Bright and Dark Nebulae of the Milky Way

I think nebulae are generally hard to image, stacking only 20-30sec exposures. They tend to be generally fainter, requiring longer exposures and wider fields of view. So, after almost a decade of imaging with my alt-az mounted 10", I finally doubled down on my next generation of equipment. I decided to upgrade to a 12" on a semi-permanent Paramount MyT mount and a cooled dedicated astronomy camera!

Most of the images shown here were taken unguided, using a 10" LX200R at prime focus, with an OPTEC Lepus 0.62X focal reducer; but moving forward, I anticipate many more with my new setup - still unguided of course! (because who needs that hassle!?)

NGC6995 , M20 (Updated Aug. 22, 2025)

Showcasing: NGC6995

Designation: NGC6995 Alternate Name: Eastern Veil Nebula Constellation: Cygnus Imaging Date: August 22, 2025 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 399 frames@180sec ~ 20.0hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: Comment: 10 years later, a 20h exposure with a cooled camera, a little better than my original version with my 10" here.. This cloud of heated ionized gas and dust is the visible remnant of a massive supernova that exploded about 10-20 thousand years ago. The supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus and would have been easily visible in daytime. The portion here is only about half a degree in diameter, less than 3% of a nebula that extends over 36 times the area of the Moon!

NGC6888	M20	IC5134
Designation: NGC6888 Alternate Name: Crescent Nebula Constellation: Cygnus Imaging Date: September 22, 2014 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 79 frames@20sec ~ 26.3min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 18' x 12' Comment: This is an emission nebula, illuminated by a massive, hot Wolf-Rayet star at its center. The complex structure is thought to be the result of a collision between the star's prodigious stellar wind and material ejected from an earlier phase in its evolution. It's expected to ultimately end in a spectacular supernova explosion.	Designation: M20 Alternate Name: Trifid Nebula Constellation: Sagittarius Imaging Date: July 20, 2025 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 174 frames@180sec ~ 8.7hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 28' Comment: At last, revisiting the beautiful Trifid Nebula! I grew up with a poster of the Trifid Nebula taken by the 200" Hale Telescope hanging in my room. I faced it everynight before going to bed for years. Well, here is my version 40 years later using my own telescope, a far cry from my first attempt here. Better telescope, better camera, and better image processing of course! Though a beautiful result, no matter what I do, it still can't compete with my memory of it from my childhood days. Funny how that is.	Designation: IC5134 Alternate Name: NGC7129 Constellation: Cepheus Imaging Date: November 3, 2024 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 323 frames@180sec ~ 16.1hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 8' x 8' Comment: Objects like this are truly mesmerizing! This one has it all: the heart of the nebula is the star cluster NGC7129, consisting of a core of 4 bright B stars that illuminate the blue reflection nebula (NGC7133) as well as the smaller yellow reflection cloud LBN497. IC5134 is the encompassing dusty cloud of molecular gas. The entire complex lies about 3300 light years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. Like NGC1333, this nebula also contains a number of Herbig-Haro objects - bright red clouds of gas ionized by collimated jets of ionized plasma flowing out from young protostars that are detectable only at infrared wavelengths. There are over 100 young protostars in this highly active stellar nursary just waiting to emerge from their cocoons. All of these together form a spectacular tapestry of structure and color, emblematic of the beautiful and mysterious Universe we live in.

NGC1999	IC5146	B29
Designation: NGC1999 Alternate Name: The 13th Pearl Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: February 18, 2018 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 79 frames@20sec ~ 26.3min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 1.5' x 1.5' Comment: This reflection nebula is located about 1500 light years away in Orion and is illuminated by V380 Orionis. It contains a dark T-shaped object was once thought to be a Bok globule - a cold cloud of gas, molecules and cosmic dust, that is so dense it blocks all of the light behind it. However, recent infrared images indicate the shape is likely a hole blown through the nebula itself by energetic young stars. The patch looks black not because it is an extremely dense pocket of gas, but because it is truly empty. The nebula is famous in astronomical history because the first Herbig-Haro object was discovered immediately adjacent to it. Herbig-Haro objects are now known to be jets of gas ejected from very young stars.	Designation: IC5146 Alternate Name: C c n Nebula Constellation: Cygnus Imaging Date: September 21, 2023 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 238 frames@180sec ~ 11.9hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 12' x 12' Comment: This a beautiful reflection and emission nebula in Cygnus, about 4000 light years away and spanning about 15 light years in diameter. The central star that lights the nebula is believed to be only about 100,000 years old, within a stellar nursery of hundreds of young emerging suns. It's embedded in a dark nebula (Barnard 168), of which small dark patches are visible to the right, extending in a tail from the nebula westward in the same direction. This an exposure just shy of 12 hours, using my 12 inch Meade and ASI2600mc. I stacked 238 180s unguided images in DeepSkyStacker and processed them in Pixinsight.	Designation: B29 Alternate Name: LDN1523 Constellation: Auriga Imaging Date: December 20, 2023 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 334 frames@180sec ~ 16.7hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 13' x 11' / 3' x 3' Comment: I really enjoy imaging dark nebulae... they seem so ominous and lifeless, yet ironically contain the building blocks of life itself, many of which are active regions where stars are eventually born. The large cloud is Barnard 29, also known as DOBASHI 4393 or LDN1523. Its little brother, down (north) and to the right (east) is DOBASHI 4390, just above LDN1522. Not surprisingly, there was an extensive atlas and catalog for Dark Clouds that was first presented in 2005 by Japanese astronomer (Dobashi) in 2005. It used automated image analysis to implement a traditional star counting method to comprehensively detect Dark Clouds throughout the sky. Since then, Dobashi (2011) has complemented his results using a method that uses photometrically measured brightnesses. This an exposure of almost 17h using my 12 inch Meade and ASI2600mc. I stacked 334 3min unguided exposures in DeepSkyStacker and processed the image in Pixinsight.

NGC2024	NGC7023	M16
Designation: NGC2024 Alternate Name: Flame Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: March 9, 2015 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 83 frames@20sec ~ 27.7min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 30' x 30' Comment: Finally got to this nebula! This emission nebula is part of the same molecular cloud as the Horsehead. Apparently, out of the over 800 young stars in the center of this nebula, over 86% have circumstellar disks!	Designation: NGC7023 Alternate Name: Iris Nebula Constellation: Cepheus Imaging Date: August 14, 2015 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 78 frames@20sec ~ 26.0min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 18' x 18' Comment: This is a bright reflection nebula about 1300 light years from Earth. I don't do it justice in this 25 minute exposure - in longer exposures, the wisps of blue nebula stand out in contrast against beautiful dark dust clouds making it resemble an Iris flower. I will definitely revist this stunning object!	Designation: M16 Alternate Name: Eagle Nebula Constellation: Serpens Imaging Date: August 29, 2014 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 79 frames@20sec ~ 26.3min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 7' Comment: The central dark regions have been referred to as the "Pillars of Creation" as imaged by Hubble. This nebula actually does look like an eagle (to me!) with its head to the right and its "wings" extending up and down. Evidence from the Spitzer Telescope suggests that the pillars in M16 may already have been destroyed by a supernova explosion, but we won't actually see the destruction for another 1000 years!

NGC1333	NGC1977	IC434
Designation: NGC1333 Alternate Name: Reflecti n Nebula Constellation: Perseus Imaging Date: November 28, 2022 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 351 frames@180sec ~ 17.5hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 6' x 3' Comment: This is a beautiful reflection nebula in Perseus, part of a vast star forming molecular cloud region called the Perseus Cloud. Many of the small reddish objects are Herbig Haro objects, thought to be caused by collisions between gas clouds and ionized jets of gas emitted by newly forming stars. This is one of my longest exposures yet (almost 18 hours!), needed to bring out the contrast between the colored regions, the dust clouds and the background.	Designation: NGC1977 Alternate Name: Running Man Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: January 13, 2018 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 79 frames@20sec ~ 26.3min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 20' x 20' Comment: This is a diffuse reflection nebula, found along the sword of Orion just north of M42, and is located some 1,460 light-years away. Herbig-Haro 45, an area of protostar formation is visible bottom center, and the main center area is divided by darker lanes of red glowing ionized hydrogen gas which resembles a man or ghost. Most of the scattered blue light is caused by several bright young stars – one of them the bright star 42 Ori - and each only 2 to 4 million years old.	Designation: IC434 Alternate Name: H rsehead Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: December 25, 2012 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 87 frames@30sec ~ 43.5min Gain Setting: ISO 3200 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: Comment: I've wanted to photograph this object for over 30 years, ever since seeing it in Burhnam's Celestial Handbook oh so many years ago. I remember naively looking for it on cold winter nights with what was then my new 8 inch Edmund telescope - always defeated, but never daunted by this wondrous enigmatic object. So here it finally is. Only the Horsehead itself is visible here - even *with* a focal reducer this was the largest FOV I could get. This image consists of a grand total of 43.5 minutes exposure over 3 different nights (the last on Christmas night). Not nearly enough, but I was losing patience with the weather lately and decided to put them all together to get this! I am still not done with it - not by a long shot.

B26,B27,B28,vdB31	M8	NGC6960
Designation: B26,B27,B28,vdB31 Alternate Name: Dark Nebulae Constellation: Auriga Imaging Date: January 8, 2021 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 241 frames@180sec ~ 12.1hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 30' x 17' Comment: This is my very first dark nebula! With over 12 hours of exposure time using my new cooled ASI2600 camera, it's no wonder I hadn't tackled this object before. This is also my first time processing one in Pixinsight - it was especially important to get the DBE to work right. For that I also incorporated flats for the first time into my workflow to try to limit the vignetting and its effect on the DBE process. I'm still struggling with star halos, but hey, making progress. I even used StarNet for the first time to try processing a starless version of this nebula, then adding the stars back in. The result wasn't bad for a my first time...you can get access to that version here. This is actually a set of three dark nebula: B26, B27 and B28, from Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark nebulae. The dark nebulae are all due to the extensive interstellar dust clouds in this region of the sky, which stand out nicely against the background star field. The beautiful blue and yellow reflection nebula is vdB 31, the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog, surrounding the stars AB and SU Aurigae. The hot blue star AB Aurigae is around 470 light years away, which Hubble has shown to be surrounded by a disk of material in the middle of planet formation!	Designation: M8 Alternate Name: Lag n Nebula Constellation: Sagittarius Imaging Date: June 26, 2015 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 68 frames@20sec ~ 22.7min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 90' x 40' Comment: My hue was off slightly after processing, but I liked the more bluish, purplish look, so I left the nebula that way. This a beautiful expanse, rivaling the Orion nebula. I was able to get more subtle detail in this image as compared to last time. Progress!	Designation: NGC6960 Alternate Name: Western Veil Nebula Constellation: Cygnus Imaging Date: June 15, 2012 Imaging Location: Nantucket Exposure Time: 18 frames@30sec ~ 9.0min Gain Setting: ISO 3200 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: Comment: I was surprised how easily you can see the Veil...ok maybe not *that* easily, but still...It is so beautiful to see with your own eyes. A deep sky filter especially pulls it right out!

M17	LDN1235	M42
Designation: M17 Alternate Name: Omega Nebula Constellation: Sagittarius Imaging Date: August 16, 2012 Imaging Location: Gleasondale Exposure Time: 17 frames@30sec ~ 8.5min Gain Setting: ISO 3200 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: Comment: This really *does* look like a swan!	Designation: LDN1235 Alternate Name: Dark Shark Nebula Constellation: Cepheus Imaging Date: August 5, 2022 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 283 frames@180sec ~ 14.1hrs Gain Setting: 100 Imaging Device: ZWO ASI2600 Optics: Classic LX200 12" SCT Focal Reducer: Meade Series 4000 f/6.3 Filter: none Apparent Size: 30' x 40' Comment: Only my second dark nebula, this is a beautiful molecular cloud in Cepheus called the Dark Shark Nebula! Although in this case, it's more like the Dark Shark Head Nebula, as with my 12 inch and focal reducer, I could only fit its head into my frame. This part is actually referred to as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235, about 650 light years distant. A blue reflection nebula known as vdB 150 is also visible on the right. There's something to be said about the right tool for the right job... I had to use over 14h worth of subs to get this image! The problem with these beautiful dark nebulae is they need a high degree of contrast for them to stand out against the dark sky, so small fields of view don't do that well; they also make image processing quite challenging.	Designation: M42 Alternate Name: Ori n Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: February 10, 2014 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 78 frames@20sec ~ 26.0min Gain Setting: ISO 800 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 65' x 60' Comment: Revisiting an old friend! ISO800 and raw frames used this time, with a little better post-processing. Beautiful isn't it?

MilkyWay	M42	M8
Designation: MilkyWay Alternate Name: Sagittarius Star Cl uds Constellation: Sagittarius Imaging Date: June 14, 2012 Imaging Location: Nantucket Exposure Time: 1 frames@33sec ~ 0.6min Gain Setting: ISO 3200 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: 35mm Focal Reducer: none Filter: none Apparent Size: Comment: It's hard to believe this is simply a 35mm camera shot (piggybacked on my Meade of course)! You can make out a number of nebulae and clusters. And who would have thought you'd get such colors? I am so happy that after 30 years of observing the stars, I am still thrilled by views like this!	Designation: M42 Alternate Name: Ori n Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: December 11, 2011 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 1 frames@20sec ~ 0.3min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel XS Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 65' x 60' Comment: One of my first ever digital astrophotos! Amazing what a single 20sec exposure can get you!	Designation: M8 Alternate Name: Lag n Nebula Constellation: Sagittarius Imaging Date: June 14, 2012 Imaging Location: Nantucket Exposure Time: 18 frames@30sec ~ 9.0min Gain Setting: ISO 3200 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel T3i Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 90' x 40' Comment: This is a stunning object to see through a telescope, comparable to the Orion nebula!

M42

Designation: M42 Alternate Name: Ori n Nebula Constellation: Orion Imaging Date: January 28, 2012 Imaging Location: Concord Exposure Time: 30 frames@20sec ~ 10.0min Gain Setting: ISO 1600 Imaging Device: Canon Rebel XS Optics: LX200R 10" SCT Focal Reducer: Optec Lepus 0.62X Filter: none Apparent Size: 65' x 60' Comment: I used to be so proud of this image...my first long exposure deep sky object! My images and technique have improved considerably since then, but it does go to show you how much you can do with almost zero experience and JPG images for stacking! My most recent attemptis somewhat improved.