The Andromeda Galaxy, with a bright ivory core and blue outer arms

Beyond the Night

Deep sky, lunar and nocturnal landscapes captured from the heart of England.

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Selected work · 2026

Signals from the dark

Quiet hours under British skies—gathered one exposure at a time, then carefully shaped to reveal what the eye cannot hold.

Field note 01 · M31

First light from another galaxy

Andromeda was the object that made the distance feel real.

On 11 July 2026, I found M31 visually through a 10-inch Dobsonian, then let the Seestar gather roughly two hours of signal from my garden in Hinckley. The live stack began as a pale oval. Slowly, the dust lanes emerged and the galaxy became a place rather than a catalogue number.

The final image is built from patience: calibration, careful stretching, restrained colour and a refusal to crush the quiet detail in the outer arms.

Date: 11.07.2026
Integration: ≈ 120 minutes
Instrument: Seestar S30 Pro
Location: Hinckley, England

Field setup

Small instruments. Deep time.

A compact setup designed to be ready when the clouds finally part, with a large visual telescope alongside it for the direct experience of the sky.

Smart telescope

ZWO Seestar S30 Pro

The portable deep-sky rig—acquisition, tracking and live stacking in one small instrument.

Visual telescope

RVO Horizon 10″ f/5

A 254 mm Dobsonian for finding the objects first with my own eyes.

Camera

Panasonic Lumix S5II

Full-frame capture for nocturnal landscapes, lunar work and the atmosphere above them.

Darkroom

PixInsight + Affinity

Calibration, integration, careful stretching and final colour work on a MacBook Pro.

“The sky is not a backdrop. It is a record of time.”

Behind the camera

Mateusz · MA7E0

I am an astrophotographer based in Hinckley, England. I work nights on the road, which has made me unusually familiar with the quiet hours—empty skies, changing weather and the first hint of dawn.

My work moves between deep-sky objects, the Moon and rare atmospheric events. What links them is the same impulse: to stop, look longer and bring back something the unaided eye could not keep.

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