Andreas Fischer

We’re back from Spain and I’ve finally had a chance to look through my photos of the total solar #eclipse. We were able to watch the eclipse perfectly from south-east of León – at the edge of a sunflower field. What an experience! #Sonnenfinsternis #astrophotography 🔭

Currently, the Northern Lights can even be seen in central Germany. I took this photo just north of the Harz Mountains; the #aurora was faintly visible to the naked eye as well. #Polarlicht #auroraborealis #northernlights 🔭

We spotted these two beauties on the Meseta Plateau south of Léon, Spain, while we were preparing for the total solar eclipse: a male Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator) and one of quite a few European Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster). #NaturePhotography #birdwatching #BirdsSeenIn2026 #birds 🪶

We organised a stargazing party in Sankt Andreasberg. I’m delighted that so many wonderful guests came along to enjoy the dark night sky up there. Alongside interesting talks and good conversations, I captured ionized oxygen and hydrogen in this part of the Eastern Veil Nebula. 🔭🤩🧪 #Astrophotography

Some birds from our region together with a very rare guest for #BirdsSeenIn2026 (Germany): Gray Partridges, a Long-legged Buzzard (so cool!), a curious Western Yellow Wagtail and a male Montagu's Harrier. #Birds #birdwatching #NaturePhotography 🪶

The open star cluster NGC 6823 in the constellation Vulpecula is surrounded by the beautiful emission nebula NGC 6820. The object just fits on my camera’s sensor, so I photographed it in early summer and accumulated a good 8 h of exposure time. 🔭 #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Comet #220P/McNaught is still easy to photograph following its outburst in early August. This is my shot taken from our terrace on 21 August, when it passed the galaxy IC 1873. Looking forward to seeing how the #comet develops over the coming months... #astrophotography 🔭

NGC 2626 Reflection Nebula in Vela (LRGB) NGC 2626 is a reflection nebula, emission nebula, and absorption/dark nebula in the constellation Vela (meaning "the sails" in Latin, the sails of a ship). #astrophotography #astronomy #photography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social (See more => click ALT 👇)

The Coma Cluster (Abell 1656) consists of over 1,000 #galaxies and is about 300 million light-years away. I captured it over the course of 8 nights from April to June (about 9.5 h exposure), but processing turned out to be challenging. How many galaxies can you spot @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social? 🔭

In the Camargue, we saw many Spotted Redshanks resting there on their migration to their Scandinavian breeding grounds. In a few weeks’ time, they will already be heading south again... 🪶 #birdmigration #birdwatching #NaturePhotography #BirdsSeenIn2026

Back in April, we were able to observe many Greater Flamingos in the Camargue. In fact, they were in almost every body of water and weren't shy at all... 🦩 #FlamingoFriday 🪶 #birdwatching #NaturePhotography

In April, #comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) was easy to observe in the morning sky. At the time, we were in the Camargue, where I was able to photograph the comet at dawn. The final image is a stack of 179 x 6-second exposures at 150 mm, processed with & without background extraction 🔭 #astrophotography

Some of the birds we spotted in the Camargue back in April: a very curious Sardinian Warbler, a Chiffchaff and a Cattle Egret in its breeding plumage. Definitely a great region for #birdwatching 🪶 #NaturePhotography #BirdsSeenIn2026 #France

Over the past few days, planet #Venus passed between the two open star clusters of the #Pleiades and the #Hyades. A beautiful constellation after sunset, that I was able to capture on April 25 and 26 over a lake and a rapeseed field, respectively. #astrophotography 🔭

The Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) was my little side project in late winter; the total exposure time of this image is 7h 49min (North is left). Processing turned out to be surprisingly difficult, since the nearby star Alnitak left a lot of reflections in the field of view 🔭 @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

The Leo Triplet is a small group of galaxies bound together by gravity in the constellation Leo. It lies approximately 35 million light-years from Earth and consists of three prominent spiral galaxies: Messier 65, Messier 66 and NGC 3628. Captured over two nights in March 2026. #Astrophotography

Two of the currently visible comets: C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) and 24P/Schaumasse, taken with an ASI294mc Pro through my C8 on 5 & 12 March, respectively (techn. details in images). No "pretty pictures" due to dust and light pollution, but at least two interesting objects for #astrophotography. #comet 🔭

In February, the #supernova SN2026dix flared up in the spiral galaxy NGC 3913. I captured it along with the galaxies NGC 3916 and 3921 on 8 & 9 March using my C8, but conditions were rather unfavourable due to Saharan dust in the atmosphere. #sn2026dix #astrophotography 🔭 @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

The spiral galaxy M 94 in Canes Venatici is an easy object to observe due to its bright centre with an inner ring of young stars. This photo, which I took over 3 nights in January with an exposure time of 12 h, also shows the faint outer ring of stars. #astrophotography 🔭 @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

The Crab Nebula (M 1) in the constellation Taurus was the second prominent supernova remnant that I captured this January. It is already visible with larger binoculars, but all the nice filaments only show up in the photo. Total integration: 6h 26min #astrophotography 🔭 @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

The Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443), a prominent supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini, was my first attempt at a mosaic. The idea only came to me during data collection, but after some challenging editing, I am kind of happy with the result. 🔭 #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

A short time-lapse of yesterday's bright northern lights in the Harz foothills. I'm still thrilled by yesterday's spectacular views – today's #aurora is significantly weaker... #AuroraBorealis #Polarlicht #astrophotography 🔭

Crazy #AuroraBorealis last night at latitude <52° N, even hitting Orion in the southern sky above the Harz mountains. What a night! #astrophotography 🔭

Finally, here is my composite image of the #Geminids peak on 13/14 December 2025. It was by far my most successful observation of a #MeteorShower, with over 260 meteors within 5 hours - what a night! The image is a composite of 61 individual shots of 15s and contains 65 Geminids. #Astrophotography 🔭

That was a tough one: The galaxy M74 in the constellation Pisces (and the weather) gave me some trouble, but I'm quite happy with my final image. This is a combined exposure time of 13 h with the L-Pro & IDAS NB12, which brought out the H-alpha regions #astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Yesterday morning, I spotted the razor-thin crescent of the 28-day-old #moon just above the horizon. It was invisible to the naked eye, but it was a magnificent view through binoculars. This morning, there was a spectacular #sunrise to enjoy – what a display of colour! 🔭

This is #comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) from 11 December with two distinct nucleus fragments. It has changed significantly compared to my image from 22 November - and it has clearly reduced its relative speed, as I was able to expose for a little longer this time... #astrophotography 🔭

A little late to the party, but here's last weekend's sun with massive sunspots, captured with a Nikon D5600 + Tamron 150-600 at 600 mm (f/8; ISO100; stack of 10 x 1/100 s) through thin clouds #astrophotography #sunphotography 🔭

#Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) showed three clearly recognisable fragments of its nucleus on 22 November, and it appeared brighter than I had expected. Due to its fast movement relative to the stars, I could only take 20-second exposures through the C8 (image is a stack of 100 subs) #astrophotography

The Pacman Nebula NGC 281 in Cassiopeia had been on my wish list for several years, and now, over the course of 4 nights in September & October, I finally got it. Visually not an easy object due to light pollution, but really fun to photograph (tech. details in image) 🔭 @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

WR 134 is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation Cygnus, surrounded by a ring nebula created by its extreme stellar wind and radiation. The image was taken in July 2025 over several nights and is composed of 70 photos, each with an exposure time of 600 seconds. #Astrophotography

Open Position at @zalf.bsky.social Tenure Track Scientist (m/f/d) on “Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes” 🧪🎓🪲🦋🌱 jobs.zalf.de/jobposting/0... Deadline Dec 10th 2025 ⌛

The two brightest comets currently visible in the sky, C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), captured last weekend with an ASI294mc Pro on my C8. #Comet Lemmon is already bidding farewell to the northern hemisphere, so I had to catch it in the near-horizon haze. #astrophotography 🔭

The planetary nebula Sh2-188 in the constellation Cassiopeia is also known as Shrimp Nebula due to its shape. I took this image over five nights in August using a C8, an ASI294mc Pro camera and a total exposure time of around 13 hours (details in image) #Astrophotography @kat-astro-bot.bsky.social