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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →EarthSky’s October 14, 2026 Today’s Image gallery collects community astrophotography made during September. Armando Caussade’s selection moves from emission and reflection nebulae to distant galaxies, then focuses on NGC 7331 and the newly reported Type Ia supernova SN 2026aaiv. The images show what can be achieved with smart telescopes, a backyard wide-field rig, narrow-band filters and patient, multi-night stacking.
What the September gallery contains
The gallery is organized around three themes: diffuse nebulae, distant galaxies and a dedicated NGC 7331 section featuring SN 2026aaiv. Contributors worked from Egypt, the United States and other locations, often using ordinary home settings rather than remote observatories. Their captions also reveal how acquisition time and processing choices shaped the final images.
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| Target | Object class | Capture and processing details | Human setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pleiades | Open star cluster with reflection nebulosity | Smart telescope; captured September 15 | Egypt |
| WR134 region | Wolf-Rayet nebulae | Wide-field deep-sky rig over three nights | Backyard in Eden, New York |
| NGC 6960 (Western Veil) | Supernova-remnant filament | Smart telescope; about 15 hours over five nights | Backyard in Harrisburg, Illinois |
| Wizard Nebula | Emission nebula | Narrow-band filters used to separate emissions and create color | Near Cotopaxi, Colorado |
| IC 1805 and IC 1848 | Emission nebulae | Smart telescope; processing balanced hydrogen-alpha and oxygen III detail | Assiut, Egypt |
| Messier 74 | Face-on spiral galaxy | 134 five-minute frames, stacked to a little over 11 hours across four nights | Cambria, California |
| Andromeda (M31) | Spiral galaxy | Deep-sky imaging from clear, dark skies | Garage roof in Newport, Oregon |
| NGC 7331 with SN 2026aaiv | Spiral-galaxy host and transient supernova | Multiple contributors documented the event and its sudden appearance | Community submissions |
Nebula photographs: filters, smart telescopes and long integrations
Pleiades: blue reflection nebulosity
Muhammad Alaa photographed the Pleiades from Egypt on September 15 with a smart telescope. His description emphasizes the cluster’s blue reflection nebulosity—the dust around the stars shines by reflecting starlight rather than producing its own visible emission. The result is a reminder that a compact, familiar target can still reward wide-field framing and careful processing.
WR134: an extreme Wolf-Rayet star
Ernest Jacobs photographed the nebulae around WR134 from Eden, New York, using a backyard wide-field deep-sky imaging rig over three nights. EarthSky’s quoted technical context identifies WR134, also called V1769 Cyg, as a massive Wolf-Rayet star in a late, rapidly shedding stage of stellar evolution. The caption gives a surface temperature of about 63,000 K, a luminosity roughly 400,000 times that of the Sun and a distance of about 6,000 light-years in Cygnus.
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Western Veil Nebula: five nights on NGC 6960
Cody Sandusky used a smart telescope in Harrisburg, Illinois, to image NGC 6960 on September 15. He accumulated approximately 15 hours of integration over five nights from his backyard. That schedule illustrates why faint supernova-remnant filaments benefit from repeated sessions: more total exposure can reveal delicate structure while allowing individual frames affected by clouds, tracking errors or aircraft to be rejected.
Wizard Nebula: what narrow-band filters change
Andy Dungan’s Wizard Nebula image near Cotopaxi, Colorado, provides the clearest equipment lesson in the gallery. He wrote that an earlier attempt was “basically a red blob,” while narrow-band filters revealed more information and enabled more distinctive color. Such filters isolate emission wavelengths, helping astrophotographers separate structures that broad RGB exposures can blend together. They are especially useful for nebulae rich in hydrogen-alpha and oxygen III emissions.
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Heart and Soul: preserving emission detail
Muhammad Alaa captured IC 1805 (the Heart Nebula) and IC 1848 (the Soul Nebula) in Cassiopeia on September 24 with a smart telescope. He describes both as emission nebulae and notes that processing was difficult: hydrogen-alpha and oxygen III had to be brought out without destroying natural structure and fine detail. This is a processing trade-off, not simply a matter of increasing saturation; aggressive color separation can make faint boundaries obvious while making the image look less natural.
Galaxy images: stacking turns hours into structure
Messier 74
Catherine Hyde photographed the face-on spiral galaxy M74 in Pisces from Cambria, California. Her dataset consisted of 134 images, each 300 seconds (five minutes), stacked for a little over 11 hours over four nights because of weather. The combination of many sub-exposures and multi-night integration helps reveal M74’s faint outer arms while reducing random noise. Weather also explains why the nominal four-night project did not necessarily mean four equally productive nights.
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Andromeda Galaxy
Jeremy Likness photographed M31 from Newport, Oregon, on September 10. His caption places Andromeda approximately 2.5 million light-years away and references its enormous stellar population of about one trillion stars. He also notes that a garage roof was sufficient because clear, dark skies removed the need to travel to a remote site. For nearby, extended targets such as M31, a stable elevated position and low light pollution can matter more than distance from home.
NGC 7331 and the appearance of SN 2026aaiv
Several contributors targeted NGC 7331 in Pegasus after a bright new point appeared in the galaxy. Their captions state that ATLAS discovered SN 2026aaiv on September 1, 2026, and identify it as a Type Ia supernova. Dominique Gering describes a thermonuclear explosion involving a white dwarf accreting material from a neighboring star; Ernest Jacobs likewise notes the Type Ia classification. NGC 7331 is described as approximately 45 million light-years away.
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The multiple images are valuable because they document the same transient from different contributors rather than presenting a single processing style. The event’s sudden appearance on September 1 gives the section a time-sensitive character that ordinary static deep-sky subjects do not have.
What the equipment choices show
- Smart telescopes: Used for the Pleiades, Western Veil and Heart-and-Soul images, demonstrating automated capture and processing workflows suitable for backyard observing.
- Wide-field deep-sky rig: Jacobs’ three-night WR134 project shows how a broad field can include surrounding nebular context around a hot, luminous star.
- Narrow-band filters: Dungan explicitly credits them with extracting more nebular information and enabling nontraditional color in the Wizard Nebula.
- Stacking over multiple nights: Sandusky’s five-night, 15-hour Veil project and Hyde’s 134-frame, 11-plus-hour M74 project show the time investment often required for faint targets.
How to submit your own image
EarthSky invites readers to submit Earth or sky photographs through its Community Photos platform. Select a finished image, prepare a caption that identifies the target and capture date, and include useful context such as location, telescope type, filters, integration time and processing. Clear technical notes help editors understand what they are viewing, while a concise description of the object gives readers scientific context.
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Submission does not guarantee publication. The September gallery demonstrates the range EarthSky may feature: familiar clusters, emission nebulae, galaxies photographed over many nights and timely events such as a newly discovered supernova.
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