Best of 2025

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
I should have made it the Top 20 instead of the Top 10. :)

I had a real hard time picking just 10 as everyone else has. I almost need to do my Top 10 Northern Lights, my Top 10 Milky Way, my Top 10 Astro and my Top 10 everything else. 🤣

So here I go, in no particular order. I forced myself to add in a few photos that were not Night time images. It wasn't easy, but I didn't want my Top 10 to just be astro related images.

#1 - Milky Way during the summer up on Black Bear Pass in SW Colorado.

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#2 - Dogwoods in Yosemite in May
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#3 - Lunar Eclipse back in March. Normally one can't see the stars around the moon as it's so bright, so it was cool that the stars started to show.
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#4 - Little Corona Beach in California Back on January 6th, so it was one of my first photos of the year.
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#5 - Delicate Rock in Arches NP.
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#6 - Milky Way Pano in July up near Black Bear Pass. I sometimes forget to do MW pano's as I often have all of my cameras off shooting timelapses so I can't move them.
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#7 - The Super Show of 2025 with the Northern Lights in November. I liked this one because it had the Milky Way in it as well. It's the Winter Milky Way so less details, but still pretty cool to see. Captured near Chugwater, Wyoming.
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#8 - Another Northern Lights Super Show of 2025 in November. The Windmill is in a spot that I drive by all the time as I drive through Wyoming. So when I was chasing the Northern Lights that night, I had already earmarked this from previous visits.
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#9 - Another Super Show, a different camera. I liked what the moon added to this as it rose up during the night.
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#10 - The Comet C2025A6 Lemmon. I did some chasing of this one for about 3 weeks until I captured it. Starting down in New Mexico and working my way up to Colorado and then finally in Wyoming, I finally got the right combination of height above the horizon, no moon, and no clouds. This was from my telescope.
Comet_C2025A6_Lemmon_20251021_dw.jpg
 

Michael13

Well-Known Member
Your night vision must be better than an owl's by now! 😁

I'll go with #7 as a favorite, seeing the MW along with the aurora puts it over the top - bravo!
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
Paring down a year's worth of shooting to 10 shots is an interesting challenge but you did come up with a good selection. Your Chugwater shot in #7 is pretty awesome and the Black Bear Pass shot in #6 are my two favorites with #4 at Little Corona close behind.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Your night vision must be better than an owl's by now! 😁

I'll go with #7 as a favorite, seeing the MW along with the aurora puts it over the top - bravo!
Thanks Michael! Yeah, my vision is somehow getting better at night as I get older. :)
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Paring down a year's worth of shooting to 10 shots is an interesting challenge but you did come up with a good selection. Your Chugwater shot in #7 is pretty awesome and the Black Bear Pass shot in #6 are my two favorites with #4 at Little Corona close behind.
I appreciate that Alan.

The saving grace here is I will be putting out a video again of my top photos, so that way I can include a couple of hundred different images in it. :)
 
I should have made it the Top 20 instead of the Top 10. :)

I had a real hard time picking just 10 as everyone else has. I almost need to do my Top 10 Northern Lights, my Top 10 Milky Way, my Top 10 Astro and my Top 10 everything else. 🤣

So here I go, in no particular order. I forced myself to add in a few photos that were not Night time images. It wasn't easy, but I didn't want my Top 10 to just be astro related images.

#1 - Milky Way during the summer up on Black Bear Pass in SW Colorado.

View attachment 86278


#2 - Dogwoods in Yosemite in May
View attachment 86279


#3 - Lunar Eclipse back in March. Normally one can't see the stars around the moon as it's so bright, so it was cool that the stars started to show.
View attachment 86280


#4 - Little Corona Beach in California Back on January 6th, so it was one of my first photos of the year.
View attachment 86281



#5 - Delicate Rock in Arches NP.
View attachment 86282


#6 - Milky Way Pano in July up near Black Bear Pass. I sometimes forget to do MW pano's as I often have all of my cameras off shooting timelapses so I can't move them.
View attachment 86283


#7 - The Super Show of 2025 with the Northern Lights in November. I liked this one because it had the Milky Way in it as well. It's the Winter Milky Way so less details, but still pretty cool to see. Captured near Chugwater, Wyoming.
View attachment 86284


#8 - Another Northern Lights Super Show of 2025 in November. The Windmill is in a spot that I drive by all the time as I drive through Wyoming. So when I was chasing the Northern Lights that night, I had already earmarked this from previous visits.
View attachment 86285


#9 - Another Super Show, a different camera. I liked what the moon added to this as it rose up during the night.
View attachment 86286


#10 - The Comet C2025A6 Lemmon. I did some chasing of this one for about 3 weeks until I captured it. Starting down in New Mexico and working my way up to Colorado and then finally in Wyoming, I finally got the right combination of height above the horizon, no moon, and no clouds. This was from my telescope.
View attachment 86287
Jim, your lucky devil ! What a year, I love every one of these shots ! Simply gorgeous.

Oliver
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Jim, your lucky devil ! What a year, I love every one of these shots ! Simply gorgeous.

Oliver
Thank you Oliver! It's been a busy but profitable year for me. I love the Night, and I really was able to take advantage this year. At the time it seemed like I was missing out on a lot of opportunities, but in the end I came through okay.
 

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
Jim,

I can imagine how hard of a time you had, with so many great nightscape, scenic, and deep sky astro images to pick from. My favorites are #1, #2, #5, #7, #8, #10.

#1 - Hard to not pick this as the overall favorite of the whole set. An absolute killer shot with both the bright MW core and the flowers as well.

#2 - a nice flower study that is a different kind of shot, well executed.

#5 - Nice perspective looking up accentuates the height and precarious balance of the subject. The B&W really works well here too - love the clouds.

#7 - beats out #6 due to the juxtaposition of aurora and Milky Way. The aurora being bright enough to wash out the Milky Way is really something! Those colors are amazing, and I like the isolated rock outcropping on the left too.

#8 - An unreal night for sure. Reminds of the excellent timelapse you took that night.Super special stuff.

#10 - A very strong comet image - really like it. Much better than I could get by the time I tried for it, as it was low enough to be interfered with by lighting on adjacent astro mounts. A negative side effect of imaging remotely for something like this...

ML
 

Jameel Hyder

Moderator
Staff member
Great set Jim. Not sure how you can get the number down to 10 with the amount you shoot. I am surprised to not see any astro images (the deep sky stuff) in here.
 

Kyle Jones

Moderator
Lots of really nice night images. My votes will be for 3, 7 and 10.

3 is one of the cleanest lunar eclipse photos I've seen. Nice and sharp and the stars add. Why would I pick between aurora or Milky Way shots when 7 has both? And I think comets are cool and you've got a lot of nice detail in 10.

Hopefully you can continue to not need sleep in 2026.
 

Roger Bailey

Well-Known Member
Jim, An awesome 10 to be sure. Thanks for sharing these with us, Funny I missed all the Northern lights this year due to weather and light but knew I would see many photographs anyway so really would not miss them. Love the one with the Windmill in the foreground.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Jim,

I can imagine how hard of a time you had, with so many great nightscape, scenic, and deep sky astro images to pick from. My favorites are #1, #2, #5, #7, #8, #10.

#1 - Hard to not pick this as the overall favorite of the whole set. An absolute killer shot with both the bright MW core and the flowers as well.

#2 - a nice flower study that is a different kind of shot, well executed.

#5 - Nice perspective looking up accentuates the height and precarious balance of the subject. The B&W really works well here too - love the clouds.

#7 - beats out #6 due to the juxtaposition of aurora and Milky Way. The aurora being bright enough to wash out the Milky Way is really something! Those colors are amazing, and I like the isolated rock outcropping on the left too.

#8 - An unreal night for sure. Reminds of the excellent timelapse you took that night.Super special stuff.

#10 - A very strong comet image - really like it. Much better than I could get by the time I tried for it, as it was low enough to be interfered with by lighting on adjacent astro mounts. A negative side effect of imaging remotely for something like this...

ML
Thanks so much Mike! I appreciate hearing what you liked. It was a really great year for the Milky Way and Northern Lights. And I agree getting them both in the same image was really awesome, it's something I always look for, but in so many cases in the past the Northern Lights just totally covered up the Milky Way, so I was happy to get it.

As to #10, and that was done with my regular Astro rig, but I did also capture it with the Seestar S50. You ought to look into getting one of those Smart Telescopes just for things like this, where you can run up to Jackson Lake, or head east to a darker spot and capture it in person.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Great set Jim. Not sure how you can get the number down to 10 with the amount you shoot. I am surprised to not see any astro images (the deep sky stuff) in here.
Thanks Jameel, I have gotten better at just turning a blind eye when I am picking. I will break it down from ALL, to Best, to Very Best, and then just start selecting the 10, and when I get to 10 I just stop. :)
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Lots of really nice night images. My votes will be for 3, 7 and 10.

3 is one of the cleanest lunar eclipse photos I've seen. Nice and sharp and the stars add. Why would I pick between aurora or Milky Way shots when 7 has both? And I think comets are cool and you've got a lot of nice detail in 10.

Hopefully you can continue to not need sleep in 2026.
LOL thanks Kyle! Yes, Sleep is highly overated. :)

And yeah, I was really so jazzed to get the Milky Way and the Northern Lights in the same image, and so clean. I have had some other chances, but almost always, the Milky Way gets lost behind the Northern Lights.
 
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