We have been blessed/cursed by a very dry Djeran / Autumn period. Cursed because no rain after a long, hot Bunuru( Second Summer) and blessed because the nights are cold, and very clear.

This and @rdm having to be on Munich time for a few days prompted some enthusiastic astrophotography sessions ahead of the news that the clouds were finally coming to us with some rain.

We figured that we'd do a lot of astrophotography, and then write it up and share photos during the rainy cloudy bits to keep us going.

So here we are - this is my first post about it, and it's about the last day of the clear sky.

We have here NGC 4945 or Caldwell 83 - also known as the Tweezers Galaxy (I personally think it looks more like an orange peeler).

I was leafing through Astronomy Australia 2025 and found it as a target for May. I hadn't come across this galaxy before, and was thrilled to find a galaxy that's a big enough apparent size to suit my #dwarf3

These are great books and the last of this great almanac that they'll publish, after 30 years - so get yours today - https://quasarastronomy.com.au/product/astronomy-2025/ even though it's a yearbook it's still going to be useful down the track. If you're in Australia or close enough. #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy folks. I grabbed some of their back catalogue - incredibly cheap and plenty of interesting stuff in there, if only historically. 🙂

So, anyway, back to the galaxy - I plonked the #SmartTelescope on the roof later in the evening so it's only a few hours exposure. Gain was 80, exposure was 60. Got a few hundred frames in two sessions as I belatedly realised that I should get the telescope to shut down before the closest Sun made itself apparent.

So then, in the morning @rdm ran me through the Mega Stack and Stellar Studio provided through Infinity Lab within the telescope, which was super easy, and then I did some cropping in Snapseed.

And this is the result, I hope you enjoy!

#Astrodon #Astronomy #BackyardAstrophotography #DrivewayAstrophotography #Galaxy

En lo que llegan las lluvias, y la agenda se despejó un poco, pongámonos a actualiza el FIRMWARE de los #SeeStar. Hay una nueva actualización.

#SmartTelescope

A couple of nights ago I let my #Dwarf3 stay out all night with a stellation mask, which bagged me about 8 hours worth of #Antares , #Messier4 , and other goodies, including the Antares #ReflectionNebula.

I ran it through the #DwarfLab #StellarStudio tools, and then did a bit more cleanup in #Snapseed and #GooglePhotos - about 15 minutes work.

I'm pretty darned pleased with the results.

#astronomy #astrophotography #Astrodon #SmartTelescope #Nebula #Star #GlobularStarCluster

Unistellar Odyssey Pro Smart Telescope Review: Fast, Fun, Easy, and Expensive https://petapixel.com/2025/04/30/unistellar-odyssey-pro-smart-telescope-review-fast-fun-easy-and-expensive/ #astrophotography #telescopereview #smarttelescope #odysseypro #stargazing #unistellar #Equipment #astronomy #telescope #Reviews #review #Space #astro

Pferdekopfnebel IC 434
#ic434 #horseheadnebula #pferdekopfnebel #astrophotographie #astrophotography #seestars50 #smarttelescope

I have a question for the #Astrophotographer and #Mathematician folks out there.

What is the smallest number of frames you could perform a drizzle transform on?

Could you, for example, perform it on two frames, and then submit that image to a livestacking process?

Does this idea even make sense?

As for "Why do this?", I am looking at the #SmartTelescope world, and wondering if you could perform the resolution increase in conjunction with live stacking, without resorting to post-processing. This is to attempt to allow a software-only capability upgrade, while still maintaining the convenience.

I figured I'd ask here first, because (conceptually) it seems almost too simple.

#astronomy #Astrodon #DumbQuestion

Last night we (myself, @leece , and her mum) saw in the New Year with a star party for family and friends.

To make it as accessible as possible, we found a park in Como that is almost completely dark, despite being only a couple of kilometres from the CBD. Adjacent to this park is the Como Croquet Club, so we hired their clubhouse as a base of operations.

Two days before, we got a panicked message from the club, asking if their members could have a gathering of their own - which was fine with us, as long as they did not want to turn on the field lights. So we had twenty odd people turn up, along with about the same number of Croquet Club members. As it turns out, the son of one of my workmates played in high school, and got his family into playing a game, much to the delight of the rather elderly club members.

We started proceedings with a couple of shots of the sun and the current sunspots (Me: "This is what it looks like right now!" 16yo daughter of a work mate: "Well, actually it's what it looked like 18 minutes ago." Me: Applause), and then ate dinner while waiting for the sky to go dark. At 8pm, we got our Dwarf3s aligned, and synchronised their schedules for the night. Then we fired up the DwarfIIs, got them running on some ad-hoc targets, and called everyone out, including many of the Croquet Club members, who were also interested.

We opened with some spectacular views of the Orion Nebula, the Sculptor Galaxy, and the Horsehead Nebula. We also started on a shot the Helix Nebula. Most targets we scheduled 30 minutes for, before the Dwarf3s would move on to new targets.

Aiding us in our explanation of what was on display was @ariaflame , a physicist from Murdoch Uni, and a good friend. We talked about the way clusters and nebulae are formed, how stars aged, and just how far everything is.

Around 8:30, the last of our guests arrived - workmate and Perth Observatory volunteer (and former professional astronomer) Steve Ewing, who had with him a 10" traditional telescope. By about 9pm he had it up and running, and was showing off Saturn and Jupiter, which are too small for our smart telescopes to resolve meaningfully. Steve's enthusiastic explanations of planetary dynamics were a highlight of the evening.

Sadly, as 10pm rolled around the sprinkler systems on the oval started up, and we had to rapidly tear everything down before they reached us. As Leece said - "Rain stopped play."

Despite this, it seems that everyone enjoyed themselves, and we got some great images to share with everyone after.

And that is how we saw in 2025.

#astronomy #StarParty #Astrodon #NYE2024 #Astrophotography #2025 #dwarf3 #dwarfII #SmartTelescope

Difficult to observe with an optical telescope, Barnard 33 - better known as The Horsehead Nebula - is a dark dust cloud overlaying the HII bright nebula IC434. To view it directly normally requires very dark skies, clear air, a large (14" or larger) telescope, and an Hb or Ha filter, making it one of the more challenging objects to observe.

For the Traveller fans, it is 422 parsecs away - or about 70 weeks if you could take a direct Jump 6 path to it. It is also just under 1 parsec across - that's a 1 hex object. IC434 is less than a parsec behind it, and is over 4 parsecs across, making it a 4 hex object. Nebulae are one thing (of many) that Traveller tends to gloss over, simply because they are so huge! There is also the matter of such regions being star nurseries, typically with ten or more stars within a single hex. These will all be too young to have any planets, let alone habitable ones!

Back to the real world, though.

With Electronically Assisted Astronomy - in this case provided by a Dwarf3 smart telescope - it becomes an easy object to capture. A mere 37mm lens and a built-in Ha/OIII filter gave a visible image within a few minutes, and an hour of stacked images provided this view.

Dwarf3, 57x60s@80 Dual-band filter. Post processed in Snapseed and Google Photos to bring out the colour and details.

#Astrodon #Astrophotography #Dwarf3 #SmartTelescope #Astronomy #TravellerRPG #Nebula #Barnard33

Supernova 2024 abfl (between hashmarks ) in galaxy NGC 2146, taken with Unistellar Odyssey Pro on November 19, 2024, 40 minutes of stacked 4-second frames. It also showed up faintly in images from my Seestar S50. #astrophotography #Unistellar #Seestar #SmartTelescope

@Gorgritch_umie_killa
@leece has at least one photo in the exhibition!

And we'll be on the field with our #dwarfii #SmartTelescope s.

The BOM promise the sky will clear!

Unistellar Vivid Vision Lets Its Telescopes Better Detect ‘Authentic’ Colors of Space https://petapixel.com/2024/09/05/unistellar-vivid-vision-lets-its-telescopes-better-detect-authentic-colors-of-space/ #astrophotography #smarttelescope #vividvision #processing #telescopes #unistellar #Equipment #Software #space #News

I own a #DwarfII, not a #Seestar_s50, but everything in this article applies to any #SmartTelescope.

A great introduction to #astronomy outreach.

https://urbanastrophotography.com/index.php/2023/12/07/guide-to-using-a-seestar-s50-for-public-outreach/

This $479 Smart Telescope Lets Anyone Shoot Beautiful Astro Photos https://petapixel.com/2024/07/18/this-479-smart-telescope-lets-anyone-shoot-beautiful-astro-photos/ #astrophotography #smarttelescope #Equipment #telescope #dwarflab #nightsky #dwarf3 #astro #space #News

The Trifid nebula through the eyepiece of my smart telescope.
#Astronomy #Unistellar #smarttelescope

Well at least the alleged "telescope" looks good in the back garden, even if the results won't be all that spectacular.
Dwarf.II in action.

#astronomy #scotland #behindthescenes #telescope #SmartTelescope

@Buzz777 I've got a celestron with an EQ mount but it's so annoying to polar align and plate solve.

By the time it's set up the clouds have rolled in and I'm freezing.

So now I just stick this bad boy on the roof of the car, and throw on netflix for a couple of hours while it stacks for me.

https://dwarflab.com/en-gb
#DwarfLab
#SmartTelescope

#Waxing
#MoonShot
#SmartTelescope

Last week's moon taken from my back yard.
My #EliteDangerousOdyssey account is undergoing maintenance but my local detailed surface scanning device is fun when skies are clear.

Capture the Cosmos in Ultra HD With the Vaonis Vespera II Smart Telescope https://petapixel.com/2024/01/09/capture-the-cosmos-in-ultra-hd-with-the-vaonis-vespera-ii-smart-telescope/ #astrophotography #vaonisvesperaii #smarttelescope #Equipment #astronomy #telescope #ces2024 #Vaonis #Space #News #CES

The #Sun today, as seen by my #DwarfII #SmartTelescope. 20*1/200s Gain 0. Post processed in #Snapseed.

Visible are three sunspots regions, two dark and one light.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Photography #SunSpots

The Vaonis Hestia Smartphone Telescope Has a Clever New App https://petapixel.com/2023/12/15/the-vaonis-hestia-smartphone-telescope-has-a-clever-new-app/ #portabletelescope #gravitybyvaonis #smarttelescope #smartphoneapp #telescopeapp #vaonishestia #Mobile #Vaonis #Space #News