The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a bright emission nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. This is a bit of a closeup but the entire nebula is roughly spherical and is energized by the bright star a little above the “trunk” in this picture.
This was shot with my 11″ SCT at f/1.9 with an L-Extreme F2 filter and an ASI2600MC Pro for a total of 137 minutes from the River Ridge Observatory.
The Lobster Nebula is a diffuse Hydrogen Alpha (red light) nebula in the constellation of Scorpius. This was shot with my 11″ SCT at f/1.9 with an L-Extreme F2 filter and an ASI2600MC Pro. It was the last item on my list for the night and as such I only got 45 minutes of total exposure from the River Ridge Observatory. Even so, there’s enough to see how it got it’s nick name.
On the morning of July 20, 2025 the Moon passed through the Pleiades star cluster, perhaps the second closest such cluster to the solar system. It was a slow motion event, each frame here was separated by 30 seconds and I captured about an hour and 45 minutes of footage, all in 22 seconds. I got a little dew on the lens toward the end as I forgot a dew heater strap.
