Year in Summary 2025
Images that were completed in 2025 and published on this website as well as my Astrobin page.
The year 2025 has been a super productive year for my astrophotography. The remote telescope that was commissioned in 2024 has been performing well throughout 2025. A total of 76 deep sky targets were published this year, of which 70 were photographed from the remote site. The remaining 6 were shot from the backyard. Unfortunately the weather conditions in Spain have not been great during this last quarter, otherwise, the number of completed objects could have been even higher.
One of the nice aspects of having a remote telescope is that there is less pressure on using available clear nights for things other than the typical deep sky astrophotography. This year I started with the ‘Lunar 100’ and shot several moon pictures, using a variety of setups. Also my first solar images using the Ha-filter were completed.
During the course of this year, there was both a lunar and solar eclipse. The lunar eclipse (07 September 2025) was total, but the very low altitude and the poor weather conditions did not make for the greatest images. The partial solar eclipse (29 March 2025) had somewhat better conditions, but also here intermittent clouds spoiled it a little bit.
Part of the reason I could complete 76 deep sky objects was that there were many open and globular star clusters included to make some progress with both the Messier and the Caldwell catalogue. These clusters require much less exposure time than galaxies or nebulae, so more can be completed with the same exposure time. The Messier catalogue now includes 79 completed objects of the total 110. Hopefully the catalogue can be completed in 2026.
Looking further in the nature of the completed objects, some stats include:
42 Messier objects, 9 Arp objects, 17 Caldwell objects and 13 Sharpless objects
33 Star clusters, 22 galaxies, 10 planetary nebulae and 12 emission nebulae
70 from the remote observatory and 6 from the backyard
8 Top Pick and 13 Top Pick Nomination rewards were received on Astrobin
The below graphs shows how the total hours of exposure time captured as well as the number of objects completed, all on quarterly basis
Total exposure time per quarter from the start in 2018 until today
Number of completed objects per quarter
As far as equipment goes, most of the setups have remained more or less similar, with some small modifications here and there. The solar setup based on the Takahashi FOA-60Q with Lunt LS60FHa hydrogen filter has seen first light this year. It worked well to photograph the partial solar eclipse, and my first true solar image received a Top Pick Nomination reward on Astrobin. For lunar photography the new Takahashi ortho extenders were added. Together with the Takahashi Mewlon-180c or even the Takahashi TOA-130 this makes for some decent moon images. A total of 6 objects from the ‘Lunar 100’ were photographed this way. From a travel perspective, the original setup based on the FS-60CB was nice, but there is always the desire for just a bit more aperture. On a recent trip to Japan I could purchase the Takahashi FSQ-85 for a very reasonable price. So the future travel setup will probably be based on this telescope. Most travels where I would bring a telescope would be by car, so the small added weight and size do not matter too much.
As far as communications go, I have made some significant changes to this website. From its original design, the images were essentially all thrown onto one big page called ‘Images’. But with so many new images around, a more structured approach was needed, where it was easier to find images. So I created dedicated pages for subtypes of objects, for various different catalogs and even a page where objects are all listed based on their NGC/IC number. Also the individual Image pages got a redesign. The new refreshed design is a bit more concise, without sacrificing any data. It makes it easier to find info and it allows a bit more automation/standardisation in the work that is needed in the background. So overall it takes less time to produce these pages, while they offer the same information. Besides publication of the images, I created this year:
3 Newsletters.
5 Blog posts (including this one)
The News section is now merged into the Blog section. There is so much news that it is hard to pick out those that are specifically interesting for my website, without going into a kind of ‘review’-mode. And there are plenty of review channels out there. Also I have not been very active with the Newsletters. Only three were sent out, much less than I had intended to. The subscription I use to send these Newsletters runs out in January and I have decided not to prolong it. The alternative may be a somewhat different Newsletter platform, a social media channel such as BlueSky/Mastodon, or perhaps stop with it all together. This will be one of the earlier decisions I will have to take next year.
All in all 2025 was a very successful year for my astrophotography hobby, with lots of new images being completed. Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this blog. I am grateful for your interest in my work and this website. Hopefully this website can be just a little bit of help or inspiration for your own astrophotography journey.