Jörg Altheimer
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jaltheimer.bsky.social
Jörg Altheimer
@jaltheimer.bsky.social
230 followers 170 following 80 posts
Computer scientist and entrepreneur. Working on archeometallurgy. Physics and spaceflight is my passion though.
Mostly posting #Astrophotography stuff here.
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Jörg Altheimer @jaltheimer.bsky.social · Aug 12
Not only where the nights extremely short like every summer, the weather also didn't want to play nice for #Astrophotography this year. Which means I wont get any more time on the targets I had selected this year. But I did get a few h on the Lagoon Nebula, despite it being insanely low in the sky.
Lagoon Nebula in the southern Sky. Large hydrogen region imaged with a modified Canon EOS 700D on a 130mm Newton telescope. I used an Astronomik UHC filter to cut through some of the light pollution. ~125 2 minute subexposures for a total of 4 hours and 10 minutes of integration time.
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Still no clear weather in sight, so here are a few more fly agaric from my local forest.

#mushroom
October 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Had a quick glimpse between the clouds on comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) in Canes Venatici well after sunset. Composite of around 3 minutes worth of 1 second untracked images.
#Astrophotography
Comet Lemmon in the evening hours of October 18th.
October 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
An other fly agaric growing in my local forest, while I'm waiting for a clear sky.
#mushroom
Fly agaric in a spuce forest, growing out of the mossy ground.
October 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
More mushrooms from a local forest. The damp weather really helps them grow very fast.
October 6, 2025 at 8:11 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
As expected from this season, its cloudy and no stars in sight. But on the other hand mushroom season is in full swing.
Fly agaric in a spuce forest.
October 6, 2025 at 6:47 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
The Helix Nebula or Caldwell 63 is a planertary nebula in the constellation Aquarius. When it comes to planetary nebulas, it's apparent size is extremely large and its features and structures become visible even in mid sized telescopes. Making it a very interesting #Astrophotography target.
Helix Nebula imaged with a Canon EOS 700d on a 130mm Newton telescope. I used an Astronomik UHC filter for better contrast due to low elevation from the horizon. The image is composed from roughly 160 two minute exposures, stacked to create an image with about 5h30min total integration time.
September 22, 2025 at 10:11 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Neptune and it's moon Triton(which might actually be a captured dwarf planet) in the early morning hours of 6th September.
10 second exposures at f27 where just enough to make Triton visible without resulting in trailing lights.
#Astrophotography
Neptune and its moon Triton through Telescope at 3500mm focal length.
September 10, 2025 at 8:20 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Besides the planets there is of course the Moon as a bright target. I tried to utilize the full width and length of an APS-C sensor by using a 2x telecentric barlow. The cropped in images should provide full resolution of some regions.
#Astrophotography
Moon through a 130/650mm Newton telescope with Canon EOS 250d. 15 images stacked to reduce atmospheric wobble and processed in Siril. Tycho crater on the Moon Pythagoras crater on the Moon.
September 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
While Deep Space has to take a back seat in #Astrophotography during the current Moon phase, I'm trying to squeeze out every last bit out of my Deep Space Rig for planetary imaging.
Here is Saturn through my 130mm Newton and Canon EOS 250d.
Saturn as photographed through a small telescope. Processing with Autostakkert and Siril.
September 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Not a typical #Astrophotography target, but I really really wanted to try and see if can at least capture a glimpse of the interstellar comet #3I/Atlas shortly after sundown and just before it vanished below the horizon. Challanging with a 130mm newton and a reg. DSLR but it might just have worked.
3I/Atlas in a ~20 minute exposure in the constellation Scorpio with a 130mm Newton and Canon EOS 750d DSLR.
August 19, 2025 at 5:38 PM
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Supernova SN 2025rbs in the galaxy NGC7331 from yesterdays short #Astrophotography session.
My personal first for a type 1a Supernova (The bright spot right next to the galactic nucleus).
Type 1a Supernova SN 2025rbs in NGC7331. Imaged with a Canon EOS 750d on a 130mm Newton Telescope.
August 18, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
eso.org
As the Milky Way band appears to pour into our ELT, the cranes around it seem to do the same while they further advance the telescope 🏗️ 🔭

Once complete, the ELT will be breaking down the light above in unparalleled detail.

More: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2533a/ 🧪
📷 C. Letelier/ESO
The open metallic dome of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) at the centre of the picture, taking up the lower half of the frame. At the top, like a river the Milky Way band horizontally pours into the ELT. The construction site of the ELT is surrounded by cranes
August 18, 2025 at 7:02 AM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
The second picture of this summers #Astrophotography targets.
The Trifid Nebula M20. As with M8 I didn't have nearly as much time as I wanted due to bad weather and short nights, but it is still quite a sight, even at relatively low exposure time.
Trifid Nebula M20 imaged with a Canon EOS 700d on a 130mm Newton Telescope. I used an Astronomic UHC filter to cut through some of the light pollution.
August 16, 2025 at 7:57 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Not only where the nights extremely short like every summer, the weather also didn't want to play nice for #Astrophotography this year. Which means I wont get any more time on the targets I had selected this year. But I did get a few h on the Lagoon Nebula, despite it being insanely low in the sky.
Lagoon Nebula in the southern Sky. Large hydrogen region imaged with a modified Canon EOS 700D on a 130mm Newton telescope. I used an Astronomik UHC filter to cut through some of the light pollution. ~125 2 minute subexposures for a total of 4 hours and 10 minutes of integration time.
August 12, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
eso.org
Our VLT may have made intriguing discoveries in the surroundings of young stars:

➡️ A planet candidate inside a disc spiral (image 1)
➡️ A planet or brown dwarf candidate forming through gravitational instability (image 2)

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2513/

🔭 🧪
The fuzzy, yellow outline of a spiral shape. It glows more strongly towards the bottom right of the spiral, and close to the centre of the spiral, on it's right hand side, is a particular spot of light that has been circled in white to highlight it. This is the possible location of a new exoplanet candidate. The very centre of this spiral is completely black, having been removed by the instrument that took this picture. Against a backdrop of complete darkness, two glowing spots of light can be seen in the middle of this image. At the very centre, a bright orange point of light is surrounded by three rings of orange material, which vary in thickness as they get further from the central point. Below these glowing rings, and slightly to the right, is a faint orange smudge that has been circled in white to highlight its presence. This is the possible companion found around the central star.
July 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
eso.org
Astronomers pinpointed the moment when planets began to form around a star.

🎬 Discover more with the latest episode of #ChasingStarlight ICYMI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j-MH6_QlBA

Full story: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2512/

🔭 🧪
A central bright, glowing region with orange and red clouds of dust and gas streaming outward in multiple directions. Blue and white jets of matter can be seen emerging from the center. The text “Planets are forming here now” is displayed on the image. ESO’s logo is visible on the top right.
July 17, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
eso.org
🚨 Astronomers have witnessed the dawn of a new solar system!

They observed the first specks of planet-forming material — hot minerals beginning to solidify around HOPS-315, a baby star 1300 light-years away.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2512/

🔭 🧪 ☄️ #planetsci
A central bright, glowing region with orange and red clouds of dust and gas streaming outward in multiple directions. Blue and white jets of matter can be seen emerging from the center.
July 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
eso.org
🪩 Flashback: The heart of the galaxy NGC 1097 features a gaseous & dusty ring.

The bright spots in the ring are stellar nurseries, whereas the glowing centre hides a supermassive black hole that feeds off its surroundings. 

More: https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann22015a/ 🔭 
📷 ESO/ERIS team
A stunning spiral galaxy with a bright central core surrounded by a glowing, ring-like structure of stars, gas, and dust.
July 15, 2025 at 7:02 AM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
My favourite galaxy cluster for #Astrophotography by far is the Coma Cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. It might not be as majestic as the Virgo cluster, but the sheer number of small galaxies in the FOV of a medium sized telescope is breathtaking. Imaged with my trusty Canon EOS 250d.
Coma galaxy cluster imaged with Canon EOS 250d on 130/650mm Newton telescope. Cropped image of Coma galaxy cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices.
July 7, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
transport.esa.int
Prometheus fired up once again (and again) 😎🔥

Prometheus performed 4 consecutive ignitions on 20 June, a first in Europe for this type of engine.

The hot-firing campaign was held on the PF20 test bench at ArianeGroup’s site in Vernon, France.

Read more: www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
Prometheus hot-firing hot-firing campaign, held on the PF20 test bench at ArianeGroup’s site in Vernon, France.
July 2, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
transport.esa.int
Read more: www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
Themis: the journey of Europe’s first reusable rocket has begun
www.esa.int
June 30, 2025 at 1:17 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
T Coronae Borealis still seems to behave.(Or misbehave depending how you view it). No obvious sign of a Nova as of an hour ago.
#Astrophotography
#TCrB
June 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Every now and then, I'm going after asteroids during #Astrophotography sessions.
Orange was the position of (2)Pallas in the early hours of 28th June. Green is the position in the early hours of 29th. (different cameras on my telescope, so image scale is slightly different).
Main belt asteroid Pallas in the early hours of 29th June. Imaged with a Canon EOS 250d on a 130/650mm Newton telescope. Main belt asteroid Pallas in the early hours of 28th June. Imaged with a Canon EOS 700d on a 130/650mm Newton telescope.
June 29, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Jörg Altheimer
transport.esa.int
Exceptional convoy! 🛻🚀 Europe's first reusable rocket stage demonstrator #Themis is all wrapped up and ready to roll from its integration hall in France to launch pad in Sweden. Bon voyage!

www.esa.int/themis
Rear view of the Themis on its transport truck View of the transport truck and a wrapped-up Themis rocket stage in its ArianeGroup integration hall with technicians standing next to ti
June 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
jaltheimer.bsky.social
Just realized that I never imaged the Eagle Nebula before. I used a regular unmodified Canon EOS 250d on my 130/650mm Newton for this little preview. Time was a bit limited since it is already getting bright outside at around 3 in the morning. #M16 #Astrophotography
Eagle Nebula M16 imaged with a 130/650mm Newton telescope and Canon EOS 250d camera. Gear used: Skywatcher HEQ-5 Pro, Asiair pro, 120mm guide scope + asi 120mm mini guide camera.
May 31, 2025 at 7:41 PM