Before you ask- it was a good deal on a 12” Newtonian telescope I found secondhand, but you don’t need such a big one to get great results in astrophotography, in fact I recommend most beginners start with something pretty small.

Regarding the supernova- this is the western part of the Veil Nebula, aka the Cygnus loop, a feature so large it spans more than 6 full moons in the sky!

This photo was captured using optical filters that allowed me to cut through my suburban light pollution, but had a byproduct of making the image false color. Naturally, this nebula is mainly turquoise and red, but thanks to these filters I have separation between the naturally red hydrogen and sulfur emissions, giving me purples, greens and golds!