Best Astrophotos Of The Midsummer: Trifid Nebula, Messier 20, And Cygnus Constellation As You’ve Never Seen!

The second week of July 2024 turned out to be hot, not only in terms of temperature across our planet but also in terms of the impressive showcase of celestial spectacles visible in the night sky. Stargazers and astrophotographers were treated to a breathtaking display, from the Trifid Nebula, Messier 20, and NGC 6514 to the Cygnus constellation, the Sagittarius Star, and much more.

In our weekly collection, we once again gathered the best astrophotos kindly shared by astrophotographers on social media. All original captions have been preserved.

Join us to explore the celestial wonders of midsummer and enjoy the most beautiful shots!

The Fireworks Galaxy By Kevin Offley

“NGC 6946 – The Fireworks Galaxy. 1426 x 20 seconds, but after Pixinsight, WBPP had rejected those of insufficient quality, 1259 x 20 seconds, so 7 hours. Taken over 4 nights in June in the east of England, UK, under Bortle 5 skies with Seestar S50. It’s rare in the UK to have 4 clear nights in a row! The image was processed entirely in Pixinsight,” the author has commented on his photo.

“NGC 6946 is 25.2 million light-years away on the boundary between Cepheus and Cygnus. It’s heavily obscured by interstellar matter due to its location close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way. This makes it quite a tricky image to capture and process. Apart from NGC 3690, more supernovae have been seen than in other galaxies. Ten supernovae have been observed in the 20th century and 21st century so far.”

Cygnus Loop Region By Walter Watson

“Here are my photos of the popular Cygnus Loop region. The photo of the entire loop is a mosaic of photos I collected while exploring the region. Each photo has an exposure period of 5 minutes, and I collected 8 or so frames for each region fighting trees, clouds, and short nights,” the photographer has commented.

Milky Way By Luke Beal

At this time of the year, the Milky Way is clearly visible, stretching majestically across the heavens.

Moon By Giorgio Di Scala

“Today’s 7-day-old moon. These are some of the sharpest images I’ve taken to date. Zoom in for the best views,” the author has written.

Sagittarius Star Cloud By Claudio Costa

“Sagittarius Star Cloud (namely M24): from moderately polluted skies here in Terracina. 2024-07-07, UTC 21:33-22:24. William Optics Redcat 71, QHY268c, Rainbow Astro RST-135 mount, 375x8s exposures taken with LiveStack feature of SharpCap Pro. Dark frame applied but no flat. No filters. Processed with Nebulosity 4, Iris (for gradient removal), Win10 Photo Editor and Canon Digital Photo Editor,” the photographer has commented on his image.

NGC7000 nebulae By Sławomir Wesołowski

“Due to the weather, I still don’t have much opportunity for live sky hunting, so I made a mosaic again from collected early fragments of the NGC7000 nebulae in North America, which is about 2,000 light-years away from Earth. I think that as I gain more knowledge and experience, I will be able to present even nicer portraits of cosmic phenomena in the future,” the artist has shared.

“Process details:

Seastar: 1574 × 10 seconds light in total

Siril, a mosaic script

Graxpert

StarSpikes

Photo editing apps,” he added.

The Flashing Planetary Nebula By Yanick Brassard

The details on this stunning Flashing Planetary Nebula (NGC6826) shared by the photographer:
“Done on 01-07-2024
Antlia ALP 2″ Filter in H-Alpha, OIII= 47 Images
Gain 120 of 300 seconds of exposure
Asiair Pro in Autorun mode
Askar FRA600 Telescope With Askar 0.7X Full Frame Reducer
Zwo Asi533 MC-Pro imaging camera cooled to -15.
SVBONY SV198 50mm Guide Scope with 206.6mm Focal
Zwo Asi Mini 120 MM Guidance Camera
SkyWatcher HEQ6-R Pro Temporary Mount
Without DOF
PixInsight and PhotoShop.”

Trifid Nebula, Messier 20, NGC 6514 By Mert Yılmaz

“Region of intense star formation, emission nebula, reflection nebula, and dark nebula, located about 5200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The dark nebula that gives the nebula its three-piece appearance is named Barnard 85. I shot it with L-extreme and UV/IR filter and processed it as RGB,” Mert Yılmaz has written and added other details:

“Equipment I use:

• Celestron 9.25 SCT
• Celestron CGX mount
• Zwo Asi 2600mc pro
• Celestron focal reducer 0.63
• Celestron OAG
• Celestron dew shield
• Zwo Asi 174mm mini guide camera
• Optolong L-extreme filter 2″
• Zwo UV/IR filter 2″
• Zwo Asiair plus

Software I use;
Zwo Asiair plus 2.1.5(11.08), Astro Pixel Processor (2.0.0-beta29), PS (beta), Topaz Denoise AI

Technical information:

• F6.3, gain101, bin1, -10°C
• Light 81 x 120″, dark 15, flat 25, dark flat 15 L-extreme
• Light 116 x 30″, dark 20, flat 35, dark flat 15 UV/IR
• Total exposure time – 3.28 hours
• Küçükyalı, Maltepe, Istanbul, Türkiye
• Bortle – 9
• 30 June, 1, 5 July 2024.”

Milky Way By Maria Spindler

“Stayed on the banks of the Murray River, Mildura, Australia 8 July 2024 and had perfect conditions to capture the Milky Way,” the author has commented on this shot.

“Lots of airglow (couldn’t see with the naked eye) which made for beautiful colours once the photo was processed.

Canon EOS R6, Lens 14mm-35mm at various settings. All on 30-second exposure, single shots.”

M16 The Eagle Nebula By Marcus Kinsey

Here is how the photographer described this beautiful shot: “The reason I wanted to get into the hobby! Being in the Midlands UK, this is very, very low on the horizon. Shot under 75% moon. I will definitely be adding as much more data to this as possible by making it my sole target for the summer and processing it towards the Hubble palette look!

• RVO Horizon 72ed
• Celestron AVX
• Asi 533mc pro
• Optolong L-enhance
• 27x 4 minute lights
• 20 flats
• 20 darks
• 40 bias
• Stacked and processed entirely within siril.”

NGC 6914 In Cygnus By Tommy Lease

“This is approximately 22 hours of HaLRGB data from two cameras and two different telescopes,” the photographer has written. “The Ha and Lum data from my ASI2600MM-Pro and 10-inch Newtonian and Starizona Nexus reducer, then the RGB data ASI2600MM-Pro and 8-inch Newtonian and Skywatcher Quattro CC. This was quite a challenge to process this image, but I am very pleased with the results!

Frames:
Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm: 90×180″(4h 30′)
Antlia V-Pro Lum 36 mm: 185×120″(6h 10′)
Antlia V-Pro Blue 36 mm: 110×120″(3h 40′)
Antlia V-Pro Green 36 mm: 110×120″(3h 40′)
Antlia V-Pro Red 36 mm: 110×120″(3h 40′)
Integration:
21h 40′

This image was taken from 7/3/24 to 7/6/24 from my Bortle 4 backyard in Elizabeth, Colorado.”

Thank you to all the photographers who shared their amazing images for our best astrophotos of the week list! We greatly appreciate your dedication and passion for astrophotography and wish you clear skies for your future captures!