Deep Space Gallery Details

M16 Eagle Nebula – The Pillars of Creation

This image reveals the famous “Pillars of Creation”, towering columns of gas and dust inside the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16), about 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens. Each pillar spans over 4 light-years in length — a distance so vast that even light would take more than 4 years to travel from base to top. These structures are shaped by powerful stellar winds and UV radiation, as new stars form deep within. This rendition was processed in a normalized SHO palette inspired by the Foraxx scheme, using ~8 hours of narrowband data collected over two nights with L-Para and Askar C2 filters.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 March 7th | Total exposure 6h 20min (95x 240″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-Para filter + Askar Colour Magic C2

IC 1805 Heart Nebula & IC 1795 Fish Head

The Heart Nebula (IC 1805), located about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, is a vast region of ionized gas and dust powered by the young open cluster Melotte 15. The cluster’s massive stars generate intense radiation and stellar winds, carving out intricate pillars and dark structures within the glowing hydrogen clouds. Just next to it lies the Fish Head Nebula (IC 1795), a smaller emission nebula that appears to swim beside the cosmic heart. This image blends data from two dual-band filters (Optolong L-Para and Askar Color Magic C2) for a total of 17 hours of integration, processed in the Foraxx palette to reveal the interplay between hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur emissions.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 August | Total exposure 17h (10h L-Para + 7h C2)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon + Starizona Nexus 0.75x (f/3, 600mm)
📷 ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Filters: Optolong L-Para & Askar C2
🖥️ Processing: PixInsight + Photoshop

LDN1235 – The Dark Shark Nebula

This image shows LDN1235, better known as the Dark Shark Nebula, a dark nebula located in the constellation Cepheus at roughly 650 light-years from Earth. It is made of interstellar dust clouds that do not emit light on their own, but rather block and reflect the light of nearby stars, creating the striking silhouette of a shark swimming through the Milky Way. Capturing LDN1235 is a real challenge: its signal is extremely faint and easily merges into the sky background. This image integrates about 4 hours in broadband using the Optolong L-QEF filter. Thanks to the Starizona Nexus reducer, the telescope was pushed to f/3, making data collection faster but also more demanding in processing, especially when balancing gradients and preserving faint dust structures.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 August 23th | Total exposure 4h (60x 240″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon + Starizona Nexus 0.75x | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-QEF

LDN43 – The Cosmic Bat Nebula

This image captures LDN43, a dark nebula located in the constellation Ophiuchus, roughly 500 light-years from Earth. Unlike emission or reflection nebulae, dark nebulae like this one don’t shine — they are dense clouds of dust that absorb the light of background stars, forming intricate silhouettes across the Milky Way. In this case, the shape evokes the wings of a bat, earning it the nickname “Batman Nebula.” Despite its dramatic form, LDN43 is a very challenging target from mid-latitude locations. From Foppolo (Bortle 4), its low altitude places it deep into the light dome of the Po Valley, making contrast and detail extremely hard to extract. This image was acquired over two nights for a total integration of ~8 hours, using an Optolong L-QEF filter to enhance contrast in broadband under a modestly dark sky.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 June 25th | Total exposure 8h 20min (125x 240″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-QEF

NGC 2237 (Rosette Nebula)

The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Monoceros, about 5,200 light-years away, with a diameter of over 130 light-years. This image is the result of 86 exposures of 300” each, captured using the Optolong L-Para filter and processed with the Foraxx palette, a technique that dynamically enhances the Ha and OIII spectral bands.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 March 7th | Total exposure 7h 10min (86x 300″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-Para filter

Barnard 33 & NGC 2024 (Horsehead and Flame Nebulae)

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) and Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) form one of the most iconic deep-sky pairings in the constellation Orion, approximately 1,375 light-years away. The Horsehead Nebula, a striking dark silhouette against the glowing red background of ionized hydrogen, is a dense cloud of dust and gas that blocks the light from the bright emission nebula behind it. Its distinctive shape, resembling a horse’s head, is sculpted by powerful stellar winds and radiation from nearby massive stars. Adjacent to it, the Flame Nebula is illuminated by the energetic star Alnitak, the leftmost star of Orion’s Belt. This star emits intense ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas, causing it to glow in vibrant shades of orange and red. Intricate dark dust lanes crisscross the nebula, adding depth and contrast to the scene. This image captures the delicate interplay of light and shadow, revealing the complex structures hidden within these celestial formations.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 January 5th | Total exposure 3h 20min (60x 200″)
🔭 Sony A7 III Astro mod (Super UV-IR cut) | Sony 200-600 | Optolong L-Pro filter | Star Adventurer GTI

NGC 2264 (Cone and Fox Fur Nebulae)

NGC 2264 is a nebular complex in the constellation Monoceros, located about 2,700 light-years away. It includes the Cone Nebula, a striking column of gas and dust approximately 7 light-years long, and the Fox Fur Nebula, characterized by intricate filamentary structures. This image was obtained by integrating 100 exposures of 180” each using the Optolong L-Para filter and processed with the HOO palette, which assigns hydrogen-alpha (Ha) to the red channel and doubly ionized oxygen (OIII) to green and blue, producing the characteristic red-blue hues.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 February 14th | Total exposure 5h (100x 180″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-Para filter

M42 (The GREAT Orion Nebula)

The Orion Nebula (M42) is one of the brightest and most famous nebulae in the night sky, located in the Orion constellation at a distance of about 1,344 light-years. The final image results from a total of 8 hours of integration, combining 120” exposures to capture the faintest details of the nebula and shorter 15” exposures to preserve the bright Trapezium region, using HDR processing.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2024 December 26th → 28th | Total exposure 8h 7min (HDR = 240x 120″ + 30x 15″)
🔭 Sony A7 III Astro mod (Super UV-IR cut) | Sony 200-600 | Optolong L-Pro filter | Star Adventurer GTI

IC 63 (Ghost of Cassiopeia)

IC 63, also known as the Ghost of Cassiopeia, is a faint emission and reflection nebula located roughly 550 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is illuminated by the nearby bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae, whose intense radiation excites the surrounding hydrogen gas, causing it to glow in red (Hα), while scattered starlight produces a bluish reflection component. This image was captured using narrowband filters to enhance the nebular structure and suppress light pollution, and processed with a bi-color palette to highlight the delicate interplay between Hα and OIII emissions.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 May 24th | Total exposure 5h (75x 240″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-QEF

C33 & C34 – The Veil Nebula

C33 and C34 are two of the brightest and most iconic regions of the Veil Nebula, a large supernova remnant located in the constellation Cygnus, approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth. These two structures, commonly known as the Eastern Veil (C33) and Western Veil (C34), are the expanding shock fronts of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago. The original star, once many times the mass of our Sun, ended its life in a supernova — a powerful and catastrophic explosion that occurs when a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel. This event released an immense amount of energy, blowing the star’s outer layers into space and forming the delicate and filamentary structures we observe today. The spectacular colors in images of C33 and C34 are not artificial — they are caused by ionized gases glowing in the aftermath of the explosion. The red hues come from hydrogen-alpha (Ha) emission, where hydrogen atoms are excited and re-emit energy as red light. The blue-green tones are due to doubly ionized oxygen (OIII), which emits light in a different part of the spectrum when struck by high-energy particles. These ionization processes are driven by the fast-moving shockwave from the supernova interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium. The resulting emission lines provide astronomers with crucial insights into the composition, temperature, and density of the nebula. Between the Eastern and Western Veil lies another remarkable structure: Pickering’s Triangle, often overlooked but equally rich in detail. Though it was first photographed by Williamina Fleming, it was credited to Edward Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory — hence the name. All three regions — the Eastern Veil (C33), Pickering’s Triangle, and the Western Veil (C34) — are physically connected, forming a vast, loop-like structure that spans nearly 3 degrees in the sky — about six times the diameter of the full Moon.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 May 30th | Total exposure 5h 20min (80x 240″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 + Starizona Nexus 0.75x | ZWO ASI 2600 MC PRO | Optolong L-Para 2″ | ZWO AM5

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 May 31th | Total exposure 5h 20min (80x 240″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 + Starizona Nexus 0.75x | ZWO ASI 2600 MC PRO | Optolong L-Para 2″ | ZWO AM5

Leo Triplet (Three Galaxies, One Cosmic Dance)

This image captures the Leo Triplet, a stunning group of three interacting spiral galaxies — M65, M66, and NGC 3628 — located about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Each galaxy showcases unique features: tightly wound arms, distorted halos, and tidal tails hinting at their gravitational interactions over cosmic timescales. Despite their vast size and distance, all three galaxies fit within a single wide-field view, offering a rare glimpse into the dynamic architecture of our universe.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 March 21th | Total exposure 3h 45min (45x 300″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-QEF filter

Bode’s Galaxy (M81), the Cigar (M82), and the Whisper of the Cosmos

M81 (Bode’s Galaxy) and M82 (the Cigar Galaxy) form one of the most iconic galactic pairs in the night sky, located about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Surrounding them is the faint, ethereal glow of the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN), a delicate web of interstellar dust illuminated by the combined light of our Milky Way. This deep exposure reveals both the dynamic interaction between the two galaxies and the subtle, ancient structures that permeate the space around us.

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📍 Foppolo (BG, Italy) | 2025 April 25th | Total exposure 4h (80x 180″)
🔭 Tecnosky 200/800 Carbon | ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro | ZWO AM5 mount | Optolong L-QEF filter