~ This is just so beautiful ~

​Take a journey across space and time through the best space images of 2025, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble, Chandra, and other powerful observatories.
 
From newborn stars hidden inside dusty nebulae to the shattered remains of supernovae, and from distant galaxies to interstellar visitors passing through our solar system, each image reveals a different chapter of the universe’s story.
 
Webb’s infrared vision, Hubble’s clarity, and Chandra’s X-ray perspective come together to show how stars form, how galaxies evolve, and how unseen forces shape the cosmos.
 
MUSIC Alignment in Grace 3 Stereo Nuts Interstellar Alignment in Grace 2
 
https://youtu.be/MRfU9RR95A4?si=jcKqr92yuffdHrg9
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​Comet 3i/Atlas does not look much but it is very special as it's an interstellar visitor!
~ Comet 3i/Atlas next to Galaxy PGC 1318186 at closet approached to Earth ~

~ Comet 3i/Atlas next to Galaxy PGC 1318186 at closet approached to Earth ~
On 20th December 2025 in the Constellation of Leo (The Lion)
 
I was very excited to get up this morning at 2.30 am to try and capture a picture of this very intriguing comet! The weather was very humid with a bit of light cloud cover so the conditions were not the best. 
 
But this was my one and only chance to get a photo of this interstellar object at its closest approach to Earth and I was going to do my best to catch it :-)
 
I used the little Seestar S50 telescope and had no problem finding the comet, but the telescope had a bit of trouble capturing and stacking the images in the wind. I finally got about 5 minutes of images between 3.20am and 3.40am, that’s when the sky started to lighten. (It’s our summer solstice in just two days times)
 
Oh my…this comet is moving extremely fast through the star field, It was a bit confusing as there were two smudges (objects) close together on my images?
 
When I checked the Stellarium App it showed that Comet 3i/Atlas was right next to this very faint galaxy called PGC 1318186.
 
I could not find out much about this galaxy only that its co-ordinates matched where Comet 3i/Atlas was and its magnitude is 17.38.
 
* Position of Comet when taking these images * From The Sky live tracker: 
Comet 3i/ATLAS was in the constellation of Leo, at a distance of 269,111,198.1 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 10h 52m 41s and the Declination is +06° 30' 57” (apparent coordinates). Magnitude 16.69.
​(Now that’s very faint)
 
Tracking Comet 3i/Atlas: The Sky live tracker at:
https://theskylive.com/c2025n1-tracker
 
PGC 1318186 RA/Dec 10h 45m 09.8s  +07’ 09’ 05.5”
https://in-the-sky.org/data/catalogue.php?cat=PGC

I’ve managed to follow the progression of these huge sunspot groups AR 4294 & AR 4296 for 7 days as they have rotated from the east to west on the surface of the Sun.
 
It was expected that at some time that either one of these sunspots would have released there pent up energy in the form of a solar flare or a CME, but that did not happen!
 
The eastern side of the Sun is looking very quite at the moment and I’ll now have a bit of a break from taking some solar images for a few days.
 
My images were taken with the Seestar S50mm smart telescope using the attached solar filter. Twenty images were captured, then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

For days now we have all been waiting for one of these huge sunspots to erupt when all of a sudden the smaller one AR 4299 decided to explode producing a M8 class solar flare; the Sun can do unexpected things sometimes and can be tricky :-)
 
This directed solar flare (CME) is Earth directed and should produce some beautiful auroras in the next couple of days up in the Northern Hemisphere.
 
You can keep an eye out on Spaceweather.com for more information and I’m sure there will be some beautiful images posted by contributors to the website at:
https://spaceweather.com/
 
You can also check for space weather conditions at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Centre at: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
​

Those large active sunspots are now rotating toward the centre of the Sun and could produce some powerful X-class solar flares at any moment :-o 
 
NASA X-Class: A guide to Solar Flares: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10109
 
Spaceweather.com has information on this complex sunspot group that is now facing our planet Earth at: https://spaceweather.com/
 
Images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter, twenty images captured, then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

~ (Perigee) Super Full Moon on the 5th December 2025 ~
 
The full Moon was a lovely golden colour as it was rising low in the north eastern sky on the 5th December 2025.
 
In the northern hemisphere this is called a ‘Cold Moon’ but when you have over 34 degree heat here in SE Queensland at this time of the year, I’d like to call it a ‘Hot Hot Moon ‘  ;-)
 
Taking images a few hours later when it was a lot higher in the sky it now shows its usual silvery colour on the surface.
 
Over the last few months we’ve had a lot of Perigee Full Moons, where our lunar companion has been closer to our planet from January this will start to reverse and the Moon in its orbit will be further away heading toward Apogee (furthest point)
 
There is approximately a 50,000 km distance that the Moon can orbit away from our planet either being closer or further away but because of gravity it will always be best buddies with Earth as we orbit together in space around the Sun :-)
 
Images were taken with a Seestar S50mm telescope capturing 20 images and stacking them in RegiStax6 and process in PS.

All the action is on the eastern side of Sun at the moment, with those very large active sunspots AR4294, AR4296 & AR4298 travelling across the solar surface together in a long trail…
 
I only just managed to capture these images before the clouds rolled in again!

Images were taken with Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter, 20images captured then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

~ Huge sunspots AR4294, AR4296 & AR4298 on surface of Sun 3rd December 2025 ~