Derks backyard Observatory and Space Pics

02/27/2026

Comet Swan from November 2025 fly by of our Solar System. taken through the telescope and from my 200mm lens

01/13/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBdjwRmJRbU

Great explanation of the Artemis II Mission coming up first week of Feb

Artemis II is the first manned mission to the moon in over 50 years. But it's a test flight, laying the groundwork for all the future missions to come. Artem...

11/18/2025

The month of October had two great Comets in our night sky, This Comet is C/2025 R2 Swan.
These pictures are using my 200 mm lens on top the Telescope to get a full picture of the night sky. Although it looks small this Comet can be seen with Binoculars.
Its the Green patch in all the pictures.

over the next week i'll process the pictures using the Telescope

11/13/2025

Messier 15 Globular Star Cluster, taken during Comet hunting a couple weeks ago.
A spectacular swarm of stars, M15 was discovered in 1746 by Jean-Dominique Maraldi, an Italian astronomer on the hunt for comets. This globular cluster is one of the densest ever discovered, with very hot blue stars and cooler orange stars becoming more concentrated toward its bright core. M15 is located in the constellation Pegasus 33,600 light-years from Earth. Shining with an apparent magnitude of 6.2,

11/12/2025

Over the last week there have been three X Class Flares that erupted off the Sun towards Earth. X Class are the biggest rate of Flare and give the best Auroras. Last night was great, before the clouds rolled in. More will follow this week. Here's hoping for clear skies

11/03/2025

Last week i had a glorious opportunity to get three days of perfect skies to see Comet Lemmon up close. Here are the pictures up close. This time with the Camera in the Telescope to get these. At mag 4.8 it's easily seen in dark skies

The tail is very long and wide.

10/30/2025

The last three days I had some great clear skies to pick up Comet Lemmon. These pictures are not from my telescope but from my 200mm lens mounted on top of the scope with my camera.
By mounting the lens to the scope i'm able to utilize the tracking of the telescope to get some great pictures. All are of different timings and light settings to pick up subtle details of the tail. i have many more to process using the scope but these are a clear indicator of this great the Comet is to see. this is the info on it, below

Comet Lemmon is a long-period comet, originating from the distant Oort Cloud that envelops our Solar System. A gravitational nudge pushed it onto an orbit that sent it shooting towards our Sun. The warmth from the Sun is releasing its frozen ices as gas. The gases drag dust particles out, creating the fuzzy cloud of gas – its ‘coma’ – around its core and stretching out into a tail behind it. A modest pair of binoculars should reveal the coma; a small telescope will help you pick out details in the tail.

10/22/2025

Saturn at opposition, meaning Earth is directly in-between the Sun and Saturn and this closest part to Earth is called Opposition. Took these last month.

Every 13-15 years, Saturn is angled in a way in which the edge of its thin rings are oriented toward Earth – effectively causing them to vanish. This is very special.

The one picture is over exposed to show Saturn's Moons, Titan the farthest away with Mimas, Dione and Enceladus closer to the Planet.

10/20/2025

Comet Lemmon in our night sky. These images were taken the early evening of Oct 15/16. This is an easy see with Binos after dark. Although most pictures look the same ,there are subtle differences in settings and light settings to get the most out of the Comet
As weather permits i will continue to view and take pictures when i can, here is some info on this great Comet

C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is a non-periodic comet discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey.
It has an inbound orbital period of about 1,350 years and will pass perihelion on 8 November 2025 when it will be 0.53 AU from the Sun.

10/17/2025

Here is a small sample of this large Comet
Of all the comets suddenly soaring into our skies, Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) might be the best of the year. And this comet favors Northern Hemisphere observers. In early October, Comet Lemmon has been cutting a path underneath the giant ladle shape of the Big Dipper in Ursa Major. So it’s far to the north in our sky, in theory up both morning and evening for far-northern observers

10/16/2025

Two, great Comets are up in the early evening now for viewing. Comet Swann and Comet Lemmon, named after the observatorys that found them.
I have been tracking these over the last week and tonight no exception. Pictures will be posted as soon as I process all the data.

Both Comets are at a 5.8 magnitude meaning from Very Dark skies they are viewable looking in there direction. Although Binos really bring the Comets out better.

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