Jordan Maples

@maples-astro

Seattle based astrophotographer. Married to @codecoffeecode.bsky.social. Pour over is best coffee. Furry trash. Elsewhere I'm sloppyjaconda All photos posted are my own. #photography #astrophotography Soon to be former software engineer.

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Jordan Maples@maples-astro· 20d

I love how this picture of a grizzly turned out. It was just chilling in the pond, doing bear things and thinking bear thoughts. #photography #nature

A grizzly bear floating in a pond. Its paw is raised to its mouth making it look like the bear is deep in thought.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· 20d

I went to Northwest Trek yesterday for the first time since I was a kid. It was pretty hot out so most of the animals were sleeping out trying to stay cool. These raccoons were pancaked out just being little cuties. #photography

A sunbathing raccoon laying on a broken log with its paw dangling down into the shade

A raccoon perched in a hole in a dead tree.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Jul 9

And here's the SHO version of it. I definitely see the appeal of the HOO but the variety of colors that you get by adding in the sulfur data just gives an extra depth and variety that's missing from the other. Let me know which one you prefer. #astrophotography #photography

A nebula complex consisting primarily of golden yellows, dark blues, and eerie greens. There are two primary objects in this image. On the left is Pickering's triangle. It is a mix of gold and blues and looks like waves of gasses are colliding together in a cosmic tide pool. From the bottom right of the triangle, a line of gasses continues out down and to the right across the whole frame. Above this line, in the top right of the frame, is the Veil Nebula. The Veil is often called the Witch's Broom. The blues in the veil twist and turn in a long line, almost looking like a twisted branch that could be used for a broom handle. Towards the bottom the blues fan out into a broom's bristle. All along the length of the broom are offshoots of golden-yellows and the occasional offshoot of green.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Jul 9

NGC 6960 is one of the first narrowband targets that I captured back on my first telescope. I've always had a special place in my heart for this. So I figured it was time for a revisit. First up is the more popular HOO mapping. #astrophotography #photography

A nebula complex consisting primarily of red and teal colors. There are two primary objects in this image. On the left is Pickering's triangle. It is a mix of reds and blues and looks like waves of gasses are colliding together in a cosmic tide pool. From the bottom right of the triangle, a line of gasses continues out down and to the right across the whole frame. Above this line, in the top right of the frame, is the Veil Nebula. The Veil is often called the Witch's Broom. The blues in the veil twist and turn in a long line, almost looking like a twisted branch that could be used for a broom handle. Towards the bottom the blues fan out into a broom's bristle. All along the length of the broom are offshoots of red that wrap the blue core.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Jul 8

The other day I mentioned that I shot M106 and earlier this spring and forgot about it. I got to work on processing and here's the result. I still can't believe that I just forgot about 17 hours worth of data. Oh well, hopefully I don't misplace a dataset again. #astrophotography #photography

$A picture of space with a large spiral galaxy (M106) in the center. The galaxy has two distinct spiral arms and is fringed in blue starlight. The core of the galaxy has a warmer, redish hue to it. Surrounding the galaxy are other smaller galaxies that are scattered throughout the image. There are a few pronounced in the image with large diffraction spikes coming off of them.$

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Jul 4

I don't remember how I came across the coordinates for Le Gentil 3, but I'm glad I did. Idk much about it but it's a cool bit of dark nebula with a super dense star field. I'm not sure if I'm done editing it or if I want to keep trying processing it. Thoughts? #astrophotography #photography

The center of the frame is dominated by a dark nebula, whose filaments stretch largely across the screen. The dark cuts through a very dense star field whose stars have an overall redish hue to them. Three stars with blue halos dominate the top left of the frame.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Jul 2

A crop of the mosaic featuring the elephants trunk. #astrophotography #photography

The Elephants trunk. A starting at the top with a yellow-gold rimmed dark nebula with a deep red in its core that cuts through the violets and blues of the background. It continues down through the frame, the light running along its dark sections turning orange before going back to a greenish yellow and finally to the a soft red as the dark nebula blends back into the background.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Jul 2

Here’s a 4 panel mosaic of the Elephant Trunk Nebula that I’ve been working on. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a mosaic and this was a fun one to brush off the cobwebs with. #astrophotography #photography #astronomy #space

Distinct layers of different colored gasses appear as you approach the edges of the frame. From the center, the colors progress from violet to blue then green and yellow before ending in an orange red shell before being replaced by the blackness of deeper space.
There are some sections of dark nebula throughout but the most prominent in the center bottom of the frame, it is the object most people refer to as the Elephant Trunk. It starts with a wall of bright bluish white wall against the dark orange-red of the dark nebula. The dark nebula continues down cutting through the gradients. Though the edges are far brighter than the background. Where there was green and yellow in the background you now have a golden glow. The elephant’s trunk ends at the edge of the larger complex, blending softly into the edge colors.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· May 10

I saw a very photogenic crow while we were out on a walk today. I'm starting to learn how to use Darktable for non-astro stuff and it's a cool piece of software. It definitely has a steep learning curve but it's really satisfying to use. BTW I do have fresh space data coming up soon!

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Apr 26

The weather down at Starfront has been pretty bad for the last month and a half so I guess that means it's time to reprocess some old data. First up is M31 the Andromeda Galaxy! Same data different processing in quote post. Let me know which you like more. #astrophotography #photography

$The Andromeda Galaxy stretches across the frame, starting at the bottom left and continuing all the way to the top right. It has a warm yellow glow throughout, however there are some variations of note: along the fringes of the galaxy are blue regions of stars, there are brighter red H2 regions also along the fringes of the disk and dotting the dust lanes, it has a brighter yellow/white core, and spiraling out from the core are the dust lanes. There are two smaller dwarf galaxies, one to the left of the core of Andromeda that touches the disk and the other is separate from the main body of Andromeda down and to the right of the galactic core. Additionally, there are a myriad of closer, colorful stars from the Milky Way dotting the frame. Some of these stars have diffraction spikes due to the way their brightness interacts with my Newtonian telescope..$

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Apr 16

Without saying your age, post your favorite film that released the year you turned 18

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 24

M101 - The Pinwheel galaxy. I can see some artifacts that need to be cleaned up with more data. I'll probably need another 15-20 hours collecting data before I think I can truly give this target justice. We'll see if I can find time in the schedule. #astrophotography #photography

The Pinwheel galaxy, is aptly named. It is a head on view of a spiral galaxy whose many arms resemble those from a pinwheel. Its core is a yellow-red and blue arms spiral out with magenta pink dots along the lengths. Towards the core are subtle dark dust lanes that spiderweb out to the inner sections of the arms.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 22

I spent a couple nights looking at the Whirlpool galaxy. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I had a blend of 3 min subs and 10 min subs on the luminance to try bring out as much of the shell as possible and I think it worked. #astrophotography #photography

The Whirlpool galaxy has a warm yellow/white core with two distinct, predominantly blue arms with red dust lanes running down the length. At the tip of the arm that ends on the left side of the frame is a dwarf galaxy whose stars appear to be flung away from its core and pulled into the Whirlpool galaxy itself.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 18

Here’s mine. It’s down in Texas at Starfront right now.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 18

I processed the Whale and Hockey Stick galaxies the other day. I love the colors that I was able to pull out in the whale. I think there’s the tiniest hint of IFN in the background, maybe I’ll come back and do some 10min subs on the lum to try pulling it out. #photography #astrophotography

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 18

Can’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s difficult to look at. I do like the greens in it though.

A green and yellow nebula structure. The right side of the frame resembles a jellyfish with whiteish tendrils evoking a jellyfish's tentacles. The left side of the yellow nebula has soft smooth gradients of red yellow and green that are broken by deep, dark structures.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 18

The Jellyfish nebula in HOO. The signal in this one is pretty hard to tame. The Ha is just so strong compared to everything else. The SHO version kind of looked like radioactive mountain dew colored piss and I'd rather just spare you all from seeing that... unless.... #photography #astrophotography

A strikingly red nebula structure. The right side of the frame resembles a jellyfish with white tendrils evoking a jellyfish's tentacles. The left side of the red nebula has soft smooth gradients of red that are broken by deep, dark structures.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 16

And while I'm at it, here are some close crops of the Cigar and Bodes galaxies.

The Cigar galaxy. The main disk of the Cigar appears as a diagonal line, as the galaxy is edge-on to earth. There are red clouds jutting out in a cone-like spray from the center perpendicular to the disk.

Bode's Galaxy. It is a spiral with two well defined arms. These arms are a violet/blue and are dotted with pink/magenta the closer you get to the galactic core. The core of the galaxy has dark dust lanes that contrast with the bright core.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 16

As promised, I started over and landed on this process. I'm much happier with the gradients of the IFN in this one. #photography #astrophotography

Bode's Galaxy is in the very center of the frame, it is a spiral galaxy with two distinct arms. These arms are blue with dots of magenta throughout. Above and to the right is the Cigar Galaxy. It's smaller than Bodes and is edge on to us, but, it does have red clouds jetting out from the center.

There is IFN (integrated flux nebula) throughout the frame. It appears as wispy greyish clouds that stand out from the background.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 16

Bodes and Cigar galaxy, and a few other nearby neighbors. I really wanted to pull out as much of the IFN with this shot as possible. It's definitely a start, but one that requires a lot more attention than I gave it tonight. #photography #astrophotography

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 14

Here's the Leo Triplet to continue the galaxy season fun times. This is 10 hours of LRGB and 6.5 hours of HA. I think I can coax out some more subtle detail from this data, so don't be surprised if you see another edit from me in the next couple days/weeks. #photography #astrophotography

$The image consists of 3 galaxies. On the left is one nicknamed the Hamburger. The galaxy is edge-on towards us, so the dark dust lane facing us gives the impression of a burger patty smashed between the light "buns" that make up the rest of the galaxy. Up and to the right of the hamburger is a bright blueish star with diffraction spikes, but beyond that another galaxy (M66). M66's disk faces us at more of an angle, letting us see the dust lanes and some light differences between the spiral arms and the core. Below M66, however, is M55. M55 is far more top down to us, giving clear views of the spiral arms and giving the most color contrast of the three galaxies. There are blues and pinks areas of nebulosity along with the brown dust lanes that run along the lengths of the spiral arms.$

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 14

I was checking out some of my Leo Triplet data and found a little object moving by the Hamburger. I couldn't figure out what it was so maybe some of you eagle eyed astronomers can figure out what it is. Taken on 3/12/26 around 9-11pm from Starfront. These are 180s subs.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 14

I promise this is my last version upload of the Orion Nebula for the year (probably). I combined my 15 hours of narrowband and the 2 hours of broadband data into a single image. I spent a lot more time isolating the dust from the background. #photography #astrophotography

The Orion Nebula is in the center of the frame, it has a bright white core from where I overexposed the data. The center is surrounded by rich magentas and violet clouds with deep, dark dust lanes extending from the center. The Running Man is present in this frame as well, sitting just above and to the right of the Orion Nebula, it shares the majority of the same colors, but they are more subtle and the magenta reds hide behind the much paler violet blues

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 12

I got some LRGB data last night on M42. It's such a crazy bright target, this is only two hours of data with 30 second subs. I like how it all turned out. Next, I'm going to add in the NB images with this data and see how it all looks. #photography #astrophotography

The Orion nebula takes up the majority of the center of the frame. It consists of a bright white core and multiple shells of gas going up and away from it. The inner shell is a rosy-pink with a purplish blue shell above it. Below the central white core is a set of dark dust streams that shoot down and to the right. To the bottom left of the Orion Nebula core is the Running Man nebula. The running man has sections of soft blue white dust clouds in with deep purple red gas peaking out from behind.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 9

Rosette nebula in SHO. I started collecting data on this back in November but I've finally finished acquisition. Between camera problems, bad weather, and the moon being completely in the way, this one took way longer to complete than I planned. #photography #astrophotography

The rosette nebula resembles a top down view of a flower. There is a dark center "pistil" that is largely void of colors. It is surrounded by "petals" that transition from deep-blue to a lighter blue. The petals are then fringed with golden-orange and red dust that continues out to the edges of the frame.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 7

I also processed an SHO version of the Orion Nebula. I know that HOO usually wins the show but I love how this one turned out. The blues, greens, and golds are just a wildly different view than you normally see for it and I'm here for it. #astrophotography #photography

An image of a large nebula structure that dominates the majority of the frame. There are two nebula in the structure: the Running Man, which is the smaller of the two and sits above and to the left of the larger Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula dominates the majority of the frame. It's shape consists of a teal-blue shell surrounding a greenish-gold center. Throughout the image are swirls of background dust, which contrast subtly against the deeper background of the night sky. There are some stars dotting throughout the image, but compared to the nebula they are lost in the background.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 7

Here's an HOO look at the Orion Nebula (M42). I've been wanting to shoot this for years but never had a horizon line that would cooperate with me. #astrophotography #photography

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 3

I also managed to find some time to process the Dolphin (SH2-308) today. I'm super happy with the detail I was able to get in the Oiii (blue/teal). I'm really shocked at how little HA (red) came through. I think I'd have to go really deep on it to pull the HA out. #astrophotography #photography

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Mar 2

I finally got some time to crunch some data. This is just a quick and dirty pass on Markarian's Chain with the center being focused on M86. I might dump some more hours (specifically I want HA data) into it once I get a couple more galaxies taken care of this Spring. #astrophotography #photography

A space image filled with galaxies, both big and small. There is a nearly unbroken series of galaxies going from the top center of the image to the bottom left. The center of the image is M86, a barred galaxy with blue highlights through the arms. From the center of the image and looking right is another series of smaller galaxies with a very well defined spiral galaxy with two distinct arms about halfway between the center of the image and the right edge.

Jordan Maples@maples-astro· Feb 23

I changed the SHO a little bit, toning down the deep blue and bringing out some more contrast in places. I think this is a slightly better representation of it, however I still think I like the HOO version more.