I am sending my pastel drawing of the Heart Nebula to everyone who finds Valentine's Day difficult. It comes with free virtual hugs if you need them ❣️

I am sending my pastel drawing of the Heart Nebula to everyone who finds Valentine's Day difficult. It comes with free virtual hugs if you need them ❣️

Happy Valentine's Day to my husband Mark McIntyre . Thanks so much for everything you do to help and support me, not just with my various astronomy endeavours but also with my crazy Halloween antics 😂

'Cloud streets' stream from the Florida coast | Space photo of the day for Feb. 12, 2026 www.space.com/science/weat...

It's more 'water-logged sunset' than 'Waterloo Sunset', but absolutely stunning :) Taken from #Oxfordshire UK 11th Feb '26 with a #Fairphone4 phone camera #Sunset

My first #SolarCan experiment! The Solar Can was mounted on a pole in our garden and left for 368 days, where photo paper was being exposed to the Sun via a pinhole. The paper was removed, scanned, inverted and processed to give this final image.

Here are collages of #lunarsketches from my workshops this weekend at #EuroreanAstroFest2026 (click to expand them). I'm insanely proud; the majority of people had NEVER attempted to draw the Moon or indeed drawn anything since high school, so these are very impressive! #AstronomySketching

I was at Astrofest today so I didn'thear this live, but I pre-recorded a feature for BBC Radio 3 about music that has been to the Moon. Tom Service's show; it's on BBC Sounds. Skip forward to 1 hour 54 minutes for my bit :) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

#Sunspot #AR14366 looking impressive at 12:19 UT 4 Feb '26. I had a long enough gap in the clouds to get a very quick visual look then captured a single video before the clouds swallowed the Sun again. #CoronadoPST, 2x barlow & #ASI120MC camera, best 50% of 1,742 frames #Oxfordshire UK #ActiveRegion

Today I created this #PastelDrawing of crater #Plato using a reference photo by @peachastro.bsky.social You can learn how to do this at my free #LunarSketching #workshop on Fri 6th & Sat 7th Feb '26 at #EuropeanAstrofest in London! Hope to see some of you there

I had so much fun playing with my Cricut vinyl cutting machine that my husband bought me for Christmas, creating custom celestial stickers to jazz up my walking aids. I'll be using the blue ones at Astrofest next weekend 😍

Stunning lunar halo just now over Williamsburg VA. Not unexpected with the approaching storm. That’s Jupiter within the halo to the left. #Fujifilm X-T4, XF8-16mm

This popped up on memories. #NGC7635 the #BubbleNebula from 27 January 2022, taken with our Altair Astro 8" Ritchey-Chretien telescope + Altair Hypercam 183C. 87 x 3 minutes. A few years later it was used on the packaging of one of the Wildsmith Skin limited edition Christmas gift sets!

I was so heartbroken to hear we had lost the wonderful Dr Allan Chapman. He was personable, had an infectious enthusiasm, was a remarkable speaker (& drinker of tea!). He was truly one of a kind. My thoughts are with Allan's wife Rachel at this awful time. RIP Allan, you are already so missed 💔

Also tonight (Sun 25 Jan) at around 23:00 UT we can see the #FaceinAlbategius, which occurs about 6 hours after the Lunar X and V. We will have a couple of hours before the Moon sets.

Heads-Up!!! The #LunarX & #LunarV are visible TONIGHT (Sun 25 Jan) from 17:00 UT. Fingers crossed for some cloud gaps! #ClairObscurEffects

I really enjoyed talking about one of my favourite books for the lovely guys and gals at Mexborough & Swinton AS. I had to wear my Sun and Moon deity shirt as faces appear frequently in the book 🌞🌝🌜#DasWunderzeichenbuch #TheBookOfMiracles

I'm very excited that TONIGHT (22 Jan) at 7:45pm UK time I'm doing my talk on astronomical events depicted in #DasWunderzeichenbuch the #BookofMiracles via Zoom for Mexborough & Swinton AS. Non-members welcome, £2.88. Zoom tickets here: tinyurl.com/sz7mz8st

Exciting news; I am going to European Astrofest!! I doing drop-in #LunarSketching workshops both days so I hope to see some of you there. 6 & 7 February, Kensington London. More details can be found on the Astrofest website #AstronomySketching #MoonSketching

One of my favorite asterisms, Kemble's Kite in Cassiopeia. Full disclosure, I brightened and enlarged the "kite stars" just a bit to help it stand out. #Astronomy #Astrophotography

I had a lovely afternoon doing a talk for Witney U3A. They are always such a lovely and engaging group and it was great to visit them for the second time. My talk clearly went down well because I had four new talk bookings straight after! 😁

More #AtmosphericOptics from Oxfordshire UK on 14 Jan '26. #22DegreeHalo #UpperTangentArc #SupralateralArc + faint #CircumzenithalArc. They show up better after colour subtraction.

Gorgeous #Parhelia (#sundogs) from Oxfordshire, UK 14 Jan '26. The left side #Parhelion was visible first, and once it faded the right side one appeared. Both were gorgeous! #AtmosphericOptics

And here is the timelapse of the 45 minute #StarTrails I shot on 18th March 2025 from a minor road surrounded by fields in a neighbouring village. Canon 1100D 10-18mm, f/4.5 25 second exposures stacked in #StarStaX. I saved the cumulative files in StarStaX and used them to create this timelapse.

I don't think I've ever shared this 45 minute #StarTrails image, taken on 18th March 2025 from a minor road surrounded by fields in a neighbouring village. Canon 1100D 10-18mm, f/4.5 25 second exposures stacked in #StarStaX

Lots of #LightPillars appeared between 02:00-03:30UT on 10/11 Jan 26 on our auroracam & meteor cameras in Oxfordshire, UK. The more I watch the video the more faint pillars I can see! Light pillars form when unshielded lights reflect of flat plate ice crystals in the atmosphere #AtmosphericOptics

#Jupiter + Galilean moons 10 Jan '26 from Oxfordshire, UK. I was plagued with technical issues last night so Jupiter was behind thin cloud by the time I was capturing. 70mm refractor, 3x Barlow & #ASI120MC camera. Best 50% of 2,000 frames. L we have #Europa, #Io and #Ganymede, R is #Callisto

#Corona around Jupiter, 10 Jan '26. 4sec exposure with 300mm zoom lens. Jupiter + 3 moons are slightly trailed but I needed long exposure to pick up the colours. Coronas are caused by diffraction around water droplets. Oxfordshire, UK #AtmosphericOptics

5 years ago today I took my 'Airwolf Moon' photo. As I photographed the The January full moon (known as the Wolf Moon in Native American culture) I saw flashing aircraft lights heading towards it. When I reviewed the photos I saw it was a helicopter that had transited. Oxon, UK

That faint streak in this image is the #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope. Mark & I photographed it on 5 Jan 2022, soon after its launch on Christmas Day 2021 with an 8" Ritchey-Chretien telescope + Hypercam183C. It doesn't look much but it's one of our favourite images :-D #JWST #WebbSpaceTelescope

With warnings in place for some potential heavy snow in parts of the Midlands and Southern UK on Thursday, we may have some chances to photograph #snowflakes up close. I made a video tutorial on simple #Macro #SnowflakePhotography 4yrs ago; you can watch it here: tinyurl.com/6n6nzc4v

#HorseheadNebula + #FlameNebula taken 2nd January '25. It popped up on Facebook memories :-) 70mm refractor, modded-Canon1100D, Altair Quadband filter. 60 x 90 seconds

5 day animation of #AsteroidFlora in #conjunction with #NGC3628 the #HamburgerGalaxy in the #LeoTriplet inverted/mono version. Imaged over 5 nights in April 2025. It looks like Flora passes through the galaxy but it's a line of sight effect #Asteroid #Galaxy

Animation of #AsteroidFlora in #conjunction with #NGC3628 the #HamburgerGalaxy in the #LeoTriplet. Imaged over 5 nights in April 2025 but only just finished processing the 5th day's data! It looks like Flora passes through the galaxy but it's a line of sight effect #Asteroid #Galaxy

#AsteroidFlora in #conjunction with #NGC3628 the #HamburgerGalaxy in the #LeoTriplet. Imaged over 5 nights in April 2025 but only just finished processing the 5th day's data! It looks like Flora passes through the galaxy but it's a line of sight effect #Asteroid #Galaxy

#LunarOccultation of #M45 #ThePleiades 1 Apr '25. I photographed it from Preston, Lancs. Canon 1100D + Sigma 300mm zoom lens on a static tripod. I didn't stay out for the entire event but I've created a short video of what I did capture #WaxingCrescentMoon #Earthshine

New video! In this one I am looking at a couple of the painted folios in #DasWunderzeichenbuch ( #TheBookofMiracles ) depicting #AtmosphericOptics displays. Watch here: youtu.be/96isAg7REn4?...

I wasn't able to see #TheBeam at #DiamondLightSource visually but I was able to pick it up faintly on photos. I was located in a muddy farmer's gate entrance on the outskirts of Tackley, 30 miles away as the crow flies from #HarwellCampus so I'm amazed I got it at all! Canon 1100D with 50mm lens

#RosetteNebula in Nov '25 from #Oxfordshire, UK. #WilliamOptics 70mm refractor, EQ5 Pro mount/permanent pier, astro-modded #Canon1100D + #AltairQuadband filter. 150 x 2min + 30 darks, total exposure of 5 hours. I was losing the sky to dawn light at the time of imaging #Astrophotography

#RosetteNebula in Nov '25 from #Oxfordshire, UK. #WilliamOptics 70mm refractor, EQ5 Pro mount/permanent pier, astro-modded #Canon1100D + #AltairQuadband filter. 150 x 2min + 30 darks, total exposure of 5 hours. I was losing the sky to dawn light at the time of imaging #Astrophotography

One of the Christmas presents I gave to Mark was this absolutely awesome Moon cushion printed with a stunning @vickypaintsspace.bsky.social painting. It goes so well with our other cushions and patchwork blanket 😍 You can get them here (not sponsored!) www.vhspaceart.com/products/moo...

Mark has created this incredible image by combining the 13th/14th December overnight track-stacks from all four of our #RaspberryPi #MeteorCameras into one all sky picture showing all 2,140 #Geminid #Meteors we caught last night. Absolutely insane! #GlobalMeteorNetwork #UKMeteorNetwork #Geminids

Tomorrow, Mon 15 Dec, I'm doing my Astrophotography Without a Telescope talk for Banbury Camera Club. This month's meeting is in the Art Room at Chenderit School, Middleton Cheney, Banbury 7:30pm - 9:45pm. Non-members are welcome and there will be mulled wine and mince pies!

Impressive track-stacks from our #GMN/#UKMeteorNetwork #RaspberryPi #MeteorCameras in #Oxfordshire 13/14 Dec '25. The satellite/aircraft trails are not counted as meteors; they were just in the frame at the same time as a meteor occurred #Geminids #Geminids2025 #MeteorShower #GeminidMeteors

After several months of catching the #BlueLaser from the #NetworkRail #NewMeasurementTrain on our all sky + auroracam, I finally saw it in person at 03:10 on Thurs am. Photos with #Canon1100D + 50mm lens from #Oxfordshire #FlyingBanana #NMT #BlueLaserTrain

Can you believe we're into December already?!🤯 Idk if it's because this year has been rubbish, but I really don't feel Christmassy. I hope it's just me and you're all feeling festive and looking forward to spending time with loved ones.💜 Sending you all love and clear skies!💫 🎨🖌🔭🧪🐡

You can watch the timelapse video of me creating this #PastelDrawing of a 25% #WaningCrescent #Moon which was my wedding gift to my stepson + wife on my YouTube channel: youtu.be/DH7u6iB_b8I?... #SpaceArt #MoonArt #AstronomySketching #AstronomyDrawing #LunarArt #PastelArt

One of our wedding gifts to my stepson; #PastelDrawing of the #Moon on their wedding day - a 25% #WaningCrescent. The earthshine side has a blue undertone to contrast with the illuminated side. #Stabilo #CarbOthello #pastelpencils on black paper. #SpaceArt #MoonArt #AstronomyArt

#Calwell31 / #IC405 the #FlamingStarNebula in Auriga, imaged from #Oxfordshire UK 19 Nov '25. William Optics 70mm refractor, astro-modded #Canon1100D + #AltairQuadband filter. 185x120sec at ISO3200, total exposure 6hrs 10min #Astrophotography #Nebula

#Calwell31 / #IC405 the #FlamingStarNebula in Auriga, imaged from #Oxfordshire UK 19 Nov '25. William Optics 70mm refractor, astro-modded #Canon1100D + #AltairQuadband filter. 185x120sec at ISO3200, total exposure 6hrs 10min #Astrophotography #Nebula