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Robert Helios

@helios_nebula

4.4K

followers

6640

following

Amateur astrophotographer
🔭 Tecnosky 115 APO (640mm f/5.6)
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
🔭 ZWO OAG guiding
📷 Player One Ares-C Pro
📷 ZWO 220MM Mini

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

The Bubble Nebula and the Lobster Claw Nebula in Cassiopeia

The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) is a shell of gas blown outward by the stellar wind of a single massive young star, about 40 times the mass of our Sun. The bubble is roughly 7 light years across and sits about 7,000 to 8,000 light years from Earth. The star isn’t in the center of the bubble, which is why one side looks brighter and denser than the other.

Just next to it is the Lobster Claw Nebula (Sh2 157), a large emission nebula of glowing hydrogen whose curved shape looks like a claw reaching across the frame. Both are part of the same busy star-forming region in the Milky Way.

🔭 Telescope: @williamoptics GT81
📷 Camera: @zwoasi ASI533MC Pro
🎨 Filter: @optolong_official L’eXtreme
⚙️ Mount: @skywatcher HEQ5
⏱️ Integration: 15 hours (300 x 180s lights)
🚫 No calibration frames

✨🌌🔭

#astrophotography #astronomy #space #nebula #universe

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Full Mineral Harvest Moon, captured on the morning of 27 September 2026 (a 2-panel mosaic)

High resolution version coming to my website soon! Link in bio!
(www.CVZastro.com)

Bortle 5

My setup:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R
📸 ZWO ASI2600MC AIR
🌌 No filters

#astro #astrophotography #deepspace #astronomy #youresa

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We had 3 clear(ish) nights in a row in the Netherlands! Also the nights start to become longer so I could gather quiet some data during these nights. I decided to go for the eastern veil nebula. I love the veil nebula and this part of it fits my FOV exactly 😎✌️

Collected 18 hours of data over 3 nights. It's the first time I captured the feinter outer Ha glow, so I'm happy that worked, but I think I can still get more detail out of that part. That's for next time 😅

🔭 @williamoptics GT81
📸 @zwoasi 533mc
💿 @optolongfilter l'extreme

180" subs for lights
No calibration frames

📸
🌌
🪐

#astro #nasa #astronomy #astrophotography #space

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Full Mineral Harvest Moon, captured on the morning of 27 September 2026 (a 2-panel mosaic)

High resolution version coming to my website soon! Link in bio!
(www.CVZastro.com)

Bortle 5

My setup:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R
📸 ZWO ASI2600MC AIR
🌌 No filters

#astro #astrophotography #deepspace #astronomy #youresa

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Here is my take on the partial solar eclipse on the 12th of August 2026. All 3 images were taken at different exposures

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Exposure: 1/100 - 1/320 1/640
ISO: 800
F-Ratio: F6.3
Focal Length: 600mm

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📸Nikon D5600

🔭Tamron 150-600mm G2

#solar #solareclipse2026 #sunset #sun #eclipse @tamronnederland @nikonnl @nikoneurope

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Messier 8, 20 and 21
The Lagoon Nebula, Trifid Nebula and Webb's Cross
In HaOiiiRGB

New prints available on my website! Link in my bio!
(www.CVZastro.com)

I have always wanted to photograph these beautiful objects, and I finally had the time to visit a location with an incredible southern view. To combine the Ha and OIII data with the RGB data, I used the continuum subtraction method in PixInsight✨

Bortle 5

Optolong UV/IR Cut lights:
4hr 40min
140x 120sec

Optolong L-eNhance Lights:
2hr 30min
50x 180sec

Calibration frames for each night:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

My setup:
🔭 William Optics Redcat 51 MK2.5
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R
📸 ZWO ASI533MC Pro
🌌 Optolong UV/IR Cut & L-eNhance

#astro #astrophotography #space #astronomy #youresa

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The Leo Triplet Deep Field with the tidal tail of NGC 3628
Total exposure time: 60 hours and 3 minutes! Captured during 18 nights in April and May✨

>>Swipe right to see every single galaxy in the entire Deep Field inage!>>

At the end of 2024, I upgraded to an Askar 103APO, finally giving me enough focal length to seriously focus on galaxies during galaxy season. After a successful galaxy season in 2025, I wanted to focus on just one group of galaxies in 2026. Which resulted in my longest project till date. The Leo Triplet was also the Sterrenstof podcast Deep-sky tip of the month April, it really was the best moment to start this project!

After discovering that NGC 3628 possesses a gigantic tidal tail, I set myself an ambitious goal: collect 60 hours of data and reveal not only the tidal tail, but also the faint stellar halos surrounding the galaxies and as many distant background galaxies as possible.

Over 18 clear nights I captured more than 80-85 hours of data, ultimately selecting exactly 60 hours and 3 minutes of the highest quality exposures. The final image reveals the three galaxies of the Leo Triplet surrounded with the tidal tail and extended halos, and countless distant galaxies scattered across the field.

One of my favorite details is that a galaxy identification script in Pixinsight was able to identify 548 galaxies in this image. It is amazing to think that all of them are visible in a single fov captured from my balcony in the Netherlands.

Bortle 5

Optolong UV/IR Cut lights:
60hr 3min
1201x 180sec

Calibration frames (for each night):
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

My setup:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R
📸 ZWO ASI2600MC AIR
🌌 Optolong UV/IR Cut 2"
@skywatcherusa @optolongfilter @zwoasi @sharpstaroptics

#astro #astrophotography #deepspace #astronomy #youresa

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NASA vs My Telescope (part 6)✨
Follow for more!

Featuring the following objects:
IC 410 - The Tadpole Nebula
Messier 1 - The Crab Nebula
Messier 32 - The Dwarf Compact Elliptical Galaxy of Andromeda
Messier 11 - The Wild Duck Cluster

Poll: Would you like to see more parts of NASA vs My Telescope?

#Astronomy #nasa #astrophotography #youresa #space

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Caldwell 49/50 - The Rosette Nebula in SHO
Reprocessed with a different SHO colour palette!✨

Old description:
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the Rosette Nebula, and after 14.5 hours of total exposure time, I think I’m finally done with it. For this image, I used two dual-band filters, which makes it possible for astrophotographers like me to create an image with a color camera that captures hydrogen-alpha (Ha), oxygen III (OIII), and sulfur II (SII). The result is this SHO image.

I expect I’ll revisit and reprocess this data quite a few times, since SHO offers so many possibilities when it comes to color variations. In this version, I gave Ha a yellow tone with a slight touch of green, but in the future I’d also like to create a version where Ha retains a somewhat greener tint.

The Rosette Nebula is a nebula in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn) and is known as a stellar nursery. Stars are born here from the gas and dust within the nebula, which is clearly visible in the cluster of young stars in the open star cluster at its center, NGC 2244. Another interesting feature of this nebula is the band of dark, compact molecular dust and gas clouds that have not yet been fully dispersed by the intense radiation from the young stars. If you look closely, the structures in this band resemble animals. One looks a bit like an elephant, and another like a donkey!

Bortle 5

Optolong L-eXtreme lights:
8hr 15min
99x 300sec

Optolong L-Synergy lights:
6hr 15 min
75x 300sec

Calibration frames (for each night):
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats

My setup:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R
📸 ZWO ASI2600MC AIR
🌌 Optolong L-eXtreme & L-Synergy
@skywatcherusa @optolongfilter @zwoasi @sharpstaroptics

#astro #astrophotography #deepspace #astronomy #youresa

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NASA vs My Telescope (part 4)✨
Follow for more!!

Featuring the following objects:
Messier 84 - Elliptical Galacy in Virgo
Messier 64 - The Black eye Galaxy
Messier 13 - The Great Hercules Cluster
Messier 33 - The Triangulum Galaxy

#Astronomy #nasa #astrophotography #youresa #space

2k

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The observatory I am a member of, Stichting Sterrenwacht Saturnus, has recently acquired a new RC 20 telescope with a focal length of 4000 mm and a mirror diameter of 500 mm. And of course we've been eager to do some astrophotography with it!

These are the first sets of images taken with this setup, showing the Moon. One captures the Archimedes crater, and the other the Aristarchus crater. From all the frames, I stacked the best 20%.

The photos were taken by chairman and fellow astrophotographer Paul Volman and processed by myself!

And yes, we have a mono deep-sky camera with filters SiiHaOiiiRGB filters👀

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Galaxies of the Messier Catalog✨
217 hours and 19 minutes of exposure time

I have been working on photographing the entire Messier Catalog for about a year as a major project, and before completing it, I wanted to create a collage of the galaxies. This collage contains over 217 hours of combined exposure time and is composed of some of my larger projects.

Each of these images tells a story, from capturing the data to sharing the final results with my family and friends, and I have enjoyed every second of it. I hope you like it as much as I do

Bortle 5

The setup I used for this collage
🔭Askar 103APO
⚙️Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
📸ZWO ASI2600MC Air
🔮Optolong L-Pro, L-eNhance & UV/IR Cut

#astro #astrohotography #youresa #astronomy #cosmos

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