 – Spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, with well-defined spiral arms. M100 – Spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, with a nearly face-on orientation. M101 – M110 M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, large and very detailed. M102 – Lenticular galaxy in Draco (often disputed as a duplicate or missing). M103 – Open cluster in Cassiopeia, sparse but bright. M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) – Spiral galaxy in Virgo, known for its bright nucleus. M105 – Elliptical galaxy in Leo, close to M96. M106 – Spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, active nucleus and spiral arms. M107 – Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, faint and loosely packed. M108 – Spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, seen edge-on. M109 – Barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, bright with faint arms. M110 – Elliptical galaxy in Andromeda, companion to M31. That was some read! Watch out for more images of these deep sky objects, galaxies and nebula and clusters that I took from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland.

I imaged this supernova remnant from my back garden on the 15th January 2024, using my one shot colour camera, my skywatcher telescope and my light pollution filter and my Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro telescope mount. Total Integration time : 12 hours Moon coverage : 60% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The Crab nebula or Messier 1 : The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common for this supernova remnant comes from a drawing that resembled a crab with arms produced by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in 1842 or 1843 using a 36-inch telescope. Source Wikipedia The Crab Nebula is an expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054 AD, as likely did the Native Americans. The glowing relic has been expanding since the star exploded, and it is now approximately 11 light-years in width. Here are some things about the crab nebula that you may not have known: The crab nebula is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky, and at the heart of it is a very bright and very energetic pulsar. The pulsar is observed across the entire light spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. The pulsar generates an extremely powerful wind that interacts with the expanding nebula and generates very intricate and beautiful filaments and you can just about see this in the image I took from my back garden. The Crab Nebula exploded because a massive star ran out of its fuel and collapsed into a neutron star under immense gravity, then violently ejected its outer layers in a supernova explosion. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied remains of a stellar explosion and is widely accepted to be due to a supernova seen in the year 1054 a.d. by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arab astronomers, who reported sighting a new bright star in the heavens. The star was so brilliant that it was visible even during the day for nearly three weeks and only faded from view nearly two years later. During that time it was called the Guest star because of its fleeting brightness. Below is a close crop of my image above and you can see some of the amazing filaments described in the copy above.

I imaged this huge emission nebula from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. It is more commonly called The Crescent nebula or NGC 6888. Total Integration time : 2 hours Moon coverage : 1% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The Crescent nebula or NGC 6888 : The Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. I swear I couldn't believe this was only two hours of exposure time, using my colour astronomy camera, the ZWO 533MCPro. I nearly fell off my little astro chair processing this image. This emission nebula is known for its similarity to a brain. I can definitely see that for sure. William Herschel had originally thought that the crescent nebula was a double star, but it is actually a Wolf-Rayet star, which are the hottest stars in the universe. The Wolf-Rayet star at the heart of the Crescent Nebula is called WR 136. This star is 5.1 times larger than our Sun, nearly 10 times hotter, 21 times as massive and a huge 60,000 times brighter! Stars don't burn or are on fire. They fuse hydrogen to helium under immense gravitational force. And it’s WR-136 that caused the nebula to form. Some nebulae are easy to image and this one was no exception. It is quite bright in the night sky so that makes it slightly easier to image. It is thought that the Wolf-Rayet star at the centre of the Crescent Nebula - known as WR-136 will eventually end its life in a dramatic stellar explosion known as a supernova explosion. I hope you enjoyed looking at my brain in space image.

I imaged this huge galaxy 2.3 million light years away from our milkwyay using my dedicated astronomy camera, my HEQ5Pro equatorial mount and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 27 minutes Moon coverage : 50% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 M33 or Triangulum galaxy : The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. Source Wikipedia M33 has a relatively bright apparent magnitude of 5.7, making it one of the most distant objects that observers can see with the unaided eye, but only under exceptionally clear and dark skies, definitely not from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. Although a telescope will start to reveal some of M33’s spiral features and dust lanes, the galaxy is actually easiest to examine with low magnification and a wide field of view, such as a pair of binoculars or a dobsonian telescope. It is best observed in November which is when I took this image in 2023. The image above was the second time I had tried to image this galaxy. I first imaged it in 2022, but my equipment was slighty inferior to what it is now and my slightly older EQ5 Pro mount and my previous colour astronomy camera, couldn't quite cut it. At the time I did have a Baader coma corrector which was a big help for my newtonian scope, but it still wasn't enough! The thing that made the biggest difference, was the addition of the Starizona .75 reducer to my image train and the addition of a CNC spider vein which was a massive help with the collimation of my newtonian telescope and that was astro-life changing to now see how sharp my astro images would become. Oh and collimation to within an inch of my telescopes life! Now in all honesty, processing Triangulum is a bit of a pain as there are so many stars in this galaxy, it is estimated that there are approximately 40 billion sun like stars, in this massive galaxy, so by the laws of probability, there will absoultely be some form of intelligent life in there somewhere, but it is just so far away that even travelling at 99.9% the speed of light would take 5.6 billion years to get there and back and I had to use chat GPT for that! But after reading Brian Cox's book 'What is E=mc2 and how does the affect us' I now understand that time dilation would affect the traveller too and so even though 5.6 billion years had passed on earth, the traveller would have experienced 244,000 years of time passing. Time goes slower for the traveller than that of time on earth, or so I believe or at least from the perspective of the traveller! That's relativity folks! LOL. My goodness that went off on a tangent fast! Anyway I hope you enjoyed looking at my trianglum galaxy image.

I imaged this huge emission nebula, the Rosette nebula or NGC 2244 - a skull in space that sits around 5200 light years away but still within our Milkyway galaxy. I imaged it using my dedicated OSC (one shot colour) astronomy camera, my HEQ5Pro equatorial mount and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Total Integration time : 6 hours 75 mins Moon coverage : 25% Location : Monoceros Region of our night sky Bortle : 4 The Rosette Nebula is a huge star-forming region spanning 100 light years across and located 5,000 lightyears away from us. It can be seen in the Monoceros constellation in the winter months, located between stars Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion and Procyon in Canis Minor. Some people think, me included, that this star forming region of space looks like a skull and I definitely think so too. This time I decided to go for a sligthly more vibrant version of Rosette nebula and bring out some of the colours you might not see processed into this particular deep sky object. This time I was also able to image and process a vey special object called a Herbig-Haro object. Meaburn and Walsh reported in 1986 that an ionised trail in the Rosette Nebula has a velocity contour that shows a dramatic tilt. A 2010 study suggested that the Rosette Nebula contains an HH jet with a source 30′′ NW of the jet. I have highlighted this object in my zoomed in image below. It clealry show the ionised tail behind the star. HH objects are bright patches of gas that form when a newborn star ejects jets of gas that collide with nearby gas and dust clouds. They are transient and usually last for a few tens of thousands of years. HH objects are often found in star-forming regions and can be aligned with a star's rotational axis. The brightest HH objects are usually found at the ends of the jet, where the material collides with the surrounding molecular cloud. Sources:Wikipedia/NASA I hope you enjoy finding out more about the Rosette nebula and Herbig-Haro objects.

NGC 7380 is a relatively young open cluster of stars in the constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. The surrounding emission nebulosity is known colloquially as the Wizard Nebula, which spans an angle of 25′. All nebulae are almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but using some dedicated astronomy equipment, some filters that only let in certain wavelengths of light and my astronomy telescope, we can image vast objects like the one show below. This vast nebula spans approximately 100 light-years across. To put this in terms of our Moon’s size, which has a diameter of about 3,474 kilometers, the Wizard Nebula would be equivalent to around 2.88 trillion moons lined up end to end across its diameter. Total Integration time : 12 hours Moon coverage : 35% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 I took this image on 2023 using my one shot colour astronomy camera and my Skywatcher 200P telescope. Sitting nicely on my Skywatcher HEQ5Pro equatorial mount. This was quite a tricky deep sky object to process and with a farily short integration time, it made it more difficult to reveal the Hydrogen gases around this nebula. You can see them here as I have processed them in a kind of rusty orange colour, but Hydrgoen is normally processed in red.

I imaged this huge galaxy from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland. It is more commonly called The Pinwheel Galaxy. The Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier in 1781. Total Integration time : 6 hours 15 mins Moon coverage : 1% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 The galaxy is approximately 25 million light-years from Earth and spiral arms are filled with star-forming nebulae and young, hot, blue stars. The Pinwheel galaxy can be seen with a small telescope, and is best viewed in June, which is when I took this image. The galaxy has been the site of several notable events, including a type II supernova in 2011 and a luminous red nova in 2015 as well as the supernova discovered in 2023 by a Japanese astronomer. See below. Here are some more details about the Pinwheel Galaxy: It has a mean radius of 85,000 light-years and it has a magnitude of 7.9 so it is is fairly dim and not possible to see with the naked eye. It fills a region in the sky that's one-fifth the size of the full moon. The Pinwheel Galaxy : I took this image of this huge galaxy in June 2023 using my astronomy equipment. This galaxy is famous due to a star that went supernova. The closest supernova to Earth in five years was discovered in the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101, on 19 May 2023 by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki. See my image below for the exploding star. The actual explosion lasted a few weeks or so but I was one of the lucky ones who managed to capture it in an image. Copy below from BBC Sky at Night magazine: Spectral analysis indicates the explosion was a Type II supernova. These are catastrophic explosions that occur when a massive star with a mass between eight and 40 times that of the Sun no longer has enough fuel to support itself against gravity and collapses to form a neutron star or a black hole. The close proximity of SN2023ixf gives a unique opportunity to study these stellar explosions. The supernova occured in the southwest region of M101, close to prominent star-forming region NGC 5461. Previous studies of this area found it contained three clusters of young stars, which are common places to find the supergiant stars that eventually go supernova. A 15-solar-mass red supergiant identified in Spitzer Space Telescope images of M101 taken between 2012 and 2019 could potentially be the origin of the supernova, although this star didn’t exhibit the typical fluctuations seen in a pre-explosion star. Further analysis will be required to establish if it is actually connected to the supernova. Hope you enjoyed reading this post about the Pinwheel galaxy.

The aurora borealis in Scotland. You must be kidding right?! Nope Total Integration time : 10 second exposure Moon coverage : 0% Location : Northern Hemisphere Bortle : 4 As a kid, I always wanted to see the northern lights, but always thought I would never get a chance. I even thought I would need to travel further north to Iceland or Norway to see tan aurora, but how wrong was I! I spoke to some people who said this was the strongest geomagnetic storm for we had seen for such a long time. The Northern Lights from my back garden on the west coast of Scotland On October 10, 2024, a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun caused a severe geomagnetic storm that led to the aurora borealis being visible across the UK and North America, and most of Scotland, if you weren't clouded out that is, and we were treated to what I can only describe as, the most soul cleansing thing I have ever seen! So what causes these dancing displays of reds and greens and blues and purples? A large flare and filament combination left the sun in October, and the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) arrived at Earth in the 10th and 11th October and stayed for a few days or so after this fantastic visual treat. I had clouds after this one and didn't manage to see the Aurora that happened a few months before this one. Most people who are into space stuff use lots of space apps to help them plan or image things in space, ISS transit monitor, Aurora watch apps, weather apps such as Clear Outside and lunar calculators etc. These can help with planning imaging sessions or events, but as this was aurora event was pretty widely spoken about in the news, I didn't need an app to tell me the aurora was above my head. It was so strong, I could actually feel it and see it all around me. Yeah, I know that sounds really weird that I could feel it around me, but I seriosly feal that I was being engulfed by the aurora. This was my viewpoint looking towards zenith, the uppermost and highest part of the night sky and from about 11.30pm on the 11th October 2024, I stood outside in my garden just watching for about two hours and took the odd snap in between. I swear I could hear sounds too, but that was probably my mind playing tricks on me. Or maybe I can hear colour! LOL Some of the images you see in the gallery above were ever so slightly tweaked and the saturation was increased, but this is pretty close to what I saw with my own eyes from my back garden. I really hope you get a chance to see a display like this at least once in your life; it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I hope you see it in Scotland in your back garden.