Deep Sky Astrophotograpy
The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye even from areas affected by light pollution. This image is a stack of 126 two-minute long exposures.
The Leo Triplet is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This image was created from 47 five-minute long exposures. This was taken in my Fort Mill, SC yard January 16, 2026, between 2:30 and 7:00 AM.
The Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula located about 1,375 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Orion.
This amazing scene is called Markarian's Chain. It is a scattering of galaxies that is part of what is called the Virgo Cluster. How many galaxies can you count? This image is compiled from 41 five-minute long exposures.
Messier 81 is also known as Bode's Galaxy. It is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image is compiled from 50 three-minute exposures.
The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant, a nebula from a long ago exploded star, in the constellation of Taurus. It is 6,500 light years from Earth. The image is made up of 63 three-minute exposures.
Caldwell 30 is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 43.79 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. This galaxy is similar in size and structure our home Milky Way galaxy.
You really need darker skies to get the best photos of this ghostly Veil Nebula. It is cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust found in the constellation Cygnus. These East and West portions are what remain from a super nova, or explosion of a star 20 times more massive than the Sun. It is thought to have exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest galaxy to Earth. In dark skies it is visible to the naked eye. Referenced as Messier 31, it is said to have about a 50% chance of colliding with our Milky Way galaxy in the next 10 billion years. (Yikes!!) This is a relatively easy astrophotography target but to get this high quality image under metro Charlotte skies I took over 100 three-minute exposures.