Deep Sky Astrophotography Target Guide for the Northern Hemisphere JULY

[@MrGp3po]

Impressive. I love that you have listed a wealth of targets; not just the few popular ones.

[@robertovolpini9359]

Hi Martin, excellent work! really appreciated

[@peterschmitz4308]

Excellent work, Martin! As a beginner, this really helps me to find new objects to photograph. Unfortunately, I don't have a southern view so I'm missing out on some pretty awesome objects but with your help have found many other in the northern sky.

[@martinsastrophotography]

Thanks for the feedback Peter. Much appreciated. Really glad you find it useful, especially given the many hours it takes to put together!! Clear skies.

[@zyban99]

Thanks once again. This is my dso bible

[@garyrobertson6469]

I find your monthly KZbin videos extremely useful in identifying potential DSO targets in my 30 degree North skies. I save all your KZbin videos and refer back to them constantly throughout the year. One suggestion - while you identify the range of months that targets are best imaged, it would be helpful to note the absolute best month for getting the maximum imaging time on a particular DSO.

[@martinsastrophotography]

That’s great to hear Gary, and thanks for the feedback and for your suggestion. ‘Absolute best month’ is not as simple as we might hope. A target is always better imaged high in the sky when the telescope looks through the least amount of atmosphere, but that is often not the same month as the one where the target is in a dark sky for the longest amount of time. The Pelican Nebula, for example, from my latitude, can be imaged highest in the sky (84 degrees elevation) in August but can only be imaged for about 4 hours. In December it can be imaged for 12 hours from an unobscured location, but doesn’t get higher than 63 degrees elevation and spends the majority of the 12 hours below 20 degrees elevation. In practise of course we are then also constrained by clouds, wind, the moon and other annoyances that restrict our imaging time. For that reason I prefer to state the best few months for imaging each target, giving people a window in which to seek good conditions for imaging the object. But thanks so much for the suggestion, and please do let me know if you have other ideas. Clear skies!

[@jpgillette18]

Thank you Martin!

[@sHuRuLuNi]

"july" yet the very first ones say "best months: September to December" ...

[@martinsastrophotography]

That’s right. Targets are included if they are available to be imaged in July. The best months are the ones when the target is the highest in the sky, so you are imaging through less atmosphere.