Closing Out 2025

 

NGC 869 and 884, double cluster in Perseus

        Well for all intents and purposes, 2025 is drawing to a close. Winter weather came roaring in with a vengeance Thanksgiving weekend and things are looking grim for the foreseeable future. I may get lucky and get one more outing before NYE, so my fingers are crossed. 

        One highlight of the past months has been my capture of Neptune, essentially finishing my Solar System collection. Purists will howl and say Pluto should be in there as well, but I'm sticking to my guns. I wouldn't anticipate a picture of Pluto having much in the way of character due to its size and distance, so I say "nay". 

Neptune is the greenish disk centered in that triangle of stars. 

        Another accomplishment is my completion of my Outer Limits Challenge. I mentioned this in a previous post (https://backyardastro.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-couple-of-game-changers-and-another.html). I was over a year away from leaving Arizona when I started logging and capturing, but it was getting the Seestar which really moved things along starting May this year. Compiling the video took some time as well in order to get the original photos from the TV show's credits, along with the original theme music to give it some gravitas. Once I had all the parts, it was a snap doing the video as seen below: 

        

        The rest of my sessions have been bicameral planning in nature. One section consists of the targets I'm wanting to photograph with the Seestar. The other section consists of objects that I just want a visual moment with - no picture necessary at that time. That gives me something to do while the S50 is doing those long exposures. 

Typical planner for a night out. The weather had other plans 😖

        Still, it's been a productive autumn and I'm hoping for a few nights out before DST returns in March. Here's some of the items I've been lucky to capture:

NGC 7635 the Bubble Nebula

Messier 1, the Crab Nebula

Caldwell 9, the Cave Nebula

NGC 5466, the Snowglobe Cluster

Caldwell 19, the Cocoon Nebula

Messier 33, the Triangulum Galaxy

NGC 7293, the Helix Nebula (AKA the Eye of God)

NGC 281 the Pacman Nebula

NGC 891 the Silver Sliver (AKA the Outer Limits Galaxy)

NGC 7000, North American Nebula

Albireo, a blue and white double star in Cygnus

NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula

        
        Things have come a long way since those first blurry pictures on my smartphone in Tucson. Some of those are in the dustbin, but many of them were happy accidents that I will keep for good. Below is another supermoon, this one in November. My last outing was November 10, my log states it was 32 degrees during setup at 1751. The cold killed the battery on my I-Pad that controlled the S50 and the foot warmers were only adequate. Things got packed up at 2100. I still got my pictures but I'm hoping for a moderation or at least acclimation. 

Supermoon on 5 November

Log from last session