Now on the Sky

Northern lights 22nd of March 2026

There was a great show of Northern lights 22nd of March 2026. I took the images below in Kirkkonummi Eestinkylä 20:09-20:30 local time with Canon Eos 80Da, 10mm wide field lens. Exposures were 10 seconds.

Galaxies M63 and NGC 4568 March 2026

Conditions for deep sky imaging were excellent on 19th and 20th of March 2026. Below is Messier 63 Sunflower galaxy, distance 29 million light years) and colliding galaxies NGC 4568 and NGC 4567 in Virgo Galaxy cluster, distance 60 million light years.  Telescope was Celestron 11 with F6.3 focal reducer. Exposures for colliding galaxies was 28 times 3 minutes.

IC 443 Jellyfish nebula 7th of March 2026

The Jellyfish nebula is a supernova remnant in constellation of Gemini. Distance is 5000 light years. It exploded as supernova 30000 - 35000 years ago. Telescope TS Photon 200/800, camera Canon Eos 80Da. Exposures 23 x 4 minutes, Iso 800, UHC-S filter.

Nebula NGC 604 in Galaxy Messier 33

In galaxy M33 there is a large well visible nebula NGC 604. It´s diameter 1520 light years is 40 times larger that the Orion nebula M42. It is 6300 times brighter than the M42. The visual magnitude is m14 and visual size 2x1 arch minutes. Below is images with TS Photon 200/800 and Celestron 11.  The C11 images were tasken in bad winter conditions, with ice chrystals in air making the light pollution in sky stronger.

Uranus 29th and 30th of January 2026

Four image sets of Uranus planet, last 2 ones at end of January 2026. The four largest moons Oberon, Titania, Umbriel and Ariel are visible. Rotation times around Uranus are: Ariel 2.5 days, Umbriel 4.1 days, Titania 8.7 days and Oberon 13.5 days. The moons came visible in 15 seconds shots with Iso6400 sensitivity. The planet is a videostack, also high Iso6400 sensitivity was used. In both Celestron 11 F10 with 20mm eyepiece were used. Camera Canon Eos 60Da.

The Moon 26th of January 2026

The phase of the Moon was 55 percent. Telescope was Celestron 11 with 20mm eyepiece magnification. Camera Canon Eos 60Da. I took 70 seconds HD videos and staked 2 percent of best frames with Autostakkert3.

Jupiter and the Moon 31st of December 2025

On new years evening the sky was clear and temperature was -10 C. The turbulence of atmosphere was low. Good conditions for planetary imaging. Below Jupiter and the shadow of Io moon, and Io.

Mare Humorum and Gassendi crater.

Interstellar comet C/2025 N1 (3I/Atlas) 26th of December 2025

Interstellar comet in constellation of Leo, close to Regulus. Distance 1.8 AU, 273 million kilometer. This is 3rd confirmed object which came outside of our Solar System. First one was 1I/Oumuamua.  Telescope was Celestron 11 F10 focus.

There was long period of clouds in Kirkkonummi. But now there was good 4 hour time slot for astrophotography. I took images also of Coma galaxy cluster.

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon 21st of October 2025

Comet Lemmon 21st of October. Telescope was TS Photon 200/800. This comet comes from far away, it reaches 220 AU, 33 billion kilometers, away from the Sun. One orbit takes 1150 years, so it comes back again year 3175. 

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon 16th of October 2025

Comet Lemmon 16th of October 17:30 Universal Time. Telescope was TS Photon 200/800. 

Mare Nectaris area 11th of October 2025.

Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina and Fracastorius craters near Mare Nectaris, 11th of October 2025 03:20 UT. Telescope Celestron 11 F10 and 20mm eyepiece. I took 1m40s HD videos, and stakked 2% of frames with autostakkert. The atmospheric turbulence was quite heavy. 

Siril for stacking

On October 2025 I learned to use Siril for stacking of astro images. It is a free software, https://siril.org/. There is 594 page manual for Siril, but it is difficult to learn from the complex manual how to use Siril. The quality of images which Siril produces, is better that from DSS. Here is a simple instruction: On right hand side there a tabs for stacking:

1. Conversion, start from this. Here you convert images, dark and flat frames to FITS format. 

2. Sequence. Here you select the light frame sequence to process.

3. Calibration. Here you select Bias, Dark and Flat frames, and apply them to light frames.

4. Registration. The the stars of the images are registered for alignment for stacking.

5. Stacking. Here the flat frames are stacked, and result comes the left side of the tool. Use "Average staking" for deep sky images.

6. In Image processing tab you can then stretch and adjust the image. Or you can use another tool to adjust the staked image.

In registration there is also option to manually select 3 stars which are used then for alignment. This is very helpful in cases when there are only few stars in view. How to create a MasterDark file in Siril? It is with steps 1 Conversion and 5 Stacking. First convert the Dark files in Conversion tab. Then go directly to Stacking and stack with "Average staking"  setting. The result is the MasterDark, which is then taken as input when processing the astro image. Same way with MasterFlat and MasterBias.

Below is M27 Dumbbel nebula re-processed with Siril in October 2025. Photograph taken 29.9.2024 with Celestron 11 F10 focus. Exposures 29 x 60 seconds, Iso3200, camera Canon Eos 80Da. 

M31 details 22nd of September 2025

Below is a collection of detailed images of M31 Andromeda galaxy.

Also Fireworks galaxy NGC 6946 was imaged. Celestron 11 F6.3 focal reducer and camera Canon Eos 60Da. Exposures 20x2min, Iso1600.

Deep sky season opening, August 2025

Now the sky is dark enough after summer season in Finland.  Below is andromeda galaxy M31 with SkyWatcher 80/600ED telescope. Exposures 22 x 5 minutes, Iso 800. Camera Canon Eos 80Da. For some reason the street lights in our sub-urban areas in Kirkkonummi have been turned off. There is now much less light pollution, and the results of astro images is much better.

North-America nebula NGC 7000 and Pelican nebula IC 5070 25th of August 2025.  Used 250mm telezoom lens with Canon Eos 80Da. Exposures 14 x 2 minutes, Iso 800.

Butterfly nebula IC 1318 aound star Sadr of Cygnus 25th of August 2025.  Used 250mm telezoom lens with Canon Eos 80Da. Exposures 13 x 2 minutes, Iso 800.

Sunspots 26th of August 2025

Rather large sunspots at the edge of the Sun.

Barnard's Star 20th of August 2025

Movement of Barnard's star during 2017-2025. Barnard's star is a red dwarf in constellation of Ophiuchus. It is the second closest star to us after Alpha Centauri triple star. The mass is 14% of the Sun mass and diameter 20% of Sun. The surface temperature is 3100 degrees and its luminosity is 0.0004 times the brightness of the Sun. Barnard’s star is moving in the sky fast, 10 arch seconds each year. It is moving 142 km/s relative to Sun and it will be closest to us year 11800. Then distance will be 3.75 light years. But even then it is so faint that it cannot be seen with naked eye. The age is 10 billion years, over twice the age of our Sun. Year 1998 there was a bright flare eruption in Barnard’s star. 

The Sun 7th of August 2025

The Sun and sunspot groups AR 4165 and 4168. Telescopes Celestron 11 and 8. Camera Canon Eos 60Da. Took 2 minute HD videos and stacked 2 percent of best frames.

Saturn 31st of July 2025

Saturn in the morning sky 03:39 local time in Finland. It was 24 degrees above horizon. The summer sky at night is still very light. Telescope Celestron 11 F10, with 20mm eyepiece magnification. I took 4 minute 640x480 crop video and stacked 4% of frames with Autostakkert3. Camera Canon Eos 60Da.

Galaxy Messier 51,  25th of April 2025

Below galaxy M51 in constellation of Canes Venatici. Distance 31 million light years. Here the smaller galaxy has done close passing of the larger galaxy. Image on left has 40 times 2 minutes exposures in the stack. Image on right has best 32 of them in stack. Telescope Celestron 11 with F6.3 focal length reducer.

Galaxy Messier 101,  15th of April 2025

End of astrophotography season. Now the summer night sky starts to be too light. Target was galaxy Messier 101, distance 21 million light years. Total exposure time was 1 hour and 20 minutes, with Celestron 8 F6.3.

Sunspot group AR4048

Development of sunspot group AR4048 in 6 days in a row, 3rd - 8th of April 2025.

Partial solar eclipse 29th of March 2029

Eclipse imaged in Kirkkonummi, Finland. At maximum 28 % of the Sun was eclipsed.

Galaxies in Virgo and Leo 26th of March and 1st of April 2025

Galaxies M66, M65 and NGC 3628 form a galaxy group called the Leo Triplet. Distance 35 million light years.

Below is the Virgo Galaxy cluster. Distance 54 million light years. There is about 1000-2000 galaxies in this cluster. In sky they are in area of several angular degrees. This is the closest cluster to us and actually our Milky Way galaxy and nearby galaxies belong to the Virgo super cluster.

Galaxies around M86.

The Margarian galaxy chain around M86.

Northern lights in Oulu 22nd of March 2025

Bright northern light which could be seen in Oulu City center. Images by Hannes Rabb.

Galaxies 21st - 23rd of March 2025

Galaxies imaged in good conditions during 3 nights in a row. No moon and no show on the ground. Galaxy Messier 51 in Ursa Major, distance 31 million light years. Galaxy Messier 106 in Canes Venatici, distance 23 million light years. Galaxy NGC 3628 in Leo, distance 35 million light years. Telescope Celestron 11 with F6.3 focal reducer.

Galaxy Messier 81, distance 12 million light years. Galaxy M63 Sunflower, distance 29 million light years. Blackeye galaxy M64, distance 17 million light years. M66, distance 31 million light years.

Galaxies 23rd of March.

Venus, Jupiter and Mare Crisium 3rd of March 2025

Below is Venus in January-March 2025 as it approaches the Earth. Image 16th of March is taken from mid-day sky.

Jupiter 

Mare Crisium on the Moon.

Terminator area of the Moon 8th of March 2025.

Northern lights 15th of February 2025

Northern lights in Finland, Oulu - Nallikari 15th of February 2025. 

Animated gif of images taken during 18:55 - 19:00 local time. Exposures are 5 seconds.

Planet Mars in January and February and the rotation of Mars in 2 hours.

Mars meeting Moon 9th of February 2025

Image sequence taken in Kirkkonummi, Finland. The visual size of Mars was 12.9 arch seconds and distance 0.73 Astronomical Units and magnitude -0.82. The phase of the moon was 92% and visual size 31.6 arch minutes. To 3 frames I have indicated the time with one second accuracy. Before imaging session I set the clock of the camera according to my mobile phone time, which is taken from mobile network. I verified that the time is the same in 3 sources: in mobile phone, in time signal from radio and in text TV page of the digital TV broadcast. They were same withing 1 second accuracy.

Copernicus crater and Mars 7th of February 2025

Below is Copernicus crater as a mosaic of 16 video stacks. Moon was high up and atmospheric turbulence low, so the end result became nice. Telescope Celestron 11 and camera Canon Eos60Da.

Polar Stratospheric Clouds 16-18th of January 2025

Colorfull polar stratospheric clouds (pearl clouds) in Vaasa and Oulu in Finland. These clouds are in 15-25 kilometers height, and temperature there is below -78 C.  They are best seen, when the Sun is between 1 and 6 degrees below the horizon,  They are composed of supercooled droplets of water and nitric acid.  Other type of pearl clouds consists only of ice crystals.  Images were taken by Tiina Rabb in Vaasa and Hannes Rabb in Oulu.

Saturn 18th of January 2025

Saturn and its 6 largest moons 16th and 18th of January 2025. Images taken with Celestron 11 telescope in Kirkkonummi. In bottom row are the moons with NASA Cassini spacecraft.

Uranus 12th of January 2025

Uranus has distinct light blue color visible in image below. Also the four largest moons of Uranus, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon, are visible. Image on left is a 2 minute video stack, with best 15% of frames stacked. Image on middle is a image stack 3 x 15 seconds, Iso6400.

Jupiter and Moon 10-12th of December 2024

Both Jupiter and the Moon were nicely visible high up in sky in evening. Images are videostacks. Below Jupiter with Red Spot.

Below some craters of the Moon: Gassendi, Aristarchos, Plato, Clavius and Copernicus. Images are mosaics of 640x480 crop video stacks.

Pegasus galaxy clusters 3rd of December 2024

Below is four distant galaxy clusters in constellation of Pegasus.
Abell 2634. Distance 405 million light years. Receding 9360 km/s.
Abell 2666. Distance 344 million light years. Receding 7950 km/s.
Pegasus I. Distance 180 million light years.
Pegasus II. Distance 600 million light years.

Telescope used was Celestron 11, F10 Focus. Camera Canon Eos 80Da. 

Galaxies 2nd of November 2024

The distance of NGC 6946 Fireworks galaxy is 25 million light years. This galaxy has often supernovas. Galaxy NGC 7331 is in constellation of  Pegasus. Distance 40 million light years.

Comet Thuchinshan-ATLAS C/2023 A3

Comet imaged in Kirkkonummi, Finland 15th of September 2024. When images were taken the distance to Earth was 73 million kilometers. The length of the tail in sky is about 15 degrees in the image. That is at least 19 million kilometers in distance of the comet.

Astronomy presentation 17th of January 2023 in Kirkkonummi

I gave a public astronomy and particle physics presentation in Kirkkonummi 17th of January 2023. Location was the Fyyri library, Mörne hall. Presentation was in finnish with title  "Kuinka kauas voin nähdä kotipihaltani ja hiukkasen fysiikkaa". Translation of title:  "How far can I see from my home backyard.. and a little particle physics". The event was arranged by local astronomy association Kirkkonummen Komeetta. The particle physics part handled events at CERN in summer  1989 when first Z0 particle was detected in Delphi detector of LEP-collider. Event was very nice. Thanks for all partisipants.