orion25

Beautiful pics, Avani! I hope all is well with you Reggie

Great first attempt! Reggie

Great images, Pete. One of these days I'll get one of those UV filters, lol. Venus is so mysterious! Cheers! Reggie

Thanks, RIchard! It was a beautiful night

Here are some shots I took of the waxing crescent moon, Venus and The Pleiades tonight. The second image was taken at prime focus using an additional Meade zoom eyepiece and barlow: Cheers! Reggie

Love it! I need to try imaging Venus in UV Regards, Reggie

The Moon enters the Winter Circle/Sacred Hoop again in the nighttime sky on March 1 and will complete its trek on March 5! Cheers! Reggie

In these times, I wish I were a time traveller, lol!

Thanks, Craig. The date format I'm using is the international YY/MM/DD (year/month/day) without the leading zeroes. I've confused some with the typical month/day/year format used here in the States. I may end up just writing things out, lol!

With the intention of imaging the waxing crescent moon alone, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the addition of Nu Piscium in the viewfinder. After a few more exposures, Nu Piscium had disappeared, letting me know that an occultation had just taken place. Clear skies! Reggie

Thanks, Jeremy. This is the reddest star I have ever seen through the scope!

From the r.j.s. observatory, an image of the gorgeous, ruby-red carbon star named Hind's Crimson Star (R Leporis). It was named after the British astronomer John Russell Hind who first observed it in 1845. The star is a variable red giant 1,360 light-years away in the constellation of Lepus, the Hare. It has an over-abundance of carbon in its outer layers due to the break down of helium in its dying core which gives the star its stunning red appearance. It has a 14-month variable period and appears most red when it is dim. The second image shows how to find Hind's which is just below the constellation of Orion. You will need a telescope to see it because it is very dim. A reflector telescope will work best, giving you a wide field of view. If you search the general area depicted in the photo with your telescope, you should be able to find it fairly easily. Cheers! Reggie

H3945 is another name for 145G but thanks!

It's a perfect time to see some beautiful double stars! In the winter sky, you can see the blue/gold pairs 145G in Canis Major, Iota Cancri in Cancer and Almach in Andromeda. Almach can be seen in the early evening sky but it's progressively getting lost in evening twilight. The famous Albireo in Cygnus can be seen best during the summer. 145G is sometimes called the "Winter Albireo". Here is a composite I created a few years ago of these blue/gold multiples: Clear skies! Reggie

Wow! Look at those colors! Amazing, Steve I've never seen such a colorful image of Venus outside of NASA/JPL! Reggie

Great detail! Thanks for posting Reggie

Excellent shot, Pete. Love the detail you were able to get! Reggie

Thanks, Pete. Did you get to see it?

It's cloudy just about every other night here, lol! I have to take advantage of those clear nights.

Thanks, Ruud. Haven't heard from you in a while. Good to hear from you! Yes, Neptune's blue is truly magical

Thanks, George. I was dealing with cloud ALL DAY until just a few minutes after sunset when the clouds parted.

Crackin', mate! I was quite chuffed with my first DSLR image of M42 as well. My first images outright of M42 was using the planetary imaging approach (processing video) and though things were overexposed and stars were bloated I was excited! But once I tried just hooking up my DSLR to my scope I was blown away with the detail. I tried different exposure times, trying to get some resolution on the Trapezium while still highlighting the nebula. I couldn't stop there, though, lol! Congratulations! Reggie

Thanks, everyone. It was a beautiful sight. I had gotten an image of the pair for the first time in 2017 and it was just as striking (I used a Nikon D50 for this shot, 1x5s exposure at ISO 800:

Wow! I see some serious detail there! Nice work! Reggie

The clouds finally parted and I was able to get this prime focus shot of the beautiful conjunction of Venus and Neptune with my Nikon D3200 and 127mm Mak-Cass (single 5s exposure at ISO 800). It was visible in a low telescopic field of view: Clear skies! Reggie