Life Hack: Researching objects for your photos expands your understanding of the universe and its workings. Plus your ability to coordinate dozens of web sites, apps, and charts to answer the question "can I image tonight?"

The Milky Way contains as many as 400 billion stars, and it's just one of the trillions of galaxies in the universe. Woaaaaaah!!

Jupiter, Venus & Mercury Tonight Mercury just above the treeline with Jupiter and Venus higher in Gemini. Supposed to have rain for the next week so this may be it for the conjunction #Nature 🔭 #Photography #Science #NightSky #Jupiter #Venus #Mercury #Mindfulness #WitchSky #Photo

Life Hack: Join #Astronomy clubs or attend star parties to meet like-minded individuals and expand your social circle. These days you can even do it remotely!

Even if you're using a One-Shot Color camera, you can still use narrowband filters to block light you don't want. Check out https://shorturl.at/tnd7r for a huge selection of special purpose filters for solar, lunar, light pollution, and more!

Today's Sun is so angry, the Cloud Gods came and covered it up so no one would see! ☀️🔭🦛

Are you a #Canon #Astrophotography shooter? Then you need this Pinefeat Canon EF/EF-S Lens Controller: * Canon EF/EF-S mount on one end * T-mount on the other end * USB port in the middle * ASCOM/INDI drivers to turn it into an autofocuser #NINA #APT #EKOS etc, fully-automated AF! 🌌🔭🦛

Life Hack: #Astronomy encourages exploration of remote areas with dark skies, leading to more outdoor activity and fresh air. #Astrocamping is a real thing!

Did you know that because of its unique 97.77 degree tilt, a season on Uranus is equivalent to 21 Earth years? Also, while being almost four times the diameter of Earth, a day on Uranus only lasts 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds.

Life Hack: Dark-sky reserves, eclipses, and other astronomical events create opportunities for incredible road trips and adventures. Just be sure to tell someone where you're going in case you decide to never come back and live the rest of your life under dark skies!

Astronomers use big telescopes to see things far, far away, like planets and stars. But you can use a small telescope to see stuff from your backyard. Find out more at http://astropotamus.com

Today's Sun! ☀️ Get ready for some #NorthernLights if you're at mid-latitudes or higher! Those bigger-than-Earth sunspots you see threw off some massive solar flares in the past couple of days! Dark skies and a 10-second camera exposure and you should see them! 🌌🔭🦛

Life Hack: Researching objects for your photos expands your understanding of the universe and its workings. Plus your ability to coordinate dozens of web sites, apps, and charts to answer the question "can I image tonight?"

Did you know that any two objects in space have five points around which gravity is balanced between the two? These are called the Lagrangian Points and are popular places to put telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and others.

Today in history: On June 4, 1989, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators and dozens of soldiers are estimated to have been killed when Chinese troops crushed a seven-week-long protest held by occupying demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Today marks 20 YEARS since Animator vs. Animation by Alan Becker was posted to @newgrounds.com.

Life Hack: Spending more time outside capturing the stars means less time doomscrolling. Of course, checking out the #Astrophotography feeds on BlueSky is also an option!

The energy of quasars comes from supermassive black holes consuming matter in distant galaxies.

Meet today's Sun. ☀️🔭🦛 Same as the old Sun. Remember - the Sun is white. I take my pictures in white light. The color that you see here is an artistic choice made by me when I process the image you see. Enjoy!

Life Hack: Engaging with #Astrophotography communities introduces you to others who may have already solved the same problems you're having. Learn from them, grasshopper. Then teach others.

Even if you're using a One-Shot Color camera, you can still use narrowband filters to block light you don't want. Check out https://shorturl.at/tnd7r for a huge selection of special purpose filters for solar, lunar, light pollution, and more!

@muellershewrote.com Oh no! You won't get your $8.647M settlement!

Episode 2 of my Star River Podcast "Enchanted Frequencies" series with Shane Baca, the #VLA facilities manager, is a bit behind schedule. Catch the trailer below! Sure, lots of @thenrao.bsky.social people are astronomers, but some are mechanics, welders, & rail layers!📡🎙️🔭🦛

Life Hack: Recognizing faint celestial details enhances awareness of the world around you. It also lets you see ghosts, specters, and spooks. Who you gonna call?

First air balloon of the year! 🎈

Did you know that spacesuit helmets have a Velcro patch, to help astronauts itch? That's its one and only purpose.

Well, I had to do it myself, but I finally got around to taking a picture of me with my @thenrao.bsky.social Member T-shirt. #VLA 📡🔭🦛

@craig.deforest.org let's get you scheduled for the Star River Podcast! Head to thestarriver.com/guest and get me a release form, then we'll pick a date!

Today's Sun! Compare this to the previous couple of days images and you can see those Earth-sized sunspots march across the surface! Welcome to meteorological summer and don't forget the sunscreen! ☀️🔭🦛

The #VLA Open House in April was a wonderful experience. Would gladly go again in October! Auditioned for the remake of the movie "Contact." Still waiting to hear back from @thenrao.bsky.social if I've been cast or not. I think I nailed it. 📡🎧🦛

Nothing says "National Intelligence" like "Federal Housing Finance." apnews.com/article/trum...

Life Hack: Training yourself to capture faint celestial objects improves attention to detail in everyday life. Or at least, that's the excuse I use when people ask my why I do this.

Astrometry plays a key role in detecting exoplanets by tracking a star's slight wobble. Astrometry is the measurement of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies.

This is some amazing news and I'm happy to say I saw the receiver while there for the open house in April! Wait. This picture can't possibly be correct... @thenrao.bsky.social

Photos from our Astrophotography Workshop on 4/18/2026. The ngVLA prototype looks pretty ✨stellar✨ under all those stars! 📸 1: Alin Sosnovici 📸 2: Vlad Rebek 📸 3: Scott Broadwell 📸 4: Lilla Hangay

Life Hack: Sharing your #astrophotography skills with beginners can be fulfilling and might even lead to coaching opportunities. And who doesn't want to be an Astro-coach!

The #Moon's surface is covered in fine, glassy dust caused by billions of years of impacts. In the next 10 years, there's a 95% chance that every man that has walked on the Moon so far will be dead.

Today's Sun. White light filter, SVBony SV503 102mm/f7, 0.8x FR/FF, Pegasus Astro FocusCube, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro. Captured with SharpCap. Processed with ImPPG and GIMP for your viewing pleasure. #Solar #Astrophotography is fun but remember - always use protection! ☀️🔭🦛

"I don’t even vote, so I don’t even care." -Vanilla Ice People got shot in the head so you could vote. People had their arms and legs blown off so you could vote. People took their own lives because of the trauma of giving you the right to vote. So why the fuck don't you #vote? Asshole.

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Life Hack: #Astrophotography combines science and art, giving you a unique way to express creativity. Don't worry. Someday you'll stop cringing when people ask "is that what it really looks like?"

Hey, #scicomm people, what do you do when someone believes that "Science" is wrong and try to tell you that space isn't expanding or whatever? I want to help and teach and educate but I also don't want to waste time. Example below. Look for "zenweb" in the thread. 🧪🔭🦛

When you forget that your All-sky cam, which is not permanently mounted and was brought inside the AstropotaPOD for winter, was still dumping nightly images (and videos!) to your cloud storage, despite being under a TG365 cover, you get basically this same image repeated 10,000 times. 😃🌌🔭🦛

The universe has no center - every point in space expands away from every other point. It's like being on the surface of a balloon that is being inflated. Except, pretend the balloon is only two-dimensional and has no "center." Ah, crap. Cosmology is hard in 300 characters.

Today's Sun. ☀️🔭🦛 Remember - never look at the Sun directly with your own eyes or a telescope. But with a proper solar filter, you can see some amazing surface details like these Earth-sized sunspots!

Life Hack: Troubleshooting challenges, like dealing with light pollution or camera settings, hones critical thinking. Or your ability to throw caution into the wind and image with a $1000 part dangling in the wind, held only on by Velcro and a zip tie.

Shoot in RAW format to capture more detail and make editing your #Astrophoto easier later. You might want to use some of the software I use, listed at http://astropotamus.com/software to help.

Life Hack: Spending more time outside capturing the stars means less time doomscrolling. Of course, checking out the #Astrophotography feeds on BlueSky is also an option!

A shooting star isn't a star at all - it's a tiny rock burning up in Earth's atmosphere. Called a "meteor" while it's in the sky, most of these rocks turn to gas and ash but some reach the surface and we call these meteorites!

The AstropotaPOD just got a monitoring upgrade! #Grafana #MQTT #Nagios on a @raspberrypi.com and removed #InfluxDB @grafana.bsky.social @nagios.bsky.social 🌌🔭🦛