Nicole was born in Germany and moved to Scotland in 2019. She has always had a passion for astronomy but it wasn’t until 2021 that she decided to buy her first telescope and realised that she could take pictures of the night sky from her very own back garden. That’s when her journey began and it’s certainly been a steep learning curve for her. Astrophotography can be incredibly frustrating but also extremely rewarding when everything goes to plan. Nicole became part of an amazing community of like-minded and extremely passionate and helpful people. Two of her Deep Sky images were featured in the BBC Sky at Night magazine in 2024, where her image of the Christmas Tree Cluster was chosen as their Photo Of The Month for July. It was also published in the Astronomy Now magazine in November 2024. Nicole intends to bring the universe closer to people who are curious about our night sky.

Hi Nicole! Astrophotgraphy is fascinating – can you tell us what challenges you experienced during the creation of your work and how you overcame them?
Where do I start? There are so many challenges when it comes to astrophotography. It starts by choosing the right equipment and continues by getting it to work. So far I’ve been relatively lucky, but I’ve also had nights where nothing wanted to play ball; stars were suddenly no longer visible as the focuser decided to stop working, the connection to the telescope mount was interrupted, causing my telescope to hit the tripod, whilst it continued slewing and making awful grinding noises, and screws have unexpectedly become loose. Finally, after setting everything up, I have suddenly felt rain drops falling gently on my optics and electronics.

These are only a few examples of technical issues which can occur. Most often it’s the weather (rain, wind, clouds, bad visibility) which won’t cooperate and it can often take weeks in between imaging sessions. Another challenge is that the telescope mount needs to track extremely precisely against earth’s rotation and minor disruptions such as wind gusts or slight vibrations, like when my dog decides to run right next to my tripod, can result in many unusable sub-exposures (subs). Most of my single exposures are 10 minutes, meaning that 3 minor disruptions will lead to 30 minutes of unusable data. Considering that cloudless nights are very rare in the U.K, every single exposure counts. I’ve managed to capture over 15 hours of usable data for my Christmas Tree Cluster which took me 9 nights between November 2023 and April 2024. I’ve only used the best subs for my final image, which was about 50-60% of my collected data. This means that my total imaging time was most likely over 30 hours. How did I overcome these challenges? With patience and the help of the fantastic astro community.

Another factor I want to mention is light pollution. I usually don’t photograph during the summer months as the nights are too bright and too short here in Scotland. Also, nights with a full moon are terrible for astrophotography. The goal is to have the darkest skies possible to be able to capture the faint light of nebulae or galaxies which are often thousands or even millions of light years away. Having a big bright moon in the sky makes this really difficult. Artificial lights can also be a big issue, not just for us astrophotographers but also for nocturnal animals. It would be fantastic if artificial light could only be used when it’s really necessary, or that red bulbs became more popular, so that we, even those living in currently light polluted places, can see the wonders of the universe with our own eyes once again.

Can you walk us through your creative process?
My favourite objects are narrowband targets – usually emission nebulae. I have a dedicated monochrome astrophotography camera and use specialist filters for Ha (Hydrogen alpha), Oiii (Oxygen) and Sii (Sulphur). These filters collect light exclusively in a very narrow wavelength range and it’s possible (to a certain extent) to counteract the negative effect from a bright moon or light pollution. I’m trying to collect a total of at least 10-15 hours for one image which consists of many single sub-exposures. My latest image had a total integration time of nearly 34 hours. Another possibility is to use LRGB (Luminance for details, Red + Green + Blue for colour) filters. These are generally used for broadband targets like galaxies, reflection or dark nebulae.

After collecting all this data – usually over a couple of weeks or even months – the sub frames need to be pre-processed first before stacking them into individual channels (Ha, Oiii, Sii and L, R, G, B). Only the very best sub frames (good focus, pin point stars, good detail and contrast, no strong aircraft trails) will make it into the final stack. Images which were slightly affected by clouds will be dismissed. All these sub frames will be stacked together with calibration frames (darks, flats, dark flats) per channel to achieve nice flat images. Once this is done, processing varies slightly but I often use the Hubble Palette and map Ha to the green, Oiii to the blue and Sii to the red colour channel. Ha and Sii would usually be in the red wavelength spectrum and Oiii in the green/blue one – that’s where a bit of artistic license is given. The colour of LRGB images is probably much closer to what we would actually see if we had very light sensitive eyes.

Once the colours are assigned, the individual channels will be combined and that’s the moment when I see a colour image for the first time. It’s always a mesmerising moment! After that there will be some tweaks to adjust colours as Ha is often quite overpowering leading to a very green image. Details and contrast will be enhanced as good as possible using the dataset which I captured. I usually like very vivid colours but still try not to over process my images and not to go overboard with some sharpening or noise reduction tools. I think slight adjustments usually lead to a more eye pleasing result. 

How do you know when a piece is complete?
It’s important to me to take as many single exposures of a Deep Sky object as possible. Often the weather or moon determines when I can no longer photograph, or when the target I am capturing is getting too low on the sky. The other big part is image processing. It’s usually a feeling I get when an image is complete. I become more and more excited and little butterflies appear when I’m really happy – like I was with my Christmas Tree Cluster image. I often reprocess data to try and get an even better result with better colours and details. I have to admit that I still need to work on being more content and happy with my own work. The saying: “We are often our own worst critics,” describes me very well.

What do you do to keep motivated and interested in your work?
As I’ve been interested in astronomy since I’ve been a small child, I don’t really need any motivation. Every single image from our own galaxy or other galaxies is just absolutely mind blowing. To be able to capture these from my own back garden is something I never thought possible. I often still can’t believe that these are my images and that all these beautiful nebulae, galaxies or clusters are out there. I don’t think that I will ever lose interest.

What advice would you give to artists who are just starting out?
A usual response from an astrophotographer would probably be Don’t do it! Save your money, start knitting and enjoy your sleep! That’s obviously only said in jest and not meant seriously – Astrophotography can be very rewarding but also extremely difficult. I’d advise to have realistic goals, don’t expect perfect results straight away. Budget plays a quite important role and will decide what setup you start your journey with. Impressive images can be achieved with a DSLR but what’s usually the most important equipment for Deep Sky Astrophotography is a sturdy equatorial mount which tracks against earth’s rotation. A telescope isn’t even necessary, a lens and DSLR can be sufficient to achieve amazing images. What beginners often don’t realise is that Deep Sky objects often don’t require a telescope with a long focal length. My telescope is actually pretty small and it’s a great size to fit nebulae into one frame. The apparent size of many nebulae is quite big, often the diameter of multiple full moons. At first I thought that big telescopes would be needed to capture Deep Sky objects but what’s more important is the capability to capture as much light from these often very faint nebulae as possible. Longer focal length telescopes are more essential for planets, smaller galaxies or planetary nebulae.

Another important piece of advice is to ask for help. I’ve joined some very fabulous astronomy groups online and made great friends who are always trying their best to help. Becoming a member of an astronomy clubs could also be a great idea where equipment can be tested and advice will be given in person.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
I really hope that viewers will be as excited and amazed as I am when they see what’s ‘out there.’ I also hope that they will become interested in our night skies and be mindful of light pollution. Some people might be a little bit intimidated by how big the universe is and how small our earth is in comparison. To me it’s absolutely fascinating and it makes me think that earth is very special.

See Nicole’s work as part of our Winter Open Call exhibition, featuring an incredible collection of works by twenty-six artists who have each considered the season and explored the interplay of light and shadow, warmth and cold, presence and absence, through a wide range of mediums and styles. Chiaroscuro runs at Six Foot Gallery until Thursday 9th January 2025.