****PLEASE READ****PLEASE READ**** *****RE-INTRODUCTION***** Been a while since I posted an introduction and new pic of me. Sorry internet. Old and ugly, as promised. First my name REALLY is Ray. Second ALL the images here are my own work and NEVER AI. Ok, A little about the guy in the picture. I JUST turned 60 on May 6th, 2026. I'm an honorably discharged, decorated veteran. I served 10 years in the US Air Force as an aircraft crew chief for 3 years and a combat arms instructor for the remaining 7. I'm an expert marksman and still hit the range several times a month to keep in practice. I'll post targets now and then. I served 7 years in the US Border Patrol then as a civilian combat arms instructor for the Air Force. My photography has always been a hobby. NOT INTERESTED IN NFTs. Terrestrial photography is ALWAYS of nature. I TRY not to get ANY humanity in my pictures. No, I'm not a fan of humanity. I'm the guy that roots for the asteroid! I'll be there with a baseball mitt on to try to catch it. LOL Wildlife, landscapes and weather are primarily what I focus on. The instruments I use are a Canon EOS t7 with basic kit lenses, DJI Mini 2 & 3 Drones, and a GoPro Hero 13. My Astrophotography is my true passion. Since childhood I have been fascinated by Astronomy. I ALWAYS wanted to take pictures like the ones I saw in Astronomy, Science News, and Sky & Telescope Magazines. Back in 2011, I was FINALLY able to get the gear I needed to do BASIC Astrophotography. Now, I am fulfilling that dream and sharing it here. My main scope is a Williams Optics Red Cat 51 Gen 3. (Scope in pic with ugly old man) Politics. Ugh! I have VERY strong opinions. THIS site is not about that for me. It is about photography. I don't care what side you are on, what you identify as or who you vote for. I will NOT engage in political debate here. Anyone that tries will be immediately blocked whether you are on my side or not. PLEASE, if any of you feel I am being political, let me know and I will correct that behavior. Thanks for sticking around to read the ramblings of a strange, ugly old man. This is who I am and I'm too damned old to care or change.

Again, I don't want to get you all sick of seeing the same image BUT after posting the "Showing my work" image I felt I SHOULD post the end result. Good news is I think I'm done with this until I get more data.

Just showing my work. LOL

Ok, must have been half asleep when I processed this last time. I uploaded the first image as my latest Spaghetti Nebula. It WAS. BUT tonight, as I shoot new calibration subs, I took it back into Pixinsight and gave it another go. The second image is what I came up with. MUCH better!

WooHoo. Best Polar alignment yet!

I'm sure you are all sick of this so this will be the final. 146 X 5-minute subs. Kind of tricky to process for the darker nebulosity. If you zoom all the way, on the bottom center of the image, I found another anomaly that is an edge on galaxy! VERY small and hard to spot right on the bottom edge of the image.

Ok, two points post. FIRST, wanted to give you an idea of what you are seeing. SECOND I did a "cleaner" stack of the M-45 Image. Looks better now. The first image is what you would see with the naked eye or through binoculars. The second is what is REALLY there.

M-45, The Pleiades. 108 X 5-minute subs (about 9 hours). Just a UV/IR filter. Red Cat 51 Gen 2 scope. ZWO ASI533MC Camera. Still need about 30 to 50 more subs to work on the dimmer, darker nebula. Full view for fine details.

Night shots…….. Drop them if you got em’ 📸 Well, it IS a night shot. LOL

This is kind of cool. Turns out that anomaly I spotted in my image a couple posts ago is the Supernova Remnant Cassiopia A. Did not even know it was there. LOL Here is a VERY cropped image of it. It is the object on the lower right in the image. Happy accident.

Just playing. VERY rough stack of 33 X 5-minute subs. VERY limited time to shoot this due to trees! Going to add MUCH more data over the next few nights.

Put it all together. 39 X 10 min L-Ultimate (HA), 37 X 10 Min OIII/SII from tonight. First image is JUST the Ha. Second is the combined with OIII added. Sh2-157 Lobster Claw Nebula. Scope: Red Cat 51. Camera ZWO ASI 533MC Pro. Mount: ZWO AM5. Filters Optolong L-Ultimate 2" and SVBONY OIII/SII 2".

Ok, have an anomaly. FULL-View this image. Lower right I put cross hairs on an object. I found it in other images on Astrobin but no label. The second image is a cropped close up of the anomaly. Tried every catalog and can't seem to find it. Any help???

Here is a rough stack of the Ha from last night. 39 X 10-minute subs. Tonight OIII/SII data! THAT is the entire reason I'm doing this. That last Bubble Nebula image really showed a lot of OIII data here. Can't wait to see what happens.

Today’s photo theme is: CIRCLE I’ll join with this one: A bunch of circles. LOL All imaged withe the 8" Celestron SCT.

Ok, here is an update to my SH2-240 Spaghetti Nebula project for my 100th image in Astrobin. This is only 13.8 hours of data both Ha and OIII 59 X 10-minute subs with the Ultimate, 23 X 10-minute subs OIII combined so PLEASE be a little lenient! LOL

post a photo you took… that you LOVE ❤️

As I'm imaging tonight. I took the time to re-process the Garlic. I wasn't happy with how forced it looked. First image is the first one I processed and the second is from tonight. VERY happy with it as it looks more "natural".

Ok, here is the results from last night. NGC-7635, the Bubble Nebula. I must say I am VERY happy with them. First image is from last year. 305 X 120 Seconds with the L-Ultimate. Second image is that same data with 30 X 10-minute subs with the OIII/SII filter from last night. I'm actually MORE interested in re-shooting the Lobster Claw Nebula after seeing this!! (Lower left)

Another look behind the mirror. This is my imaging night set up. Kind of nice sitting in the house with the scope outside. That little screen below the big computer is a security cam on the scope in the yard. Yes, a 60 yo man playing Fallout 4!!!

A look behind the mirror. This is a sub from my LBN-576 project. Notice you can't even see the nebulosity. That comes later with the stack. This just shows how the equipment is functioning and it's not looking to bad. LOL This is what I stare at all night when I am making an image.