AmazingSky

05/28/2026

Astrophotographers may find my new review here of interest, as I test five fish-eye lenses for the demands of astrophotography.

A fish-eye can be great for all-sky captures of an aurora or the Milky Way. Today, we have several good fish-eyes to pick from, all from China for under $300 US.

Do share the link if it's of interest!

The article reviews five affordable fish-eye lenses ideal for astrophotography, highlighting their performance under night sky conditions. Notable recommendations include the 7Artisans 10mm for its…

05/19/2026

Here are four views of the close conjunction of the waxing crescent Moon above Venus on May 18, in a superb evening sky with Jupiter and the last of the winter stars setting.

The conjunction is reflected in the waters of Crawling Valley Lake in southern Alberta near Bassano. Included is a panorama sweeping from west to north.

Details are in the individual photo descriptions.

05/18/2026

Here's short music video of the aurora of May 15/16, 2026, from home in Alberta. It was notable for the blue tinted tops to the curtains and the appearance of blue rays during the display, captured in the time-lapse which compresses 2 hours of the aurora into 2 minutes.

The details are in the description on YouTube.

Enjoy!

This 2-minute video captures 2 hours of the aurora of May 15/16, 2026, from home in southern Alberta. At this time of year and at this latitude (51º N) the t...

05/18/2026

Here are two more views of the colourful aurora in the twilight sky on May 15, 2026 —
– a panorama with the Space Station also flying off to the east (they would have had a good view of the aurora!)
- and a single frame with blue rays or spikes coming up from the main curtains below.
Blue auroras are common in summer as sunlight illuminates the tops of the curtains which can reach up to the altitude of the Space Station.

Click thru for the details of each image.

05/16/2026

A blue-topped arc of Northern Lights on the evening of May 15, 2026 during a Kp5-level storm. The sky is still bright and deep blue with twilight and the tops of the auroral curtains are lit blue by sunlight interacting with high-altitude nitrogen. Below, the curtains are tinted magenta, from the red of oxygen and blue of nitrogen mixing, while at bottom the curtains are glowing from normal oxygen green.

This is looking north at left of centre, with east to the right, and northwest with the sunset glow at left. I have left in the satellite trails.

This was from home in southern Alberta at 51º N.

The original is 12,700 pixels wide.

Technical:
A panorama of 4 segments each 15 seconds at f/2 with the Nikkor 20mm S-Line lens on the Nikon Z6III at ISO 800. Stitched in Camera Raw.

05/07/2026

This frames the popular Whale and Hockey Stick Galaxies in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs, in the northern spring sky. The large galaxy above is the aptly named Whale, but officially is NGC 4631. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. It has a companion galaxy above it, NGC 4627, aka Arp 281.

The smaller twisted galaxy below is NGC 4656, but variously called the Hockey Stick or the Fish Hook Galaxy. It is a distorted barred spiral galaxy with some cyan-tinted nebulas along its length.

Both are close together in space and are about 20 million light years away.

Numerous small and faint 15th to 16th magnitude galaxies from the PGC and UGC catalogues populate the field, particularly at lower right. They are all much more distant at hundreds of millions of light years away.

North is up here.

Technical:
This is a stack of 16 x 8 minute exposures through the Askar APO120 refractor at f/7 for 840mm focal length with the Canon R5 at ISO 800. On the Mach1 mount and autoguided with the MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider on a fine spring night May 5, 2026. Sequence started with the sky still in deep blue twilight and ended as the sky was brightening with moonlight from the about to rise waning Moon.

05/01/2026

Here is a better capture (sharper and a longer exposure) from last night (April 30) of the supernova in the galaxy NGC 5907.

Details —
This is the edge-on galaxy NGC 5907 in Draco, aka the Splinter Galaxy, caught with a supernova explosion underway. This is Supernova SN2026kid, discovered on April 20, 2026 and imaged here on April 30 when it was 15th magnitude.

SN 2026kid is a Type II supernova — meaning a giant star exploding at the end of its life, perhaps turning into a neutron star or black hole.

The galaxy itself is magnitude 10.3 and is 53 million light years away. Only the supernova and galaxy are at that distance. All the other stars are likely foreground stars much closer within our galaxy and only a few thousand light years away.

However, the small 16th magnitude galaxy PGC 54419 is at upper right and is about 49 million light years away.

North is up in this orientation.

Technical:
This is a stack of 131 x 15-second exposures (so over 32.75 minutes) with the Pegasus SmartEye digital eyepiece with its 15mm-wide square IMX533 CMOS sensor but that presents a circular field of view in final stacked images like an eyepiece.

It was on the Askar APO120 telescope for 840mm focal length at f/7.

04/30/2026

Here is a capture last night (April 29) of an exploding star in a galaxy far, far away!

A blip of light — but it is 53 million light years away. So the star exploded early in the Paleogene Period well after the extinction of the dinosaurs. But the light is just reaching us now.

Details —
This is the edge-on galaxy NGC 5907 in Draco, aka the Splinter Galaxy, caught with a supernova explosion underway.

This is Supernova SN2026kid, discovered on April 20, 2026 and imaged here on April 29/30 when it was 15th magnitude. The galaxy itself is magnitude 10.3 and is 53 million light years away.

Only the supernova is at that distance. All the other stars are likely foreground stars much closer within our galaxy and only a few thousand lights years away.

SN 2026kid is a Type II supernova — meaning a giant star exploding at the end of its life, perhaps turning into a neutron star or black hole.

Technical:
This is a stack of 40 x 10-second exposures (so over just 6.5 minutes) with the Pegasus SmartEye dgital eyepiece with its IMX533 CMOS sensor. It was on the Askar APO120 telescope for 840mm focal length at f/7.

04/20/2026

Here are two panoramas of the evening sky scene on April 18 when the crescent Moon was next to Venus in the twilight. amid the stars of winter setting and putting in their last appearance for the season. The snow was from a big snowfall two days earlier.

Details are in the individual photo captions.

04/19/2026

This is Comet PanSTARRS (C/2025 R3) rising in the dawn twilight on April 19, 2026. It was at its closest point to the Sun it its orbit (at perihelion) on this date. But it was so low from my latitude the comet was embedded in the bright twilight and difficult to see even with binoculars.

The field of view is 5.8º by 3.9º.

This was at 4:52 am MDT, just after the comet rose but before the sky got too bright to see the comet. There was a window of just a few minutes to catch the comet!

This was from home in Alberta at 51º N.

Technical:
This is a single 30-second exposure with the Starfield Optics Géar70Q apo refractor at f/5 and 350mm focal length, on the Canon R5 at ISO 800. Tracked, so the ground is blurred, but unguided.