iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Last Sturday night I unknowingly caught a supernova in the act. While taking an #astrophotography of Stephan's Quintett with my Celestron Origin, I just by chance captured an image of SN2026aaiv in NGC7331. What are the chances for such a coincidence? 90min of data processed in Pixinsight.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The universe around us is not static at all. Throughout the Milky Way, clouds of gas and dust are clumping together, constantly giving birth to still hidden new stars. I took this #astrophotography of the Elephant Trunk Nebula with my #Celestron #Origin right from the center of a city.

Against a backdrop of reddish, glowing hydrogen gas, dark clouds of gas and dust conceal the formation of new stars that are not yet visible. The image is dotted with blue and red stars from our Milky Way.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

17s of solar eclipse captured on Mallorca with my smartphone - sound on for this peculiar #astrophotography!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

A dying star in Cygnus gives its final performance exhibiting its colorful outer shells. Blue OIII filaments on the outside contrast with clumps of denser structures formed during explosive outbursts. This #astrophotography by my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social #Origin was processed in #Pixinsight.

A yellowish-red, jellyfish-like structure composed of gases from a Wolf-Rayet star is embedded in a sea of Milky Way stars and glowing red hydrogen clouds.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

With an age of 13b years, Globula Cluster Messier 5 is almost 3x older than our sun. Despite its age, it houses many seemingly young "blue straggler" stars that are in fact the product of mergers of old stars. This #astrophotography taken with my #Celestron Origin has been processed in #Pixinsight.

Countless blue and orange stars packed tightly into a tiny sphere form the globular star cluster Messier 5.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

The Iris Nebula in constellation Cepheus is illuminated by the blueish light of its central star. Just as a lotus is rooted in mud, the Iris is surrounded by brownish soot nebulae. This #astrophotography was taken over 8h with my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social Origin from a light-polluted suburb.

Brownish cosmic clouds surround the brightly blue illuminated core of the Iris nebula.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Galaxy M51 is undergoing a phase of rapid star formation, triggered by interaction with its cosmic neighbour. Blue hues indicate regions with young, hot stars, whilst yellow hues represent old stellar populations. This #astrophotography was taken with my Celestron Origin in >8 hours of exposure .

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

The universe is still full of surprises! This is Cloud-9, a starless blob held together by dark matter--a "failed galaxy." Astronomers have long speculated that such hidden objects formed the building blocks of bright galaxies like our own. Now we've found one. 🧪🔭 esahubble.org/news/heic2601/

This image shows the location of Cloud-9, which is 14 million light-years from Earth. The diffuse magenta is radio data from the ground-based Very Large Array (VLA) showing the presence of the cloud. The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission,which is where researchers focused their search for stars. Follow-up observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys found no stars within the cloud. The few objects that appear within its boundaries are background galaxies. Before the Hubble observations, scientists could argue that Cloud-9 is a faint dwarf galaxy whose stars could not be seen with ground-based telescopes due to the lack of sensitivity. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

M31 is our neighbor in the ocean of the universe. I recently showed that my telescope can detect individual stars 2.5Mio LY away. Imaging the entire galaxy with the same telescope is more difficult. This #astrophotography with my #CelestonOrigin is a mosaic from 6 images, each 1h of exposure time.

A yellowish shining spiral galaxy with dark brownish dust bands and blueish groups of young hot stars.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Have you yet seen two lava fountains close to each other? Check this live cam from Kilauea: www.youtube.com/live/BqmpkUd...

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[V3cam] Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii (south Halemaʻumaʻu crater)

YouTube video by USGS

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Robert McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Happy 120th birthday, special relativity! Albert Einstein introduced special relativity in the paper "On The Electrodynamics Of Moving Bodies," published in Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 Manuscript: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... English: www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einst...

A black and white photo of Albert Einstein, around age 25, sitting at a desk. He is a wearing a flannel suit and resting his right arm on the desk. Einstein is looking to the left of the photographer in this posed photo.

The first paragraph of the paper, in German. Translated to English is reads:

It is known that Maxwell's electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet...

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Constellation Cygnus hides a marvel of galactic nebulae. The Eastern Veil Nebula is part of a much larger remnant of a supernova that exploded around 8,000 years ago. This #astrophotography was created as a mosaic of two images taken with my #CelestronOrigin, each with an exposure time of one hour.

Blue-white wisps of a galactic nebula against the backdrop of countless stars in the summer Milky Way.

A close-up of the blue-white wisps of the Eastern Veil nebula against the backdrop of countless stars in the summer Milky Way.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

"The star that changed the size of the universe" was discovered in 1923 by Hubble on a plate taken with the 2.5m Hooker telescope. This variable Cepheid star proved that Andromeda is a far away galaxy like our own. Today, #astrophotography with my little #CelestronOrigin can show this star clearly.

The yellowish tone of old stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy contrasts with the blue from groups of hot young stars, dark dust lanes and a few small magenta blobs from ionized hydrogen clouds. The image was exposed for around 2 hours with a 6 inch Celestron Origin telescope.

In the midst of a featureless star cloud in the Andromeda galaxy, a single star is highlghted. This variable "Cepheid" star was discovered in 1923 by Edwin Hubble on photographic plates with the 2.5m Hooker telescope on Mt. Wilson. Today, a 6 inch Celestron Origin Intelligent Home observatory can image that star quite easily.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Galaxies, Stars, and Dust #astronomy #astrophotography #apod

$This well-composed telescopic field of view covers over a Full Moon on the sky toward the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Of course the brighter stars show diffraction spikes, the commonly seen effect of internal supports in reflecting telescopes, and lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy. The faint but pervasive clouds of interstellar dust ride above the galactic plane and dimly reflect the Milky Way's starlight. Known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux nebulae they are associated with the Milky Way's molecular clouds. In fact, the diffuse cloud cataloged as MBM 54, less than a thousand light-years distant, fills the scene. The galaxy seemingly tangled in the dusty cloud is the striking spiral galaxy NGC 7497. It's some 60 million light-years away, though. Seen almost edge-on near the center of the field, NGC 7497's own spiral arms and dust lanes echo the colors of stars and dust in our own Milky Way.$

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

The star that expanded the universe was discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1923 with a 2.5m telescope. The Cepheid star V1 gave first prove that Andromeda is a galaxy outside our milkyway. Today, this #Astrophotography with my little #CelestronOrigin clearly shows this star in the gorgeous spiral of M31.

The contrasting spiral arms of a galaxy, with old stars in yellow, young and hot groups of stars in blue and some tiny specs of magenta for glowing hydrogen gas.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

As an antidote to the constantly dreadful news, have some philosophical concepts:

35 Philosophical Concepts That Don't Exist in English (But Totally Should)
1-10: Concepts About Self & Identity
• Ubuntu (Zulu/Xhosa) - "I am because we
• Shinrin-yoku
(Japanese)
"Forest
are"; the idea that our humanity is shaped
bathing"; a meditative appreciation of nature.
through community.
• Lagom
• Tatemae &
Honne
(Japanese) - The
(Swedish) - Not too much, not
too little - just the right amount.
contrast between a person's public face • Kalpa (Sanskrit) - A cosmic unit of time; (tatemae) and their true feelings (honne).
often
used in Hindu and Buddhist
• Janteloven (Scandinavian) - The cultural cosmology.
belief that no one is better than anyone • Memento mori (Latin) - "Remember you else; humility over individualism.
• Ikigai (Japanese) - Your reason for being;
must die"; a reflection on mortality and the value of life.
the intersection of passion, mission, $ 21-30: Emotions, Relationships & Human vocation, and profession.
Nature
• Duende (Spanish) - A mysterious, soul-stirring emotional
• Kaukokaipuu (Finnish) - A longing for
power,
often
distant places you've never been.
experienced through art or music.
• Kintsugi (Japanese) - The art of repairing * Jayus (Indonesian) - A joke so badly told
that it becomes funny again.
broken pottery with gold, symbolizing • Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan) - The look beauty in imperfection and healing
shared by two people who want to act
• Zanshin (Japanese) - A state of relaxed
but hesitate.
alertness
and
focused awareness, • Forelsket (Norwegian) - The euphoria of
especially in martial arts.
falling in love.
• Gezelligheid (Dutch) - The warm,
collective comfort of being with loved • Humorebi (Japanese) - The sunlight that
filters through the leaves of trees.
ones.
• Mokita (Kivila, Papua New Guinea) - The
• Wabi-sabi (Japanese) - A
worldview
truth everyone knows but no one says.
centered on accepting transience and • Ya'aburnee (Arabic) - Literally "you bury imperfect beauty.
me"; a declaration that life without the
• Sprezzat…

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

About 8,000 years ago, a star exploded in the constellation Cygnus. Today, we can observe the faint remnants of this supernova as the "Veil Nebula". This astrophotography was composed of two 1h exposures taken with my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social‬ Origin telescope and developed in #Pixinsight.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

A few thousand years ago, the star at the center of the Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) ejected its outer gas envelope at the end of its life, which it now illuminates from within. This #astrophotography was exposed for one hour near full moon with my #CelestronOrigin and developed in Pixinsight.

A gas nebula glowing in intensive blue and red light in front of a star-spangled milkyway.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Two very different objects shine in this #astrophotography with my #CelestronOrigin. In Ring Nebula M57 in constellation Lyra, an ejected gas shell glows in the hard UV light of a 75000K hot dwarf star from 2300LY. The galaxy next to it (IC1296, 250Mio LY) is larger than our milkyway but very faint.

In front of a dark sky colorful stars shine together with the blueish-green-red gas remanants of a dying dwarf star. The scene is decorated with a tine spiral galaxy in the far distance.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Markus Pössel @mpoessel.de · 12/06/2025

Heute gelernt: Die physikalischen Einheiten-Vorsätze kommen zum Teil aus dem Dänischen. Femten als dänisches Wort für 15 wurde zur Vorsilbe "Femto", wobei z.B. ein Femtometer 10 hoch minus 15 Meter sind. Analog bei atten, dänisches Wort für 18, ein Attometer sind 10 hoch minus 18 Meter.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The Iris Nebula (NGC7023) bears its name because gas clouds reflect the bluish light of very hot neighboring stars. It is surrounded by molecular dust clouds with embedded brownish carbon compounds. This #astrophotography with my Celestron Origin was exposed for 160min and developed in Pixinsight.

Gas clouds in the milky way are glowing in an intense blue which contrast with the brownish clours of surrounding molecular clouds.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Sarah Hörst @planetdr.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

The Presidents Budget Request for NASA is out. It’s a bloodbath Canceled are DAVINCI, VERITAS, Juno, OSIRIS-APEX, US participation in ExoMars and EnVision… Huge cut to R&A. No funding to begin development of the Uranus Orbiter. If you’ve ever cared about NASA, time to contact congress.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Christopher Berry @cplberry.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Not good news for gravitational-wave or multimessenger astronomy "In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two [LIGO] sites and will support a reduced level for technology development" ☄️⚛️🧪🔭

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Galaxy Messier 64 at a distance of 24Mio LY is also known as "Black-Eye Galaxy" because of its characteristically shaped dust band. This #astrophotography with my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social Origin telescope is based on an exposure time just under half an hour and was developed in #Pixinsight.

A galaxy with blueish spiral arms and a large dark dust band around its yellow-brownish core, dubbed the "Blach Exe Galaxy".

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

klstone / Klaus Steinfelder @klstone.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Ich hab mir gedacht, ich erkläre heute mal diese Kurven, die ich fast jeden Tag in meiner Tagesübersicht als Tweet 3/5 mitschicke. Abgesehen davon, dass sie sehr bunt sind, widerlegen sie nämlich einige weit verbreitete Vorurteile zum Stand der #Energiewende in Deutschland... 1/12

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Galaxy M104 is also known as the “Sombrero Galaxy” because of its striking shape. With an exposure time of 140 minutes, this #astrophotography with my #Celestron #Origin shows numerous globular clusters in the galaxy's halo, structures in the dust disk and many faint galaxies in the background.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Astronomy Picture of the Day (unofficial bot) @fanapod.baldanders.info · 07/05/2025

#apod 2025-05-07 Galaxy Wars: M81 versus M82 Image Credit: Collaborative Astrophotography Team (CAT) Web page: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250507.html

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

The “Whirlpool Galaxy” M51, about 24Mio LY away, is subject to strong gravitational interactions with its companion galaxy. Countless stars are torn out of both galaxies and form extensive tidal tails. This #astrophotography image was made from 2.5h of data with my #Celestron #Origin in #Pixinsight.

Two interacting galaxies glow in the colors of young and hot blueish stars, the yellowish tone of old and mature stars and exhibit magenta colored blobs of of excited hydrogen atom nebulae.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Time for a late winter memory of my first deep sky object which I exposed for about 30 minutes with my #Celestron #Origin. The large Orion Nebula M42, birthplace for many new stars and planets, paints a fantastic landscape in the winter evening sky, where the eye can go for a walk. #astrophotography

M42 is a blue-red glowing emission nebula in the constellation orion, photographed with a Celestron Origin smart telescope.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

urmymuse @urmymuse.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Galaxy NGC 2403 "Mini Triangulum". 8 million light years away ! Shot from light polluted skies of east Leeds over the last two weeks of March. 16hrs 47mins of data used. #Astrophotography #Astronomy

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

In Globular star cluster M3, around 500,000 stars are crowding within just 125 light years. This #astrophotography image taken with my #Celestron #Origin lets you recognize a mixture of old, red giant stars and “blue stragglers”, which were formed by mass exchange or even mergers between two stars.

Globular star cluster with Messier 3 with hundreds of thousands stars, 34,000 light years from earth.

A close-up view of the globular cluster, where 500.000 stars are crowding within a shere of just 125 light yeras.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Star cluster NGC2244 formed only a few million years ago from the gas of the Rosette Nebula, which it now stimulates to glow from within with its radiation. 30min exposure with my #Celestron #Origin reveal a variety of nebula knots from which stars are still forming today. #astrophotography

A cluster of a few thousand stars imbedded in a colorful nebulosity in the constellation of Monoceros. Captured with the #Origin smart telescope by #Celestron.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Did you know how much of the power generation capacity added each year world-wide was in renewables? 2022 it was 80 % 2023 it was 86 % 2024 it was 92,5 % Not because the whole world suddenly turned „woke“, but because it’s the cheapest!

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The Mary Rose Museum @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked, "If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?" Allow our scaled diagram to explain...

A light blue diagram depicting the sea, with the water's surface at the top, and just below it is an outline of the Mary Rose, with the depth (12m, 40ft or 6.7 fathoms). There is a line showing the seabed, which takes a rapid dive into the vertical...

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

In the night of 10 to 11 April, asteroid (8) Flora passed over galaxy NGC 3628 (the ‘Hamburger Galaxy’), part of the Leo triplet. During the exposure of just over an hour with my #Celestron #Origin, the asteroid drew a small streak across the long axis of the galaxy. #astrophotography

Asteroid (8) Flora draws a short streak of light while it passes over galaxy NGC3628. A little over 1h of exposure with my #Celestron #Origin.

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Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Global trade news today and for the next few months

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Yesterday's result of approx. 1h data with my #Celestron #Origin: the Flame Star Nebula IC405. Conditions were very bad for #astrophotography: the misty sky in my mid-town garden was bright from the moon and IC405 was not high above the horizon. The #Origin continues to surprise me, though!

The "Flame Star Nebula" IC405. Approx. 1h of exposure with my Celestron origin, developed in Pixinsight.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Leo-1 is the most distant companion of the Milky Way at approx. 800,000LY. It resides only 12 arcminutes north of Regulus, which usually “drowns” the galaxy in its scattered light. Here, 100min worth of 10s subs from my #Celestron #Origin where stacked with a limiting magnitude of approx. 19mag.

The dwarf galaxy Leo-1 just 12 arc min north of the bright star Regulus as imaged with a Celestron Origin smart telescope. 600 subs of 10s where stacked resulting in a limiting magnitude of 19mag.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Andreas Didion @andreas1-stargazer.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

🌙✨ Moon-Pleiades Conjunction 2025 ✨🌌 On April 1, 2025, a rare celestial encounter took place: The waxing crescent Moon passed close to the open star cluster Pleiades (M45) in the constellation Taurus. #MoonPleiades #Plejaden #M45 #Astrophotography #SpaceLovers #SkyEvent #Canonr6m2 #Pixinsight

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Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Trump's foolishness has presented the perfect opportunity for cats and penguins to sign a trade deal - the fish will be ours!

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Jay in Kyiv @jayinkyiv.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

The two centuries of America being the world's primary destination for foreign capital and investment is over.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Philipp Kohlhoefer 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @philippkohlhoefer.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

April 2025, Sicherheitspolitische Situation in Europa, Symbolbild.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Improving the quality of star images is often neglected in the development of astrophotography images. Here is a detailed how-to for advanced image processing in #Pixinsight

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Florian Aigner @florianaigner.at · 22/03/2025

Wir sollten uns angewöhnen, die EU-Kommissionspräsidentin als "Leader of the Free World" zu bezeichnen, wie man das früher in Amerika mit dem US-Präsidenten gemacht hat.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Still improving my abilities to make visible color and structure over all intensity regimes in #Astrophotography. Here a newly processed #Pixinsight version of 5h hours data from the #Seestar S50 of my club buddy Michael Hübgen. Note how color and structure go till the center of M42, the trapezium.

The Great Orion Nebula M42 in a 5h exposure on a Seestar S50 smart telescope. A dramatic scene of chaotic nebulosities in reddish and blueish tones.

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