iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Imaged the Eagle Nebula on my #seestar S50 after a bit of a break due to never ending clouds. I have some more to process during this next week of rain in Central Texas #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Space www.justinthedark.com <- More details on my blog!

A deep-sky astrophotograph of the Eagle Nebula (M16) fills the frame against a dense field of stars. At the center, the bright blue-white glow of the young star cluster illuminates surrounding clouds of gas and dust. Dark, finger-like pillars of dense interstellar material—home to ongoing star formation—extend upward from the nebula’s core, silhouetted against the glowing gas. Reddish-brown hydrogen emission forms sweeping, irregular arcs around the central region, fading into the surrounding darkness of space. Thousands of pinpoint stars are scattered across the background, adding depth and scale to the expansive nebula.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I targeted the Flaming Star Nebula (IC405) this week over the course of two nights. This late in the season, I only get about 4-hour windows before the trees play goalie. The Crab Nebula is next on my list! #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Space www.justinthedark.com <- More details on my blog!

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

If you haven’t tried this script, you should! It can help you take your smart telescope photos to the next level!

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

For this image of the Tadpoles (IC410), there were high-level wispy clouds rolling in and out throughout the night while imaging. The clouds certainly softened the image, but still a decent result! #astrophotography #astronomy #space www.justinthedark.com <- More details on my blog!

Deep-space image of the Tadpoles Nebula (IC 410) set against a dense, black starfield. A large, irregular cloud of glowing gas fills the center, with soft blue light dominating the middle and warm amber and rust-colored edges surrounding it. Dark, smoky dust lanes twist through the bright core, creating high contrast patches that look like shadowy tendrils. Faint stars are scattered across the entire background, while the nebula’s wispy outer edges fade gradually into the surrounding darkness.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

This image of the Horsehead Nebula marks the start of my sixth year as an astrophotographer, and I am filled with immense pride. It serves as a reminder of the progress I have made and the vast expanse of knowledge that still awaits me. #astrophotography #astronomy #space www.justinthedark.com

A deep-space photograph of the Horsehead Nebula shows a dark, horse-shaped silhouette rising from a glowing band of red and pink gas that stretches diagonally across the image. Wispy clouds of illuminated hydrogen surround the dark dust, with a bright bluish star nearby and countless small white stars scattered across a black background, creating a dramatic contrast between glowing gas and shadowed space.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I took another shot at the Orion Nebula for the 2026 season, but this time I brought out my full astro rig rather than a smart scope. You can read more including my processing sets at my blog. Let me know how you'd improve this image! #astrophotography #astronomy #space www.justinthedark.com

A wide, detailed view of the Orion Nebula showing swirling clouds of glowing gas and dust in soft blues, golds, purples, and reddish browns. At the center, a bright, misty core surrounds a cluster of young stars, while darker dust lanes cut through the luminous nebula. Scattered white stars dot the black background of space, giving depth and scale to the scene.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Horsehead Nebula (IC434) A filter mix-up on my #seestar S50 left me with broadband + narrowband data, so I combined them instead of tossing 1,000 subs. This is a total of 2008 x 20 second subs. #astrophotography #astronomy #space www.justinthedark.com

The Horsehead Nebula appears as a dark, horse-shaped silhouette cutting into a glowing red cloud of hydrogen gas, surrounded by faint blue and gold stars scattered across the winter night sky.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Last week I used my #dwarf3 to photograph the Orion Nebula. I love imaging Orion as it takes me back to my very first Astro shot in 2021. I processed the 2008x15 second subs in PixInsight. #astronomy #astrophotography #space #dwarflabs

Image of the Orion Nebula with bright clouds of dust surrounding a bright core of young stars.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I’ve got the whole family out imaging tonight! We’ve had 3 clear nights in a row, so I’ve got a ton of data to process this week. #astronomy #astrophotography #seestar #dwarflabs

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Just post this new image and detail of the Pacman Nebula (NGC281) on my astro blog! I had a fun time processing this breaking out the Ha and OIII with DBXtract in #PixInsight. #astronomy #astrophotography #space www.justinthedark.com

Photo of the Pacman Nebula (NGC281). This is a wide-field astrophotography image of a glowing emission nebula floating in a dense star field. At the center is a bright, bluish-white core surrounded by soft clouds of gold, amber, and faint red gas, with dark, jagged dust lanes cutting through the light like silhouettes.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

First take on the Pleiades (M45) for the season using my Apertura 60EDR and ZWO ASI533MC. I had cool experience with a Chinese rocket body photobombing my image during shooting. You can read more on my blog. Astro Blog: justinthedark.com #astrophotography #astronomy #ZWO #Apertura

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Just finished processing my latest image of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) using Siril & PixInsight. Shot on my #Dwarf3. Other than some weird color banding I like the results. More details on my blog: justinthedark.com #astronomy #astrophotography #Dwarflabs

Photo of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) taken from my backyard in Georgetown, Texas (Bortle 5) on 12/07/2025. The photo is a stack of 400 x 30 second subframes stacked in Siril using Natztronomy's smart telescope script and narrowband processed in PixInight. Images were captured on a Seestar S50 Smart Telescope. Moon illuminated 88%, clear skies, 35F, light winds.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

I took the #seestar S50 for a run this week and imaged the Triangulum Galaxy for 4 hours. I’ve also started a new blog at www.justinthedark.com if you want to read more. I plan to write about astronomy and astrophotography of course. #astronomy #astrophotography #space

Photo of the Triangulum Galaxy taken from my backyard in Georgetown, Texas (Bortle 5) on 12/07/2025. The photo is a stack of 483 x 20 second subframes stacked in Siril using Natztronomy's smart telescope script and broadband processed in PixInight. Images were captured on a Seestar S50 Smart Telescope. Moon illuminated 88%, clear skies, 35F, light winds.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Took my #Dwarf3 to Breckenridge for Thanksgiving and tried imaging M31 in the freezing cold. 185 subs later, I think the Andromeda shot turned out awesome. Shout out to @naztronomy.com and his amazing Siril script for smart telescopes. #astrophotography #astronomy #space

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Talk about #astrophotography! It’s been cloudy for what seems like months, but at least we just got our space selfie back from Crunch Labs! space.crunchlabs.com/selfie/aODjoYV #astronomy #space

A selfie from the GUS satellite by Crunch Labs featuring a screen with a family photo with the earth as the backdrop.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Sometimes there’s a steep learning curve to #astrophotography. Last night was a struggle to focus my Sky-Watcher 127 to my new ASI662MC. This only compounded by my complete inability to plate solve, so I could only rely on manual polar alignment. I guess it’s to the YouTubes. #astronomy #space

A photo of the Tycho crater in the southern hemisphere of the moon.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

First light for my new #Dwarf3 smart telescope. It was easy to navigate the app and polar align the scope. I left it out for a total of 5.45 hours of integration with no problems and only 6 rejected subs. This thing will shine when summer targets are back! #astrophotography #astronomy #space

Image of the Whirlpool galaxy on the backdrop of the darkness of space dotted with stars.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

I imaged my first globular cluster of the year! The M3 cluster is one of the largest and brightest and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 11.4 billion years old and roughly 32,600 light-years from Earth. #astrophotography #astronomy #space

An image of the M3 globular cluster. A spherical shape grouping of 500,000 stars.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

We had quite a bit of cloud cover last night, but my little #Seestar tried its best to capture the Blood Moon. Here’s a timelapse of the evening on 20 second intervals #astrophotography #astronomy #space

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

I took a two minute video on my #seestar in raw and stacked the video in ASI Studio - Planetary Stacker as a bit of practice for tomorrow. Fingers crossed for clear skies! #astrophotography #astronomy #moon

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been swamped at work and needed a little break from social media. Here’s 8 hours of integration on Markarian’s Chain from my #Seestar S50. I’ve been working on some other multi-night images and will post soon. #astrophotography #astronomy #space

An image of collection of galaxies group together call the Markarian’s Chain.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

There has been an abundance of clouds over the last two weeks hampering any real astronomy time. However, I brought some telescopes to my kid’s school for their STEM night! We took these photos on my #Seestar S50 while waiting for it to get dark. #astronomy #astrophotography #space

A photo of the sun setting behind tree branches.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Just going to post this here if you’re looking for different scientific lists to follow on Bluesky! Happy Reading. blueskydirectory.com/lists/all?q=...

blueskydirectory.com

Bluesky Lists - Bluesky Directory

Browse a list of Bluesky Lists

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

“Fifty years ago, on February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.” This is a quick and inspiring read that will make you want to cherish and protect our precious planet even more. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/77201...

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

What did John Glenn see?

Fifty years ago today, the first American to orbit the planet took this photo of home.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

I highly encourage everyone with an iOS device to pre-order the Flashes app. It’s a phenomenal instagram replacement based on Bluesky. I’ve been beta testing it and each update has been better than the previous. Android users, the sole freelance developer has stated your time will come!

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Anyone have any ideas on the best way to print and display #astrophotography? Does anyone have any examples of custom backlit printed astro work?

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

I shot Bode’s Galaxy as the first DSO target for my Skymax 127mm. It appears this focal length really shows the backlash from my SA GTi. I guess more fine tuning is needed. This was 4 hours of 1 min subs. #astrophotography #astronomy #space

A bright spiral galaxy, M81 (Bode’s Galaxy), with a glowing white core and sweeping blue-tinged spiral arms, set against a dark star-speckled background.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Finally some clear skies and calm winds tonight! After a week of clouds and rain we had clear skies last night, but it was so windy I thought it was going to blow over my telescope. Whomp whomp. I’m thinking the Jellyfish Nebula for the Seestar and maybe Bode’s Galaxy for the Skymax 127.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day, Bluesky! To celebrate, here’s an image I took of the Heart Nebula. I hope your day is as beautiful as this region of space. #astrophotography #astronomy #space #valentinesday

The image shows the Heart Nebula named for its heart-like shape, composed of glowing gas and dust set against a backdrop of countless stars. The nebula exhibits warm golden hues along its edges, contrasting with cooler blue tones in its interior. Bright clusters of young stars are visible within, illuminating the surrounding cosmic clouds. The structure appears wispy and intricate, with dark voids and filaments weaving through the luminous gas.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

It’s been cloudy and raining all week so I went back and reprocessed an old stack of M33 the Triangulum Galaxy. I guess we call this an official #TBT. #astrophotography #astronomy #space #seestar

The image shows the Triangulum Galaxy with a bright, dense core and swirling arms extending outward, set against a dark background filled with numerous stars. The galaxy exhibits a mix of white, blue, and faint pink hues, indicating regions of active star formation and older star populations. The structure appears slightly irregular, with scattered bright spots within its arms.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Maybe if we all get on that Mediterranean diet we can live long enough to see it again. lol (Edited 1:42 PM via @skeetsapp.com)

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

IC 405 - The Flaming Star Nebula This proved to be a difficult target to image with the #Seestar. I totaled 3 hours of integration on this target with 1100 x 10 second sub frames. Processed in #PixInsight #Astrophotography #astronomy #space

A photo of the Flaming Star Nebula taken on a Seestar S50.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

First light for my new Skymax 127mm telescope with an ASI533MC-Pro camera. I’ve never done planetary imaging before so I’ve got a huge learning curve. I also know the focus wasn’t great but I’m still really excited! #astrophotography #astronomy #space #moon #jupiter

Image of the moon taken on a Skymax 127mm telescope and ASI533MC-Pro camera.

Image of Jupiter taken on a Skymax 127mm telescope and ASI533MC-Pro camera.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

My first shots of #galaxy season! Here’s M81 Bode’s Galaxy and M82 the Cigar Galaxy as shot on my #Seestar S50. This is just a quick 3 hour shot processed in #PixInsight. #astrophotography #astronomy #space

A photo of two galaxies. M81 Bode’s Galaxy and M82 the Cigar Galaxy.

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Reposted by Justin the Dark

Flashes App 🌩️ @flashes.blue · 05/02/2025

Let's go!!! 🚀 Here's a link to the Open Beta for Flashes (iOS-only for now)

testflight.apple.com

Join the Flashes for Bluesky beta

Available on iOS

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

I spent the last two week (between clouds) shooting a total of 12 hours of integration on the Orion Nebula with my #seestar S50 and processed in #PixInsight. I think this will do for 2025 and will revisit Orion next year. #astrophotography #space #astronomy

A picture of M42 The Great Orion Nebula imaged on a Seestar S50 smart telescope in mosaic mode. The image is a stack of 12 hours worth of 10 second sub frames combined and weighted together and processed in a dedicated astronomy suite called PixInsight.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

I’ve got my #seestar imaging the heart nebula for a fun Valentine’s Day project. However, I had to take a quick shot of the moon. Venus and the Moon look splendid next to each other this evening. #astrophotography

A single shot of the moon 13% illuminated in a waxing crescent phase.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Just ordered a Sky-Watcher Skymax 127 mm Maksutov-Cassegrain! I’ve always imaged deep sky objects, but this will be my first step into planetary imaging. I’m also very excited to use it for visual #astronomy outreach. It looks like it will be handy for galaxy season too. #astrophotography

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This is pretty neat! I’ve done star trails photos in the northern hemisphere, but never thought about what it would look like at the equator.

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

I’ve been adding to my count of M42 subs from my #seestar. This was from a couple weeks ago with just 4 hours of integration. I’ve got another 12 hour stacking now! Can’t wait to process the results. #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social #astronomy #space #science #space

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Here’s my attempt at the Monkey Head Nebula shot on my #seestar S50 over two nights on Jan 19-20 for a total integration of 4 hours. I ran it through a narrowband normalization with an HOO palette in #Pixinsight. #astronomy #astrophotography #deepsky #space #zwo

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I finished this 6 hour mosaic of the Horsehead and Flame nebulae 2 weeks ago on my #seestar and processed in #PixInsight. This is always a tough target for me, but I think this one came out ok. #astrophotography #astronomy #space #zwo #deepsky

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Rosette Nebula I took this over 4 nights with my #Seestar S50. I stacked 3636 x 10 second subframes in PixInsight for a total of 10 hours of integration. Then I followed my standard dual-band processing. It’s impressive what you can get from this telescope. #astrophotography #astronomy #space

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Justin the Dark @justinthedark.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Hello world. Making the switch from Meta to Bluesky! We’ll see how this goes.

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