Messier 3 (NGC 5272) stands as one of the finest globular clusters accessible to northern hemisphere imagers, offering both visual splendor and technical challenge. This densely packed stellar sphere in Canes Venatici contains approximately 500,000 stars compressed into a volume roughly 180 light-years across.
Globular Cluster Messier 3: Newton 10" f/4, Atik 460EXM, Exposure Sum 5h10min, 9/2023-12/2025, Fuerfeld, Deutschland
NGC 2264 is one of the most rewarding winter targets for astrophotographers in the northern hemisphere. The designation actually covers a complex of objects: the iconic Christmas Tree Cluster, the Cone Nebula, the Fox Fur Nebula, and the Snowflake Cluster – all embedded in a rich emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. The exposures were done in two nights on 28/29th and 30/31st December 2025. The image is a composit of exposures taken trough H-apha and RGB filters.
NGC 2264, Christmas Tree Cluster, image data: f=1000mm, f/4 Ha: 15x600s RGB: 27, 18, 27x300s Atik 460Exm
The galaxy cluster Abell 2151 in the constellation Hercules, therefore also known as the Hercules cluster, has an extension of approx. 1° and is located at a distance of approx. 500 light years. Unlike other clusters, it has no central galaxy, and contains several interacting galaxy systems. It was first described by Harlow Shapley in 1933.
The Galaxy Cluster Abell 2151 in Constellation Hercules, Telescope Newton f=1000mm f/4, Camera Atik 460Exm, Total Exposure Time 13h30min
NGC 225 is an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is located roughly 2,200 light-years from Earth. It is about 100 to 150 million years old. The binary fraction, or the fraction of stars that are multiple stars, is 0.52. It is also known as sailboat cluster. But what's happening at the top of the mast? The boat is obviously being boarded by an octopus - the more clearer, the longer you expose (or if you drink too much red wine)... Beside the quite nice, probably not so well known star cluster you can see interesting dust clouds and a reflection nebula, which are cataloged as LDN 1291 and LBN 604.
NGC 225, the sailboat cluster in Constellation Cassiopeia, Telescope Newton 10" f/4, Camera Atik 460EXM, Total Exposure Time 11h05min
The Iris nebula is a bright reflecion nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It's appearance is caused by the very hot star HD 200775 in it's centre whose light is partly reflected and partly absorbed by surrounding dust clouds. As can be seen from the labeled image, the dust cloud itself can be found in Lynd's cataologue of dark nebulae as entry LDN 1174. The reflection nebula shines at magnitude +6.8. It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across
NGC 7023 in Constellation Cepheus, Telescope Newton 10" f/4, Camera Atik 460EXM, Total Exposure Time 12h35min
The galaxy Messier 106 (M 106) in the constellation Canes Venatici is one of our closer neighbour galaxies in roughly 23 million light years distance from the Milkyway and the Earth. The galaxy hosts an active nucleus with a black hole of approximately 40 million solar masses. The galaxy core is known as a radio source since the 1950s. Further the galaxy undergoes a period of increased star-formation (starburst galaxy).
Crop of M 106 in Constellation Canes Venatici, Telescope Newton 10" f/4, Camera Atik 460EXM, Total Exposure Time 17h50min
The reflection nebula NGC 1977 in the constellation Orion a slightly north of the Great Orion-Nebula.
Image Data: NGC 1977, the "Running Man Nebula", Telescope Newton 10" f/4, Camera Atik 460EXM, 8x300s per Channel, RGB
In the constellation Auriga on clear winter nights one can find the open cluster NGC 1893 embedded in the emission nebula IC 410. While NGC 1893 can be observed visually using a telescope with proper aperture the faint nebula IC 410 is a real hard case for the visual observer and much easier to catch by photography. Due to some smaller but prominent star formation regions the nebula IC 410 is nicknamed as the "tadpole nebula". IC 410 was discovered on September 25, 1892 by the (german) astronomer Max Wolf (June 21, 1863 - October 3, 1932) while the open cluster NGC 1893 was discovered already earlier on January 22, 1827 by the (british) astronomer John Herschel (Mar 7, 1792 - May 11, 1871).
IC 410 and NGC 1893, camera Atik 460EXmono, optics Lacerta Newton f=1000mm f/4, 2023-02-08, Bad Kreuznach, Germany
What can be seen in the image is what cannot be seen visually through a telescope. The image is presented in false colors resulting from an (amongst astro-photographers widely known) image acquisition technique using narrow band filters.
The comet C/2022 E3 ZTF was recently visible on February, 7th from Bad Kreuznach, Germany, where the nights before were mostly overcast since the beginning of the year 2023. The comet was discovered in March 2022 by a professional wide-field survey observatory, the Zwicky Transient Facility as indicated by its name. The comet passed perihelion (closest approach to sun) on January 12th, 2023 and ran through the perigee (closes approximation to Earth) on February 1st, 2023 when it also reached its maximum apparent brightness of roughly 5 magnitudes. Thus in an urban area it could not be seen by the naked eye the moon being close to full around that date. The following image was captured shortly after the perigee passage on February 7th, 2023 at night.
Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF, 2023-02-07 around 21h UTC, 19x120s RGB, 3x300s RGB for background, setup: Atik 460EXmono, Lacerta Newton 10"f/4, Bad Kreuznach, Germany