I make a comic for @cornellbirds.bsky.social's Living Bird magazine called Birdword. It's about ornithological terminology. Here's my latest one.

NGC 2903 in Leo is a 9th magnitude barred spiral with tightly wrapped arms. About 11 minutes (out of 20 wall-clock). Located near 𝜆 (lambda) Leonis (near the top of the sickle) it's worth zooming in a bit to see detail. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2903

C/2025 R3 is still visible, barely between rising & dawn. #Seestar S50 🔭w/plan: 4 images 10 mins, fromstarting 5:30. Third captured 5 of 10 minutes. Last 4 of 10, affected by moon and & increasing twilight. Tweaked contrast & brightness images to bring out any detail in tail.

Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS), imaged with a #Seestar S50 🔭 just before dawn. 9 minutes of 10s frames, AI denoised and contrast and brightness tweaked in the Seestar app. Currently brighter than 6th mag, so in theory visible unaided-eye. Probably have better luck with binoculars or 'scope, though.

Galaxy Centaurus A (aka NGC 1258, or C77), imaged with a #Seestar S50 🔭. 21 minutes of 10s frames internally stacked, then AI de-noised with brightness & contrast tweaked. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur... I like the strong dust lane with internal structure across the center.

Antaŭ ol mi aldonis la alternativan tekston por bildo, mi vidis ĉi tiun averton: "Al unu aŭ pli da bildoj mankas alternativa teksto." Tiu aspektis strange al mi. Mi eble preferus "unu aŭ pli da bildoj mankas alternativan tekston", Eble la "al" celas eviti "alternativaJn tekstoJn"? Opinioj?

Open star cluster M50 in Monoceros (the unicorn). 6 minutes of 10s exposures with an #Seestar #S50 🔭 Fairly easy to find (located about 1/4 of the way from Sirius to Procyon), this cluster looks quite nice in just about any telescope, as well as my 10x50 #binoculars.

Showing the moon in a 10" Coulter 🔭 to a guest. Seeing was only adequate, but they were still impressed. When the moon moved to edge of FOV, a new lunar feature was revealed. Cell phone afocal thru eyepiece. #moon #spider #surprise! I may need to relocate the unexpected guest.

Attached is a screen-shot of the S50 app imaging galaxy NGC 4889. According to the AL Caldwell observing list it's: "...brightest of the Coma cluster". I turned on the "mark" function, which labels all the DSOs in the field. FOV of S50 is about .8 x 1.3 degrees That's a lotta little galaxies...

Weird snow. Some places the grass pokes through. Other places the drifts pile high. Out the window along our roof.

Every year, a bunch of #vultures come to our barn, morning and evening. They don't actually live here, we think they just come here to warm up in the morning and evening sun. When I go to feed the horses, a dozen or two of the #birds will fly off the barn and perch in the trees along the pasture.

Weather change coming: 23º halo around the moon, with Jupiter just inside at the top.

NGC 55 / C72: The "String of Pearls" galaxy. #Seestar S50🔭 16 min vs 20 min wall-clock. "Denoised" & adjusted brightness & contrast to bring out arms. Not included in the H400, so surprised me to see such a large bright galaxy. I like the differing densities and lengths of the left vs. right arm.

NGC NGC 2261 (Hubble's Variable Nebula, C46), imaged with a #Seestar S50 🔭. Pictures before & after using the S50's AI denoising and brightness / contrast settings. Imaged for Astronomical League's "Caldwell" observing program (www.astroleague.org/caldwell-obs...). 15 min @ 10 sec in alt-az mode.

Barnard 139 is the elongated dark patch near the center of the image. It looks a bit like a squid swimming down & left, with tentacles stretching up & right. The star field is quite dense: this is in the middle of the summer Milky Way.

Dark Nebula B 335, taken in a 20 minute exposure (of which 15 minutes of 20-second frames were stacked) with a #Seestar S50 🔭. The original image was quite blue. I used the apps "AI Denoise", then tweaked the brightness and contrast to make the nebula stand out more.

Green tree #frogs having a convention tonight.

Usagi is a charter member of the Dead Worm Appreciation Society. #dog #GreatPyrenees

Amazingly good image taken during the full moon. NGC 188 (also C1) was about as far from the moon as was possible, and i did tweak the contrast a bit to highlight the cluster stars, but still: this was taken during Full Moon!

#proofOfCat This is Meep, our 16 year old cat, grumpy from being woken from a nap. Her name is the only thing she could say when we rescued her from a dog, 16 years ago.

First clear night in a week or so. In-between objects on the Dark Nebula and Caldwell observing programs, so i hit a couple of "Tonight's Best" with the #seestar S50 🔭. NGC 253 is a lovely galaxy- hard to belive i never observed it 'til a year ago. NGC 6960 is a segment of the Veil nebula.

This was about two feet (.7 m) above the ground, attached to several stalks of golden rod. Anybody have speculation about what kind of #bird made this #birdnest?

A rather blurry picture of a spider whose GREEEEN fangs were gleaming in the sun. #spider

Dark nebula Barnard 92, taken with a #seestar S50 🔭 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard...

Handrail #frog. These are slimy when you find them in the dark going up the stairs. “#Blenophobia” fear of slimy textures.

We have horse, er, cattle egrets in our pasture. The horses (who play nose hockey with the turtles who wander in there) don't seem to care about the egrets.

M 11, the Wild Ducks, taken while i waited for it to get dark enough to try a Huge Mosaic of the Pipe nebula (which failed). Under some conditions, visually in a modest sized telescope, M 11 looks like a V of waterfowl (which is where the "Wild Ducks" came from).

Announcing the discovery of the Possum Nebula tucked in between the North America and Pelican nebula. The search is on for the Raccoon Nebula. #stars #humor #milkyway #funny #astronomy

Good choice!

#TCrB still hadn't become a nova as of last night...

Mi trovis verdan araneon. I found a green spider.

Ĉi vi deziras ion legi en #esperanto? Jen retejo kun multaj senkostaj legindaĵoj: libro.ee/index.php

I like to take very short exposures of objects with the #Seestar S50 🔭, to approximate what you can see through a modest (8-10 inch) scope. Well, those are modest sizes nowadays, given the prevalence of foot-wide and larger scopes. 30 seconds on most objects is about right.

Region around 𝛾 Cygni (Sadr). A difuse nebula around the star, with many dark nebulae superimposed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_C... 30 minutes with #Seestar S50 🔭

Despite a waxing moon, M26 (The Dumbell Nebula) looks quite good. 30 minutes with a #Seestar S50 🔭 Spite de kreskante luno, M26 aperas bele. Tridek Minutoj.

Gaja estas birda vivo ĉe rivero sur deklivo. Sub ĉiel' aùrora ĝoja birda ĥoro kantas kun fervoro el la tuta koro. -- de -- Kolekto da versaĵoj por esperantistoj inter 0 kaj 3 jaroj Preparis por la la TTT-ejo de DENASK-L Sergej Verŝinin.

Because Lyra is fairly far from the first quarter moon, here's 20 minutes on the Ring Nebula with a #Seestar S50. Bubble of gas, glowing in the light of a white dwarf at the center.

Hitch-hiker on our tractor. #treefrog. #frog

KURAS MI PER TUTA FORTO Kuras mi per tuta forto, miaj kruroj botojn portas. Boto jen, kaj boto jen Mi elpensis tion mem. Tamen povas mi pli bone: Miajn krurojn botoj kronas. Kaj eksciu ĉiu hom' Mi elpensis tion mom.

ŜIPETO En river navigas ŝipo, ĝi navigas kun persisto. Sidas tie brava kvaro, brava kvaro da maristoj. Bele rondas la oreloj, la kombitaj vostoj glatas. Kaj neniun ili timas krom katinoj kaj krom katoj. Versaĵoj por esperantistoj inter 0 kaj 3 jaroj Preparis Sergej Verŝinin. #esperanto

Muso al musido diris: - Bonajn librojn mi akiris! Legi ilin mi ne povas, Sed la guston bona trovas. --- De <<Kolekto da versajhoj por esperantistoj inter 0 kaj 3 jaroj>> Preparis por la la TTT-ejo de DENASK-L Sergej Vershinin.

Hieraŭ cxielarkon mi vidis... Ĉi-vespere mi vidis maldikan kurban lunon

Nia Tanjo laŭte ploras - En rivero pilko foras. Vanas ploro kaj sufero - Pilk ne dronos en rivero... --- De <<Kolekto da versajhoj por esperantistoj inter 0 kaj 3 jaroj>> Preparis por la la TTT-ejo de DENASK-L Sergej Vershinin.

Bunch of Canada honkers dropped themselves in our pasture. Must have been about forty of them.

Ni havas fenestro-ranoj! We have window frogs!

Ŝatas mi chevalon mian, Voston kombas per kombilo. Mi prizorgas ĝin senhaste, Al amiko rajdas gaste. --- eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolekto...

Dark nebula again: Barnard 295 is in the constellation Sagittarius (right at the tip of the spout of the "teapot"). It nearly as tall as two full moons, but not nearly as wide. To me it looks a bit like a lizard. 9 minutes with a #Seestar S50 🔭

Luli-luli-luli-lu, ĉe la rand' ne dormu plu. Se vi dormos ĉe la rando, vin forŝtelos lupo granda. Lupo nazon vian mordos, en arbaron vin forportos. Lupo, vi al ni ne venu, nian bebon vi ne prenu. Luli-luli-luli-lul, dormu, mia petolul'.

Dark nebula Barnard 84a in the constellation Sagittarius. A cloud of gas and dust blocking the light of the Milky Way stars. These dark nebulae are largely confined to the galaxy's spiral arms, since that's where the clouds of gas and dust are concentrated. 15 minutes with a #Seestar S50 🔭.

Steĉjo saltas sur divano, Steĉjo saltas kiel rano. Mur, mur, mur-mur-mur - Steĉjo volas salti nur. --- De eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolekto...