M106 and Friends (2026)

The highlight of this field is the magnificent spiral galaxy M106, also known as NGC 4258, located some 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It is one of the brightest nearby galaxies and is very large at 135,000 ly across. This galaxy has a rare second pair of spiral arms composed of hot gases rather than stars resulting from a supermassive black hole in the galaxy center. Although the black hole is not visible in my image, part of the red-yellow gas arms are visible emanating from the core. Also visible are blue dense portions on the outer parts of the arms that indicate regions of gas, dust, and star formation. Lots of red hydrogen rich regions are also found streaming out from the core.

Being the last image from my home observatory (The Happy Frog) I wanted to do a large glorious nebula, however, none was available from my location when I started so I decided to zero in M106. I thought I would just crop it and leave it at that. When I started collecting data I discovered a very rich field loaded with many oddly shaped galaxies. Just above M106 is a small irregular galaxy NGC 4248 is part of the same galaxy group as M106. If you go a little further above and left, two tiny galaxies, NGC 4231 and NGC 4232, show quite a bit of structure. The edge-on galaxy NGC 4217 on the upper part of the image has a pronounced dust lane and is located approximately 60 million ly away.

For an extra punch I collected Ha data and did a soft blend to highlight the hydrogen rich regions around the core and arms. I really liked how the LRGB image came out and wanted to preserve some of that original structure when I did the Ha blend.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/qrup6w/?nc=collection&nce=712

M106 and Friends (2026)
Dates: 3-17-26, 3-18, 3-23, 3-28, 4-7, 4-8, 4-9, 4-19, 4-20, 5-4
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7 (f/5.6)
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 135 x 300, L 478 x 90, R 113 x 90, G 96 x 90, B 118 x 90 (00h 00m)
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

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LDN 1622 (2026)

So this is my first image of Lynds' Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 which is a dark molecular cloud located 500 light-years away. It is approximately 10 light-years in diameter and is sometimes referred to as the Boogeyman Nebula because of its resemblance to the mythical creature. It also happens to lie in front of the glowing hydrogen gas of Barnard's Loop in the constellation of Orion. While LDN 1622 is very dark, a contrasting bright reflection nebula, vdB 62, lies to the right of the Boogeyman's head.

There are a couple ways to image this either focusing on the natural colors of this region or blending in the faint red glow from the hydrogen gas collected with a narrowband filter. I did the hydrogen blend method because I not only like the look but also narrowband filters handle light-polluted skies much better. I really like how the dark Boogeyman pops out against the deep red glow of the background hydrogen.

This is most likely my last Nebula Image taken from the Happy Frog Observatory. I would have liked more data but the weather has been unusually cold and snowy. However, I am doing one more image but it was a last minute decision and it's a galaxy. As luck would have it, the camera (ASI 1600) developed a splotch on the sensor for the first time and needed to be cleaned.

Higher Quality:
https://app.astrobin.com/u/kurtzepp?collection=712&i=ax6zcm#collections

LDN 1622 (2026)
Dates: 2-8-26, 2-14, 2-17, 3-4, 3-9, 3-10

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7 (f/5.6)
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, ZWO R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 87 x 300, R 36 x 90, G 45 x 90, B 44 x 90 (10h 22m)
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -20 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

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http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1

Sh2-204 (2026)

So this is my version of the emission nebula Sh2-204 located approximately 12,000 light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It is very large with sizes reported between 250 to 400 light-years across. The predominant gas is hydrogen with a lesser amount of sulfur and an even smaller amount of oxygen - my collection supports this as there did not seem to be any oxygen in any of the subexposures. The region also contains a lot of dust which with a larger field of view makes a nice frame. Unfortunately, my setup was not large enough to get the best parts of the dusty structures.

This is a very faint object and was a challenge (pain in the neck) to process. If you try this lots of data will be required and dark skies will help greatly especially for the dust. My Bortle 5 to 7 sky was a real challenge. I was not having any success bringing out the blue OIII until I used a PixInsight NB combination with RGB script and then it was more processing gymnastics. If I had to do this again from this location I would have done an HaRGB and skipped the SII and OIII.

Higher Quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/6pb6up/?nc=collection&nce=712

Sh2-204 (2026)
Dates: 12-11-25, 12-14, 12-16, 12-17, 12-21, 1-7, 1-8, 1-12, 1-15, 1-19, 1-20, 1-22, 1-23, 2-2, 2-4, 2-5
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7 (f/5.6)
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII, SII, ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 249 x 300, OIII 192 x 300, SII 143 x 300, L 220 x 90, R 95 x 90, G 81 x 90, B 93 x 90  (60h 53m)

Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -20 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

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http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1

IC 1848 & Others (2025)

This is my latest version of the very large emission nebula located approximately 6500 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The designation of IC 1848 actually refers to the open star cluster in the blue portion of the image. The stellar winds of stars in the open cluster(s) are responsible for scalping out openings within the gas and dust. This process leaves behind the sharp edges and dense pillars of star forming regions that point inwards towards the star cluster(s). For some reason the entire nebular complex is nicknamed the Soul Nebula, however, my image only shows one side and consists of LBN 670, LBN 667, LBN 672, and LBN 673.

My favorites are LBN 670 in the upper right and LBN 673 in the bottom center. Each of these regions are about ten light-years long and show sharp details. Also, I did use the relatively new Multiscale Adaptive Stretch (MAS) in PixInsight and worked really well. It is pretty simple and you can adjust elements using easy to use sliders - might want to check it out. Lastly, this also happens to be the last image where all the data I collected was from 2025.

Higher Quality:

https://app.astrobin.com/u/kurtzepp?collection=712&i=idvy0n#collections

IC 1848 & Others (2025)
Dates: 11-13-25, 11-19, 11-20, 11-22, 11-23, 11-24, 11-27, 11-28, 12-6, 12-12
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7 (f/5.6)
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII, SII
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 192 x 300, OIII 174 x 300, SII 186 x 300 (46h 00m)
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GraXpert, Bill Blanshan Color Masks, Bill Blanshan Stretching, Topaz Denoise.

https://www.instagram.com/astroquest1/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1