Charlie Lyons

A high moon is a good moon. My view on 5 April in exceptionally clear and steady skies. This is a 19 panel mosaic taken using my 120mm refractor. Yes, that's right, 19 panels. I REALLY need to get myself a camera with a bigger sensor!

If anyone is interested, here's the 2025 calendar for Lunar X (and V) clair-obscur observation. Normally a 4 hour window from these times.

A colourful view of Andromeda from my backyard in the days before LED street lights were installed nearby. Image taken with a Rokinon 135 lens on an unmodified Canon 2000D/Rebel T7.

Dear friends,

Welcome to my corner of the universe! 🌟 I'm an amateur stargazer and photographer from Germany, near the Alps. Through my images, I hope to inspire you to explore the beauty of our world and the skies above. Check my bio at com.xipteras.org/Impressum for more, and enjoy your stay! 🌌✨

Zoom in if you can see.

It happened ! My highest focal length deep space image ever - 3910mm ! TARANTULA NEBULA CORE
Celestron 14” Edge HD Telescope
3910mm @ F11
QHY 268M Camera
SW-EQ8Rh Pro Mount
Baader Filters
H/O/O
54 x 1 Minute - Hydrogen Alpha
66 x 1 Minute - Oxygen[III]
Total - 2 hours Integration

Point your camera at Orion for long enough and all sorts of wonderful things happen. My image from January 2023 using an unmodified Canon 2000d/Rebel T7 and a Rokinon 135 lens.

image of the spiral galaxy M51, also called the whirlpool galaxy.

My 900mm focal length 5" refractor is not ideal for imaging galaxies. I have been able to get satisfying images of those with large apparent sizes. For this image of M51, I combined images created with 15s, 30s, and 60s exposures to show detail without over exposing the center. #astrophotography

Nice image. I wasn't able to get any astrophotography done last night but I did look out and was struck by how bright Mars is becoming now.

La jolie nébuleuse planétaire Abell39, quelques heures au mois de juin depuis mon jardin.

🔭 C9.25 edge hd.
#astrophotography

Taken from a boat near Tobermory on Mull - Scotland.
The heavy drizzle rain helped to give this photo quite an ethereal almost painted look to this young majestic White Tailed Eagle.
Have a great day! 💛🤎🤍 #birds

Thank you. I used Deep Sky Stacker for the pre processing and stacking and then used Photoshop for stretching and fine tuning.

Venus is starting to make an appearance in the evening sky. It seems an age since I last had a good view. Here are some images from late 2021 showing Venus as it approached Earth whilst also moving toward inferior conjunction (neat trick, that). Imaged on 15 November, 2 December and 9 December.

For those of us without 'GoTo' kit, it's very much a case of 'go left and down a bit from Deneb and stop when you get to the garnet star' That was pretty much how I found the Elephant's Trunk Nebula during an imaging session in June. Canon 2000D +a Rokinon 135 lens and an L-eNhance filter. 2 hours.

Monday presented the first chance to see anything, literally anything at all for the first time in two weeks. Unfortunately I had commitments elsewhere so here is my take on what seems to be this weeks favourite, the crater Clavius. Imaged on 3 November 2022.

Stunning scenery from my travels last month near Partrishow, Powys. It was the first 'dark sky' location I had travelled to, but sadly the night skies stayed cloudy until our final night the 10th of October when we were treated to the superb aurora.

Like a cosmic Narwhal, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it appeared low in the south west on a rare clear evening in central England. I was not able to see it with the naked eye or binoculars in the dusk, but a 6 sec exposure revealed it all.

Four years in the making, we have Saturn and it's amazing disappearing rings. Images taken at opposition from 2020 to 2024.

Thanks. I have just checked the times and it looks like the Moon rises during totality from the UK, so I might need to get somewhere like Dungeness to get the best view.

Not a recent image, obviously, but here in the UK we are suffering from one of those spells of cloudy weather that lasts from January to December, so here is my image from August 2022.

In the last week I've posted images of both the Eastern and Western Veil Nebulae. Last night I used a much smaller scope and captured a wide field image of the entire Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant also know as the Cygnus Loop. Cygnus is the constellation. #Astronomy #Astrophotography

Jupiter and a cluster of Galilean satellites. My image from October 27, 2023. From l-r Europa, Jupiter with Io (upper) and Ganymede (lower)

A strange night. The forecast was for clear skies and yet there seemed to be some sort of light haze or mist around, just as if the moon was out. I suppose Autumn is on the way. Anyhow, I managed 90 minutes on Andromeda and 45 minutes on a new target for me, the Triangulum galaxy.

Tulip Nebula - Cygnus

Shot from my backyard in Somerset, I just love all the features Cygnus has to offer.

Sky-Watcher 200P-DS 1000mm f5
RisingCam ATR3CMOS26000KPA
Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro
Altair Astro 4nm Dual Narrowband Ha Oiii 2" filter.

Clear skies all!

This is the Heart Nebula with a meteor from the Perseids plus a touch of Aurora creeping in the side from Aug 12. There’s a lot going on here and the editing was tricky! There’s a bit over 4 hours exposure time on the nebula. #astrophotography

Can’t wait for some clear nights soon #astrophotography

Ultra portable deep sky photography. My full-frame setup is useful for traveling to remote locations where every gram counts. #cameras #Astrophotography

It's Saturn, Jim, but not as we know it. My first attempt at the 2024 appearance through breezy, moisture laden skies on 24 August. There will be better opportunities, but for now, this will have to do. There is object to the upper right of Saturn which, on checking Stellarium, turns out to be Titan

Two hours on Andromeda. This image was taken in September 2023. I was pleased to have captured some details in the dust lanes and picked up some of the purple/blue on the outer reaches. I hope to get some more data in a month or so from a dark sky site so this is work in progress

Just over 5.5 hours on the Sadr region taken over the few available clear nights in 2023 and 2024. I was quite pleased with the final colour image, and was surprised with the red channel which shows what was REALLY going on. Imaged with a Canon 2000d/T7 and a Samyang 135.