Between 2024-07-30 and 2024-08-07 central Arkansas experienced an unusual period of clear night skies. This happened to line up with a new moon, a fully visible Milky Way, and my desperate need to do some more astrophotography. I took full advantage of the opportunity, collecting around 50 hours of exposures, and making myself severely sleep deprived. This is a showcase of every object I was able to image.
Many of these are globular clusters with minimal exposure times. A couple of the nights I made sure to hit a number of Messier objects to make significant process on the Messier Challenge.
Nebulae
![Eagle Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/e4f74a69-784c-46d8-9c18-168f903782c7_rw_3840.png?h=6cffe33ef70b40ec0488161a405e1bdb)
Eagle Nebula
!["New England" area of the North America Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/0bc85743-92d5-46d0-b624-7c8ad53560b8_rw_1920.png?h=77e08908110f91e95fb60ba08b19a144)
"New England" area of the North America Nebula
![Lagoon Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/6be35e33-fb69-44d2-bb1f-f11febdf18c6_rw_3840.png?h=5c9d6bd143c4f44fd50d296316e51fcf)
Lagoon Nebula
![Western Veil Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/71f27c5f-6f18-4926-b37f-623c305e9161_rw_3840.png?h=43bf9ed4bd507b513ccace391b6b6f84)
Western Veil Nebula
![Trifid Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/c1f0b84b-2531-4f9f-993f-519dfdc0b7b5_rw_3840.png?h=924a3895653ccfafcf82f2fb0f5482ca)
Trifid Nebula
![Omega Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/912a9320-b7d6-41c4-b0fd-a20e3db73deb_rw_3840.png?h=0b038f5c15226abbd28d1851c920de9a)
Omega Nebula
![M52 and Bubble Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/43f06f14-eb8a-47f0-8de0-1756f8ae55d1_rw_3840.png?h=83593ce17af15d45b694f2ed03ff8943)
M52 and Bubble Nebula
![Dumbbell Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/eba0b6a9-6e3c-43bd-95e4-ad4314916260_rw_3840.png?h=149ab7205c7d9db1735e93dd55d9e0e3)
Dumbbell Nebula
![Ring Nebula](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/3410d5e6-dfe9-4ada-94ae-f17a1c70fd97_rw_1920.png?h=27dbd850e6e566047f0c6a9a23883325)
Ring Nebula
My favorite DSOs to image, I can't get enough of how fantastic they look. Each of these makes me want to spend more time imaging every single one.
Andromeda
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/b243563a-c166-4257-9d66-1a9ee06a190d_rw_1920.png?h=fbab211ac29de56c7f13d9ef6eb42a0e)
I know I had some focus problems, and I believe it to be mainly caused by how I had to set up my telescope. I have to use a 0.8x reducer/flattener to get it in frame, but I can only get focus on my camera if I remove the tube extension. The telescope was only designed to do this when using the 0.6x reducer/flattener, so while I got the focal length I wanted, I did not get it completely sharp. There is also some distortion towards the edges, but this is the best I can do for now.
Globular Clusters
![M15](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/0b559e19-f713-406c-9540-0783da46c8fb_rw_3840.png?h=131c316033f87b0c4b170f43fe1c91d9)
M15
![M71 Angelfish Cluster](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/1e42e012-aaef-49d0-b94f-9348d10c2a25_rw_1920.png?h=9e1adeceff9ca225ffeb493b8bd258f7)
M71 Angelfish Cluster
![M11 Wild Duck Cluster](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/c2ee8c22-1420-4caa-b91e-0076159c8b92_rw_1920.png?h=756be64fd9d91df2f36e16cb81e2079f)
M11 Wild Duck Cluster
![M4](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/b6833137-b42d-416b-9c42-18dc34c53540_rw_1920.png?h=1c4cf7cf4c3b75252d3c27caad6bf65b)
M4
![M9](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/b50ecb80-8459-4ca5-b9be-d9874a8d8641_rw_1920.png?h=14d726ec08930abaced328a63f21ed52)
M9
![M19](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/58d0750c-e80f-462a-954a-641501ecb202_rw_1920.png?h=f4af3065efc57ff1b94fed562d74a95c)
M19
![M62](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/a177c380-ab7b-4d2a-9b93-923d7055f9fc_rw_1920.png?h=eb69048445ed6ec7a22f4ffd51fb0579)
M62
![M80](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/42d2d54e-fdf3-4255-923f-a68e317f7c1a_rw_1920.png?h=f00dc81ee90714457d14274c26ef6759)
M80
![M107](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/557df2fe-317f-4a5f-90a7-260b87841312_rw_1920.png?h=514afd8dd60ac1d865e4dc16ecd82bb5)
M107
![M2](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/553c6c90-f7e2-4174-a2d8-8463af18fa3b_rw_1920.png?h=d658fbb6b8aabe9f98b19cb8bb69ef7c)
M2
![M5](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/2c999f3c-95e8-4f89-b257-76c127b6df86_rw_1920.png?h=385fa78dae0f0162ee0c9d7cc203293a)
M5
![M18 Black Swan Cluster](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/aa613656-0751-4aef-8a32-23463a33775c_rw_1920.png?h=9b7fcbd679dbeb3c77d1bd01b4921fb9)
M18 Black Swan Cluster
![M23](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/06912d53-e14b-4ab8-a68d-d2c950086842/3a771620-ee4d-4578-a9df-cfc42d04e768_rw_1920.png?h=29f36c71fd2aed0a40fbb33a4b47721b)
M23
Finally, I captured a bunch of clusters. These were mainly to tick a box on my Messier catalog challenge, where I image every single Messier object. This marathon brought me from 25 to 38, only 72 more to go!
I will be the first to admit that I didn't put much effort into processing these, each got a maximum of 20 minutes, and I threw out the worst exposure for a total of 18 minutes of integrations. I don't have the best rig for imaging them anyway, and globular clusters aren't the most exciting DSOs for me.