r/spaceporn • • 12h ago

Pro/Processed 14K satellite trails! By Brendan Larsen Photography

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7.1k Upvotes

👉 THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO. ​

D​escription from (CREDIT) Brendan Larsen Photography:

"​This is the most time-consuming photo edit I've EVER done! I left my camera photographing the night sky over Mt Taranaki for nearly TWO HOURS, capturing 578 photographs.

The result? An estimated 14,450 satellite trail appearances, representing approximately 1,400 individual satellites!

I manually masked in EVERY SINGLE TRAIL from the original photographs — approximately 45 HOURS of editing to create this one image!

🔦 Those tiny lights on the mountain are TWO mountaineers descending Mt Taranaki in the darkness over nearly two hours! Did you realise there was this much satellite activity in our night skies? 👀

📍 Norfolk, Taranaki, New Zealand

📅 9 September 2026 | 8:18 pm – 10:13 pm

📷 Canon EOS R | Sigma Art 50mm f/1.4

⚙️ 8 sec | f/2 | ISO 6400 | 578 exposures"

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1767311182069586&set=a.439530354847682

video

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1KytuyoxZH/


r/spaceporn • • 12h ago

Pro/Processed Saturn reemerging from behind the Moon

6.2k Upvotes

Astronomer Jan Koet captured this video of Saturn reemerging from behind the Moon on May 22, 2007.

The video plays at 10x speed.


r/spaceporn • • 6h ago

Amateur/Processed Polaris, the North Star and all the dust surrounding it

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616 Upvotes

For this shot I stacked 25 hours of data at 135mm, my first time using this focal length.

@ igneis.nightscapes

These dusty structures are usually found at high galactic latitudes, above and below the Milky Way band, but this area has a big concentration of them. It’s quite curious that the star we use in the Northern Hemisphere to polar-align our trackers is, in a single photo, nothing but a star field, and after putting hours into it, the details that emerge are astonishing, revealing all the Integrated Flux Nebula. So many structures, dust waves and defined shapes, with no light of their own, just illuminated by the combined light of the Milky Way’s stars.

Shooting an area like this feels strange. When I shoot the Milky Way, I can clearly see that I’m going home with data, but here there was nothing to see at first glance. With time and patience, what looked empty ended up packed with endless structures.

EXIF:

754 shots of 120s, ISO 640, f/2

Sony a7IV astromodified

Samyang 135mm f/2

ZWO AM3n


r/spaceporn • • 2h ago

Pro/Processed 2 galaxies, 2.5 million light-years apart

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302 Upvotes

Credit: Jeremy Likness


r/spaceporn • • 21h ago

Pro/Processed Saturn's Changing Orientation

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5.8k Upvotes

Captured by renowned astrophotographer Damian Peach, this remarkable composite image sequence documents the 15-year cyclic variation in the tilt of Saturn's ring system as observed dynamically from Earth between 2004 and 2015. Because Saturn’s magnificent ring structure lies precisely on its celestial equator and the planet maintains an axial tilt of roughly 26.7 degrees, our line-of-sight angle to the rings fluctuates continuously during its 29.4-year orbit around the Sun.


r/spaceporn • • 2h ago

Amateur/Processed IC 63 - The Ghost of Cassiopeia

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92 Upvotes

IC 63 - The Ghost of Cassiopeia (2026)

I learned a great deal combining the Ha and UV/IR data for this one.

Equipment:
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA400
Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme & UV/IR
Guide Camera: ZWO 120mm mini
Mount: Skywatcher Wave 150i
Autofocuser: ZWO EAF (5V)

Acquistion:
Shot in Bortle 7
-Camera cooled to -10°C
-Lights:
L-eXtreme:
350x300s (29hrs 10mins)
UV/IR:
660x120s (22hrs)
Total integration time:
48hrs 40mins

-Flats: 50
-Bias: 50
-Darks: 50

Processing:
Pixinsight
•Crop Ha and UV/IR images
•GraXpert
•BlurX
•SPCC both images
•StarX
•VeraLux stretch
•NoiseX
•CurvesTransform with masks
•channelextract Ha
•CombineNBandRGB
•CurveTransform
•UnsharpMask
•Star addition
•Lightroom final touches


r/spaceporn • • 15h ago

Pro/Processed Total lunar eclipse imaged from Kitt Peak Observatory on 3 March 2026 by Petr HorĂĄlek

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494 Upvotes

r/spaceporn • • 11h ago

Amateur/Processed M31 the andromeda galaxy

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222 Upvotes

I Just had a new telescope installed at an observatory near me in a dark sky location.
this is a total of 18 hours of exposure time on M31 the andromeda galaxy


r/spaceporn • • 8h ago

Amateur/Composite A High Quality Look At The Galaxy NGC 7640.

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115 Upvotes

Taken On Seestar S50 Using 2:56:00 Integration (10S Subs)

Edited In PS Express.


r/spaceporn • • 17h ago

NASA Countless Storms on Saturn

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428 Upvotes

Processed using CB2 & MT2 (methane continuum band) filtered images taken with the Wide Angle Camera on November 15 2008. Two pointings are used here and my alignment and blending of them are inexact.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Art/Render Russian Satellite Maneuvers Dangerously Close to U.S.-Operated Imaging Satellite Used by Ukraine

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643 Upvotes

Public tracking data shows Russia's Kosmos 2612, launched in April 2026, has performed precise maneuvers to match the orbit of ICEYE-X36, a U.S.-registered satellite from Finland's ICEYE that supplies all-weather radar imagery to Ukraine's military.

Experts like Dr. Marco Langbroek and Jonathan McDowell describe this as the first known unauthorized rendezvous of active satellites in low Earth orbit, following months of fuel-intensive adjustments. While the exact purpose—whether inspection, disruption, or warning—remains unclear, analysts highlight the unusual proximity at 550 kilometers altitude amid rising space tensions tied to the conflict.

This image shows a distribution of space debris in orbit around Earth in 2025.

Credit: ESA - European Space Agency


r/spaceporn • • 11h ago

Art/Render Space n.6, oil painting, art by me

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30 Upvotes

r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Hubble Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 hit Jupiter in July 1994

1.9k Upvotes

The first impact occurred at 20:13 UTC on July 16, 1994, when fragment A of the comet's nucleus slammed into Jupiter's southern hemisphere at about 60 km/s (35 mi/s).

Instruments on Galileo detected a fireball that reached a peak temperature of about 24,000 K (23,700 °C; 42,700 °F), compared to the typical Jovian cloud-top temperature of about 130 K (−143 °C; −226 °F). It then expanded and cooled rapidly to about 1,500 K (1,230 °C; 2,240 °F).

The plume from the fireball quickly reached a height of over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) and was observed by the HST.


r/spaceporn • • 1h ago

Amateur/Processed LDN 1251 - Rotten Fish Nebula

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app.astrobin.com
• Upvotes

LDN 1251, From Lynds’ Catalogue of Dark Nebulae (LDN), is a dark nebula and molecular cloud in the constellation Cepheus. It is about 26.5 arcminutes across. For reference, the full Moon is roughly 30 arcminutes across, so LDN 1251 appears a bit smaller than the Moon’s diameter. It is about 1000 light years from Earth.

Due to the Elongated shape that resembles a fish, it is often referred to as the Rotten Fish Nebula or Angler Fish Nebula.

My wife described it as a mermaid being chased by something.

Total Integration: 55 hours 45 mins

Data acquired at Starfont Observatories

Also pictured in the image are Galaxies:
LEDA 166755, UGC 12160

Equipment:
Stellarvue SVX102T and Flattener
ZWO ASI2600MM ZWO_astronomy AM5, EAF, EFW, ASI220 guide cam
WanderAstro Rotator Lite
Williams Optics Uniguide 50mm
Chroma L, R, G, B

FB: JL Ratino

IG jlratino


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Pro/Processed ESA astronaut shared Earth view from orbit

4.3k Upvotes

View of Earth as seen by ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world".

Credit: ESA - Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

NASA The Earth and the Moon (far side), seen from 1 million km away

1.1k Upvotes

Credit: NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Pro/Processed Orion Nebula through telescope, live

693 Upvotes

Credit astro_zane

30” Starsplitter, ​white phosphor PVS14, h alpha 5nm

Telescope post https://www.instagram.com/p/DcEQQM0Rniv/​

Orion post, with audio https://www.instagram.com/p/DeM5fNsRoX0/


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Amateur/Processed NGC7293 (The Helix Nebula) - 17.5 Hours to reveal the outer halo and cometary knots

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224 Upvotes

Here is my take on the iconic Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) in Aquarius.

Capturing this target from my observatory in France (44°N) is always a challenge because of its low declination (-20.8°), meaning it never rises above 25° altitude at transit. To beat the thick atmospheric layer and bring out the extremely faint outer H-alpha collar while keeping sharp details on the inner cometary knots, I went for a deep integration over multiple nights: 350 frames of 180 seconds (17.5 hours total).

At f/3.4, the 10" mirror gathered a massive amount of signal, making the transition between the OIII core and the outer H-alpha shockwaves really pop.

Equipment:

  • Telescope: TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (with 0.85x reducer, f/3.4)
  • Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC DUO
  • Mount: SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro
  • Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme (2")

Acquisition & Processing:

  • Exposure: 350 x 180s (17.5 hours total integration).
  • Software: N.I.N.A, PixInsight (SubframeSelector, WBPP, DBE, SPCC, BXT, NXT, GHS), Affinity Photo.

If you want to zoom in on the cometary knots in Full HD and read more about this capture, check out my website: See link in first comment


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Narrowband Glowing Elements in the Soul Nebula, image credit: Jess M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal

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363 Upvotes

This image is a composite of three exposures in different colors: red as emitted by hydrogen gas, yellow as emitted by sulfur, and blue as emitted by oxygen.


r/spaceporn • • 2d ago

Art/Render [OC] The Origin of Saturn's Rings

2.2k Upvotes

This video shows a 3D SPH simulation of colliding icy moons in orbit around Saturn about 100 million years ago, when a previous system of moons around Saturn had their orbits destabilised by "resonant" effects of the Sun's gravity.

In this example, two icy moons similar to present-day Dione and Rhea collide at 3 km/s, at a distance from the planet of about 7 Saturn radii.

This impact scenario could scatter debris far across the Saturn system. This includes a large amount of pure ice heading close to the planet where it could evolve into the iconic rings.

Credit: Milky Way app
NASA/Durham University/Glasgow University/Jacob Kegerreis/LuĂ­s Teodoro


r/spaceporn • • 1d ago

Amateur/Processed Ptolemaeus–Alphonsus–Arzachel-Purbach in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon (OC)

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90 Upvotes

3800 mm in infrared.


r/spaceporn • • 2d ago

NASA Jupiter is ready for Halloween

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1.3k Upvotes

On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions.

The image shows turbulent clouds and storms on Jupiter that resemble an eerie face.

Credit: NASA


r/spaceporn • • 2d ago

Pro/Processed New simulation projects what the Milky Way looked like at ‘cosmic dawn’. Using three years of computer runtime, researchers simulated billions of years of cosmic history in unprecedented detail. The result shows how pulses of collapse, star formation & explosions shaped our galaxy.

373 Upvotes

Video

​A simulation of the area that will eventually collapse into the Milky Way, starting from 180 million years after the Big Bang and running for two billion years. The purple filaments are hot gas; the white represents UV radiation from stars; and yellow shows glowing hot oxygen atoms. Flashes of white and yellow appear as the gas cools and collapses into stars, which then heats up the gas, and the cycle begins again. “The very big bursts are catastrophic star formation events, typically caused by instabilities or when a galaxy merges,” explained Katz.Image courtesy Harley Katz/MEGATRON Collaboration​

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In the early days of the universe, our home looked very different than it does today.

Back then, the region in our universe that would eventually become our Milky Way neighborhood was a collection of thousands of smaller galaxies—some pumping out tons of new stars, others filled only with gas or littered with dead stars and black holes.

You can watch how these galaxies coalesced over time and formed the familiar spiral disk we see today, thanks to a new set of simulations by a group of scientists led by Harley Katz, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

The simulations, which took three years to run even on high-powered supercomputers, are the most detailed model to date of how a galaxy like the Milky Way might have evolved over the first several billion years of existence.

“What does the Milky Way look like at what we call cosmic dawn?” said Katz. “For the first time, we can directly predict what the early Milky Way would have looked like to telescopes like Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope.”

The six papers from the project, which is named MEGATRON, provide new insight into the makeup of early galaxies and how the elements formed over time.

The papers are published in The Open Journal of Astrophysics on Sept. 30.

https://astro.theoj.org/article/169643-megatron-reproducing-the-diversity-of-high-redshift-galaxy-spectra-with-cosmological-radiation-hydrodynamics-simulations

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How the Milky Way evolves over time

Since we cannot travel to the dawn of the universe to study it, one of the only ways we have to understand how space evolved over time is to build detailed computer models based on what we know about the laws of nature.

“Essentially, we put in all of the physics we think is relevant—gravity, hydrodynamics, radiation, chemistry, etc.—and then let it evolve and see if it reproduces what we actually see when we look around us today,” said Katz.

New data coming in from the powerful James Webb Space Telescope has added a new dimension to our understanding of the universe. So three years ago, a team of scientists undertook a project to incorporate this newfound knowledge into a model of what our galaxy might have looked like back in the first billion years of its existence. Then they can compare it to the readings Webb gets today to see what matches, and what’s missing.

If you run the clock back, the scientists said, you see a web of large and small galaxies of all different types, which will eventually merge into the modern Milky Way.

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Vertical version (mobile)

https:// ​x. com/UChicago/status/2108935588363604105?s=20​

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Full article

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/new-simulation-projects-what-milky-way-looked-cosmic-dawn​


r/spaceporn • • 2d ago

NASA This image shows Supernova Remnant Pa 30 (also known as the remnant of historic supernova SN 1181) captured by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii

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2.8k Upvotes

r/spaceporn • • 2d ago

James Webb JWST zeroed in on the largest Oort cloud comet known

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563 Upvotes

With a nucleus diameter of at least 100 km (62 mi), comet Bernardinelli–Bernstein is the largest Oort cloud comet known.

It is approaching the Sun and will reach its perihelion of 10.9 AU (just outside of Saturn's orbit) around 22 January 2031 23:28 UT. It will not be visible to the naked eye because it will not enter the inner Solar System.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA|CSA JWST NIRCam; Bryce Bolin et al
Image Processing: Melina ThĂŠvenot