A rotating selection of astrophotography from my observatory – galaxies, nebulae, clusters, and the occasional special event. Ten images at a time, refreshed every week, drawn from a growing archive of 56.
I recently purchased a Seestar S30 Pro from BINTEL here in Sydney – my best buy for a long time. It has been a lot of fun imaging the Southern skies using only the Seestar and my iPad. This is a great way for someone to start imaging stellar objects; it is not a replacement for visual astronomy, but if you want to start on the road to imaging this is a simple way to do it.
The Sun 2026-06-24Our nearest star dominates the frame in this solar image, its surface roiling with activity. The Sun displays a landscape of granulation—the convective cells that churn beneath its photosphere—alongside darker sunspots where intense magnetic fields suppress the outflow of heat. Wisps of plasma hang above the limb in delicate loops, held aloft by invisible magnetic architecture. This raw, detailed portrait reveals why ancient cultures recognised the Sun as divine: it is genuinely wondrous, a seething ball of nuclear fusion that makes all earthly life possible. Such images remind us that the familiar yellow disc in our daytime sky is in fact a dynamic, violent furnace undergoing constant transformation.25-inch DobsonianThis is my recently acquired 25-inch Dobsonian telescope F5 so a big dob, I have called it Vidar, because I am danish and because in myth, he’s the one who stands slightly apart, observing, waiting, and then doing what must be done with absolute precision. So far I have only fallen off the ladder I use to reach the eyepiece once. Lots of blood but the views are amazing. I will be building a dedicated housing for the DOB so I dont have to keep dragging it out.NGC 6357NGC 6357 is an emission nebula in Scorpius, a stellar nursery where hot young stars illuminate surrounding clouds of hydrogen gas. The nebula glows with characteristic red light as ultraviolet radiation from massive newborn stars ionises the hydrogen, creating the ethereal pink and crimson hues visible here. Dense dark patches of dust obscure parts of the nebula's interior, marking regions where stars are still forming within collapsing molecular clouds. This contrast between brilliant ionised gas and opaque dust reveals the nebula's structure in striking detail, offering a window into the violent and creative process of stellar birth.Pillars Of CreationNGC6744 GalaxyNGC 6744 sits in the constellation Pavo, the Peacock, and is a spiral galaxy viewed almost face-on from Earth. Its sweeping arms of dust and star-forming regions curl outward in a graceful pinwheel pattern, with a bright central bulge anchoring the whole structure. Though often overlooked in favour of more famous spirals, this galaxy rivals the Milky Way in grandeur—a reminder that countless island universes populate the cosmos, each one containing billions of stars. The dust lanes that trace the spiral arms appear dark against the brighter stellar regions, revealing the galaxy's three-dimensional architecture and the ongoing cycle of stellar birth and death within its disk.Omega Centauri Globular ClusterOmega Centauri is the brightest globular cluster visible from Earth, a vast sphere of hundreds of thousands of stars orbiting the Milky Way's halo. Located in the constellation Centaurus, it appears as a luminous, tightly-packed swarm that resolves into individual pinpoints of light when viewed through a telescope. Unlike looser star clusters, globular clusters represent some of the oldest structures in our galaxy, their densely-packed cores a dramatic contrast to the sparse regions of space surrounding them. For naked-eye observers in the Southern Hemisphere, Omega Centauri is unmissable—a jewelled smudge against the dark sky that hints at the profound scale of stellar systems orbiting our own.M4 and AntaresMessier 4 sprawls across the southern reaches of Scorpius, nestled close enough to the brilliant star Antares to share the same telescopic field of view. This globular cluster contains tens of thousands of stars packed into a sphere, yet it wears its crowding loosely—the outer stars remain distinct enough to resolve individually, giving it a grainy, almost porous appearance compared to denser neighbours. Its proximity to Earth and relatively loose structure make it one of the most rewarding globular clusters to explore through modest equipment. The ruddy giant Antares, which lends its name to the scorpion's heart, provides a striking colour contrast: where Antares burns orange-red, the ancient stars of M4 shimmer in cooler tones, a reminder that this cluster has been circling the galactic centre since before our Sun was born.M16 ColourThe Eagle Nebula spreads across Serpens, a sprawling stellar nursery where dust and gas swirl around newborn stars. Its most famous feature—the Pillars of Creation—rises like dark towers against the glowing emission of hydrogen gas. These towering columns are stellar maternity wards where gravity is slowly sculpting new suns from the surrounding nebular material. The deep crimson hue reveals hydrogen emission, whilst green and blue trace the light of oxygen. The whole scene sits a few thousand light-years away, yet remains accessible to amateur telescopes and shows how turbulent and creative the cosmos truly is.M20 The Trifid nebula S30The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius wears its name honestly—a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas carved into three lobes by dark dust lanes that run through its heart like scars. This stellar nursery blazes with the light of young, hot stars embedded within it, their ultraviolet radiation exciting the surrounding gas into brilliant red and blue hues. The contrast between the dark, dense filaments and the luminous ionised regions creates a striking visual drama. Visible with binoculars under dark skies, the Trifid rewards telescopes with its intricate structure, revealing why it remains one of the most beloved targets for both casual stargazers and astrophotographers seeking to capture the raw, chaotic beauty of star formation.NGC 1365 Great Barred SpiralNGC 1365, the Great Barred Spiral in Fornax, ranks among the finest examples of its kind—a galaxy whose architecture is laid bare across the night sky. The dominant bar of stars and dust stretches across the galactic centre with striking clarity, funnelling material inward and sculpting the spiral arms that unfold like a cosmic whirlpool. The warm amber and cream tones reveal the galaxy's stellar populations, whilst dust lanes carve dark threads through the structure. Such barred spirals fascinate astronomers because the bar's gravity actively shapes how the galaxy evolves, driving gas toward the core and fuelling star formation in unexpected ways. From the Southern Hemisphere, this galaxy offers a portrait of gravitational architecture at work.
Australian amateur astronomers have spent years at Ice in Space – it's been home for many of us. Worth a look if you're starting out, or already deep in it.
