I oppose the proposed cuts to funding to astronomy and space science in the UK. Do you?🔭 🧪

At this point I'm wondering why I even built an Observatory? 😭🔭🧪

Join the waitlist: wsocial.eu

​Wishing you a blessed Imbolc! We're halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and the days are finally getting longer. May the return of the light bring warmth to your hearth and new beginnings to your year. Light a candle, plant some seeds and throw open those windows!

Parents & anyone else up early on Christmas morning: there’s a bright pass of the International Space Station over the UK, just after 6.15. Well, I say it’s the ISS. Could be Santa heading home… Exact timings for where you are at www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary....

Jupiter on Saturday morning in good seeing using the C11 with x2 Barlow. I'd just recollimated the scope and cleaned the corrector plate, which I think helps, but the dew was awful! This is probably my best Jupiter image to date. More data still to go through 🔭

Wow! A beautiful fireball captured on our zenith-facing AuroraCam in south Lincolnshire overnight. Green hue and a persistent ionisation train lasting well over a minute 🔭🧪

How have I only just discovered google maps for space? If you, like me, did not know about this little piece of internet treasure, you must check it out! You can fly over moons and planets - and it's all real data <little happy skips> 🤗 🔭🧪 👉: www.google.co.uk/maps/space/ 👇: Dwarf planet Pluto!

Don't forget to @skircle.bsky.social

The Sun at 13:00 UTC. Just 13° above the horizon from my location in the UK. Sunspots 4294 and 4296 give the impression of one behemoth sunspot, rivalling Carrington's of 1859. If we're lucky, or unfortunate, it will unleash a large X-ray solar flare this coming week, causing spectacular aurora 🔭🧪

No one will stop me from defending our freedoms.

Have you seen the double cluster in Perseus? These two clusters of hot, young stars appear close together from our perspective but are actually hundreds of lightyears apart, the nearest being about 7100 lightyears away. This photo is a stack of 272, 20-second exposures taken this evening 🔭🧪

That fuzzy, blue ball is actually the planet Neptune. It's appearing very close in the sky to Saturn, only 4.5° (about 3-middle widths held at arms length), but is much fainter at magnitude +7.5 or so. The fact the I can photograph the disk of an object that is 4.35 x 10⁹ km away is awesome to me 🔭🧪

I love Saturn, but I'm finding imaging underwhelming at the moment, I don't know whether its poor seeing or just the fact the rings are "edge-on" from our perspective. Anyway, here's last night's attempt from a rather chilly Lincolnshire, UK. 🔭🧪

We have clear skies, with northerly winds so seeing is probably quite good. However, it's absolutely freezing out there (not literally) and I have a physics tutorial at 19:30. Do I open the Observatory or not? 🔭🧪

A second night of aurora, albeit less intense. The clouds amplify the effect by forward-scattering the auroral light towards the viewer on the ground. Here's 5-hours squished into 1-minute 🔭🧪😊

An X5-class solar flare erupted from the sun towards Earth yesterday and it hit the magnetosphere with a wallop overnight. The result was a severe geomagnetic storm. The aurora was so bright, it was visible through the clouds. Here's 3-hours, squished into 60s, of what you may have missed. Enjoy 🔭🧪☺️

A nice sporadic meteor captured in the early hours. Yes, that is the Moon. Details can be found here: archive.ukmeteors.co.uk/reports/2025... 🔭🧪😊

I'm never convinced my Dobsonian is focused perfectly when imaging so I'm printing a 305mm (12") Bahtinov mask to reassure me. I find the process mesmerising and spend far too long watching it. Credit to "@michelegz" for this design. 🔭🧪

There are some amazing images of comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). However, this was taken (Nov 2nd) at 18:01 UTC with a regular Canon 250D 50mm, f/5.6, ISO1600, 5-sec exp. I took 35 exposures and stacked them in Siril and denoised in GraXpert. It tempers expectations, yet it's still very cool to see. 🔭🧪

There's a particularly bright spot on the Moon this evening. It's the sunlit crater wall of Aristarchus. It has one of the highest reflectivities on the Moon, making it appear brighter than fresh snow under direct sunlight. Schroter's Valley and the crater Herodotus are both to the left. 🔭🧪

Now there's a challenge 😁

Blessed Samhain to you and yours. May your ancestors gather with love, may your hearth fire burn bright against the coming dark, and may you find peace and insight on this most sacred night. Blessed be. 🍂🍄🎃🔥

Here's comet C\2025 A6 Lemmon from Billingborough this evening. Taken with a Canon 250D 255mm f/5.6 ISO6400 1s exposure x10 stacked in Siril 🔭🧪

Whilst out photographing Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon this evening I happened to see a rocket fuel dump move from west to south. Here's a short video from one of the AuroraCams 🔭🧪🚀

I've not really had a go at M45 "Pleiades" before. I used the mosaic mode on the Seestar S50 to capture this. 106 x 20s exposures, processed in Siril and Graxpert. Seeing was pretty poor with strong winds. I gave up using the Dobsonian because it was being buffeted by the wind too much 🔭🧪

The vastness of space is captured here as distant Jupiter, reveals intricate cloud bands while Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto, orbit gracefully against the profound darkness of space. 🔭🧪

I've switched my study to Master of Physics (Astrophysics with Space Science).... Yikes! 🔭🧪😮

After what seems like weeks of clouds, here's Jupiter this morning high in the south-east. Two moons visible here, Europa seen transiting Jupiter's disk, and volcanic Io on the right. 🔭🧪😁

@davidbflower.bsky.social How's your sky this morning? Here's mine at the moment ☹️

Forgive the wobbly video, but I thought I'd show you what I see when I look at Jupiter through the eyepiece in the day. The video, taken this morning with my Pixel 8 Pro, was handheld, as I've mislaid my mount. It's still cool to see the planets against a hazy, blue sky with the sun on my back. 🔭🧪

@whitehouse-47.bsky.social Blocked by 71,926 + 1 😀

This task is NOT to be undertaken lightly! I've had my 305 mm Dobsonian for about 3-years and finally the time has come to clean the primary mirror. It's heavy and very delicate, but with care, warm water, liquid soap and fingertips the dust, spiderwebs and insect debris will be removed. 🔭🧪

NGC 7635, also known as the Bubble Nebula. The "bubble" is the front of a stellar wind travelling at 2000 km s⁻¹. The star responsible is 40 times more massive than our Sun and 7100 lightyears from Earth. Captured with the Seestar S50, 100 x 60 s exp, stacked and tweaked on a Google Pixel 8 pro. 🔭🧪

This is fun from @skircle.bsky.social 🔭🧪#skircleoftheday

C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is definitely brighter this morning. Just one 30 s exposure, using the Seestar S50, is all that's needed to produce this image. 🔭🧪

Despite the night sky looking, for the most part, static in our human timeframe, remember that the universe is dynamic, ever-changing and unforgiving. C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is hurtling through our solar system at 60 km s⁻¹ and this is shown quite nicely in this little movie I made 🔭🧪

No cometary imaging this morning. It was initially clear but high clouds were rolling in and they beat me to it I'm afraid. I briefly captured the Moon though 🔭🧪😁

I can never resist a rough and ready edit before bed so here it is. Saturn shining in the southeast tonight. 🔭🧪

It's a beautiful evening for astrophotography. Saturn in the viewfinder and the Moon looking on 🔭🧪

C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) captured with the Seestar S50 this morning from Billingborough, Lincs, UK 🔭🧪

I love it that everyone loves a #supermoon. Tonight is the night so #DoLookUp! Fine print: this astronomical event comes with a expectation-management disclaimer: *The Supermoon is only 15% brighter than a normal full moon and I personally can not tell the difference 🤔 *Every moon is SUPER🔭🥳

It really doesn't matter where you point your camera in the constellation of Cygnus because it's full of jewels. Here's 30 Cyg, 31 Cyg and 32 Cyg against a myriad of sparkling diamonds. 12 x 60 s exposures, stacked and denoised in the Seestar S50 app 🔭🧪

The beautiful Moon. No words are needed. Go outside and just stare and soak it up. 🔭🧪

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) this morning. Captured with Seestar S50 28 x 10 s exposures stacked and denoised in the Seestar app. 🔭🧪

The Crescent Nebula tonight. An emission nebula, 5000 light years away, produced when the Wolf-Rayet star in the centre of the image, entered its red supergiant phase, and ejected material equivalent to 5 solar masses. That material is still moving away from the star at a rate of 80km/s. 🔭🧪

It's a beautifully crisp autumn evening so I thought I'd start this season with a well placed easy target. Messier 31, the Andromeda galaxy, accompanied by M110 to the right, and M32 to the left in this image. Taken with Seestar S50, 140 x 30 second exposures, stacked and denoised in Seestar app. 🔭🧪

Top #Equinox fact: Today is the day that the Sun rises due East and sets due West. At the December solstice the sun rises in the South East. At the June solstice it rises in the North East. As the days pass between the two, the sunrise position slowly changes passing due East each equinox.👇🤩 🔭🧪

The truth: we need migration. The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it. Why? They're led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality. Reject it. Draw the line.

In 5-hours time at 18:20 UTC this spotted-beauty will cross the celestial equator, marking the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn equinox and the Southern Hemisphere's spring equinox 🔭🧪