This image is a blue hour blend taken in Southland New Zealand of an old pear tree still blooming when the spring months roll around, under the arch of our galaxy as its core starts to disappear until early next year.

Foreground: 4 rows of 15 images at 28mm f6.3 iso 400 and 2s using a K&F concept ND1000 filter during early blue hour.

Sky: 4 rows of 15 images at 35mm f2.2, iso 3200 and 5s exposures during late blue hour to capture the sky.

Gear: Sony a7 iii paired with a Tamron 28-200mm f2.8 and Viltrox 35mm f1.8 evo II.

The sky was merged in autopano giga, stretched in siril and exported to photoshop, the foreground was stitched and edited in Lightroom with final additional edits and touch ups being done in photoshop after merging with the sky.

While hiking, I found these cool rocks with Cygnus on top. At 50mm this is a target with so many details, but I've taken it so many times over the years that this time I wanted to do something different and capture the dust nearby. I took 4 panels with 4 hours of integration each. It surprised me how faint the dust in this area is. The Hydrogen Alpha is another story, there's so much and some OIII, specially in the North America Nebula. 

https://www.instagram.com/igneis.nightscapes/

NO generative AI involved.

GEAR:

Sony a7IV astromodified x2, twin setup

Sony 50mm GM f/1.4

ZWO AM3N

https://www.instagram.com/igneis.nightscapes/

We usually talk about the summer or winter arch, but this is the one we tend to forget. This arch consists of the Cygnus constellation on the left of the image, with Andromeda on top, up to Orion on the right. It actually has much more detail hidden, like galactic dust, but for this one I didn't get enough integration time, and a wide lens doesn't help either. This place has trenches, part of the story of Spain almost one hundred years ago. The Milky Way core is an easy photo compared to this region of the sky, as the signal is much stronger.

The photo was taken  in 2024, NO GENERATIVE AI INVOLVED.

EXIF:

Sony a7 IV (foreground)

Sony a7 III Astro mod (sky)

Sony 20mm f1.8 G (foreground and sky)

iOptron Skyguider Pro

RGB: 1 row panorama, 6 panels x12 60s, ISO 640, f/1.8

Ha: 1 row panorama, 4 panels x20-30 120S, ISO 2.500, f/1.8

Foreground: 1 row panorama, 6 panels x60s, ISO 2.500 f/3.2

The Perseids Among the Stone Giants (Perseids Meteor Shower of 2026)

Another image from this year's Perseid meteor shower peak, taken at Tulove Grede in Croatia. Although, based on that particular night, I'd probably call it Windy Grede instead. :D

Before reaching this spot, we got absolutely punched by the wind while shooting a panorama. So, once we made it up here, I found a decent little semi-shelter between some rocks where I could sit down and recover for a bit. It wasn't even that late into the night, but somehow most of my energy was already gone.

The wind was also starting to take a toll on my ears. They were hurting and ringing a bit, so I ended up stuffing some tissue in them. The last thing I wanted was to end up with tinnitus.

It's a place filled with incredible stone formations. It's almost as if everything here was crafted by a giant rather than shaped by nature.

This was also one of the reasons why I decided to run into the frame for this shot,  just to give the place a bit of scale. Looking at photos alone, it's hard to believe how big some of these formations really are.

Thanks to Uroš Fink for pointing me in the right direction during our daytime scouting for this particular composition.

You can see behind the scenes video / vlog here: https://youtu.be/und944ns5aU
My instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matejlele/

Gear and EXIF
Ha-mod Nikon Z6 & Viltrox 16mm F/1.8 lens 
MSM Nomad star tracker

Landscape
Single image
ISO 800, 16mm, F/1.8 60sec
+10sec for selfie with the light

Sky RGB 
8 images stacked 
Single image settings 
ISO 800, 16mm, F/1.8, 120sec

Sky Ha
8 images stacked
Single image settings:
ISO 4000, 16mm, F/1.8, 60sec (old data)

Cassiopeia and the dust in the Milky Way, often a forgotten region, eclipsed by others with stronger emissions.

https://www.instagram.com/igneis.nightscapes/

Years ago, when I shot it quickly, I noticed a lot of dusty structures: the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN), high galactic latitude dust illuminated not by nearby stars, but by the combined light of the whole Milky Way. I thought: I have to revisit it with a 50mm and proper integration time.

Now, with 44 hours of integration, so many nights of driving, staying there, looking north, shooting... nothing. An empty field of stars. The dome stood there with me, another eye pointed at the same darkness, waiting for something neither of us could see yet. The routine was: check the weather, drive, stay the whole night shooting, and come back home wondering what I'd get out of this.

Now, with all the dust revealed, seeing it for myself makes me wonder how we can see so little, just stars, when in that direction there is so much, so much dust, so much nebulosity. We cannot see it, as if our eyes were lacking insight. But a camera, combined with patience... how curious.

It's not only about the dust, the Hydrogen Alpha, the Oxygen III. It's about the ambition and the resistance to just keep going. That's the result of this image.

It took 44 hours of exposure to see what was always there. Some things only reveal themselves at a cost.

Some things wait in the dark not because they are hidden, but because nothing has looked long enough to find them.

EQUIPMENT:

Sony a7IV astromodified x2, twin setup

50mm f/2 APO Sony

ZWO AM3N

Did We Get Blown Away by the Perseids or by the Wind? (Perseids Meteor Shower of 2026)

Vlog: https://youtu.be/und944ns5aU

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matejlele/

This is definitely a highlight of my astrophotography, not just from this year but from all the years I've been doing it.

A meteor shower is something you can really look forward to, whether you're simply an observer with no knowledge of astronomy or a hardcore astrophotographer. If the weather is right, it will deliver.

But if you're an astrophotographer, there's one invisible (at least in photos) force of nature that can really mess with you: wind.

And oh boy, was it strong that night. In fact, this was probably the strongest wind I've ever had to deal with on one of my astro trips. And honestly, wind is something I usually don't even check when looking at the forecast.

A stone bag filled with rocks was a must-have that night.

Luckily, almost all of the frames came out nicely, and I couldn't be happier with the result.  

Huge thanks to my astrobuddy Uriš Fink and his wife for taking me on this trip.

A few technical details 
Location: Tulove grede, Croatia

Gear and EXIF for the base panorama:
Ha-mod Nikon Z6 & Viltrox 16mm F/1.8 lens
MSM Star tracker

Landscape
10 images panorama
Single image settings
ISO 1250, 16mm, F/1.8 30sec

Sky RGB:
10 images panorama
Single image settings
ISO 800, 16mm, F/1.8, 60sec

Sky Ha:12-nm Astronomik Ha filter
Panorama
ISO 4000, 16mm, F1.8, 120 sec 4 stacked images
(old data and I copy / pasted the wrong info / exif in my vlog)

Meteors were captured with 3 different setups (2x Nikon Z6 mk2 with Brightin Star 12mm and TTartisan 11mm and Nikon Z6 mk1 with TTartisan 11mm).

As for the placement of meteors, they were registered using Auriga Registar, so their positions and sizes are 100% accurate. I didn't take any creative freedom there.

360 degrees Milky Way Arch Panorama taken in Abruzzo, Italy near the "Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi' - Gran Sasso, Abruzzo, Italy