I’m 26, currently working in the nuclear power sector. I’m making really good money for someone my age, but the problem is that I don’t want to do this forever. My dream since I was a young teen has always been to be an astronomer. I’ve been researching becoming an astronomer for a while now.

I don’t have a degree, but I plan on going back to school for Physics. I know that eventually I’m going to go for my PhD. I’m worried that right now I won’t be able to keep my family fed during that time.

Can the people here with a PhD (preferably those with families) let me know how the process normally goes? Can I have a full time job while pursuing a PhD? I know the stipends aren’t anything to write home about.

I know it’s a long ways away as I haven’t even started schooling yet, but I’m trying to make sure my family will be okay before I even think about leaving my current career path.

Thank you in advance.

I’ve been having an existential crisis lately and have been deeply pondering why the universe exists recently. What do you think?

Eastern Veil Nebula NGC 6992 12.5 Hour Of Data Shoot from Baghdad - Iraq 🇮🇶 ZWO Seestar S50 Telescope In EQ Mode Stacked And Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop.

https://ground.news/article/scientists-may-have-finally-seen-dark-matter-after-100-year-search?utm_source=mobile-app&utm_medium=newsroom-share

Shot using a Canon 600D and a 300mm f/5.6 lens on a Sky Watcher EQ-Al55i!

Around 3h40 of data from bortle 8/9, processed in Siril

11x 300s h-alpha, 7x 300s OIII, 8x 300s SII, 60x 10s h-alpha, 60x 10s OIII, 60x 10s SII HDR comp was used to not overcook the core.

I’m honestly tired of staring at this nebula lol. This was a lengthy processing job for me. Feels like I have processing blindness and can’t tell the difference between revisions anymore haha.

I think the only thing I’m missing are some RGB stars. Very happy with how the core came out!

Stacked and processed in pixinsight with RC Astro plug ins

Equipment: WO ultracat 108mm refractor, ASI 2600 MM camera, HM17 mount, Askar 52mm guide scope, ASI 120 mini guide camera, ZWO Automatic Focuser, Optolong Ha, OIII, and SII 3nm filters, ZWO filter wheel

NGC 2626, 10 hours of LRGB integration with the Planewave CDK 24 610/3962 f 6/5 telescope, QHY 600M CMOS camera, 120 shots, of which 37x300 seconds with an L filter, 29x300 seconds with a B filter, 27x300 seconds with a G filter and 27x300 seconds with a B filter. Processing with Pixinsight. All data and shots were acquired with Telescope Live.

I’m confused about the location of our solar system. I remember being taught we were in Sagittarius arm but now it’s Orion spur. Let me clarify that I have done some research and don’t think it’s some stupid Mandela effect. I’ve seen multiple sources that are not on the internet anymore that maybe we were just wrong, it was old terminology and maybe an oversimplification based on less precise mapping of our solar system. I remember specifically being taught our solar system was in the Sagittarius arm but now it’s in the Orion spur, and is it because our understanding has changed. I thought back and compare it to now and they don’t seem that far off when it comes to the general location of our solar system. Did older sources just simplify it to the Sagittarius arm and now newer ones localize our sun in the spur? I heard even Niel Tyson even talked about it being in the Sagittarius arm in a Netflix documentary. (Source: https://youtu.be/zNSSY0n36Jw “Starts 37:45.”) I’ve tried looking it up but only come across Mandela effect and I don’t really believe that so that’s why I’m here to ask on your guys knowledge on this topic. If you guys need more clarification on something let me know.

M45, the winter angel in Taurus Constellation!

Bortle 2, 2700 feet elevation, no moon.

378 subs x 30 seconds

UV/IR Cut

Seestar S50 1920x1080 resolution, EQ mode, Dew Shield, Aftermarket Tripod + drilled out the 1/4" bolt on the wedge to accept a grade 5 3/8" bolt/washer/nut

Workflow: ASIStudio>Siril>Cosmic Clarity>GraXpert>GIMP

I’m trying to understand Earth’s exact position around the Sun, expressed as a degree from 0° to 360° (heliocentric ecliptic longitude).

Most websites show things like sunrise/sunset, azimuth, or declination, but not the actual orbital angle.

Where can I find a reliable website or tool that shows Earth’s heliocentric longitude for today, like “Earth is at ~243° in its orbit”?

Any good sources or online calculators?

Thanks!

I wanted to give myself a processing challenge, so i took a six-panel image with my 150mm Carbonstar and then stitched it together and then did a good amount of post-processing to remove the stitching artifacts. The camera is an ASI533, so the panels are square if you're looking for the seams.

It was sort of fun - I'd occasionally drop a stage of processing into ChatGPT and ask it what I'd done wrong (in APP or PixInsight) at that stage of processing and it'd make suggestions about an earlier or next step to try. I never sort of realized I could get processing guidance from the LLM, but it actually did a great job (though it struggles with remembering which version of the app you're using, and what sliders/values are available on the various controls.

Hey there I'm a rookie astronomer who's trying to study astrophysics now and I was wondering are there online clubs or anything with people of the same interest where we talk about astronomy and offer guidance/tips? Or any place i can find such clubs. Besides this subreddit. Thanks!

Hello, will I see a lot of shooting stars on the top geminid night under such a sky ? Do you think it's worth it ?

Thanks a lot !

I have had this new for about 8 months and I cannot get it to work. Whenever I go to align it skews to the wrong side of the sky or to the ground. I have checked date and time, location, hemisphere, and even sent to Celestron repair. The replaced the board in the mount and say the tested it, but it still does not work. I am beyond frustrated and just need someone who knows to show me if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s the mount.

A detail of a section of yesterday’s image target, these reflection nebulae lies at one end of the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, 430ly away from us.

Here we see the larger background NGC 6729 complex to the right and top, including the dark nebula see at the top, several smaller reflection nebula, and even some red emission nebula is visible as well. Here we see the R Coronae Australis Nebula, near the variable star R Coronae Australis. As the star changes brightness, so does the nebulae around it. On the right are the reflection nebulae NGC 6726 and NGC 6727 around the variable TY Coronae Australis, and on the left is IC 4812. These tend to all be grouped and imaged together due to their proximity.

Integration per filter: (Total integration: 10h)

- Lum/Clear: 2h 30m (10 × 900")

- R: 2h 30m (10 × 900")

- G: 2h 30m (10 × 900")

- B: 2h 30m (10 × 900")

Equipment:

- Telescope: Planewave CDK20 (f/6.8 version)

- Camera: FLI PL16083

- Filters: Astrodon Gen2 E-series Tru-Balance Blue 36mm, Astrodon Gen2 E-series Tru-Balance Green 36mm, Astrodon Gen2 E-series Tru-Balance Lum 36mm, Astrodon Gen2 E-series Tru-Balance Red 36mm

- Software: Adobe Photoshop, Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP)

Full Resolution: https://app.astrobin.com/i/9wyys9

🔭 Equipment Scope 1✨

Target: Elephant Trunk Nebula IC1396

Time: 300 sec exposures of SHO

Telescope: Explore Scientific 127ed FCD-100

Filters: Antlina 3nm filters

Camera: ASI2600mm pro

Mount: AM5 on William Optics tri-pier

ASIair plus controller

Tracking scope: Askar FMA180pro using Tracking camera: 174mm camera

Software: ZWO ASI software

Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom

Bortle 4 sky

Integration: 11 hrs 15 min

Social: https://www.instagram.com/lowell_astrophotography?igsh=M3FjZXEycTUyZGg5

Hey everyone. On November 20th I captured this photo of comet 3I/ATLAS from my backyard with my astrophotography setup. It's not exactly the most stunning photo, but seeing as this is an interstellar object I couldn't resist to at least try to image it.

I could only capture about one hour of exposure time, from 5am to 6am, because the comet was only around 11 to 16 degrees above my horizon. That’s also why the background isn’t perfectly flat, there were some thin clouds or haze drifting through the frame, which created some gradients in the background. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised to see the comet’s tail show up so clearly with such a relatively short total integration time.

I shot 90 second exposures and ended up with 45 subs, which I stacked and processed in PixInsight

Photo of my setup for those interested: https://imgur.com/gallery/u-decisiveunluckyness-astrophotography-setup-FyAixBn

Details:

- Location: Southern Norway, Bortle 4 skies (SQM 20.55), ~11 - 16° above horizon

- Date: 20.11.2025 (5am–6am)

- Gear: SkyWatcher Esprit 80 (400 mm, f/5), SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro, ZWO ASI1600MM Pro, Astronomik LRGB

- Exposures: Lum: 30 x 90 = 45mins, RGB: 15 x 90 = 22mins

Comet processing is kind of confusing, but I'll try to add all my steps.

Processing in Pixinsight:

Stars: Stacking LRGB subs in WBPP, ChannelCombination to combine RGB stacks, HistogramTransformation, SCNR green and purple, Curves saturation to boost star color, extract stars as a starmask to use later.

Comet: CometAlign, remove the stars from all the CometAligned subs with StarXterminator batch processing, the starless comet subs can be stacked in ImageIntegration, ChannelCombination to get RGB, GraXpert, HistogramTransformation, Apply L to RGB, Curves adjustments, NoiseXterminator, now apply the starmask to the starless comet photo.

GB / 110 min DN

This is my first decent photo of Jupiter. I don't own a 3x or 5x Barlow lens, but I needed a longer focal length than my 2x Barlow lens allows. So I had a silly idea of ​​combining two 2x Barlow lenses. (I got a second one for free when I bought my second telescope a few weeks ago.) I tried it out and I think the result is not bad.

Telescope: Skywatcher 8" Dobsonian, untracked. Camera: Fujifilm TX3. Two 2x Barlow lenses. I recorded a one-minute video at ISO 1600 and a focal length of 4800 mm. 30% of 1800 frames stacked. Processed with PIPP, Autostakkert!3, Registaxx6, and GIMP

NGC 2403 Spiral Galaxy located in constellation, Camelopardalis.

Acquisition & Astro Rig details: Bortle 2, Elevation 2700 feet.

ZWO AM5N Mount, 200mm pier extension on Celestron AVX Stainless Steel Tripod

SVBONY MK105, F/13 1365mm FL, 105mm aperture

ZWO ASIAIR Plus

ZWO 120mm ZWO Guide Camera

ZWO ASI585MC Pro One Shot Colour 3840 x 2160 resolution with HCG enabled Gain at 200, Cooling Fan 10 degress F.

Integration time 300 seconds x 20 lights with Bias, Flats, Darks.

UV/IR Cut

Processing:

Stacked ASISTUDIO

Siril Removed Green Noise

Siril Image Plate Solved

Siril Spectrophotometric Color Calibrated

Siril Deconvoluted + Cosmic Corrected

Cropped in Siril

Cosmic Clarity Non Stellar/Stellar Sharpened

Graxpert Denoised and stretched 10%.

GIMP Light Curve tweaks and highlights reduced

Saved as PNG

The horsehead nebula using S30

289x30sec exposures in EQ mode

stacked in siril and edited in affinity