Was verbirgt sich hinter den Dunkelwolken? Himmelsvorschau für Astrofotografen - Juli 2026

In July, the Milky Way reveals itself in all its splendor. Low above the southern horizon, the view extends to the center of our galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius. But to the north stretches a vast, opaque region of dark clouds: the Serpens-Aquila Rift. New stars are still forming in these enormous molecular clouds. At one point, the light of a young star has already broken through the dark cloud, illuminating the beautiful blue reflection nebula vdB 123 in the constellation Serpens. This fascinating star-forming region is the featured object of the month in this sky preview. In addition to numerous globular clusters, the first open clusters of the Milky Way also come into focus for astrophotography in July. For advanced astrophotographers, highlights such as the Ring Nebula M57 in Lyra, the planetary nebula Sh2-68 (Flaming Skull Nebula), and, as a true rarity, the mysterious horns of Vega await. This sky forecast also offers numerous exciting deep-sky objects – from simple subjects for beginners with a smart telescope to challenging targets for experienced astrophotographers with their own observatory. CS Frank If you would like to support my work, you can send me a donation at any time via the following link. Thank you! https://paypal.me/astrophotocologne My new book from Rheinwerk Verlag: Astronomy - The Practical Guide to Sky Observation https://bit.ly/4uhSMsb Link to Amazon https://amzn.to/4xi7MJl Join our community on Discord   / discord   Music by Rainer Raupach   / spin-up   Title animation by Farhouse Media https://www.farhouse-media.de/ Terms and Conditions for Reader Photos & Photo of the Month 1. By submitting a photo, you agree to participate in the Photo of the Month competition and grant me the right to feature the photo in the Sky Preview. 2. Only photos inspired by the Sky Preview are eligible. Photos taken before the release of the respective episode will not be considered. 3. The image size should ideally be 3840 x 2160 pixels—please no smaller, but also not significantly larger. 4. Ideally, the images should NOT be captioned. Watermarks are acceptable if absolutely necessary. 5. Please submit only in JPG format. The filename should be your first and last name, for example, MaxMustermann.jpg—not M45_3600s_APO.jpg or MaxMustermann_M45.jpg. The email should include the following information: Telescope Mount Camera Exposure time and, if applicable, filters. Nothing more and nothing less! 6. Only one image per person per month will be accepted. 7. Please do not send links to Astrobin, Google Drive, or other download folders—send only as an email attachment to my address. 8. Processing with generative AI is not permitted—this explicitly includes tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Nano Banana, and similar programs. Only classic image editing using software commonly used in astrophotography, such as PixInsight, Photoshop, or Siril, is permitted. 9. Please respect these rules. Anyone who violates them will be excluded from participating in the Reader Images category and the Image of the Month selection. Anyone attempting to cheat will be permanently banned from participation. Many thanks, Frank Links and image sources https://www.capella-observatory.com/ https://www.astrophotocologne.de/ https://www.spektrum.de/leserbilder/a... https://www.astrobin.com 00:00 Start 00:27 Introduction 01:03 The image of the month 02:25 The night sky in July 04:02 NGC 6366 05:44 Messier 14 07:21 IC 4665 09:26 IC 4756 & NGC 6633 11:12 Sh2-68 Flaming Skull Nebula 13:12 Messier 57 - Ring Nebula 15:00 ODM - vdB123 Aquila Rift 23:13 CTSS-3 (Sh2-78) 25:05 LDN 648 26:43 Horns of the Vega 29:32 Reader Images Books on Astrophotography & Astronomy Astronomy - The Practical Guide to Sky Observation https://amzn.to/4lUs46o Image Atlas of Star Clusters and Nebulae https://bit.ly/428Lo4S https://amzn.to/3Lol5RD Image Atlas of Galaxies https://amzn.to/3THy0DK Astrophotography by Katja Seidel https://amzn.to/3ViOUr2 Astrophotography by Thierry Leghault https://amzn.to/2Ga6GY4 DeepSky Imaging Primer https://amzn.to/2LTmnoH Lessons from the Masters https://amzn.to/2n5Iu2Q #astrophotography #skyforecast #astronomy