Astrophotography by Paul Davis
The night sky,
a little closer.
Distant galaxies. Glowing nebulae.
Nineteen views from nights under the stars.
Select a photograph to see the full frame.
NGC 7380 · The Wizard Nebula in SHO
Two nights at Jordan Lake, North Carolina, October 6–7 and 7–8, 2026. I chose the wider frame to keep the Wizard in its surrounding star field and faint clouds. Askar 120APO with 0.8× reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC Air and AM5N mount, Askar Super D1/D2 filters and separate UV/IR-cut broadband stars. D1: 30 × 300 s; D2: 30 × 300 s; broadband stars: 40 × 30 s. Total integration: 5 hours 20 minutes, Bortle 5, gain 100, offset 50, −10°C. Stacked in Siril with the NaZtronomy workflow; GraXpert background extraction; PixInsight alignment, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator and NoiseXTerminator. Sulfur maps to red, hydrogen to green and oxygen to blue. Broadband stars calibrated with SPCC and recombined. A localized star-removal residual was corrected in the final image.
Capture details on AstroBinNGC 7023 · The Iris Nebula
Two nights at Jordan Lake, hundreds of short exposures, and a blue Iris emerging from a field of dark dust. Captured with my Seestar S30 Pro from the Big Woods Road area at Jordan Lake, North Carolina, over October 6–7 and October 7–8, 2026. The finished stack combines 722 thirty-second broadband exposures: 6 hours and 1 minute of collected light under Bortle 5 skies. Capture: Seestar S30 Pro • IRCUT filter • gain 200 Processing: Siril with the NaZtronomy Smart Telescope script and 1× drizzle, crop, plate solving and SPCC; GraXpert background extraction; PixInsight with BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator, MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch and gentle local contrast. Stars processed separately and recombined.
Capture details on AstroBinHH 555 · A closer look at my Pelican Nebula image
A 2× crop of my original Pelican Nebula telescope photograph, with labels, a circle and a pointer marking the HH 555 region. The sky, stars and nebula detail are from my own photograph, not AI-generated. HH 555 is associated with an outflow from a young star hidden in dust at the tip of the pillar. Planets and a planetary disk are not resolved here. Captured October 1–2, 2026, at Big Woods, Jordan Lake, North Carolina.
NGC 7000 · A different view of North America
This is the North America Nebula (NGC 7000 / Caldwell 20), captured with my little Seestar S30 Pro from the Big Woods Road area at Jordan Lake, North Carolina, on the night of October 1–2, 2026. The finished image combines 325 thirty-second exposures—2 hours, 42 minutes and 30 seconds of collected light. What started as a faint, crowded star field became this sweep of glowing gas and dark dust. I tried both portrait and landscape, and the landscape version won me over. The bright rim pulls my eye across the image, while the dark dust gives it depth. Turning the frame gave a familiar target a different feel. About a year and a half into astrophotography, I’m still enjoying how much there is to learn—from capturing the light to deciding when to stop processing and let the image speak for itself. Capture: Seestar S30 Pro • 325 × 30 s • IR-cut filter, LP filter off • Bortle 5 Processing: Siril stacking and SPCC; PixInsight with GraXpert, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch and StarXTerminator, followed by selective contrast, color and background adjustments. Probably Out of Focus https://probablyoutoffocus.com/gallery#north-america-seestar
IC 5070 · The Pelican Nebula in SHO
My first SHO image, a year and a half into astrophotography. Captured October 1–2, 2026, from the Big Woods Road area at Jordan Lake, North Carolina, roughly 9 p.m.–2 a.m. Askar 120APO with 0.8× reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC Air and AM5N mount, and Askar Super D1/D2 filters. Total integration: 3 hours 55 minutes (D1: 27 × 300 s; D2: 20 × 300 s), gain 100, offset 50, −10°C, with separate flats and matching dark flats. Stacked in Siril using the NaZtronomy workflow and processed in PixInsight with BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator and MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch. Sulfur maps to red, hydrogen to green and oxygen to blue in this false-color narrowband palette.
The Veil Nebula
Twenty five-minute exposures under Bortle 3 skies: 1 hour 40 minutes of light, captured with my Askar 120APO and ASI2600MC AIR.
Capture details on AstroBinM51 · The Whirlpool Galaxy
Four hours with an Askar 120APO and ASI2600MC AIR. Hydrogen-alpha adds the red emission regions scattered through the blue spiral arms.
Capture details on AstroBinM81 & M82
Three hours from my Bortle 6 backyard under a bright Moon, combining broadband and Ha/OIII exposures with an Askar V and ASI2600MC AIR.
Capture details on AstroBinThe Rosette Nebula
A cloud of glowing gas wrapped around a young star cluster.
The Jellyfish Nebula
One hundred five-minute exposures from my light-polluted backyard. Eight hours and twenty minutes with an Askar V, ASI2600MC AIR, and ColorMagic D1 filter.
Capture details on AstroBinThe Andromeda Galaxy
Sweeping dust lanes and satellite galaxies in our galactic neighbor.
The Christmas Tree Nebula
A young star cluster set in the glowing clouds of NGC 2264.
Capture details on AstroBinThe Bubble Nebula
A tiny bubble, a crowded star field, and plenty to get lost in.
The Leo Triplet
Three galaxies sharing one frame, each with a different shape.
Capture details on AstroBinThe Milky Way at Staunton River
Fifty seconds of light above the trees at Staunton River State Park, Virginia. Captured with the Seestar S30 Pro wide camera and processed in Lightroom and PixInsight.
Capture details on AstroBinLagoon & Trifid
Two glowing nebulae together in a rich summer star field.
The Elephant’s Trunk
A dark finger of dust silhouetted against faint glowing gas.
The Pinwheel Galaxy
A distant spiral framed by a wide field of stars.
Summer star fields
Small islands of glowing gas in a vast field of stars.