548 galaxies captured from a home balcony in the Netherlands
From a balcony in the small Dutch town of Heiloo, amateur astronomer Cornelis Van Zuilen spent eighteen nights gathering light that had crossed the universe for billions of years, producing a single image containing 548 galaxies. His photograph of the Leo Triplet — three spiral galaxies some 30 million light-years away — captures not only the ghostly tidal tail of NGC 3628 but also the quiet revolution underway in how humanity reaches toward the cosmos. What once demanded institutional observatories and professional credentials now yields to patience, the right equipment, and software available to any dedicated enthusiast. Van Zuilen's balcony has become, in its modest way, a window onto the deep structure of the universe.
- A hobbyist astronomer in the Netherlands has gone viral after capturing 548 galaxies in a single image taken from his home balcony — a feat that would have been unthinkable for a private individual just decades ago.
- The ambition behind the project was extraordinary: Van Zuilen set out to photograph the full 300,000 light-year tidal tail of NGC 3628, a delicate streamer of stars ripped loose by gravitational forces millions of years ago and notoriously difficult to image.
- Eighty-five hours of raw data collected across eighteen clear nights had to be painstakingly filtered, with only sixty hours meeting Van Zuilen's quality threshold before weeks of software processing could even begin.
- Using PixInsight, he coaxed hidden galactic structures into visibility and catalogued every discrete galaxy in the frame — 548 in total, some so distant their light predates complex life on Earth.
- The image is now circulating far beyond astronomy communities, landing as both a scientific achievement and a cultural signal: serious deep-space exploration has escaped the observatory and arrived on the residential balcony.
Cornelis Van Zuilen stood on his balcony in Heiloo, in the northern Netherlands, and pointed a telescope at the night sky. What he gathered over eighteen clear nights would eventually travel the internet as far as the light in his photograph had traveled to reach him — an image holding 548 galaxies, many of them so remote that their light had been crossing space for hundreds of millions of years.
Van Zuilen had already photographed the Leo Triplet — the spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628, sitting roughly 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo — but he wanted more. Specifically, he wanted to capture the full extent of NGC 3628's tidal tail: a 300,000 light-year streamer of stars and gas, pulled loose by gravitational interactions with its neighbors long before humans existed. Beginning in April, he collected eighty-five hours of astronomical data, then selected the sixty hours that met his standards and began weeks of processing using PixInsight, software built for exactly this kind of painstaking astrophotography.
The result rendered M65 and M66 in sharp spiral detail, showed the edge-on profile of NGC 3628 — nicknamed the Hamburger Galaxy — with its famous tail stretching across the frame, and, when every discrete light source was catalogued, revealed 548 individual galaxies hiding in the image. Some were little more than faint smudges, yet each one a complete galactic system.
The photograph spread quickly, and the response pointed to something beyond Van Zuilen's personal achievement. A generation ago, an image of this depth and precision would have required a major observatory and institutional backing. He had produced it from home, with an Askar 103APO telescope mounted on a residential balcony. The light was ancient and the distances incomprehensible — but the act of catching it had become, remarkably, something one person could do alone.
Cornelis Van Zuilen stood on his balcony in Heiloo, a small town in the northern Netherlands, and pointed a telescope at the night sky. What he captured over the course of eighteen clear nights would eventually circle the globe—an image containing 548 galaxies, each one a vast island of billions of stars, many of them so distant that their light had traveled for hundreds of millions or even billions of years to reach his lens.
Van Zuilen is an amateur astronomer, but the word amateur hardly captures what he does. His passion for astrophotography had led him to undertake a personal project of photographing every object in the Messier Catalog, a centuries-old inventory of deep-sky targets. In 2025, he had successfully imaged the Leo Triplet—three spiral galaxies called M65, M66, and NGC 3628, located roughly 30 million light-years from Earth within the constellation Leo. But he wanted to push further. He wanted to capture something no one had quite managed before: the full, intricate detail of NGC 3628's tidal tail, a vast streamer of stars and gas stretching 300,000 light-years across space, torn loose by gravitational interactions with neighboring galaxies millions of years ago.
Beginning on April 6th, Van Zuilen began his observation campaign. He collected data across eighteen nights of clear skies, accumulating eighty-five hours of raw astronomical information. His tool was an Askar 103APO telescope—professional-grade equipment, but not the kind that requires a remote observatory or a university affiliation. It sat on his balcony. Later, he would select sixty of those eighty-five hours, the data that met his quality standards, and begin the painstaking work of processing.
That processing took weeks. Van Zuilen used PixInsight, specialized software designed for astrophotography, to combine the data streams, analyze them, and enhance the information the telescope had gathered. The program allowed him to tease out detail that would otherwise remain hidden—the spiral structures of M65 and M66 rendered in sharp relief, the profile of NGC 3628 (nicknamed the Hamburger Galaxy for its edge-on appearance) with its famous tidal tail extending across the frame like a cosmic brushstroke. But the real revelation came when he used PixInsight's tools to identify and catalog every discrete galaxy visible in the final image. The count reached 548. Some appeared as barely more than pinpricks of light, yet each represented a complete galactic system, potentially home to billions of stars.
The image went viral. It circulated through astronomy communities and beyond, a testament not just to Van Zuilen's skill and patience, but to something larger: the democratization of deep-space exploration. A generation ago, capturing an image of this quality and depth would have required access to a major observatory, professional equipment, and institutional resources. Van Zuilen had done it from his home, armed with determination, the right telescope, and software that has become increasingly accessible to serious amateurs. The light in his photograph had traveled across incomprehensible distances, and he had caught it from a balcony in the Netherlands. That fact alone—that such a thing was now possible—was perhaps the most remarkable discovery of all.
Notable Quotes
The project began as part of a personal series to photograph the entire Messier Catalog, but evolved into a challenge to capture unprecedented detail of NGC 3628's tidal tail.— Cornelis Van Zuilen, as reported to Space publication
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What made you decide to go after the Leo Triplet specifically, rather than just any deep-sky object?
I'd already photographed it once, in 2025, but I knew I was only scratching the surface. NGC 3628's tidal tail fascinated me—this 300,000 light-year structure created by ancient gravitational encounters. I wanted to see it properly, with real detail. That became the obsession.
Eighteen nights of observation is a serious commitment. Did you know from the start it would take that long?
Not exactly. I had a target in mind—sixty hours of quality data—but you can't predict clear skies. You wait for the right nights, and when they come, you observe. Those eighteen nights happened to align, and I took advantage of every one.
The final image shows 548 galaxies. How do you even begin to count something like that?
PixInsight does the heavy lifting. The software can identify distinct objects across the frame, but it requires human judgment too. You have to verify what you're seeing, understand the noise from the real signal. It's detective work as much as it is astronomy.
Does it change how you see the universe, knowing that most of those 548 galaxies are billions of light-years away?
Every time. You're not just looking at light—you're looking at time. Some of those photons left their galaxies before Earth even existed. You're holding a piece of cosmic history in your hands.
What surprised you most when you finally processed the full image?
The depth. Even after all those hours of observation, seeing how much structure emerged in the processing phase was humbling. Details I couldn't have imagined were hiding in the data the whole time.