We had such a beautiful clear day here today, so I raced home and spent most of the day imaging our Sun with my different cameras and telescopes to capture these two big sunspots.
 
Active region AR2740 has now split up which can be seen quite clearly and the new sunspot AR2741 has a very dark umbra and a large penumbra area surrounding it.
It looks like this one is going to be quite an active sunspot too!
 
These images were taken with my 127mm refractor telescope with a glass solar filter attached using a Canon 700D camera. The first image was taken with a ZWO ASI 120MC-S camera with a 2x Barlow lens.

After so long with no activity on the surface of the Sun we now have a huge active sunspot designated AR2740 which is the twice the size of Earth.  I set up both my telescopes this afternoon and finally the clouds cleared long enough to take some images. I had to be quick because clouds were rolling across the sky!
 
For the full disc of the Sun I used a Meade 80mm refractor telescope with a solar filter attached and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens, the exposure time was 1/320th second and ISO 200. For the high magnification image I used a ZWO ASI 120MC-S camera with a 2x Barlow lens, 2000 frame AVI file stacked in RegiStax6.

Information from Spaceweather.com on the 6th May 2019
 
ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Big sunspot AR2740 is turning toward Earth and crackling with solar flares. The most intense so far registered M1 on the Richter Scale of Solar Flares.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash on May 6th.
http://www.spaceweather.com
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov
https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov

Omega Centauri is a stunning globular star cluster made up of millions of stars, it’s approximately 16,000 light-years away from us and an amazing 150 light-years in diameter, it’s the largest globular cluster in our Milky Way galaxy and it’s on show now for you to enjoy high up in the southern sky.
​It’s one of my favourites objects to observe at this time of the year :-)
 
This image was taken at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn in April 2019 with a Meade 80mm refractor telescope and a Canon 70D camera. 15 images with exposures of 90 second and ISO 800, plus 5 dark frames were stacked in DSS, and processed in PS CS4. 

Here in the southern hemisphere we know that winter is on its way when we see the Southern Cross (Crux) and other celestial wonders riding high up in the southern sky at midnight.
 
I have an observatory at a place in western Queensland where we have extremely dark skies and I'm able to capture the beauty of our night sky with just a camera and wide field lens on top of a tracking telescope.
 
This image shows the pointers to the cross known as Alpha and Beta Centauri, then the Southern Cross (Crux) in its entirety and then the pretty pink nebulous stellar area around the star called Eta Carinae known as the Eta Carina Nebula.
 
This star is in the end throes of its stellar life and it’s pumping out astronomical amounts of gas (excuse the pun J) as it fights its gravitational battle, many astronomers worldwide are keeping a close eye on this star as its one that will eventually go Supernova!
 
At the bottom of the image is an unusual dark streak known as the Doodad nebula, I was very happy to have captured this funny named object too :-)
 
This image was taken at my Stardust Observatory on the 10th March 2019 with a Canon 70D camera and a 18-400mm Tamron lens set at 23mm and F4.5 (the image is slightly cropped).
​
​There were 12 x 3 minutes images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and ISO1600. The camera was being tracked on top of a larger telescope set up in the observatory.

I used my Meade LX200 10inch to track the camera piggybacked on top of the telescope which was at a very difficult angle (upside down) so it was a bit of back breaking work to focus the camera.
But it was worth it as I got the pictures :-)

The sky was perfectly clear last month at Leyburn at my Stardust Observatory to capture these pretty galaxies in the constellation of Leo.
 
This group of large spiral galaxies are about 35 million light-years away and are well seen even in quite a small telescope. You can find them by running a line of sight between the stars Regulus to Denebola, and closer to Denebola the galaxies are located between the stars Cherton, Theta Leonis and Iota Leonis.
 
If you would like to find out more about these galaxies in Leo please go to this excellent website
​ for Messier objects at:
https://www.messier-objects.com/leo-triplet/

The images were taken with a Meade 80mm refractor telescope and a Canon 70D camera, which was tracking on top of a Meade 10inch LX 200 telescope, 15x4 minute subs and 5x4 minute darks were captured
and stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4 :-)

We are away at the moment at the beautiful coastal town of Lennox Heads in NSW and staying close to the beach, which faces east. So I was very excited not to miss out on viewing the SuperMoon rise up from the ocean at sunset.
​
On my way to the beach I looked behind and saw this beautiful sunset. While taking the pictures there was a rustle in the bushes close by and there also enjoying the sunset was a lovely water dragon lizard bathed in the golden sunset glow lounging on a rock… so I got a photo of him too :-)

There were lots of people on the beach waiting for the Super Moon to rise and when it did it looked so pretty above the waves, as it rose higher it left a lovely pathway of moon light on the wet sand.

Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm lens, which was hand, held. Sunset image, lens set at 400mm, ISO320 and exposure 1/500th second. The vertical Moon image, lens @ 89mm, ISO1600 and 1/125th second, horizontal Moon image lens @ 56mm, ISO6400 and exposure 1/40th second.

I’m at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn this weekend taking images of the night sky. I was just about ready to go to bed when I looked out at the dawn sky and saw this magnificent view of the planets all aligned up the eastern horizon at 4.20am with the gorgeous colour of daylight.
 
It was still dark enough to see many stars including the constellation of Scorpius with the stars from the Milky Way just starting to fade, it was very beautiful to see and very tranquil after a whole night up taking pictures of galaxies :-)
 
I took the image with a Canon 70D camera and a Tokina 11-16mm wide lens @12mm on a camera tripod, ISO 800 with a 13-second exposure.
 
(Pictures of the Leo Triplet of galaxies coming soon when they are processed)

​Sunspot AR2733 is now degrading after it unleashed a C5 class solar flare on the 26th January, it’s now heading toward the western limb of the Sun. Perhaps we may see a lovely prominence on the solar edge as it rotates out of view…now that would be nice to see if the weather is fine :-)
 
Images taken with a 127mm refractor telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2X Barlow lens attached, 5 images stacked in RegiStak6 and processed in PS CS4. Exposures were 1/250th second and ISO200.

(Right) I used my 127mm refractor with an Orion glass solar filter attached for safe viewing and taking pictures of the solar surface.
 
(DANGER…NEVER look at the Sun without proper solar filters on your camera lenses and telescopes)
 
Please see below a small movie of the explosion from AR2733 taken on the 26th January from
NASA’s SDO observatory.

At last, a lovely clear evening to take some pictures of the Moon, this time I’ve set up my 127mm (5 inch) refractor telescope and HEQ5 Pro mount. I’ve found that this telescope is just exceptional to use for lunar photography.
 
It was a very hot evening at 28 degrees Celsius and lots of biting mosquitoes but I was determined to get some nice pictures of the Moon and I did :-)
 
I was really happy with capturing a few interesting lunar objects with this phase, the first was the extremely bright crater Aristarchus with the long sinuous Vallis Schroteri in Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), which was just off from the terminator line, and in full relief…it looked quite spectacular!
 
The next object was the prominent low walled crater Gassendi that is on the edge of Mare Humorum (Sea of Moisture) and looks just like a diamond ring. And, at this lunar phase you start to see the long ejecta rays from the crater Tycho that is now fully illuminated.
 
The image of the full disc of the Moon was taken with a Canon 70D camera at prime focus, exposure time was 1/500th second and ISO100. Ten images were captured and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.
 
The higher magnified images were taken with a ZWO ASI 120MC-s camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached and captured AVI movie files, which were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

I don’t have a lot of room here at home for taking images of the night sky, this is because all our trees have grown tall and new houses have been built on either side of us. So for objects coming up in the eastern sky, I have to set up very close to the pool edge.

I just know that one night I’m going to accidently fall in… but what can you do but work with what you have,
​and hope for the best :-)
 
The refractor telescope is a 127mm North Group apochromatic, and the lunar images I’m getting out of it are very crisp, the focal length at prime focus is 760.00 mm. For the full disc of the Moon I use a Canon 70D camera, for the high magnification images I love using the little ZWO ASI 120MC-s camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached, which is shown here attached to the telescope.
 
Don’t forget insect repellent, on this summer time evening I was eaten alive by mosquitoes Ouch!!!

​I had another peek at the Sun late yesterday afternoon and Yep…it’s spotless again! 
​
When I turned around and looked up to the east I spotted a lovely gibbous Moon in a clear blue sky,
​which looked very pretty :-)
 
Both images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens with a 2x telecoverter making a focal length of 1280mm.

A glass solar filter was attached to the lens for safe viewing and imaging of the Sun.