Finally, More Clear Nights!
The winter months have been more brutal in 2024-25 than any year in recent memory, especially for astronomers. We’ve had over a month period with no clear skies at night, plus 8-10 inches of snow here locally. Mix in several days of sub-zero temperatures and our weather has amounted to what I like to call a “Cormack McCarthy hellscape”.
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. This week we’ve had four nights of completely or mostly clear skies. I was able to capture 5 hours of data each on M51 and M101, two of my favorite galaxy targets. In addition I’ve been able to do a couple of live streams to show deep sky objects. The coming weekend promises to be even clearer, although still brutally cold. Here’s several of the images I’ve been able to capture.
M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy (processed)
M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy (processed)
M31 The Andromeda Galaxy
SH2-190 The Heart Nebula
NGC-1499 The California Nebula
M33 The Triangulum Galaxy
M42 The Orion Nebula
The Pinwheel Galaxy, annotated
Markarian’s Chain, a cluster of galaxies
Markarian’s Chain, annotated
