~ Full Flower Moon on the 2nd May 2026 ~

​In Remembrance of my dear Mother 1937 to 2026
~ Forever loved ~

My dear precious mother has passed away and this beautiful full Moon in the month of May is called the Flower Moon, I dedicate this picture of the Moon to my loving mother, love you forever Xxx

​I only just got this image of the thin 2-day-old crescent Moon and Venus with the pretty sunset colours in the western sky. I was out on the footpath with my camera and tripod taking these images and showing all the people who were walking their dogs :-D
 
​My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod, with ISO 400; exposure times were 1/6th & 1/8th second. The video was captured in movie mode.

~ Waning Moon in morning sky as Artemis 11 re-enters Earths atmosphere on 11th April 2026 ~

I was unable to capture a picture of the Moon during the night because of cloud, but the next morning just after 9.30am (11th April 2026) and just before re-entry of the Orion Capsule, I was able to capture this image of the Moon in a clear blue sky…. In SE QLD in Australia, the Orion Capsule was predicted to re-enter for splashdown at approximately 10am (AEST).
 
Congratulations to the four astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen who have completed a most amazing mission back to our Moon…Woohoo!!!
 
The lunar image was taken with the Seestar S50 telescope in a beautiful clear blue sky. This would have been the phase that the astronauts would have seen when looking back toward the Moon as they said goodbye after such a successful mission that will light our passion on rediscovery our closest celestial body in the solar system.

Since 2020, NASA has invited you, the public, to be virtual guests at launches and milestone events. As a virtual guest, you have access to curated resources, schedule changes, and mission specific information delivered straight to your inbox. Following each activity, guests are sent a stamp for their virtual guest passport! All resources, participation, and registration are FREE. Select your opportunities. Join us!

https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-virtual-guest-program/

I was very lucky to get this image of the full Moon late last night as it was raining earlier on in the evening. It’s a very special full Moon as it’s the closest full Moon after the equinox that dictates when Easter is celebrated by many religions from around the world.
 
Another reason this full Moon is special is because Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are right now on their way to orbit our Moon in the Orion spacecraft with the Artemis 11 mission. Tonight they will be looking out there windows at us here on planet Earth then going forward onto our amazing Moon…how incredible is that! After so many years humans are going back to the Moon…WooHoo!

NASA Artemis 11 mission to the Moon
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/
 
My image was taken with a ZWO Seestar S50 telescope capturing a RAW video and stacking within in the unit, and then processed in PS.

 ~ By the light of the silvery Moon ~
it was such a treat to have a lovely clear evening to take some images of our waxing gibbous Moon in the night sky. 

​Image was taken with a Seestar telescope using the RAW movie mode and stacking the frames within the unit, processed in PS.

​I really like this new system of stacking a RAW movie in the Seestar unit then processing the image in Photoshop.
 Usually I would capture about 20 jpeg images then stack them in Registak6 then use the wavelet feature to bring out more detail, but I think this method I’m using now gives a more realistic picture of the Moon :-)

I managed to get another bit of clear sky this evening to capture the nearly 1st quarter Moon at 8pm on the 25th March 2026. First Quarter Moon would be in nine hours time at 5am on the 26th March 2026.
 
My image/video was taken with a Seestar S50 telescope capturing a RAW movie file and stacking frames within the unit, then transferred the image to computer to process lightly in PS :-)

I only just managed to capture this little crescent Moon very low in the western sky in between clouds patches. At three days old, it shows the oval shape lunar mare called the Sea Of Crises (Mare Crisium) on the lower eastern limb.
 
The Seestar S50 telescope had a bit of trouble locating the Moon for some reason so it took a few turns to find it, I only just managed to capture it before it disappeared into the trees ☺ ☺ ☺
 
Image was taken with a Seestar S50 telescope, this time I captured a video and stacked it within the Seestar unit, then transferred the image to my computer to process lightly in PS.

~ Total Lunar Eclipse in Leo (The Lion) ~

We are cruising up the Queensland coastline on board the Crown Princess and even though it started out cloudy for the lunar eclipse the clouds parted just before totality and Wow!  

​The fully eclipsed Moon looked just awesome on the top deck of the ship.  The ship was moving quite a lot so I had to take many images and Yay!

​I managed to get a few that were in focus, I’ve also included an image of what most of my pictures  looked like.

​But it’s not easy taking astronomy images on board a moving ship….but where  there’s  a will, there is always a way :-)
 
We have just been cruising up and down the Queensland coast near the Great Barrier Reef for the last couple of days trying to dodge a cyclone which has now just crossed the coast near Cairns; the Captain has done a fantastic job of keeping us all safe on board the ship.
​
My lunar images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens attached to a tripod; the wide field was taken with a Canon G7x camera on the top deck of Crown Princess.

~ Total Lunar Eclipse in Leo (The Lion) on Crown Princess Cruise Ship on 3rd March 2026 ~

Image: First-magnitude it may be, but Regulus is only detectable at high magnification when it's next to a one-day-from-full Moon. This image is one of a sequence taken by Noeleen Lowndes during a Regulus occultation on the night of February 11-12, 2017, that was very similar to the one tonight. For more see "Regulus Versus a Bright Moon" in the February Sky & Telescope, page 48.

~ Regulus Versus a Bright Moon 2nd February 2026 ~
 
I was contacted by Bob King one of the contributing editors from Sky & Telescope and asked if he could use one of my images for his article on the upcoming celestial event where our Moon would occult Regulus on the 2nd February 2026.
 
I was more than happy and delighted that he would want to use my images of the same event that occurred here in Australia in February 2017. I remember being so excited in taking these images of the pretty star Regulus disappearing behind our huge Moon then after and hour it reappearing on the western limb.
 
Please find a link to my blog below of the event at:
https://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-the-occultation-of-the-star-regulus-by-the-moon
 
Good luck and enjoy the event on the evening of the 2nd February; this time we here in Australia will not witness this special celestial event :-)

~ Sky & Telescope ‘The Moon occults Regulus’ article ~
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-january-30-february-8/
 
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2
■ The Moon occults Regulus. This evening the Moon, barely past full, will pass in front of the 1st-magnitude star Regulus as seen from most of North America except the far West, Alaska, and the Gulf Coast.
 
The Moon will be only a day past full and 99% illuminated. Regulus will disappear on the Moon's bright sunlit limb, so you'll need a telescope to separate it from the brilliant lunar glare. The star will reappear up to an hour or more later from behind the very thin crescent of darkness along the Moon's other limb. Again you'll need a telescope.
 
For a sense of how faint Regulus really is compared to the Moon a day past full, below is part of a frame from Noeleen Lowndes's time lapse of the very similar Regulus occultation on February 11-12, 2017.
 
Both the star's disappearance and reappearance will happen with the Moon nicely high in the eastern sky for the East Coast, and lower in the east the farther west you are. In much of the Pacific time zone only the reappearance will happen after moonrise. The West Coast itself misses out entirely.
 
See map and timetables. The first two tables, with predictions for many locations, are long. The first table gives the times of the star's disappearance behind the Moon's bright edge; the second gives its reappearance out from behind the Moon's thin dark edge. Scroll to be sure you're using the correct table; watch for the new heading as you scroll down. The first two letters are the country name; CA is Canada, not California. The times are in UT (GMT) February 3rd. UT is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, 6 hours ahead of CST, 7 ahead of MST, and 8 ahead of PST.
 
For instance: Use the first table to see that for Minneapolis, Regulus disappears on the Moon's bright limb at 7:43 p.m. February 2nd CST, when the Moon is 11° high in the east (at azimuth 84°). The second table tells that Regulus reappears at 8:42 p.m. CST for Minneapolis, with the Moon now 21° high.

~ (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.