Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula - a dying Sun-like star, quietly leaving behind a glowing shell of gas in the dense star fields of the Milky Way.

https://adfr.io/astro/20260624_dumbbell_nebula

#astrodon #astrophotography #Messier27 #DumbbellNebula #narrowband #space

How does an astrophotography image actually come to life?

On June 19, I’ll be hosting an evening at my exhibition "Sterne über Chemnitz", sharing the stories, techniques, and astronomy behind the images — from hours of data acquisition to the final processed photograph.

Questions are welcome.

https://adfr.io/thoughts/20260609_exhibition_evening_talk_announcement

#astrodon #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Chemnitz #Saxony #NightSky

Skywarden now tracks the sun.

This update adds the sun as a tracked object - path across the sky, interaction with your horizon profile, and golden hour timing. Eclipses are marked in the planning calendar too and you see their full progression.

With the August 12 total solar eclipse over Europe, the timing felt right.

Details: https://adfr.io/thoughts/20260606_skywarden_now_tracks_the_sun
App: https://skywarden.app

#skywarden #astrophotography #astrodon #eclipse #solareclipse #goldenHour

Skywarden got a significant update last night - refreshed UI design, equipment profiles, and a fix for a nasty bug that suppressed all recommendations during summer nights at high latitudes, when astronomical darkness is never reached.

More on the project page: https://adfr.io/projects/skywarden
Or try it directly: https://skywarden.app

#Skywarden #Astrophotography #AstroPlanning #NightSky #PWA #IndieApp

Remember Hexxagon?

In a fit of nostalgia, I revisited one of the DOS games I played on my very first 386 PC. Since it barely runs on modern systems anymore, I ended up rebuilding it as a free browser-based multiplayer game called H3X.

Read the story behind the project:
https://adfr.io/thoughts/20260528_h3x_game_announcement

#IndieDev #WebDev #GameDev #RetroGaming #DOSGaming #Nostalgia #TypeScript

The Bubble Maker - WR134 in Cygnus. A Wolf-Rayet star sculpting a spherical emission bubble with its relentless stellar wind over millennia. Imaged in Hubble palette mapping (HOS). NGC 6883 and β² Cygni also in the field.

https://adfr.io/astro/20260522_wr134

#Astrophotography #Astrodon #WolfRayet #Cygnus #Nebula #NarrowBand #OIII #Halpha

Meine Bilder hängen seit ein paar Wochen in Café Emma’s Onkel auf dem Kaßberg - und ich hab noch immer keinen richtigen Post dazu gemacht. Wird Zeit.

“Sterne über Chemnitz” ist meine erste eigene Ausstellung, mit einem Feature von Zane Felicita (https://felicita.studio). Orionnebel, Elefantenrüssel, Mondfinsternis über dem Lulatsch - aufgenommen von hier aus der Umgebung von Chemnitz.

Bis Ende Juli. Ulmenstraße 48.

#Astrophotography #Chemnitz #Astronomie #Astrodon

My latest capture of the Sunflower Galaxy - Messier 63 in Canes Venatici, 27 million light-years away. A flocculent spiral: two tightly wound main arms breaking apart into short, feathery segments. Two bonus galaxies hide in the field - UGC 8313, a tiny companion to the upper right, and UGC 8365, a background barred spiral at 69 million light-years in the lower left.

https://adfr.io/astro/20260423_m63

#astrodon #astrophotography #galaxy #messier63 #sunflowergalaxy

NGC 281 - the Pacman Nebula in Cassiopeia. A return to a familiar object, this time with a new setup and considerably more integration time. In the Hubble palette (HSO), the dark Bok globules stand out with particular clarity - dense dust structures being eroded by the radiation pressure of the young cluster IC 1590, while possibly hiding new star formation deep within.

https://adfr.io/astro/20260407_ngc281

#Astrophotography #Narrowband #NGC281 #PacmanNebula #Cassiopeia #HSO #HubblePalette #astrodon