Mark's Astrophotography

03/01/2026

Another night of sort of clear skies. - Feb 28, 2026. Here’s a shot of two of my monitors at my astronomy Command Post. On the left is the security camera shot of my telescope about 15 feet outside my garage with a beautiful pink sunset.

On the right is what the telescope is currently looking at, which leads me to the ‘sort of’ clear skies. Almost all of the winter targets are now slipping to the west, following the sunset, leaving a fairly large void of ‘meh’ targets before galaxy season really kicks in. And unfortunately for me, those ‘meh’ targets are right there in the same sky as our big beautiful ball of bright moon!

Last night I had to settle for tracking an asteroid (Iris). Tonight, who knows. It’s always good to exercise the gear and the skills though! Have a great Saturday night, everyone!

02/27/2026

It's been a MONTH! - February 27, 2026. Rain, clouds, ASU assignments, huge IT projects (including two 900 mile round trip IT calls), and whatnot has kept me grounded. Not tonight! Looks like 4 days of clear night skies. Of course, there's that CHM113 final on Monday, but once the scope is tracking, I can keep cramming for it.

01/30/2026

Goofin' around Jan 29, 2026. Here's Jupiter and three of his moons: From Jupiter out it's Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. There is a mission to Europa, the Europa Clipper, launched in October 2024 and arrives around the moon in April, 2030 to search for extraterrestrial life in it's vast subsurface oceans!

The inner most Galilean moon, Io, is behind Jupiter right now, about to pop out on the other side.

I'll be clouded out shortly, just field testing the gear for the Big Bend, TX adventure in March.

01/30/2026

The Heart Nebula - December 11, 2025. I've processed quite a few sessions over the past few months but never posted them. So here's one from over a month ago...

Here's the Heart Nebula, a massive cloud of glowing hydrogen and oxygen tucked away in the constellation Cassiopeia. This beautiful region lies roughly 7,500 light-years away and spans an incredible 150 light-years across.

To put that size into perspective, If the Heart Nebula were visible to the naked eye, it would appear about 5 times wider than the full Moon in our sky.

At its core is a cluster of young, hot stars whose intense radiation is carving and shaping the nebula, causing it to glow that deep, cosmic red, a turbulent stellar nursery full of powerful winds and radiation.

In the heart of the heart is the Sea Dragon. Do you see it?

And as always this image was captured from my backyard in Orange, Texas. No mountaintop observatory. No desert plateau. Just patience, photons, and Southeast Texas sky!

01/27/2026

The Pudge Nebula - Jan 26, 2026. Ok, it's actually called the Rosette Nebula, but my wife pointed out it looks alot like her dog, Pudge. You be the judge.

Last night was my first trip from my Orange, Texas backyard to the stars in WAAAAY too long. I had a dead imaging camera that took 4 weeks to repair. Last night was first light for it's new life, and it did not disappoint!

I went for a colorful one, the Rosette (Pudge) nebula. If you could stack full Moons across it, it's 3 moons tall by 3 moons wide from our point of view. That's very large! It's gets even larger when you consider that it's actually 5,000 light years away in the Unicorn constellations (Monoceros), right next to Orion. That makes it's actual diameter about 130 light years! BTW, Orion happens to be the name of one of my dogs (see pic).

Do you see Pudge the Pug in the Rosette?

01/27/2026

I'm back in the Orange, Texas backyard! - 26 Jan 2026. 26 days ago on New Years Day I setup my scope for some skywatching. All I got was nothing. Turns out my ASI6200MM camera had died. There was NO buying a replacement. Way too expensive. This could have been the end of my astronomy endeavors. However, after working with support, I ordered a new motherboard for it. BUT!.... When it arrived, it turned out to be encoded for the wrong type of camera (ASI2600MC). So, after coordinating with the main office in China (during their office hours of 8pm to 4am), they were able to remote in and recode it, finally fixing it.

Then, the obligatory clouds after any purchase rolled in. Two weeks of clouds later I finally got to test it tonight! And... it works!

Here's the Rosette Nebula, a neighbor of the constellation Orion. Formed from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud. This is just 20 minutes of one filter. I'll combine this with 5 other filters of data tonight to form a colorful image of a celestial body that's the size of 9 full moons in our sky!

01/13/2026

Well, my 2026 Arizona State spring semester started today. I should graduate with my Astronomy degree in about 6 months!

I need YOUR help with an assignment in ASB333: Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. Please complete this simple 5-question, multiple-choice survey. Your name will not be recorded, even to me. Ignore the prompt about signing into Google to save progress. It is NOT required.

The more results I get, the more data I have to analyze, and the better my grade will be!!

(Post script): If you have already responded to this survey from my personal page, please feel free to respond to this one as well. It's identical, but separate. I plan to compare and contrast the results of the survey posted on my personal page to that of my Astronomy followers.

Please select one response per statement. Your answers will remain confidential and are recorded anonymously. You can ignore the 'Sign in to Google'. It is not required.

12/31/2025

Playing with Big Blue, my 12" scope! - Dec 30, 2025. Considering the gear I'm taking with us on our March, 2026 adventure to West Texas dark skies. Dusted off my massive 3048mm focal length Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope.

Worked on what's known as collimation for a few hours, still not satisfied, but it does grab a cool Moon shot! This is not zoomed in. This is the full frame of the scope. For comparision my main scope, the Esprit 120 has a frame as wide as 6 full moons.

Whatcha think?

12/22/2025

Another darkest of the dark skies adventure! My wife, Keri, got us an AirBNB 'igloo' dome out in West Texas for March, 2026! It's 50 miles south of Alpine, 15 miles north of Terlingua, and 8 miles from asphalt roads! Oh, and 775 miles from my Orange, Texas backyard.

It's 3 months away, but there's so much to plan!

There is no place in the continental US with darker skies! Giddy!

12/11/2025

Babysitting - Dec 10, 2025 8:45pm. This is just 30 minutes on the Baby Nebula, also known as the Soul Nebula. I'm going to process this one soon, along with its neighbor, the Heart Nebula. Very clear winter skies over my Orange, Texas backyard.

This is a raw unprocessed shot. I may stick with this target all night long, or I might switch over to some Orion targets.

12/01/2025

Andromeda in widefield - October 19, 2025. I had the idea to put my second scope ever back on the mount after forever. My Redcat 71. I love this little scope. It's fast, super sharp, FUN, and lets face it... SEXY!

This image was from a month and a half ago, but was never processed, just sat idle on my hard drive. I blew out the central bulge on our largest galaxy in our local group of galaxies, but other than that, I think it turned out nice.

Whatcha think?