Moon Shot from April 2025

The Mineral Moon.   Although not apparent to the naked eye moonlight, enhanced digitally, can reveal the difference in mineral density and makeup especially in the basins of the lunar mare. Posted on Facebook April 2025 but omitted a blog post here.

Rosette Nebula NGC 2237 et.al. in Narrow Band Ha, O3 and S2. Taken with Vixen ED80 Doublet Refractor, Dual Band Ha/O3 and O3/S2 Filters and a Modified Canon 550D. 20 x Ha/O3 and 42 x O3/S2 individual frames/exposures taken over 2 nights 25th and 26th January 2026.

The Rosette Nebula, Caldwell 39 or NGC 2237 and the central star cluster NGC 2244, the light from which causes the Nebula to emit and glow in it's own light.   Approximately 5000 light years away and 100 light years across.  Our sun and it's neighbouring star, Rigil Kentaurus, would sit very closely, relatively speaking, inside the centre of the this nebula,
 

No more clear nights now for a few days and just just as well as I need to catch up on some sleep. Although once I set the telescope up over these 2 nights it was pretty much 'set and forget and sleep tight' with the ASIair telescope computer controlling the imaging, tracking, guiding and meridian flip. But it doesn't serve you breakfast in the morning. ZWO could add that functionality in perhaps in the next firmware update.

Anyhow this was another step forward for me getting data with 2 sets of filters and combining them in the Pixinsight Image Processing program

Raw Frame from , slightly enhanced, 5 Minutes Exposure.

Mount Pleasant Observatory Early Evening Sky and Moon and Nightscape shots with Google Pixel Phone in 4 Minute Long Exposure Mode on Tripod.

Aurora Night 20th January 2026

Messier 78, Caspar the Friendly Ghost Nebula, Bright Reflection Nebula in Orion, 1350 Light Years in Distance, Sharpstar 100qii Refractor and ZWO ASI183 Camera, 31 x 5 Minute Frames, Stacked and Processed in PixInsight

 

Messier 78

Last Shots 2025 of Eta Carinae taken New Years Eve, NGC3372 in Dual Narrowband Ha and Oiii. Taken with Vixen ED80 Refractor Telescope and Modified Canon 550D Camera. 24 (some with tinges of cloud ) 300 second/5 Minute frames , stacked and enhanced with false colour techniques in Pixinsight and Photoshop.

HOO Pallete

 

Forax Pallete

Large Magellanic Cloud, Sharpstar qii Refractor and ASI183 ZWO Camera.

 

Part of Eta Carinae NGC 3372 commonly referred to as "The Keyhole" taken/imaged with Celestron C8 Edge SCT and ZWO ASI533 Camera, 8500 Lightyears distant or 2600 Parsecs, in the Constellation of Carina (The Keel of the Argo Navis, from mythology, Jason and the Argonauts' Boat. This are of the sky also comprises the constelations of Puppis and Vella) Taken from 9 of the best of 10x5 minute/300 second frames acquired on a very patchy cloudy nights on the 16th December 2025.

 

Sculptor Galaxy NGC253, Somewhere between 10 to 12 million Light Years Distant. Taken with a Celestron C8 Edge and ZWO ASI533 Camera on a Patchy Cloudy Night, Sunday 28th December 2025. Comprising 20 Seperate 5 Minute Exposures combined and enhanced in PixInsight and Photoshop.

Sculptor_Galaxy 

Eta Carinae NGC 3372 with Vixen ED80 Refractor and modified Canon550D, 8500 Lightyears distant or 2600 Parsecs, in the Constellation of Carina (The Keel of the Argo Navis, from mythology, Jason and the Argonauts' Boat. This are of the sky also comprises the constelations of Puppis and Vella) Taken from 9 of the best of 24x5 minute/300 second frames acquired over two very patchy cloudy nights on the 16th and 20th of December 2025.

It's still always amazing to be under even partially clear skies and these 2 nights(16th and 20th Dec 2025) were mainly cloudy and I was primarily just uncovering the telescope to check its function and state as we have had a very cloudy December.   I was tempted to try for the Rossette and Horsehead Nebulae around Orion but initial attempts showed theese objects just too dim and the sky too patchy to get useful data.  Fortunately around Carina, lowish on the southern horizon, there were enough useful gaps in the clouds to get some usuable frames.

NGC 3372

Great Orion Nebula and the adjacent Running Man, NGC1980 and NGC1975) taken the night of the 11th December with one of my old trusty gold skywatcher ed80 Pro doublets with an Orion 0.80 focal reducer, UVIRcut Filter and a SVBony 405CC OSC Camera. This particular night I was using a HEQ5 mount ex Peter Sayers, ex ex Katina Edmunds. Once I get some clear nights to really establish its guiding performance (this night around 1 to 2 arcsecond variance) I plan to do a belt mod. I was also using 'in anger' for the first time, a mini PC with Nina, PHD2 and Carte Du Ciel to polar align, auto focus(with a Gemini Focuser), guide and capture. Studying and Learning from Cuiv The Lazy Geek's Video on how to remotely access a Mini PC via it's wifi hotspot from a nearby computer made removing a direct cable direct connection to the telescope possible. This will be handy for those sessions where I might like to sit inside in the warm just like you can with an ASIair setup. Why do this when I already have multiple ASIairs? Well just because I can? The image comprises 20 x 2 minutes frames and 20 x 0.5 second frames for the core around the Trapezium Stars, Processed and combined in Pixinsight and then further enhanced in Photoshop and Photoshop Raw. I am quite happy with the response of the colours and PixInsight's ability to hone in and enhance these mainly using the Curves Transformation function. Also I used the Local Histogram Equalization Function to further enhance the colour contrast.