ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE AUTHOR UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED; LA SILLA DETAIL: ESO IMAGING STRATEGY by Rolf Wahl Olsen Ultra-Deep Imaging Dedicating multiple nights to a single target can lead to surprising results. E ver since digital detectors supplanted film as the dominant photographic medium, some of the most colorful and appealing images of deep-sky targets have come from talented amateurs armed with sensitive electronic cameras and high-quality telescopes. Yet many of us with relatively modest equipment look at the pictures produced with giant telescopes at professional observatories and dream about taking pictures as good. You might think, " If only I had a bigger telescope or more sensitive camera . . . " Well, the good news is that with a bit of patience and persistence, you can capture deep-sky photographs that rival or even exceed the depth of those recorded by the pros and reveal rarely seen features. In early 2013 I set out to realize a long-time dream of mine: to take an exceedingly deep astrophoto incorporating more than KNOTS AND JETS The northeast portion of the author's photo (below right) compares well to a 50-hour image recorded with the European Southern Observatory's 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla (below left). While Olsen's image lacks the resolution of that produced with the larger observatory scope, all the extended features of the galaxy appear in both pictures. 60 FEBRUARY 2022 * SKY & TELESCOPE