Starship Asterisk*

Comet Tail of C/2023 A3 and Zodiacal Light Photo description: Recently, friends from all over the world, especially in the southern hemisphere, have been sending beautiful photos of C/2023 A3’s long tail. Taiwan, however, was ravaged by typhoons and northeast monsoons. It was finally clear yesterda...

How much can the brightness change during an auroral outburst? Photo description: How much can the brightness change during an auroral outburst? This set of photos was taken when the aurora broke out in the early morning of April 3 this year. I used a fisheye lens to record the continuous changes w...

Inferior Mirage This is the first time I have seen a ship (probably a work ship for offshore wind turbines) forming an Inferior Mirage on the distant sea! Because the light must travel far enough to produce an inferior mirage, the inferior mirage of the sun is the easiest to see. In Hsinchu, northw...

Sunspot Mirage, Green Flash and Inversion Layer Photo description: During sunset, a distinct green flash occurs when the Sun passes through the temperature inversion layer. If there are sunspots at this time, a sunspot mirage will appear. On January 30, 2023, while witnessing a sunset on Taiwan's H...

Dispersion of Venus When celestial objects are just rising or setting, the rays of light they emit or reflect from sunlight, as they pass through the Earth's atmosphere, undergo refraction and separation into different colors, creating the "dispersion phenomenon." The colors at the upper ...

Only 2.4% of Illuminated Venus After Inferior Junction You can get up early to observe Venus now! Venus, which shines brightly in the western sky at dusk in the first half of the year, has passed between the earth and the sun (inferior junction), appeared in the eastern sky before sunrise! In ancie...

Only 2.4% of Illuminated Venus Rise Photo description: Venus, which shines brightly in the western sky at dusk in the first half of the year, has passed between the earth and the sun. And it becomes the "morning star" that appears in the eastern sky before sunrise. Here's a video of Venus...

Crescent Venus Setting Trails Photo description: These two images show the difference in the western setting trail of Venus in the northern and southern hemispheres. The one on the left was taken in Taipei at 25.0°N at around 6 pm on July 24, and the one on the right was taken in Sydney at 33.9°S a...

Like a Burning Sun Twice a year we have the opportunities to see this interesting phenomenon from our balcony - the sun appears to be on fire! The building below the sun is an incinerator, and the "flames" are actually steam emissions from the incinerator. Normally, these emissions cannot...

The Lunar Occultation of Venus Photo description: The Lunar Occultation of Venus on March 24th was fortunate enough to be observable in Taiwan. This composite photo records Venus gradually darkening and disappearing behind the moon after making contact with it. The entire occultation process took a...

Lunar Occultation of Venus Photo description: A rare astronomical phenomenon-Lunar Occultation of Venus happened in Taiwan tonight. I stacked 5 consecutive shots with the software Startrails. It can be seen that the brightness of Venus gradually weakens from touching the dark part of the moon to di...

Yellow-Red Solar Corona Photo description: Alishan's(阿里山) sunrise is a very famous landscape in Taiwan. In the early morning of March 19, the sun rose over Yushan(玉山), Taiwan's tallest mountain, amidst a fast-moving mist. Surprisingly, the solar corona with the sun rising turned out to be a very br...

Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter Photo description: Yesterday (March 2), Venus and Jupiter were very close, with a distance of about half a degree, or about the size of the moon. This photo captures Jupiter, its moon, and Venus in close proximity to the top floor of Taipei 101, which has an elevati...

The Rising Trajectory of the Milky Way Photo description: The Milky Way has recently risen in the east around 3am. This star trail of the rising Milky Way is like a beautiful pattern drawn on a loom. It is a superposition of 12 photos, each taken 10 minutes apart, for a total of 111 minutes. The re...

The last seconds of sunset The last seconds of sunset - the last flashes of yellow, green, blue light line the horizon like pearls! How does the sun disappear in the last few seconds of sunset? On the evening of January 31, I saw this wonderful sunset on Hehuan Mountain, which is 3,000 meters high....

The last 6 seconds of sunset Photo description: The last 6 seconds of sunset - the last yellow, green and blue lights line the horizon like pearls! How does the sun disappear in the last few seconds of sunset? On the evening of January 31, I saw this wonderful sunset on Hehuan Mountain, which is 3,...

Mock Mirage Sunspots Photo description: The mock mirage formed by the temperature inversion layer at sunset on the high mountain makes the sun look like layer upon layer of millefeuille. The original one sunspot has become a whole row of several sunspots! The real image of the sunspot is arranged t...

Mock Mirage Sunspots and Green Flashes Photo description: At sunset on January 30, I recorded mock mirage sunset and green flashes on Mount Hehuan at an altitude of 3,000 meters. In the mock mirage sunset formed by multiple temperature inversion layers on the high mountain, the sun has various wond...

C/2022 E3 ZTF and Meteor Photo description: At 2:58 am on January 31, 2023, on a high mountain at an altitude of 3,000 meters, a brightly colored meteor just crossed the comet ZTF. It's so beautiful! Equipment Details: Canon R7 with Tamron SP 24-70mm F2.8 Lens Post-processing Details: Using Sequator...

Happy Lunar New Year 2023 is the Year of the Rabbit in China. According to Chinese legend, the surface of the moon likes a big rabbit. Happy lunar new year to all. This composite photo is of the full moons I have captured in nearly 7 years. The top rows of the picture are the moons as it rose eastw...

The stories the colors and surface of the full Moon tell us Photo description: This composite photo is of the full moons I have captured in nearly 7 years. Because Mare Crisium is located on the east side of the moon, its position can tell the position of the moon in the sky. Therefore, the moon in...

Green Flash and Atmospheric Optics Photo description: From July to December in 2022, I tried very hard to capture the green flash of the sun as it went down. Whenever the weather is sunny, I start paying attention to weather satellite cloud chart. It's a pity that the most common encounter at the b...

Ω Sun and Windmill Photo description: On the evening of December 25th, I came to Hsinchu - we call it the Windy City. Because of the strong wind in winter, there are many wind power plants on the coast. Fortunately, the sunset next to the windmill and the formation of Ω Sun (Sun Inferior Mirage) ha...

Trajectories of the Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury on the ecliptic plane on December 24, 2022. On December 24, 2022, Venus, Mercury and the very thin crescent moon that is about to set form a triangle. The moon is only 1.1 days old and 1.4% illuminated. It took me ages to find this super-slim crescen...

Sun Track on the Winter Solstice Photo description: Today, December 22, is the winter solstice, when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Capricorn. The sun will rise from the most southerly point in the east, cross the southernmost sky, and set from the most southerly point in the west. It is ...