GOFlaherty

Thanks!

Sure was.

Thin waxing crescent Moon with sharp crater detail along the terminator and faint Earthshine visible on the dark side.

Thin waxing crescent Moon captured with a Seestar S30.

Low solar incidence along the terminator enhances crater rims and highland relief through elongated shadow contrast. Subtle Earthshine is visible on the night side, caused by sunlight reflected from Earth.

This is the earliest moon phase I've ever captured.

Astrometry for my Whirlpool galaxy image. 👍🏻🔭

@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Galileo gazes through a modern smart telescope beneath a star-filled twilight sky.

February 15, 1564 — the birth of Galileo Galilei.
He lifted a telescope to the night sky and changed humanity’s understanding of the cosmos forever. Every deep-sky image we capture today echoes that first act of wonder. Look up tonight and celebrate the curiosity that started it all.

The beginning of astrophotography.

A planetary system with four planets circling around a star. In the foreground, a large reddish-brown rocky planet with craters is visible. Behind it, there are three smaller planets: one with blue and white colours, another with blue and brown bands, and the third with a rocky surface. In the top right corner of the image, a small but bright red star illuminates the scene, with space dust and distant stars visible in the background.

‘Save the best for last 😋’, a little rocky planet discovered by our #ESACheops might think – born later than its gaseous sibling-planets, it might flip our understanding of how planets form upside down.

Our full story 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭🧪
#exoplanets
#milkyway
#planetsci

Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and companion NGC 5195 with visible spiral arms and faint tidal bridge, surrounded by a dense field of stars.

M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) and NGC 5195 — 9.35 hours of 1-minute subs with a Seestar S30. Extended integration reveals spiral arm structure, HII regions, and the faint tidal bridge between the interacting pair, set in a dense Milky Way star field.

#astrophotography #deepsky #astronomy #seestar

Dense open cluster Messier 52 (NGC 7654) in Cassiopeia, showing a tight concentration of bright blue-white stars against a darker surrounding star field.

Messier 52 (NGC 7654) is a young open cluster in Cassiopeia, ~5,000 light-years away. Roughly 15–20 light-years across, it contains hundreds of stars, including hot B-type members. Captured with 20-second sub-exposures, 73 minutes total integration using a Seestar S30.

#astrophotography #astronomy

Seestar s30 app screenshot.

Out under clear skies, imaging the cosmos.

Starless image of IC 63 showing a red crescent-shaped emission nebula with brighter lower arc and faint wisps fading into dark space.

Starless view of IC 63 highlighting the hydrogen emission arc and faint surrounding structure. With the stellar field removed, the delicate shape and internal density variations stand out more clearly in this Seestar S30 capture.
#astrophotography #deepsky #astronomy #seestar #nebula #emissionnebula

One day...one day 😁

Teal-and-gold rendering of IC 63, a faint emission and reflection nebula near Gamma Cassiopeiae, showing a curved cloud of ionized hydrogen against a dense star field.

IC 63 captured with a Seestar S30 using dual-band narrowband filter.
Teal–gold color mapping enhances hydrogen emission excited by Gamma Cassiopeiae, tracing how stellar radiation sculpts the surrounding interstellar medium.

I'm going to try a few more artistic color palettes on this image. Stay tuned!

Faint emission nebula IC 63 appears as a ghostly red arc and wisps set within a dense star field in Cassiopeia. A bright blue-white star (Gamma Cassiopeiae) glows at the lower right, illuminating the surrounding hydrogen gas while countless smaller stars fill the dark background.

IC 63 (the Ghost of Cassiopeia) captured with a Seestar S30. Faint broadband emission shaped by the nearby star Gamma Cassiopeiae, processed conservatively to preserve natural color, star field balance, and real signal near the noise floor.
#astrophotography #deepsky
@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

An astrophotographer runs across a rocky mountain ridge at night, camera in hand, chasing a vast, glowing, ghost-shaped nebula stretching across a star-filled sky, while a telescope and lantern glow warmly beside the trail.

I'm out chasing a ghost tonight. IC 63, the Ghost of Cassiopeia Nebula. Wish me luck!

Wide-field astrophotography image of the Orion’s Belt region in a pseudo–Hubble color palette. A dense star field fills the frame, with the three bright Belt stars standing out amid blue-white and golden stars. Wisps of yellow–gold and teal nebulosity stretch across the lower portion, contrasting against a dark, textured background of faint stars and interstellar dust.

Pseudo–Hubble palette view of Orion’s Belt, captured in EQ mode with a Seestar S30. 77 minutes total integration using 10-second subs in mosaic mode, bringing out emission and reflection structure across a wide field.
#astrophotography #deepsky #astronomy #seestar #nebula

My optimism was misplaced.

A stylized night sky shows the W-shaped stars of the Cassiopeia constellation, overlaid with a semi-transparent illustration of a crowned queen seated on an ornate throne, blending myth and astronomy against a dense field of stars and faint Milky Way clouds.

It looks like I may get clear skies for a few hours this evening. I hope to continue my exploration of DSOs in Cassiopeia.

Why you should pay attention to the weather in space Solar flares and geomagnetic storms can have very significant effects on satellites, airplanes and GPS and electrical systems

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Astrophotograph of the Owl Cluster (NGC 457) showing two bright central stars and surrounding cluster members with subtle colour differences against a dark background.

Re-edit of my recent capture of NGC 457 (the Owl Cluster), an open cluster in Cassiopeia.
Captured with my Seestar. Reduced background stars to emphasise structure, with enhanced stellar colours showing temperature differences among cluster members.

#Astrophotography #NGC457 #OpenCluster #Seestar

Astrometry for my image of the Owl Cluster.

Open star cluster NGC 457 with two bright yellow stars and a dense field of blue-white and orange stars against a dark sky.

NGC 457, the Owl Cluster, captured with a Seestar S30. A rich open cluster in Cassiopeia, with warm yellow giants standing out against a dense field of cooler stars. Processed conservatively to preserve natural star colors and structure.
#astrophotography
@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Astrometry for my image of the Bubble Nebula.

Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) in Cassiopeia, shown in restrained false color, with a bright central star and red-orange emission surrounded by a dense star field.

NGC 7635 (the Bubble Nebula) captured with a Seestar S30. About 45 minutes total integration using 10-second subs. Processed conservatively with a restrained, symbolic HOO-style color to highlight the surrounding emission while keeping a natural look.
#astrophotography
@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social

Astronomy app screen showing a green alert that the best stargazing window is between 18:00 and 02:00, with a sky quality index graph peaking in the evening and dropping after midnight.

It looks like I'll finally be able to hunt some photons tonight 🔭 ✨

15 days and counting of non-stop clouds and rain in my corner of Ireland.

Close-up view of Tycho crater on the Moon, showing rugged impact terrain and bright ejecta.

A close-up image of Tycho crater in the Moon’s southern highlands taken this evening. The rough ejecta and densely cratered terrain surrounding this young impact site are visible.

#astrophotography #astronomy #moon #lunarphotography