I think the images are stunning, an ex work colleague spent a lot of time astrophotography wise and I never got around to producing wall art from them as the large format printers that were local seemed to have shut up shop. I wanted to have the images printed on to fabric and use those on my sound absorbers. Better than the plain finish.
Amazing! I’ll download it if you don’t mind - could you send me a link too please
Here’s another one, taken last night. This is a dark nebula taken without a filter and so not as colourful as the previous one. Again, this is a quick processing and I can probably make it better.
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Nice!
Scope Nights is predicting clear skies tomorrow and Tuesday so I intend to wheel the Askar 71F out and have a go!
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Then don’t just sit there. 
I love the spooky demon on the right of the picture 
Does anyone see a foxes head on the left ?
Here it’s supposed to be good Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night as well. Along with last night, that’s more good nights in one week than in the whole of 2026 so far.
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Indeed!
First light with an even newer toy - Dwarf Labs Dwarf 3 smart telescope.
M42, the Orion Nebula - 144x 15 second exposures stacked and processed in Siril and tweaked in Photoshop:
(click to enlarge)
I am very far from knowing what I am doing in Siril but was happy with this as a first go, starting with a reasonably good set of subs… especially as Orion is dropping quite low in the west now and close to the sun.
I am impressed with the Dwarf 3’s ease of use - an awful lot simpler to get set up and aimed at the target than my “proper” Askar 71F / Skywatcher / ASIAIR combination. But those will come into their own once I get some more practice.
Basically Di and I bought the Dwarf 3 for some instant gratification!
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Second night in a row with clear skies! Whoopee! 
So last night we had a go at M81 and M82 with the Dwarf 3 - Bode’s galaxy* and the Cigar galaxy.
( Discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774)
The tiny galaxy to the lower left is called the Garland galaxy.
(click to enlarge)
Smaller and fainter than the Orion nebula, but again I am impressed with what this little smart scope can do.
(same disclaimer about the lack of competence of the clown doing the image processing… )
ETA: A stack of 129 30 second sub-exposures, edited in Siril and Photoshop).
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The Dwarf 3 is tiny, it’s surprising you can get such good results. As for Siril, do you have the latest version? It has some really good python based tools. Do you use the built in scripts ? If not, they’re much easier to use. If you do, I have some slightly better ones that I did myself based on the built in ones I can give you. I found that processing the image after stacking was a bit of a black art but you may get on with that better being a photographer.
Yes it is - I thought it would just be a fun way to get some quick pictures but I think with the right subject it will do well. Obvs. no closeups of Jupiter!
Yes I do - 1.4.2.
Yes - i used the OSC preprocessing script (without darks etc).
I also have the Veralux scripts and also a couple of the SyQon ones (Prism denoiser and Starless) but haven’t done more that play with them so far.
It certainly is! I have been doing final polishing in Photoshop e.g. Levels adjustment, saturation, denoise and sharpening as I am more familiar with the way those things work in PS than in Siril.
Astonishingly we have now had three clear nights in a row here in Sud-Angleterre - quite remarkable.
Last night’s target with the Dwarf 3 was the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros - a somewhat more challenging object I think but the tiny scope did well.
This composite is from 129 30-second exposures - I found it a bit tricky to edit, and suspect the result would have been less grainy and more detailed with more exposures in the stack…
(click to enlarge)
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Another good image from a pint sized telescope. Unfortunately, all these targets start a bit lower in the sky for me and I can’t really get more than around 1 to 1.5 hours of light although you did only an hour so I may try one tonight. It looks as though I may have another two nights before the weather turns. I see the Dwarf 3 has built in filters. Didi you use any of them yet ?
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Yes I used the dual narrow-band filter on the Orion and Rosette nebulae. It seemed to be a good idea, given that it’s built-in!
Being an hour behind compared to France has its advantages as we started imaging at about 8.40pm BST.
Orion is definitely on the way out now. Bode and the Cigar are nice and high though.
With hindsight I should have left the scope running for another hour or so last night. But I am gradually learning! The Dwarf setup is so quick it’s ridiculous. But I will get the Askar 71F out next time we have a clear night and try and get some results with that, especially on M81/82.
Have a look at LNB 744 and SH 2-221. They look pretty good in Stellarium and are about the same elevation as the Jellyfish Nebula and higher than Orion. I’m going to try 2 hours with the jellyfish tonight or maybe LBN 744.
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Very impressive results
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Thank you!
Is there another designation for LNB 744? I can’t find that in Stellarium, or Google.
SH 2-221 shows up in Stellarium but may be tricky for me as my view to the West is blocked by trees.
Thank you! I hope to do better with more practice.
Yes indeed … LBN 744 . My misspelling.
It’s actually next door to SH 2-221.
Probably both a bit dimmer than Rosette Nebula, but I haven’t checked.
OK VG - one for the future then probably, unless I drive out to a different location one night.
My garden is surrounded by trees with gaps to the south, north and east, so I am somewhat hampered if objects are not high up.