From 8 Minutes to 157 Hours: One Year of Deep-Sky Imaging success with the DWARF 3
M51 was the first target with the Dwarf 3. August 2025, Alt-Az mode, 8 minutes and 30 seconds of 15-second subs on a galaxy low in the summer sky. The telescope was…
Bortle 6
Posts from imaging sessions conducted under Bortle class 6 skies, a suburban sky condition where the Milky Way is visible but washed out and sky glow is prominent on the horizon.
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Trifid Nebula M20: A Warm-Up Session Low in the Sagittarius Steam
I didn’t go into the July 16 session expecting a keeper. The Trifid nebula was more of a question than a plan: what does the DWARF 3 actually do with a target…
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Iris Nebula NGC 7023: Six Hours of Blue Light With No Duo-Band Shortcut Available
The iris nebula (NGC 7023) is a reflection nebula, not an emission nebula. The distinction isn’t cosmetic. An emission nebula like the Eagle or the Clamshell glows because ultraviolet radiation from nearby…
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Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, Captured with the DWARF 3
Antares and Rho Ophiuchi never gets high from a New England backyard. At roughly 42 degrees north latitude, the star tops out somewhere around 20 to 30 degrees above the southern horizon…
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East and West Veil Nebula with the DWARF 3: Cygnus’s Glowing Lace, Ten Thousand Years in the Making
The Veil Nebula is light that left its source somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, and it’s still arriving as some of the finest, most delicate filament structure in the sky.…
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Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396) with the DWARF 3: 5 Hours on a Star-Forming Globule
The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, IC1396, is a dark cloud with dozens of new stars condensing inside it right now, lit along one edge by a neighboring star system bright enough to set…
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Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) with the DWARF 3: 13 Hours on One of the Rarest Light Shows in the Sky
The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, is a shell of glowing gas being shaped right now by a star passing through one of the shortest, rarest stages in a massive star’s life, and…
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Borrowed Light: Capturing M78 Nebula with the DWARF 3
What You Will Learn In this post I share my February 2026 DWARF 3 image of M78 nebula (aka the friendly ghost nebula), a reflection nebula in Orion. I cover what makes…
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I Pointed an iPhone 17 Pro at the Moon Through a NexStar 8SE. Here Is What Came Back.
Most people assume that serious lunar or moon photography requires a dedicated astronomy camera, a laptop running capture software, and a workflow that takes more time to set up than the session…