~ Sunspot AR 4366 ~

This is the first day in weeks that we’ve had a clear day, so I was very excited to get the telescope out and view this very large complex sunspot group AR 4366 on the surface of the Sun.

​ My images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with the attached solar filter then processed in PS.

The Helix nebula is like our own star the Sun, it has exhausted its fuel and is now expelling its outer layers, all that’s left of the original star is a dense white core that is exciting all the expelled dust and gas from the stellar remnant.
 
The Helix is approximately 650 light-years from Earth and is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth; it is sometimes refereed to the Eye of God due to its resemblance to a giant eye in the sky.
 
This image was taken with just the little Seestar S50mm telescope; I was at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn in a very dark sky. The capture time was one and a half hours. Image was processed in Photoshop.
 
To find out more about this amazing object please go to Science at NASA at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-caldwell-catalog/caldwell-63/
 
To find where the Helix Nebula is in Aquarius please go to FREE star chart:
https://freestarcharts.com/ngc-7293
​

~ Magnificent Andromeda Galaxy (M31) & it’s two satellite Galaxies M110 & M32 ~
 
This beautiful image of the magnificent Andromeda Galaxy was taken with just the little Seestar S50 telescope on the wide field setting; it’s an incredible 2.5 million light-years away from Earth!
 
If you go into the Seestar App settings you can orientate the object using the mosaic mode to fit in what you want to capture and its orientation.
 
I’m just blown away that this little telescope has captured an image like this, when I image this object usually I use my Meade 80mm refractor telescope that’s tracking on the larger Meade LX200 set up in the observatory.
 
Andromeda travels quite low in our northern sky at my observing location at 28 degrees south, I also have some high gum trees to contend with as well.
 
We have a time limit of just a couple of months as the galaxy skims low across the northern sky, November and December are the best times to capture it but by January it’s starting to descend down into the north western horizon.
 
You can still observe Andromeda in early January just after dark, but it’s now getting very low in the north western sky.
 
Images were taken with the Seestar S50mm telescope, on the new moon weekend at the end of November 2025, 2 ½ hours of images were stacked within the telescope then processed in PS. I was in a very dark sky location at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn.
 
If you need FREE star charts of the night sky that contain so much information of the objects in those constellation then please go to freestarcharts.com at: https://freestarcharts.com/
 
Andromeda Star chart below at:
https://freestarcharts.com/andromeda
​
Messier 31
M31, also well known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is the nearest major galaxy to our own, the Milky Way.
 
Science at NASA has released incredible images of the Andromeda taken over a ten-year period with the Hubble Space telescope with links to all the new discoveries about this incredible galaxy that is much like our own. Link at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-31/

The Andromeda galaxy holds over 1 trillion stars and has been a key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. Thanks to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, we’re now seeing Andromeda in stunning new detail, revealing its dynamic history and unique structure. Recent Hubble surveys mapped the galaxy’s entire disk—an effort spanning a decade and over 1,000 orbits—showing everything from young stars to remnants of past galactic collisions.
 
Learn how new information about Andromeda is reshaping our understanding of galactic evolution and what it reveals about the fate of our own galaxy.
 
For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.
 
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Paul Morris: Lead Producer Music Credit: “Vitava From Ma Vlast "My Country"” by Bedrich Smetana [PD] and Robert J Walsh [BMI], via First Digital Music [BMI] and Universal Production Music.

​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

~ (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.

I only just managed to get this image of the full Moon this evening before thunderstorms rolled in. This full Moon in November is also a Perigee Moon, which means it’s a Super Moon and is closer to the Earth in its orbit.
 
My images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope, 20 images were captured then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS, please note that the image is not as sharp because of cloud in the sky but at least I captured it :-D
 
To read more about the science behind Super moons please go to Science at NASA website at: https://science.nasa.gov/moon/supermoons/
​

Oh my! What a beautiful sight it was to see the (Perigee) Super Moon rising in the evening sky.
 
At the moment there’s a lot of aerosols in our sky because of many bush fires and dust, which is why the full Moon low on the horizon looks this beautiful rustic red colour :-)

​A few hours later at 9 pm when the Moon was high up in the sky it was it’s normal colour.
 
I was quite surprised to see that the Seestar S50 telescope picked up the beautiful red colour of the Moon, 25 images were captured for both shots then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

We had a beautiful clear evening for NASA’s International Observe the Moon night (InOMN) event.

Our astronomy club the Southern Astronomical Society (SAS) here on the Gold Coast held a public field night but I was unable to attend. My husband and I enjoyed looking at the Moon together at home and I took some images with the little Seestar S50 telescope.
 
I hope everybody worldwide had an awesome night looking at our amazing Moon :-)
 
InOMN website at: https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

If you observed the Moon or participated in an event download your own InOMN Participation Certificate at:
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/participate/participation-certificate/
​

​I managed to quickly set up the little Seestar S50 telescope just outside our cabin in town and capture this stunning comet low in the western sky.

It was not ideal conditions because of all the lights from the local hotel that was across the road…but I took the chance and I caught myself a beautiful comet :-)

​ I love the pretty green colour of the coma and its long delicate flyaway tail that stretched right up the sky. Images taken with a Seestar S50 telescope four images were stacked in DSS and very lightly processed in PS, the pretty green colour in the image is natural.

There is an excellent article from the UNSW in Australia that explains why comets heads are green by chemist Professor Timothy Schmidt, the link is at: https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2021/12/comets--heads-can-be-green--but-never-their-tails--after-90-year
​

We had a lovely clear evening for moonrise, I took a lovely wide field image of the full Moon rising with the pretty pink and blue colours know as the Belt of Venus.
 
Once it got dark enough I took some more images with the Seestar S50 telescope, this full Moon in September is referred to as the ‘Corn Moon’ or sometimes if it’s close to the equinox date as the Harvest Moon.
 
Tonight’s full Moon will be a total eclipse of the Moon, but with my position here on the east coast of Australia we will only see a partial eclipse at 3.30am and finishing at 4.30am in the early morning of the 8th September 2025.
 
Footnote: I woke up to view the partial lunar eclipse, but only got a glimpse of it through heavy cloud, then it was gone completely, Oh well I tried :-)