Kristopher Setnes

Sh 2-173 - Phantom of the Opera Nebula Stewart Sharpless published the second edition of his catalog of emission nebula in 1959. The list is a bit of a gold mine for astrophotographers. This faint nebula in Cassiopeia resembles a mask. It is 2.96 (±0.31) Kiloparsecs away. #astrophotography

This is a rich region in the Milky Way not far from the star Sadr in the constellation of Cygnus. I took this photo using a monochrome camera with separate red, green, and blue filters. I used 8 hours, 41 minutes, and 40 seconds of exposure time. #astrophotography

The Medulla Nebula (CTB 1) is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Cassiopeia. A commonly used estimate for how long ago the supernova occurred is 10,000 years. This was one of my targets at Northern Nights Star Fest this year. #astrophotography

Comet 220P / McNaught This photo shows 2 hours of comet motion. It was taken on Friday morning between about 3 am and 5 am at Northern Nights Star Fest in MN. This short period comet has had some outbursts lately. The tail was visible in some of the larger telescopes at NNSF. #astrophotography

The pink nebula on the left is the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146). The dark nebulae trailing off to the right are collectively named Barnard 168. This is within the boundaries of the constellation of Cygnus and part of our Milky Way galaxy. #astrophotography

There was a solar eclipse today. Here in Bloomington, MN, the Moon only overlapped about 2% of the Sun's diameter. That's a very small overlap, but it made for a fun lunch break. I look forward to seeing the pictures from those who traveled to Spain and Iceland. #astrophotography

This was from Flandrau State Park, New Ulm, MN. I let the light from a nearly full moon illuminate the camper for this star trails shot. We were very much asleep in the camper at the time. #astrophotography

This was from Long Lake Conservation Center in Minnesota on July 11th, 2026. Remember when satellites were cool? #astrophotography

Here's a lesser imaged set of objects in Scutum. Sh2-57 and Sh2-58 are the two hydrogen emission nebula (red). B100 and B101 make up the dark nebula arc (lower left). The bright star (upper left) is Alpha Scuti. #astrophotography

There are 12 classes in the Shapley–Sawyer system that describe how tightly packed globular clusters appear. A class I cluster is the most tightly packed and a class XII is the least. NGC 5053 (left) is a class XI. M53 (right) is a class V. The difference is easy to see. #astrophotography

This is Messier 12. It is a globular star cluster in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It is about 16,400 light-years away. #astrophotography

Lynds' Catalogue of Dark Nebulae contains some really fun objects. This is LDN 673. #astrophotography

This is NGC 4535, sometimes referred to as the "Lost Galaxy." It is over 50 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo. I used 6 hours, 51 minutes, and 40 seconds of exposure time for this image. #astrophotography

This is what a Beginners' Night looks like at Minnesota Astronomical Society's Metcalf Field. It's always fun to share views through our telescopes with the public. #astronomy #astrophotography

This is what the moon looked like last night. Tonight the moon passed in front of the bright star Regulus. As is the norm for fun things like that, it was cloudy here. 😉 These are monochrome images captured using a narrowband filter. This is my favorite way to image the moon. #astrophotography

This is part of The Great Lacerta Nebula (Sh2-126). It is about 1200 light-years away. I really like seeing the difference between the hydrogen emissions and the cloudy "dark" nebula. Exposure time: 7h, 23m, 20s #astrophotography

There is a lot going on in this photo. Messier 78 is a reflection nebula within our Milky Way galaxy, but this image also contains dark nebulae, and emission nebulae. This is made from 7 hours, 33 minutes, and 20 seconds of exposure time. #astrophotography

This is the Sculptor Galaxy. It is 25° below the equator in the sky. This makes it a very low object in Minnesota. From Texas, however, this is high enough that I was able to get over 6 hours of exposure time on the object on a recent trip. #astrophotography #galaxy

Here is a time-lapse of the November 11, 2025 aurora from Bloomington, MN. #astrophotography #aurora

This is the Seahorse Nebula (B150) in Cepheus. It is about 1200 light years away. I took this image last weekend from Minnesota Astronomical Society's Cherry Grove Observatory. There's no mysterious name to explain. This dark nebula really does look like a Seahorse. #astrophotography

This is the Dark Shark Nebula (LDN 1235). This is another great object in Beverly Turner Lynd's Catalogue of Dark Nebulae. This was made with 6 hours, 23 minutes, and 20 seconds of exposure time taken a few weeks ago at Northern Nights Star Fest in Minnesota. #astrophotography

This is the Ghost Nebula in Cepheus. (Sh2-136) I took this image at Northern Nights Star Fest in Minnesota last weekend. The little dancing ghost on the edge of the nebula makes me smile. 👻 #astrophotography

I finally got to take my gear away from home last weekend! The clouds, smoke, and calendar all worked together... for one night only. This is part of dark nebula LDN1251. LDN stands for Lynd's Catalogue of Dark Nebula. The catalog was published in 1962 by Beverly Turner Lynds. #astrophotography

Messier 94 This was made with just 5 hours of images from a dark location in Minnesota. This galaxy has an interesting inner and outer structure. There was also a study that suggested this galaxy has a lower amount of dark matter than other galaxies. Is this still accurate? #astrophotography

The Minnesota Astronomical Society hosts star parties at the University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. This time-lapse is from the star party on May 3rd, 2025. We had fun. #astrophotography

The Milky Way is back in the morning hours. Here it is rising over a lake in Minnesota. #astrophotography #milkyway

We were completely unprepared for aurora on our drive tonight. I had to hold the camera against the car roof for the first shot. The second shot is a self portrait using the side mirror. #astrophotography #aurora

Am I too late? Can I still post my lunar eclipse photos from last week? Have you seen too many yet? 🙂 It was very hazy with high clouds in Minnesota, but I made do. The low clouds rolled in right as totality was ending. We lucked out. #astrophotography #moon #eclipse

Go outside. Look at the moon! #astrophotography

I was one of the many lucky people to have captured a meteoroid impacting the moon during the Jan 20, 2019 eclipse. My setup back then was crude compared to now. Instead of video, I was capturing still images in short bursts to stack later. Don't miss the next lunar eclipse! #astrophotography

If you're in Minneapolis/St Paul this weekend and want to forget about $hitty things for a while, this is what you need. These family-friendly shows are always outstanding.

In October of 2023 I was part of a group that drove from Minnesota to Texas to view and photograph an annular solar eclipse. This served as a precursor to the total solar eclipse we saw in April of 2024. I have very fond memories of the fun we had on this trip. #astrophotography #eclipse

International Space Station I took this image from our backyard on May 30th, 2020. Fujifilm X-T20, 1/800s, ISO 6400, 12.3 inch aperture f/5.6 Dobsonian with Barlow. This was manually tracked with my fingers crossed and the camera clicking. :) #astrophotography

IC 5068 This is sometimes referred to as the Forsaken Nebula. It gets little attention because of all the great stuff in Cygnus nearby. This is over 18 hours of exposure time using a small telescope. Captured with CCDciel and PHD2 Processed with Siril, Starnet++, and GraXpert #astrophotography

Sunspots and Solar Granulation I used a white light solar filter on the front of the telescope. This blocks the majority of the sun's energy. I also used a narrowband filter in front of the sensor. This eliminates chromatic aberration and atmospheric dispersion. April 21, 2024 #astrophotography

Here's my telescope making use of a short night last summer. #astrophotography

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This is of the center portion of a larger region of nebulosity commonly known as the Heart Nebula. This is about 7500 light years away. This image was made from over 30 hours of exposures taken from home in Minnesota last winter. This is one of my favorite images... fitting for a first post.