iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I went back and revisited the garlic nebula data I collected last year to try out some new approaches and techniques. I definitely was able to bring out a lot more of the oxygen this time. I’ll link the original version as a reply to this. #astrophotography #photography

A nebula image of contrasting reds and teals. The main focus of the image is on the central structure that resembles a garlic bulb. The left half of the object is largely teal while the right is red. The background is a blend of the two colors but far more subtle.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I saw this target on here a couple of weeks ago and had to try it for myself. This is LBN 534, it’s a cosmic check mark. This one was a lot of fun. I’ve got the itch for more targets like this. Maybe it’s time to revisit NGC1333 or something like that. #astrophotography #photography

A nebula picture of some cosmic space dust that formed the shape of a check mark. Through the brown and magenta cast body of the check, bright blue stars shine through giving it a ghostly glow.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Here's the North America nebula, the Pelican nebula, and the dark nebula LDN 935 in between them. This image is in SHO as I implied in my other post of the LRGB version. This is a little less data than I normally go for at just under 13 hours. I hope you enjoy! #astrophotography #photography

This image is composed of two major bright nebulae and a dark nebula that's separating them. This image is composed using the Hubble palette, which gives the overall nebula structure a strong contrast of golden oranges and light blues.

In this image the Pelican nebula is at the top right, while the North America nebula is on the left, with the Cygnus Wall at the bottom left corner of the image.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Here's the North America nebula, the Pelican nebula, and the dark nebula LDN 935 in between them. This one is in LRGB and was about 20 hours of data. I usually only go for SHO on this (you can guess what my next upload will be) but it was fun one to do it in LRGB. #astrophotography #photography

This image is composed of two major bright nebulae and a dark nebula that's separating them. This image is composed of the natural RGB spectrum, which gives the overall nebula structure a magenta/purple coloring, while the stars are a range of white, blue, and amber.

In this image the Pelican nebula is at the bottom left, while the North America nebula is on the right "upside down" from the stereotypical orientation, which leaves the Cygnus Wall at the top right.

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

ToonHive @toonhive.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Kiana Mai has released the fully animated and colored ‘Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl’ pilot on YouTube. Watch: youtu.be/6_7L80WaIuU?...

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

My dataset for LDN889 (and friends) completed last night so I took a first pass on it this afternoon. I think I'm going to reprocess it though. There are some things that I like and some things that I don't like about it. Either way... space stuff! #astrophotography #photography #space

LDN 889 is one of the dark nebulae focused at the center of the image. The image is a mixture of blue and gold with a well defined "canal" of darkness shooting up and to the right through the center.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Here's just about 27 hours of data on the Sagittarius Star Cloud. I saw a really cool HOO version of this on Telescopius and figured it would probably look cool in SHO. I'll probably take a stab at it in HOO tomorrow but for now I'm very happy with how this turned out. #astrophotography #photography

A nebula featuring a set of gradients from blue to green and then transitioning from green through yellow golds and ending in red. Centrally located in the frame are a pair of inky black dark nebula. Off to the right central portion of the frame, in the yellow-gold to red area of the gradient is dark ridge with wispy filaments of orange reaching back up towards the blues and down into the dark towards the edge of the frame.

The image is also host to a lot of stars. They pepper the entire frame, almost looking like someone came behind the painterly frame and blasted it with white spray paint.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Last winter, I spent some time collecting data on the Horsehead nebula but I didn't get around to playing with the narrowband data that I collected. So today I combined it in SHO and really like the results. It's got a very funky vibe to it. #astrophotography #photography #space

Running down and to the right across the frame is a bright ridge of gas. Above the ridge, flowing to the top and right of the frame the colors gradient from yellow into green before fading into the blue background. Below the ridge, the yellows turn to red-brown oranges. Midway down the ridge is a dark nebula in the shape of the silhouette of a horse's head.

On the left side of the frame is the flaming star nebula, which is a mostly magenta tinted white structure with dark banding running through it.

Dotted throughout the image are prominent stars, most of them are either richly blue in color while others are a deep purple.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I've been going through and reprocessing a lot of my data from earlier this year and realized I didn't do my M27 data. I suspect there are some interesting structures that could be pulled out of the background with more data, but that'll have to wait until next year. #astrophotography #photography

The dumbbell nebula is the only interesting object in the frame. It has a bright blue-white core. There are wing-like structures coming out of the left and right sides of the core that are primarily teal but have a red fringing to them.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I spent some time taking pictures of WR134 the other day. I tried processing in both SHO and HOO but just couldn't find a way to make the SHO work out in an aesthetically pleasing way. I might play around with this a bit more before I call it done. #astrophotography #photography

A photo of a nebula, predominantly filled with deep blood red, icy teals, and dark blue tinted blacks. Waves of red gas occupy the majority of the foreground of the frame but located in the center of the image is a teal and white circular structure with gas filaments reaching back in towards the small blue-white star at its center.

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

Aabria Iyengar @aabria.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Actual footage of me fielding any question in a D20 production meeting

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I've been chasing down guiding problems and various issues with the telescope for the last couple weeks. I've had to throw out a lot of data, but I was able to scrape together about 30 hours of narrowband data for the Crescent nebula. #astrophotography #photography

An image of the Crescent nebula and the surrounding gas fields. The Crescent nebula appears prominently in the center of the image as a pinkish red brain-like structure. It is immediately surrounded by a teal-blue shell of gas. Surrounding the Crescent are waves of red that play across the majority of the frame. To the left of the Crescent, across a starry region devoid of the red gas is a tiny bubble nebula. It is a nearly perfectly circular region of gas that is ghostly pink in front of the backing red.

A close crop of the Crescent nebula. The Crescent nebula appears prominently in the center of the image as a pinkish red brain-like structure. It is immediately surrounded by a teal-blue shell of gas. There are some of the backing red waves of gas that showed prominently throughout the wider version of this image, but it is far less and the star field is more prominently viewed in the closer view.

A cropped in image focusing on the bubble nebula. The bubble is a nearly perfectly circular region of gas that is ghostly pink in front of the backing red. The left side of the image has deep red gas clusters with some bok globules. The right is nearly devoid of the deep red gas with the stars prominently shining through.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I love how this picture of a grizzly turned out. It was just chilling in the pond, doing bear things and thinking bear thoughts. #photography #nature

A grizzly bear floating in a pond. Its paw is raised to its mouth making it look like the bear is deep in thought.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I went to Northwest Trek yesterday for the first time since I was a kid. It was pretty hot out so most of the animals were sleeping out trying to stay cool. These raccoons were pancaked out just being little cuties. #photography

A sunbathing raccoon laying on a broken log with its paw dangling down into the shade

A raccoon perched in a hole in a dead tree.

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 10/07/2026

US FCC: “let’s do a consultation on how the community feels about this” Community: “we hate it, don’t do it, it’s real bad, this will impact a lot of people — astronomers, biodiversity, Indigenous communities, more” x 1800 responses FCC: “lol, we don’t care. APPROVED.”

But to expand the technology, Reflect Orbital envisions operating over 50,000 satellites by 2035, effectively surrounding the Earth with a fleet of mirrors. The proposal has faced stiff pushback from environmental groups and astronomers concerned that the satellites will unleash intrusive light pollution. The opposition has been so strong that the FCC received over 1,800 public comments on the application, many of them objecting to Reflect Orbital’s plan for Earendil-1.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

NGC 6960 is one of the first narrowband targets that I captured back on my first telescope. I've always had a special place in my heart for this. So I figured it was time for a revisit. First up is the more popular HOO mapping. #astrophotography #photography

A nebula complex consisting primarily of red and teal colors. There are two primary objects in this image. On the left is Pickering's triangle. It is a mix of reds and blues and looks like waves of gasses are colliding together in a cosmic tide pool. From the bottom right of the triangle, a line of gasses continues out down and to the right across the whole frame. Above this line, in the top right of the frame, is the Veil Nebula. The Veil is often called the Witch's Broom. The blues in the veil twist and turn in a long line, almost looking like a twisted branch that could be used for a broom handle. Towards the bottom the blues fan out into a broom's bristle. All along the length of the broom are offshoots of red that wrap the blue core.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The other day I mentioned that I shot M106 and earlier this spring and forgot about it. I got to work on processing and here's the result. I still can't believe that I just forgot about 17 hours worth of data. Oh well, hopefully I don't misplace a dataset again. #astrophotography #photography

$A picture of space with a large spiral galaxy (M106) in the center. The galaxy has two distinct spiral arms and is fringed in blue starlight. The core of the galaxy has a warmer, redish hue to it. Surrounding the galaxy are other smaller galaxies that are scattered throughout the image. There are a few pronounced in the image with large diffraction spikes coming off of them.$

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I was going through targets to punch into target scheduler and thought, "I haven't done M106 in a while. Maybe I should point the scope at it for a bit". I guess I spent 18 hours looking at it in March. I can't believe I forgot about an entire project's dataset.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I don't remember how I came across the coordinates for Le Gentil 3, but I'm glad I did. Idk much about it but it's a cool bit of dark nebula with a super dense star field. I'm not sure if I'm done editing it or if I want to keep trying processing it. Thoughts? #astrophotography #photography

The center of the frame is dominated by a dark nebula, whose filaments stretch largely across the screen. The dark cuts through a very dense star field whose stars have an overall redish hue to them. Three stars with blue halos dominate the top left of the frame.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Here’s a 4 panel mosaic of the Elephant Trunk Nebula that I’ve been working on. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a mosaic and this was a fun one to brush off the cobwebs with. #astrophotography #photography #astronomy #space

Distinct layers of different colored gasses appear as you approach the edges of the frame. From the center, the colors progress from violet to blue then green and yellow before ending in an orange red shell before being replaced by the blackness of deeper space.
There are some sections of dark nebula throughout but the most prominent in the center bottom of the frame, it is the object most people refer to as the Elephant Trunk. It starts with a wall of bright bluish white wall against the dark orange-red of the dark nebula. The dark nebula continues down cutting through the gradients. Though the edges are far brighter than the background. Where there was green and yellow in the background you now have a golden glow. The elephant’s trunk ends at the edge of the larger complex, blending softly into the edge colors.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I’m finally editing some fresh space data again. I forgot what a pain in the ass mosaics can be though. Why did I decide to start the summer with a 2x2 and a 3x3???

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Apropos of nothing, I hope there's a hell. Anyway

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

Benthicben @benthicben.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

How big are Mina and Hornet anyway? Mina the Hollower accidentally digs up Hallownest's Princess. Scaling speculation in both size and combat abilities are very welcome! Who is having a boss fight and who is just getting annoyed?

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

Manuel Huss @manuelhuss.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Maybe one of my top 3 favorite deep-sky objects: (parts of) the Sadr nebula complex. 25 hours of exposure. Details & tech info: www.astrobin.com/xsvzqa/ #astrophotography

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

Yacht Club Games @yachtclubgames.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Mina the Hollower is OUT NOW!🐭🕯️ After 6 years of development, our fright-filled action-adventure is finally in your hands. Whip foes, burrow beneath danger, uncover secrets, and descend into Tenebrous Isle today. Thank you for joining us on this journey. ⚔️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQZM...

youtube.com

Mina the Hollower - Out Now!

YouTube video by Yacht Club Games

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

So I went and made a website for all of my astrophotography. It's slow going as I set it up but it's coming together. It should be better for viewing than bsky. jordanmaplesastro.photography. I need to redo some of the things like the tag line and description.

jordanmaplesastro.photography

Jordan Maples Astrophotography | Explore the Cosmos Today

Discover stunning astrophotography by Jordan Maples, capturing the cosmos from remote locations. Explore celestial images and photography projects today.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I saw a very photogenic crow while we were out on a walk today. I'm starting to learn how to use Darktable for non-astro stuff and it's a cool piece of software. It definitely has a steep learning curve but it's really satisfying to use. BTW I do have fresh space data coming up soon!

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

The weather down at Starfront has been pretty bad for the last month and a half so I guess that means it's time to reprocess some old data. First up is M31 the Andromeda Galaxy! Same data different processing in quote post. Let me know which you like more. #astrophotography #photography

$The Andromeda Galaxy stretches across the frame, starting at the bottom left and continuing all the way to the top right. It has a warm yellow glow throughout, however there are some variations of note: along the fringes of the galaxy are blue regions of stars, there are brighter red H2 regions also along the fringes of the disk and dotting the dust lanes, it has a brighter yellow/white core, and spiraling out from the core are the dust lanes. There are two smaller dwarf galaxies, one to the left of the core of Andromeda that touches the disk and the other is separate from the main body of Andromeda down and to the right of the galactic core. Additionally, there are a myriad of closer, colorful stars from the Milky Way dotting the frame. Some of these stars have diffraction spikes due to the way their brightness interacts with my Newtonian telescope..$

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Without saying your age, post your favorite film that released the year you turned 18

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Still haven’t figured out a workaround to get PixInsight to launch. My hope is that there’s a new nvidia driver soon and that is the actual fix. I don’t really want to have to work off of my MacBook or reinstall windows or something

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I updated my Nvidia drivers and PixInsight is just crashing on boot now... great. I was hoping to reprocess a couple shots from a couple months ago but I guess I just have to wait for a new driver to come out. Anyone else having issues with launching PI w/ nvidia-open-dkms 595.58.03-1?

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

M101 - The Pinwheel galaxy. I can see some artifacts that need to be cleaned up with more data. I'll probably need another 15-20 hours collecting data before I think I can truly give this target justice. We'll see if I can find time in the schedule. #astrophotography #photography

The Pinwheel galaxy, is aptly named. It is a head on view of a spiral galaxy whose many arms resemble those from a pinwheel. Its core is a yellow-red and blue arms spiral out with magenta pink dots along the lengths. Towards the core are subtle dark dust lanes that spiderweb out to the inner sections of the arms.

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I promise this is my last version upload of the Orion Nebula for the year (probably). I combined my 15 hours of narrowband and the 2 hours of broadband data into a single image. I spent a lot more time isolating the dust from the background. #photography #astrophotography

The Orion Nebula is in the center of the frame, it has a bright white core from where I overexposed the data. The center is surrounded by rich magentas and violet clouds with deep, dark dust lanes extending from the center. The Running Man is present in this frame as well, sitting just above and to the right of the Orion Nebula, it shares the majority of the same colors, but they are more subtle and the magenta reds hide behind the much paler violet blues

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Looks like my M101 finished capturing last night so it's time to preprocess. With any luck I'll have some time to give it a full process today.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Damn, I missed getting a screenshot at 666 followers.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

I spent a couple nights looking at the Whirlpool galaxy. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I had a blend of 3 min subs and 10 min subs on the luminance to try bring out as much of the shell as possible and I think it worked. #astrophotography #photography

The Whirlpool galaxy has a warm yellow/white core with two distinct, predominantly blue arms with red dust lanes running down the length. At the tip of the arm that ends on the left side of the frame is a dwarf galaxy whose stars appear to be flung away from its core and pulled into the Whirlpool galaxy itself.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I processed the Whale and Hockey Stick galaxies the other day. I love the colors that I was able to pull out in the whale. I think there’s the tiniest hint of IFN in the background, maybe I’ll come back and do some 10min subs on the lum to try pulling it out. #photography #astrophotography

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

The Jellyfish nebula in HOO. The signal in this one is pretty hard to tame. The Ha is just so strong compared to everything else. The SHO version kind of looked like radioactive mountain dew colored piss and I'd rather just spare you all from seeing that... unless.... #photography #astrophotography

A strikingly red nebula structure. The right side of the frame resembles a jellyfish with white tendrils evoking a jellyfish's tentacles. The left side of the red nebula has soft smooth gradients of red that are broken by deep, dark structures.

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Reposted by Jordan Maples

Kadath @kadath.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Can Nvidia just fuck off already?

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Bodes and Cigar galaxy, and a few other nearby neighbors. I really wanted to pull out as much of the IFN with this shot as possible. It's definitely a start, but one that requires a lot more attention than I gave it tonight. #photography #astrophotography

Bode's Galaxy is in the very center of the frame, it is a spiral galaxy with two distinct arms. These arms are blue with dots of magenta throughout. Above and to the right is the Cigar Galaxy. It's smaller than Bodes and is edge on to us, but, it does have red clouds jetting out from the center.

There is IFN (integrated flux nebula) throughout the frame. It appears as wispy greyish clouds that stand out from the background.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Here's the Leo Triplet to continue the galaxy season fun times. This is 10 hours of LRGB and 6.5 hours of HA. I think I can coax out some more subtle detail from this data, so don't be surprised if you see another edit from me in the next couple days/weeks. #photography #astrophotography

$The image consists of 3 galaxies. On the left is one nicknamed the Hamburger. The galaxy is edge-on towards us, so the dark dust lane facing us gives the impression of a burger patty smashed between the light "buns" that make up the rest of the galaxy. Up and to the right of the hamburger is a bright blueish star with diffraction spikes, but beyond that another galaxy (M66). M66's disk faces us at more of an angle, letting us see the dust lanes and some light differences between the spiral arms and the core. Below M66, however, is M55. M55 is far more top down to us, giving clear views of the spiral arms and giving the most color contrast of the three galaxies. There are blues and pinks areas of nebulosity along with the brown dust lanes that run along the lengths of the spiral arms.$

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I was checking out some of my Leo Triplet data and found a little object moving by the Hamburger. I couldn't figure out what it was so maybe some of you eagle eyed astronomers can figure out what it is. Taken on 3/12/26 around 9-11pm from Starfront. These are 180s subs.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

I got some LRGB data last night on M42. It's such a crazy bright target, this is only two hours of data with 30 second subs. I like how it all turned out. Next, I'm going to add in the NB images with this data and see how it all looks. #photography #astrophotography

The Orion nebula takes up the majority of the center of the frame. It consists of a bright white core and multiple shells of gas going up and away from it. The inner shell is a rosy-pink with a purplish blue shell above it. Below the central white core is a set of dark dust streams that shoot down and to the right. To the bottom left of the Orion Nebula core is the Running Man nebula. The running man has sections of soft blue white dust clouds in with deep purple red gas peaking out from behind.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Rosette nebula in SHO. I started collecting data on this back in November but I've finally finished acquisition. Between camera problems, bad weather, and the moon being completely in the way, this one took way longer to complete than I planned. #photography #astrophotography

The rosette nebula resembles a top down view of a flower. There is a dark center "pistil" that is largely void of colors. It is surrounded by "petals" that transition from deep-blue to a lighter blue. The petals are then fringed with golden-orange and red dust that continues out to the edges of the frame.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

I also processed an SHO version of the Orion Nebula. I know that HOO usually wins the show but I love how this one turned out. The blues, greens, and golds are just a wildly different view than you normally see for it and I'm here for it. #astrophotography #photography

An image of a large nebula structure that dominates the majority of the frame. There are two nebula in the structure: the Running Man, which is the smaller of the two and sits above and to the left of the larger Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula dominates the majority of the frame. It's shape consists of a teal-blue shell surrounding a greenish-gold center. Throughout the image are swirls of background dust, which contrast subtly against the deeper background of the night sky. There are some stars dotting throughout the image, but compared to the nebula they are lost in the background.

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Jordan Maples @maples-astro.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Here's an HOO look at the Orion Nebula (M42). I've been wanting to shoot this for years but never had a horizon line that would cooperate with me. #astrophotography #photography

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