Boomtown Astro

08/29/2026

Time lapse video of the Moon disappearing behind the Earth's shadow during the lunar eclipse

08/29/2026

Messier 4 or M4 (also known as NGC 6121 or the Spider Globular Cluster) is a globular cluster in the constellation of Scorpius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745 and catalogued by Charles Messier in 1764. It was the first globular cluster in which individual stars were resolved. M4 is conspicuous in even the smallest of telescopes as a fuzzy ball of light. It appears about the same size as the Moon in the sky. It is one of the easiest globular clusters to find, being located only 1.3 degrees west of the bright star Antares, with both objects being visible in a wide-field telescope. Modestly sized telescopes will begin to resolve individual stars, of which the brightest in M4 are of apparent magnitude 10.8.

This image is made up of roughly fifteen minutes worth of ten second camera exposures.. all captured with a ZWO SeeStar S50. All image processing was done in free software.

08/28/2026

Here’s something that may interest some of you.. These images were done during last night’s lunar eclipse, at its maximum. Both made up of only five minutes worth of ten second exposures.. and both are straight off of scope with no editing whatsoever. First is M30 along with 41 Capricorni.. a binary star system in Capricornus. Second is M2. No light pollution filters were used.. only UV/IR cut. Both of these clusters were within 15° of the Moon when imaged.. the sky became noticeably darker so I decided to try a couple of star clusters close to the Moon with minimal integration time just to see how they would turn out.

08/28/2026

I should have better images tomorrow after I process the RAW video data.. but this is tonight’s eclipse of Luna.. at maximum. Just a slight edit with the native iPad photo app.

08/28/2026

So far.. so good. I’m doing a time lapse video in AVI RAW with a ZWO SeeStar S50. I’ll process the data tomorrow evening and post the results

08/27/2026

These times are all EDT.. if you’re in Texas, subtract one hour. The atmospheric conditions aren’t going to be the best due to the smoke from wildfires, but the Moon is bright enough to cut through it for the most part. The Earth’s shadow will give the Moon a reddish looking color. I’m planning on setting up an imaging rig.. we’ll see how it goes.

08/16/2026

The core of the Milky Way.. from my backyard deck. This is a single, thirty second exposure with a ZWO SeeStar S30 Pro.. edited in the native iPhone 11 photo app.

08/15/2026

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.878 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598.
The Triangulum Galaxy was originally discovered by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna before 1654. In his work De systemate orbis cometici; deque admirandis coeli caracteribus ("About the systematics of the cometary orbit, and about the admirable objects of the sky"), he listed it as a cloud-like nebulosity or obscuration and gave the cryptic description, "near the Triangle hinc inde". This is in reference to the constellation Triangulum as a pair of triangles. The galaxy was independently discovered by Charles Messier on the night of August 25–26, 1764. It was published in his Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters (1771) as object number 33; hence the name M33. When William Herschel compiled his extensive catalog of nebulae, he was careful not to include most of the objects identified by Messier. However, M33 was an exception, and he cataloged this object on September 11, 1784, as H V-17.

This image was produced by stacking 300 separate thirty second exposures that were captured with a ZWO SeeStar S30 Pro. All post processing was done with free software.. Siril, GIMP, GraxPert, and Adobe LightRoom for iOS.

08/12/2026

This is the 3D printed AllSky camera that I made for tomorrow night’s meteor shower. The first photo shows the 3D printed parts, along with the protective glass dome that I bought off of Amazon. The second and third photo show the camera that I’ll be using, mounted inside of the 3D printed case. It’s a ZWO ASI 662MC planetary camera with an attached 160° fisheye lens. The fourth photo shows the camera mounted in the case.. and the last photo shows the completed camera box with the glass dome attached. I downloaded and installed meteor detection software.. which is also from ZWO. The camera will be mounted on a pole in my yard.. hopefully the software functions as it’s supposed to. I’m also going to set up a star tracker mount with a full frame Canon DSLR with a 12mm wide angle lens. I have an intervalometer to control the DSLR.. so I’ll aim it towards the radiant point of the meteor shower and set it to shoot 15 second exposures all night long. I’m bound to capture meteor streaks with that rig. It may take a day or two to sort through all of the data and process it.. but once I do I’ll post the finished images.

08/11/2026

Wanna try to capture some meteor “streaks”?? All you need is a DSLR, a wide angle lens, and a tripod.

Camera Settings for the PERSEID METEOR SHOWER! 📷

Mount a DSLR or mirrorless camera on a sturdy tripod, use manual mode, and start with a wide-angle lens between 14mm and 24mm.

Open the aperture to f/2.8 or wider, set the ISO between 1600 and 3200, and try a shutter speed of 15–25 seconds.

Focus manually on a bright star, then use an intervalometer to capture continuous exposures throughout the night.

For more tips, see my complete guide: https://astrobackyard.com/perseid-meteor-shower/