09SEP25

After a night with clouds and rain the forecast for tonight is clear skies. I plan to image more of the Fireworks galaxy this evening. 

06SEP25

This is the Eastern Veil Nebula, NGC 6332. As you can see I didn't get it centered but that's okay as I was just doing this as a test run. I've setup a plan in the Seestar S50 that better centers the nebula and I will run it tonight. 

Naturally that means I need to capture the Western Veil Nebula, NGC 6960 later. Luckily I have built a plan for it as well. 

06SEP25

The fall of 1618 was a standout when it came to notable comets, boasting three visible to the naked eye. In late August, C/1618 Q1 appeared, first spotted in the skies over Hungary. Johannes Kepler observed the comet throughout the month of September, spotting it from Linz, Austria, through a small telescope on Sept. 6. It was the first known observation of a comet through a telescope. The second comet (C/1618 V1) was seen in early November, with observations recorded in Indonesia on Nov. 9 and Italy by the 10th. Then, at the end of the month, an even more spectacular comet appeared, seen first in the skies over Asia: C/1618  W1. The brightest of the three celestial visitors, it reached an apparent magnitude of 0–1 by Nov. 29, and sported a long tail. Astronomers across Europe noted their observations of the comet, including Kepler, who spotted it on Nov. 29th and continued to measure its orbit until Jan. 7. As was common at the time, many astrologers and theologians interpreted the series of comets as harbingers of doom or punishment, often connecting them to the impending Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

Source: Astronomy.com 

05SEP25

One of the challenges that some Seestar users have is finding the Sun. You think a giant ball of fire would be easy to be spot, you would be wrong. The Seestar will glide right past it and say it could not find it. The solution is a Sol Seeker, the white part you see mounted to the S50 here. The solar filter that comes with the Seestar snaps right into it and it slides right onto your Seestar. No adhesives or mounting hardware required. With this in place it was just a matter of moving the Seestar with the joystick function of the app until I saw saw the sun hit the target on the back of the Sol Seeker. You can find the STL files here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6965102 

My first target for the Seestar S50 is The Lagoon Nebula, M8. While not visible to the naked eye where I live the S50 had no problem capturing it. I'll spend more time on it later and do some post processing work. For now I'm thrilled to have this little smart telescope. Click the image or the M8 above to see the full image.

This is one of my favorite Hubble Space Telescope images. It is part of the Eagle Nebula, M 16. This is one of my future targets for the Seestar S50. While it won't be as great as the image here the pillars can be observed. The pillars are cooled hydrogen gas and dust. This is where stars are born. Click the image for a full size you can zoom in on. 

This is something you never want to see regarding your new telescope delivery.

A Railroad Mechanical Failure Has Delayed Delivery. We're Working To Deliver Your Package As Soon As Possible.

This image of Saturn was captured by the Cassini mission on September 15th, 2016. Saturn, the sixth planet out from the Sun, is a gas giant with a radius nine times that of Earth. However, it has only 1/8th the average density of Earth while being over ninty five times our size. While the rings are impressive I'm impressed to learn that it has two hundred and seventy moons! Click the image to the left to see it full size. 

The Seestar S50 has shipped and I should have it Friday. I will begin capturing images Saturday night, weather permitting. 

Here is a list of Messier targets I am looking forward to:

• M 8

• M 16

• M 27

• M 31

• M 33

• M 45

• M 51

• M 101

23AUG25

There is an Astronomer's Curse and I am about to experience it. Whenever an astronomer gets a new telescope they are cursed with a week of cloud covered nights. Why am I experiencing it? Because I ordered a Seestar S50 and it will be here next weekend. Bring on the clouds! Once the skies clear I will begin capturing the night sky and sharing it here. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

I don't know where this image came from so I cannot give proper credit. Click it to view full size. This is a map of The Milky Way, our home galaxy, and some of the deep sky objects we can see along with where they are located. It amazes me how much of our galaxy we can see from our own backyards. This image was created by Pablo Carlos Budassi and you can see more of his artwork at https://pablocarlosbudassi.com/

A big thank you to Edward F. Magowan of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association for finding the credit for the image.

Two days ago I requested the MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network to capture an image of the Sun. While it is not a full image of the Sun look at those sunspots! Each are as big as Earth. It is believed that Sol formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The sun produces energy through nuclear fusion, fusing 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second. This energy radiates outward with only a small portion actually impacting Earth. A pastime time of observers is to track Sun Spots. These are dark spots on the surface of the sun where it is cooler than the area around it. They occur when the Sun's magnetic lines get twisted and push through the surface. Because these magnetic fields block the regular flow of gases from the Sun's core the surface at those points cool. So how big are these sun spots? They are the size of our Earth and even larger at times. Be careful if you wish to observe the Sun because I do not want you to burn your retinas. There are special lenses and even special telescopes made for observing it safely. 

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus. It orbits outside of the rings and the video here shows you what the JWST captured. Wait, did I say rings? Yes I did! Uranus has it's own rings and I'll write more about them in the future. Just know for know that Uranus is an odd planet.

The newly discovered moon is estimated to be just six miles (10 kilometers) in diameter, assuming it has a similar reflectivity (albedo) to Uranus’ other small satellites. That tiny size likely rendered it invisible to Voyager 2 and other telescopes.

“No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons,” said Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, a member of the research team. “Moreover, the new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered.”

Last night I was able to capture this image of the Moon using the MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network. The website is easy to use and I encourage you to try it out. Keep looking up.

The image to the left is the Andromeda Galaxy, Messier Object 31. I was able to capture this image using the MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network and you can too. Head over to the MORTN website and select the Control Telescope option. You will be presented with a list of targets the telescope can attempt to capture for you that night or the next. You can select the telescope's settings to capture the image how you wish. There are tips provided as you go if your settings may result in poor image quality. The next day, or day after, you will receive an email containing links to your images along with FITS files in case you want to enhance the image further on your own. I find it amazing you can capture images of the deep night sky online, from your couch, and it is FREE to do.

Our moon, named Luna, is an easily observable object in the sky appearing during both the day and night. The popular hypothesis of why we have a moon is that about 4.5 billion years ago it the planet Theia collided with the young Earth. This collision sent rock and debris into orbit. Over time , 10 - 100 million years, gravitational forces pulled this rock and debris together until they were compressed into our moon. Only twelve people have walked on our moon and we now have plans to return to the moon in April 2026 via the Artemis program. 

The image here is of the galaxy NGC 7331. If you look at the middle of the galaxy you will see two bright spots. The lower one is the galactic core so there is plenty of light coming from many stars to get it that bright. The upper one is a single star that has recently gone supernova (SN 2025rbs). That one explosion is brighter than all of the stars in the galactic core combined. Find your local astronomy club and see if they can help you spot it. This image was captured by William Oliver using a Seestar S50 telescope.

Today I went down the rabbit of hole of how time passes based on speed. I learned that the passage of time is based on your speed, in simple terms. A photon travels at the speed of light. At that speed time stops passing from the photon’s perspective. From Earth’s perspective the photon travels through both space and time.

Let’s consider Sagittarius A* for moment. It is approximately 26,000 light years away from Earth. From our perspective a photon leaving Sagittarius A* will travel for 26,000 light years before it reaches Earth. From the photon’s perspective it leaves Sagittarius A* and arrives at Earth instantly because time does not pass at the speed of light.

Yeah, it hurts my brain too so I plan to keep learning about the subject to ease the pain. I recommend StarTalk if you have an interest in astronomy and the sciences.

While I wait for the Seestar S30 Pro to release in January I'm enjoying nake eye observation, I'll attempt some astrophotgraphy with my iPhone and my self dive into astronomy will continue. I'll share things I find of interest here.