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Over the past several years I have found myself perusing various astrophotography forums and seeing images that I'd like to capture myself. But then when I went to my planning software I had a hard time making sure that my telescope was aimed at the right part of the sky. That led me to work...

I have been trying to collect enough data on this target to make a worthwhile image for a few weeks, but it only rises above my house late at night, and then before long it crosses the meridian, and the SCT I needed to use to shoot it has been giving me trouble with focus, especially after a...

I have made the switch from ASIAIR-assisted imaging to the far more powerful, but far more complicated, NINA system. This was prompted by my buying a rotator for my rig, which meant ditching an off-axis guider, which meant adding a guide scope, which led to my running out of USB ports, which...

When my mom and dad were relatively newly married and money was tight, my father returned from a business trip to Italy with the nicest gift for my mother that he thought he could afford--a pair of handmaid yellow gloves from Florence. What he hadn't counted on, unfortunately, was that you don't...

I have been putting together a book of astro images after having been asked by quite a few guests if they could buy such a thing from me. In the course of putting this together and deciding what to include, I knew I had to include the Jewel Box Cluster, since it was one of the things that, on...

On Sunday night I saw a post from a photographer I follow who is based in Twizel, in the Mackenzie Country of the South Island of New Zealand, around 90 minutes from my home in Oamaru, saying that conditions were promising for a hoarfrost to form overnight. So I threw caution to the wind and the...

After shooting this target with my Seestar smartscope, I thought it might be nice to shoot it with a "real" telescope, too. I opted to use my 8" SCT at 1442mm, so quite a bit more reach than the Seestar's measly 250mm, but the nebula remains quite small in the FOV.

We had torrential rain at the beginning of the week--two months' worth of rain fell in one night, causing epic flooding in our town--but it all passed by yesterday and with it we had a beautiful clear night so I set up my three rigs for a night of imaging (Seestar S50, Svbonby 80mm refractor...

It's interesting (to me) to see how this hobby changes how you view your past output. I photographed this galaxy when i first got started in astrophotography in 2022 and was really proud of the image I produced. When I look at it now, having just reshot the galaxy last night, I am shocked that I...

My monochrome rig is in the hospital with a defective filter wheel so I was only able to shoot with my "secondary" rig, the 8" SCT with OSC camera. I figured it might be nice to shoot this target again and combine with data from last year, and I'm pleased with the result. Altogether this is 14...

A few nights ago, while taking my dogs out for their evening walk, I noticed that the crescent moon was in conjunction with Jupiter and Venus. After shooting a quick shot with my iPhone, I thought a "proper" photo was justified, so I set up my Canon R5m2 on a tripod with a 70-200mm lens and...

Last night was the winter solstice here in New Zealand and we had a perfectly still, clear, night to enjoy it. I set up my astro-modified Canon 600D on the Benro Polaris, mounted the 135mm Rokinon f/2 and shot for a bit more than 2 hours to capture this nearby neighbour of ours one more time.

I have decided that this season I'm going to try to focus on just a few targets and really collect a lot of subs on them, rather than going for quantity over quality of different targets. My second narrowband target of the year is this old favourite of mine, the wonderful Tarantula Nebula, which...

The forecast was for clear skies yesterday so I got my tripod set up in advance so that I could hit the ground running when darkness fell. Unfortunately it started out quite cloudy and I was all set to give up my plan, but at around 8:45pm it seemed to clear up enough to make my effort...

Last night I went to our new place (still unfinished) to take advantage of darker skies to shoot the comet C/2025 R3 Panstarrs one more time. It’s a bit higher than a few days ago but it’s still close enough to Orion to make for a nice tableau. I used my astro-mod Canon 600D, Rokinon 135 f/2 and...

When I was photographing the comet the other day I realised it had the potential to make a nice conjunction with the Orion Nebula and Rigel on Saturday night. The weather forecast kept changing, going from 10% cloudy to 90% cloudy in just 48 hours. Sure enough, as dusk settled in things were not...

A friend led me to realise that I could capture the comet with the tail in a better orientation if I removed the equatorial wedge from my Seestar and shot in alt-az mode, so I gave that a try last night. Much happier with the framing, but I had a hard time getting rid of star traces in my...

Oy oy oy, what a time I have had with this comet! I only realised it was visible a few nights ago, but it's in a tricky spot for me, with a combination of trees and power lines in the way. But last night I got about 20 minutes of 10-second shots of the thing with my Seestar S50 that I was *sure*...

The nights are just starting to get long enough to where it's worth trying to set up a shot in my New Zealand backyard. Last night I had the chance to shoot the Orion Nebula with my astro-modified Canon 600D and Rokinon 135mm lens on a Benro Polaris mount, so I took it. Only shot 100 frames, and...

I was as shocked as anyone that we had clear skies for last night's eclipse, since I cannot remember the last time we had a clear night since around November. But clear it was, and I had a great view of the eclipse from my front porch. I managed to see it from when the Earth's shadow first...