San Diego, California
The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex is easily one of the prettiest areas in the summer night sky. It lies in the constellation of Scorpius. The nebulosity consists mostly of reflection nebulae. The Antares nebula glows a beautiful golden yellow color and is centered around the star Antares. Dark nebulae Barnard 42, 44 and 45 are... Continue Reading →
Equipment: RST-135, EdgeHD 8 @ F10, ASI2600MC, Orion 50mm guidescope + ASI290MM Mini Software: NINA, Sharpcap (for Polar Alignment), Astro Pixel Processor, Topaz Denoise AI
M33 is a superb galaxy to image (and observe visually) given its size and itself hosts many NGC and IC objects. I imaged this galaxy over 3 evenings spread about 4-5 days apart from my heavily light polluted backyard. It is a Bortle Red / White zone depending on which direction you look in. Also... Continue Reading →
I imaged the Pegasus I galaxy cluster from my Bortle 8/9 light polluted backyard with a 80% waning Moon. Not ideal conditions but clear nights have been rare so wanted to take advantage of that. This was also the 2nd light of the ASI2600MC camera. The camera performed exceptionally well from my heavy LP backyard... Continue Reading →
Summer evenings are special. I really enjoy the beautiful cool summer evenings here in San Diego with a sparkling summer sky. It is one of the most relaxing experiences for me. Of course my light polluted backyard makes visual observing a lot more challenging but EAA really helps. For this session I decided to use... Continue Reading →
No doubt you have seen the headlines in the press on this asteroid which did a very close pass by Earth. It came within 3.9 million miles on the morning of April 29th. NEO or Near Earth Object (52768) 1998 OR2 is actually quite a large asteroid ~1.2 miles across so it is a good... Continue Reading →
Spring is definitely one of my favorite observing season as I love observing galaxies or the faint fuzzies as amateur astronomers affectionately refer to them. There is just something about capturing light from these distant island universes that has traveled incomprehensible distances measured in millions of light years. Since I was not able to make... Continue Reading →
The easy guide to optimizing your SCT The SCT Design The Schmidt–Cassegrain (or SCT) is a very popular design among amateur astronomers. It is a catadioptric design i.e. it includes both lenses and mirrors. The optical path is folded which allows the packing of a long focal length in a very short tube making it... Continue Reading →
Here is a first light image with my new Canon EOS Ra. Still getting to grips with the camera. This was really a trial run and the image came out much better than I expected. Also goofed up on the mount setup. Used my Skywatcher Az-Gti which can quite easily do 2-3min unguided exposures at... Continue Reading →
The Universe is a violent place This article was inspired by the May 2017 Sky & Telescope column by Steve Gottlieb. The article was in that issue's "Observing section" and was classified as a big scope challenge. Steve includes his visual observing notes through a 48" F/4 scope (!) from the dark skies of West... Continue Reading →
Rani Observatory 