This month's picks of the very best astrophotos.

The Crescent Nebula

GORDON HAYNES

HEREFORD, JULY 2010 

Gordon says: "I like the contrast of the blue of the crescent compared to the reddish colours of the surrounding hydrogen clouds, which helps to highlight the different gases present. The wide-field view afforded by my equipment gives more context to the size of the Crescent compared to its surroundings."

Equipment: Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor with a Starlight Xpress SXVF-H36 CCD camera on a Paramount ME mount.

Sky at Night Magazine says: "The vibrancy of Gordon's imoge is wonderful. We love the great detail seen in the tendrils af faint and tenuous gas surrounding the Crescent."

The Crescent Nebula

 

 

 

 

The North American Nebula

IAN DUNBAR

SALISBURY, AUGUST 2010 

Ian says: "I particularly like the backdrop of a moss of Milky Way stars and the intricacies of the dark dust threads that weave their way through the bright nebulae. It's a beautiful area of the sky."

Equipment: William Optics ZS80FD refractor with a modified and cooled Canon EOS 4500 DSLR camera mounted on an EQ6 mount.

The North American Nebula

 

 

The Moon

PETROS OIAMANTOPOULOS

LOUTRAKI, GREECE, 31 JULY 2010 

Petros says: "I don't usually do any astrophotography when the Moon is up. This time, however, I decided to try something different and used my CCO camera to capture the Moon. After experimenting with various filters and exposure times I took this image through a hydrogen alpha filter."

Equipment: Takahashi TOA-130 refractor and an SBIG ST-2000XM CCO camera on an Astro-Physics 1200GTO mount.

The Moon

 

The Milky Way and the Aurora

FREORIK BROMS

KVALOYA, NORTHERN NORWAY, 23 OCTOBER 2009

Fredrik says: "With this wide-angle shot I wanted to capture the feeling of escaping a light-polluted place. I am very fond of the feeling of silence that I feel I have been able to capture in this image”.

Equipment: Nikon 03 OSLR camera with an AF-Nikon 20mm lens on an AstroTrac TT320X mount.

 

 

The Milky Way and the Aurora

Stars in Motion

MIGUEL CLARO

VILA BOIM, PORTUGAL, 19 JULY 2010

Miguel says: "To record the motion of the stars in the region of the celestial pole, I stocked 328 images, each a 30-second exposure. It was the longest exposure I've done so far, a total integration of 2 hours 44 minutes. The 1ight drawings' were made with a red and while lantern when I passed by."

Equipment: Canon EOS SOD OSLR camera with a Sigma EX HSM 10mm lens.

Stars in Motion

 

Jupiter and moons

MARC DELCROIX

TOURNEFEUIL1E, FRANCE, 8 JULY 2010 

Marc says: "This image is a montage of Jupiter's moons in IR and Jupiter in RGB. From left to right you can see 10, Jupiter, Europa and Ganymede (with Golileo Regia)."

Equipment: Meade LX200 254mm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a 2x Barlow lens and a Lumenera SKYnyx 2-0M camera.

Jupiter and moons