In between severe thunderstorms out at my observatory, I was able to capture this rare event where Saturn’s rings were so thin that they nearly disappeared completely from view!
 
This is a rare celestial event that only happens approximately every 15 years as Earth crosses through the ring plane of Saturn, that is why we see the rings so thin and are viewed edge on from our position here on planet Earth.
 
But this is only an illusion as Saturn’s beautiful rings are still there in all there glory but we just cannot see them from Earth.
 
Galileo Galilei was perplexed when in 1612 he looked at Saturn and its beautiful rings had disappeared this is what he stated in his notes!
 
"I do not know what to say in a case so surprising, so unlooked for and so novel." announced Galileo when Saturn's rings appeared to vanish in 1612.
Read more at: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950801.html
 
More interesting information on Saturn’s ring plane crossings from NASA:
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-views-saturn-ring-plane-crossing/
 
My images were taken with a 10inch LX200 Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and ZWO ASI120 Mc planetary camera with 3xbarlow attached. AVI files were captured with 3000 frames that were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.
 
The sky conditions were not ideal with quite a lot of water moisture in the air,
but I managed to capture some AVI files :-)

​I’m out at my observatory this new moon weekend specifically to capture Saturn at opposition; the sky is just so clear and magnificent. Saturn looks so beautiful up in the night sky in the faint constellation of Pisces (The Fishes).
 
These images of Saturn were taken at opposition on the 20th September 2025 with my 10-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain LX200 telescope using a ZWO ASI120 MC camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached. AVI video files were captured with 3000 frames then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.
 
You can see two of Saturn’s moon very clearly in the image, the largest moon Titan is above the thin ring and Rhea is at the tip below the ring.
 
There is an excellent App called Gas Giants that helps identify Saturn’s satellites (also Jupiter) in real time, the ZWO Seestar App also gives excellent information which I’ve include here in my blog on Saturn’s opposition.
 
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gas-giants/id397831483
 
I must say, I’m extremely happy with the detail in this image and the edge on rings in silhouette looks amazing  :-)

Oh my! It was just so beautiful this morning with the planets Venus and Jupiter close together among the stars of Gemini rising in the beautiful pastel colours of the dawn sky; it was just so calm and peaceful :-)

My image was taken with Canon G7X Mark 11 camera set on manual focus with 1 second exposure and ISO 2000.

I’m out at my Stardust Observatory for the long new Moon weekend and finally we have had a few evenings of clear sky. The red planet Mars is now in the constellation of Cancer and moving towards the Beehive cluster also known as M44.
 
I’ve taken a wide field image of the planet among the stars of Cancer using Canon 70D camera with a 70-200mm Canon Lens attached to my tracking telescope in the observatory on Sunday the 28th April at 8pm.
 
20 x 2-minute images with corresponding dark frames were captured with ISO 1250, then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) and processed in PS.

~ Mars taken with Meade 10” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope ~
Mars is looking very small now in the 10inch telescope, captured the planet with a ZWO ASI 120MC planetary camera with attached 3x Barlow lens.

You can just make out the polar cap at the bottom of the planet and some dark marking can still be seen on the surface.
 
Information on my Stellarium App states that Mars currently is 6.70” in diameter is at 0.90% phase and its distance is now 1.40AU. Stellarium App at: https://stellarium-labs.com/stellarium-mobile-plus/
 
I use this FREE App all the time for my sky observation, its excellent!

This image was taken with the little Seestar S50 smart telescope when I was at my Stardust Observatory on the evening of the 28th April 2025.
 
I thought it would be fun to see what this little telescope could do in a really dark sky and I was most impressed! Not only does it show the subtle colours of the stars if you look closely into the image you can see a tiny spiral galaxy designation as UGC 4526, its magnitude is a remarkable 14.06…now that’s very faint.
 
It’s estimated that this star cluster is about 600 light years away from Earth.
 
For more information about the Beehive Cluster (M44) please go to the link below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_(constellation)

There was a beautiful view of celestial objects in the western sky last night with brilliant Venus the waxing crescent Moon and Saturn all evenly spaced on the ecliptic.
 
Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 28-400mm lens on a tripod.
 
The close up of the moon was taken with the Seestar S50 telescope, 15 images were captured at 1x and stacked in RegiStax6, processed in PS.

We had a lovely clear evening here on the Gold Coast last night and just before I went to bed I peeked outside and saw brilliant Jupiter among the stars of Taurus (The Bull) with Orion riding above…. it looked just so lovely!
 
My picture may seem strange for people who live in the northern hemisphere because here in the land down under (Australia) we see these constellations rising and travelling across the sky upside down! Not only that, everything that rises in the east heads over to the northern sky…not the southern sky like it does for you :-D
 
Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens, 10-second exposure with ISO1000 at 10.30pm on the 7th December 2024.

~ Tiny one day old crescent Moon between the gum trees in western sky on the 4th October 2024 ~
  
We arrived at my Stardust Observatory on Friday the 4th October for a long weekend under the stars. It was new Moon yesterday the 3rd October and I was on the look out for the one day old tiny crescent Moon.
 
At 6.30pm I found it very low in the western sky near the treetops, I had to go right back into the field to capture it and I did…Yay!
 
The sky is very clear and steady and it looks like it’s going to be a stunning weekend, some members from our club SAS are out here too and I’ve taken a couple of photos of them all set up on the field.
Good luck everyone tonight I hope you all get some great images :-)
 
These images were taken with a Canon 70D camera plus a Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod, using ISO800 with 1.5-second exposures.

~ SAS members getting there telescopes ready for a night under the stars at Leyburn ~
 ~ 4th October 2024 ~
https://www.sas.org.au

~ Parade of planets in September 2024, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn with its moons Titan and Rhea  ~
(Planets to scale size)
 
September is the month for a parade of planets in the night sky, Venus is shinning brilliantly low in the west, Saturn is high up at the zenith and Jupiter and Mars are in the early morning sky.
 
I’ve made up a photomontage; the planets are real size in relation to one another as I used the same imaging setup for all objects. Venus was nearly a full phase but being very low in the sky there was a lot of turbulence.

​Mars was seen as a gibbous phase with a bright polar region but no distinct detail on surface as yet as it still too far away from us.
 
Saturn’s rings are now closing up, or I should say, the rings are nearly edge on as viewed from Earth, you can see two of the Saturnian moons Titan and Rhea in the image.
 
These images were taken at my Stardust Observatory on the first weekend in September; the sky conditions were not favourable as the atmosphere was very unsteady but I took the pictures anyway :-)
 
I used a 10inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, ZWO ASI120MC S Planetary camera with 3x Barlow lens attached. AVI movies were captured and stacked in Registak6 and processed in PS.

After taking images of all the planets with the Meade 10inch telescope, I attached my Canon 70D camera with a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens to the top of the telescope and tracked the night sky.

​I then took some wide field image of Saturn among the faint stars of Aquarius to show its position among the stars.
 
I’ve also added the image of Saturn that I took earlier in the evening through the telescope to show what you can see in the telescope…Saturn’s beautiful rings are now nearly edge on and will disappear next year as viewed from Earth.
 
This event only happens twice as Saturn orbits the Sun in its nearly 30-year orbit, so we only see the rings edge on every fourteen and a half years!

It’s Saturday the 31st August 2024 and I’m finally out at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn for a weekend under the heavens :-)
 
The sky is perfectly clear, as I look to the western sky brilliant Venus can be seen going down low in the sunset coloured sky…it's very pretty.
 
I will try and capture an image of Venus with my Meade 10inch telescope tomorrow night but I think the turbulent might be too much with the atmospheric conditions…but I will try!
 
My image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod at f4.5, with a 2-second exposure and ISO800 at 6.28pm.