Rushil D Rane

Celestial observations

Brahmāṇḍa, the cosmos

A personal journal of the night sky.

What began as simple curiosity about the night sky gradually evolved into a passion for astrophotography. Through long nights of observation, imaging, and processing, I’ve learned that astrophotography is as much about patience and precision as it is about the final image. Every photograph in this archive represents hours of planning, data collection, and post-processing, capturing light that has often travelled for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years before reaching my sensor. For me, astrophotography is where engineering, science, and wonder come together. It continues to inspire the same curiosity that drives my work in technology and research.

4 platesDeep sky

  1. Plate 01M42
    The Orion Nebula: a bright blue-white core with wings of pink gas, among scattered blue stars.

    Orion Nebula

    Type
    Deep sky
    Captured
    RA / Dec
    05h 35m / −05° 23′
    Light travelled
    about 1,300 years
  2. Plate 02M51
    The Whirlpool Galaxy: a small face-on spiral with a companion galaxy beside it, in a field of stars.

    Whirlpool Galaxy

    Type
    Spiral galaxy
    Captured
    RA / Dec
    13h 30m / +47° 12′
    Light travelled
    more than 20 million years
  3. Plate 04M16
    The Eagle Nebula: a red cloud of glowing hydrogen against a dense star field.

    Eagle Nebula

    Type
    Emission nebula
    Captured
    RA / Dec
    18h 19m / −13° 49′
    Light travelled
    about 6,000 years
  4. Plate 07M66
    Three small galaxies of the Leo Triplet scattered across a field of stars.

    Leo Triplet Member

    Type
    Intermediate spiral
    Captured
    RA / Dec
    11h 20m / +12° 59′
    Light travelled
    about 35 million years

3 platesSolar system

  1. Plate 03High-res mosaic
    A gibbous Moon in sharp detail, with dark maria and cratered highlands along the shadow line.

    Lunar Surface

    Light travelled
    1.3 seconds
  2. Plate 05Gas giant
    Jupiter as a small disc crossed by brown and cream cloud bands.

    Jupiter

    Light travelled
    35 to 50 minutes
  3. Plate 06Ringed planet
    Saturn as a small pale disc with its rings tilted towards the camera.

    Saturn

    Light travelled
    over an hour

InstrumentEquipment

FieldThe telescope, set up
A reflector telescope on a tripod in front of a two-storey building at night, with stars and the Milky Way overhead.
Telescope
Celestron NexStar 130SLTAstro-modified for deep-sky imaging.
Camera
Canon EOS Rebel T3i (600D)Modified for enhanced hydrogen-alpha sensitivity.

Signal chainSoftware and workflow

  1. PlanningStellarium
  2. AcquisitionPIPP
  3. StackingDeepSkyStacker, AutoStakkert!
  4. ProcessingSiril, GraXpert, AstroSharp, RegiStax
  5. FinishingGIMP
From a plan to a finished frame

Some of the light captured here started its journey long before human civilization existed.

See the work Read the research Talk about the sky