Starship Asterisk*

Return to the Cave One of my first astro images when I first bought my Hyperstar lens was this dark and mysterious cave in Space. I have always loved it and was pleased to see how striking the natural colours were ( no narrowband filters were used) How fun to return to the cave with my deep rig at t...

A Day Spotting Sunspots Solar maximum brings every different kind of sunspot one can imagine. For example on September 20th, 2024, I was able to see a creepy crawly centipede, also known as AR 3837, a simple bipolar Beta-type sunspot region. I also saw another “heart emoji” sunspot deep in the centr...

The Omega effect in motion Have you ever watched the sun melt into a lake or ocean? This is known as the "Omega effect", when the sun develops feet at the bottom like the Greek Symbol Omega. You are actually seeing an inverted image of the sun due to refraction. This mirage usually occurs ...

The Omega Effect at Sunset - darker version Have you ever watched the sun melt into a lake or ocean? This is known as the "Omega effect", when the sun develops feet at the bottom like the Greek Symbol Omega. You are actually seeing an inverted image of the sun due to refraction. This mirag...

The Omega Effect at Sunset Have you ever watched the sun melt into a lake or ocean? This is known as the "Omega effect", when the sun develops feet at the bottom like the Greek Symbol Omega. You are actually seeing an inverted image of the sun due to refraction. This mirage usually occurs ...

The Belt of Venus at Prim Point PEI. As the sun sets on a clear crisp day, a watercolour pink band of light can be seen rising in the east, opposite the setting sun. The "belt" belongs to the goddess Aphrodite and is not named after the planet Venus. This atmospheric phenomenon is caused b...

Asteroid Pallas at Opposition The asteroid Pallas This was my first time trying to image an asteroid called Pallas and you can see how much it moves over the course of a night. It was very bright as you can see, mainly due to it being directly opposite from the sun at the moment ( at opposition) Pal...

The Hedgerow Prom All eyes are on the sun after last weeks’ massive solar activity caused a worldwide auroral display. Although the sunspot region responsible for that display has rotated to the far side of the sun, there are potentially new active regions rotating into Earth view. This large promin...

When the Aurora is at its peak it is said to look like soaring birds overhead? How many different birds do you see? Other than the colours from the camera sensor these images represent what I saw visually the night of the powerful G5 magnetic storm on Mother's’ day 2024. The space weather data was s...

Auroral Mountain top I was watching the wild aurora in my backyard the night of May 10/11th when I noticed this big white auroral cloud, right in front of me, growing, pulsating, and rapidly rising into the sky above. I made sure the camera was pointing the right way but frankly I could not take my ...

An Auroral Phoenix (redux) It is often said that during the peak of the Aurora the "wings" of fiery birds can be seen flying though the night sky. The dramatic and powerful Kp8 aurora of May 11, 2024 was full of movement, flashes of light and pulsations. And out of the magnetic chaos rose ...

The Auroral Phoenix It is often said that during the peak of the Aurora the "wings" of fiery birds can be seen flying though the night sky. The dramatic and powerful Kp8 aurora of May 11, 2024 was full of movement, flashes of light and pulsations. And out of the magnetic chaos rose the fie...

A Star Party to Remember What a party! At our spring public outreach astronomy event many visitors came to see the moon and stars through a telescope. Imagine their surprise when, not only did the Aurora appear to the south, ( we live in Ottawa Canada) but the auroral corona exploded over our heads ...

2 towns in 2 different countries = 2 different totalities. Who was on the edge of Totality? Can you tell which one of us was closer to the edge of the line of totality? And which one was shot on the centre line? One set was Imaged in Arkansas near Little Rock and the other shot from Lac Megantic in ...

The Solar Maximum Corona A mysterious solar veil The corona at every solar eclipse is different, and also depends on where we are in the solar cycle. Since we are approaching solar maximum in 2024, the corona extends all around the Sun. If you look at corona images from a solar eclipse that occurred...

The Sparkling Sky The skies over Lac Megantic Quebec were clear on eclipse morning. The small village had organized a live stream by the waterfront of the eclipse events at the Mt. Megantic Observatory, seen here in the distance. A cool crisp day with spring snow still on the ground, when the majest...

The Glory of Totality Each step of a total eclipse has a special moment. When the moon has almost covered the entire sun, a bright glare flares out in a blinding diamond ring, at the beginning and end of totality. In between, the last rays of light from our sun peek out though the craters and mounta...

A Phoenix Rising over Lac Megantic Today a total solar eclipse shone over a rural Quebec village that was all but destroyed 11 years ago. A run away train car started a massive explosion in the town centre that killed 47 people, turned the town to ashes, and remains the worst Canadian train disaster...

He's Back with a Bang- Sunspot 3615 The monster sunspot from a month ago, the spot formerly know as AR3590 is back and bigger and sparkier than ever. A magnetic mess of solar activity, Sunspot 3615 as we refer him now, has rotated back into Earth view. A complex beta-delta-gamma region AR3615 has be...

Monochrome Version The X.6 Class Solar Flare Player This sparky sunspot region AR3590 has been travelling across the face of the sun all week sending out some of the biggest solar flares so far this solar cycle, including the X .6 flare earlier this week. Using your solar eclipse glasses you could s...

The X.6 Class Solar Flare Player This sparky sunspot region AR3590 has been travelling across the face of the sun all week sending out some of the biggest solar flares so far this solar cycle, including the X .6 flare earlier this week. Using your solar eclipse glasses you could see this giant sunsp...

Messier 82- A Starburst Galaxy Some galaxies are especially good at generating bright new stars and have so much galactic dust and gas that they create stars at a furious rate. M82 is also called the “Cigar Galaxy” due the red glow of Hydrogen “smoke” emanating from its galactic core. A close encoun...

An Overlooked Jewel of the SKy Have you ever felt small or ignored in the shadow of a bright superstar? Meet NGC 1977 located in the Orion’s Belt, close to its more famous neighbour, the gloriously bright and dynamic Great Orion Nebula. In fact, NGC 1977 was my third choice on the evening of Feb.5th...

Stephan's Quintet- Don't they look a bit like Christmas Teee ornaments? As the name suggestes this is a complex 5 galaxy group, where some galaxies are violently colliding and will likely merge together eventually. The orange coloured galaxies have a physical association, a true galaxy group, known ...

Bailey's Beads At Second and Third Contact https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53273338483_b503b0e4cc_k.jpg Bailey's Beads Second and Third Contacts by Andrea Girones , on Flickr In an annular eclipse as the moon approaches second and third contact, the horns of the crescent sun start to converge. W...