Memory

2019-03-12

Ice in the backyard

CF and I were just talking (March 2019) about how we haven’t seen any ice in the backyard for a number of years. But it wasn’t always this way — picture taken in January 2007.

Mouth of the Kraken Nebula 2023-01-25
More commonly known as the Rosette Nebula, SH2-275. A quick snap as I waited for the comet to rise. The colors are a little weird, foreboding, almost.
Thor’s Helmet – SH2-298 2023-01-25
Day before yesterday, I unpacked the telescope from its tiny rain shed and managed to snag a few frames of SH2-298. Feast your eyes on the aptly named “Thor’s Helmet”! It is a new object for me, and I was happy to get this image. Last night I had every intention of getting an image […]
Dragonfly Cluster, aka the Owl Cluster 2023-01-12
By the naked eye, the night sky is only tiny points of light, occasionally blotted out by the moon. The enormous clouds of gas and dust, the majestic galaxies, are mostly invisible. So sometimes it’s nice to just see stars. While the cluster looks more like an owl, I can also see the two bulbous […]
Reprocessing reprocessing… 2022-12-23
I’ve purchased a new plugin for PixInsight, called “BlurXTerminator” (BXT). It uses AI trained on astronomical data to sharpen stars, and the edges of nebula. It seems to work pretty well. Here is a reprocessed version of the “Cygnus Wall” (part of NGC7000, the North American Nebula): BXT actually works. This image is significantly sharper […]