Fighting twilight on the morning of July 11, but it might put on a good show in evenings after July 14th.

The comet is named for a NASA spacecraft that discovered it, the Near Earth Objects Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE). The spacecraft examines the infrared signatures of near-earth objects. It's a follow-on of an earlier mission, WISE.

114 Km in diameter, Moretus crater is a sight to behold.

Along with the dramatic lunar edge its one of my favorite area to shoot when the moon is at 86.5% Illumination.

Telescope: Askar 185

x3 Barlow lense

ZWO ASI178MM

This is my first attempt at a Hydrogen Alpha image of the sun, showing Active Region (AR) 2674 and 2679 (both to the left) and AR 2677 and 2678 (to the right). The image was taken using a QHY5-290C camera attached to a Lunt 50 THA solar scope. It is the result of 400 frames, stacked in Autostakkert 3 and processed using Registax6.

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25" (IR)

Tele Vue 2.5x PowerMate

Meade LX850 (12" f/8)

Losmandy G11

I hung those planets and stars up in the roof at home, to avoid too much extra work in front of the computer. But I still find it hard to create a finished photograph straight in the camera. Of course, if I had different ideas or another style, that wouldn´t be a problem, but there are so many things that pops into my head that demands those extra things that can´t be done in reality!

I just wrote a blog post about the year of 2012. Go here to read it, and note that I recently changed my blog address.

New Blog Address

Facebook | Website

Stacked frames using Lynkeos based on video taken with an iPhone 12 on a 5” reflector with a 2x Barlow and a 10mm eyepiece.

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25" (RGB)

Meade LX850 (12" f/8)/2.5x PowerMate

Losmandy G11

4 RGB runs (60s and 21,000 frames per filter) in FireCapture

Preprocessing in PIPP

Best 40% of frames stacked in Autostakkert

Wavelet sharpening in Registax

Finnishing in Photoshop

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat +51·542 Long -3·593

Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Tal 2x Barlow Lens, ZWO ASI 120MC Imager.

Captured using Firecapture in daylight.

FPS (avg.)=53

Shutter=0.314ms

Gain=38 (38%)

Apparent diameter at time of capture 23.01"

Phase 52%

Magnitude -4.46

Processed with Registax 6 & G.I.M.P.

Seeing Conditions: Reasonably good.

Out of 7000 frames captured, about 2200 used for processing. Final image enlarged to 150%

Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse as seen from Weatherly, PA on October 8, 2014. Finally broke through the clouds and into the view of my 400mm lens.

A 135mm framing of comet 2022 E3 ZTF. The last time this comet approached earth, it was the Ice Age. A wonderful break in the clouds allowed a few minutes of exposures on this gem.

135mm

ISO 1600 F/2.0, 8 seconds

Canon Rebel T3i

January 21, 2022. Comet was about 10 degrees above the horizon to the north-northeast early in the night

Near the moon's south pole, Clavius is 225km in diameter. Mewlon 210 with Imaging Source video camera.

On 18 June 2007, Venus and Moon came very close in a rare alignment between 8.59 to 9.55 pm PST. This rare phenomenon called "occulation" occurs many times a year since the Moon and Venus travel on the same plane.

A single image of the waxing moon taken using my QHY8L and Altair Wave 115ED telescope.

ZWO ASI178MC

Meade LX850 (12" f/8)

Losmandy G11

2000 frames captured in Firecapture

Best 60% stacked in Autostakkert

Wavelet sharpened in Registax

Finished in Photoshop

Several sunspots here.

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25"

TeleVue NP101is/2.5x PowerMate

Losmandy G11

10 RGB runs captured in Firecapture (30s and 2900 frames/filter)

Best 60% stacked in Autostakkert

Wavlet sharpened in Registax

De-rotated in WINJUPOS

Finished in Photoshotp

This image was captured with a 60% histogram. The image immediatly preceeding this one was captured with an 80% histogram, which is my usual exposure. At this setting, a portion of the left-most edge of the North Polar Hood (NPH) has been getting clipped in my latest images. I took the two images for comparison..

This image was able to endure more sharpening with less clipping than the 80% histogram image. It is also interesting to compare how the details south of the NPH differ between the two images. I am not certain which image I like best.

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25" (RGB)

Tele Vue 2.5x PowerMate

Meade LX850 (12" f/8)

Losmandy G11

46.4K frames captured in FireCapture with 60% histogram

Preprocessed in PIPP

Best 2000 frames stacked in Registax

Wavlet Sharpened in Registax

Noise reduction in Topaz DeNoise AI

Finished in Photoshop

The sun.

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25"

Meade LX850 (12" f/8)/TV 2.5x PowerMate

Losmandy G11

10 RGB Runs (6.5ms, gain 385, 3800 frames/filter) captured in FireCapture

Preprocessed in PIPP

Best 50% of frames stacked in Autostakkert

Wavelet Sharpened in Registax

De-rotated in WINJUPOS

Finished in Photoshop

A cloudy day process. Some of my solar system images shot over 2016 and 2017

Pretty obvious but L-R Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

Mars images from October 2020 to March 2021. I had to go about three months between the last two images due to poor weather and when clear poor seeing at my location. Image show size, distance and dates for each image. Size is measures in arcsecond. Data captures with a Meade 12" LX200, ZWO ASI174MM camera.

Aberkenfig, South Wales

Lat +51.542 Long -3.593

Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Tal 2x Barlow Lens, ZWO ASI 120MC Imager. Captured using Firecapture

Processed with Registax 6 & G.I.M.P.

Another page from my observations log book

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It can fit 1200 Earth inside it. Jupiter is gaseous giant planet composed of Hydrogen, Helium, Methane & Ammonia. Its day is 10 hours and its distance from the Sun is 780 million Km. One of the most prominent surface features is the two dark brown bands around its equator and the Great Red Spot which is a giant Hurricane. Its size is double size of the Earth. Gear setup: Celestron Mak 127/1500, Televue 2.5x, UV/IR cut filter, ZWO 294 MC, iOptron iEQ 30 pro. Captured by Sharp pro. Stacked by Autostakkart!, wavelets by Registax, processed by PS.

I've seen a number of images lately of the famous comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko* and thought I'd try my own. Here's the result from last night, clear enough after a modest snowfall during the day though with temps flirting with 0ºF overnight.

I'm a bit baffled by the tail that seems to be offset from the nucleus, which I don't recall seeing very often except in comets that are much closer to the Sun and sporting both ion and dust tails, and some oddball hybrid comet/asteroid objects.

The image is a composite of 100 frames, 90 seconds each; Explore Scientific ED102 102mm f/7 refractor, ZWO ASI294MC camera, UV/IR cutoff filter, iOptron CEM25P mount, Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom.

*67P is most famous because it was visited by ESA's fabulous Rosetta spacecraft in 2014 and its Philae lander.

Due to driver glitch, the filter wheel did not change fillters during the capture.. Since the three color channel images were identical (and probably captured through the blue filter, the result was a monochrome image.

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25"

TeleVue NP101is/2.5x PowerMate

Losmandy G11

ZWO ASI290MM/EFW 8 x 1.25" (RGB)

Meade LX850 (12" f/8)/2.5x PowerMate

Losmandy G11

5 RGB runs captured in Firecapture

Preprocessed in PIPP

Stacked in Autostakkert

Wavelet sharpened in Registax

Finished in PhotoShop

Voyage to an Unexplored Planet and a New Realm

The New Horizons mission will help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt – a relic of solar system formation.

The Journey

New Horizons launched on Jan. 19, 2006; it swung past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February 2007, and will conduct a five-month-long reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons in summer 2015. Pluto closest approach is scheduled for July 14, 2015. As part of an extended mission, the spacecraft is expected to head farther into the Kuiper Belt to examine one or two of the ancient, icy mini-worlds in that vast region, at least a billion miles beyond Neptune’s orbit.

Sending a spacecraft on this long journey will help us answer basic questions about the surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres on these bodies.

This is an image I found while cleaning my computer. Taken Feb 18th 2014 with the C11. LRGB image. I captured 20.000 frames for the LUM and 5000 on each of the color filters R,G and B. Focal length aprox. 7200 mm. Processing done using Autostakkert, Registax for wavelets and Phtoshop Elements. De rotation of the LRGB images with Winjupos

Solar active region AR3998 as it reached the solar edge.

Beyond the edge of the sun activity from AR3996 can still be seen.

Feb 27 2025

Askar 185, Dayatar Quark Chromoshere ds Lunt40, Baader DERF & Player One Apollo-M Max

** Earth was added for scale purposes only **

A portrait from the final approach. Pluto and Charon display striking color and brightness contrast in this composite image from July 11, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images.

Taken with SkyWatcher Mak 180/2.700 @ 5.400mm and Astrolumina Alccd5l-IIc Camera.

ASI224mc 5x barlow C8N reflector