​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.

~ LEGO Wonders of the Natural World Northern Lights Diorama 40785 ~
 
I was given this lovely little LEGO collectible set from my daughter when she purchase one of her other LEGO sets as it was a FREE gift.
 
I did have fun making it as it reminded me of our visit to Norway in March 2018 to view the magnificent Northern Lights :-)
 
This LEGO Northern Lights Diorama (40785) is the 4th building kit in a LEGO collectible series dedicated to the wonders of nature. The scene depicts a Northern Hemisphere landscape with a skyscape featuring the aurora borealis.
 
It has snow-topped trees with an added glow-in-the-dark moon element and the colourful tiles that represent the Northern Lights and their reflections.

This Northern Lights diorama depicts a Northern Hemisphere forest landscape complete with model trees and a night sky featuring the aurora borealis…it’s quite beautiful in its detail.
 
Please find also a couple of photos of the real northern lights taken on board the Hutegruten Cruise Ship in Norway in March 2018 and also on Holland America Cruise Ship 'Koningsdam' in Alaska in May 2024.

Links to these blogs in Norway in March 2018 at:
https://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-an-explosion-of-auroras-in-the-night-sky-on-the-9th-march-2018
 
https://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/wow-im-under-the-northern-lights-right-now-its-just-awesome
 
And more recently in Alaska in May 2024 at:
https://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-wow-northern-lights-seen-near-skagway-in-alaska-1st-may-2024
​

It’s sometimes really hard to capture in a photo what you actually see; this was one of those times! There were the golden colours of sunrise across the sky and then this large thick cloud that produced a powerful ray of light up the eastern sky.
 
These rays are called Crepuscular clouds and depending on how wide and thick the clouds are with the Sun behind them, then this determines the shape of the sunrays. My image taken with an iPhone :-)
 

The science behind these magical looking sunbeams!
By Mitchel Cooms at The National Weather Desk
 
They may look unworldly, but crepuscular rays can be explained with basic physics. Meteorologist Mitchel Coombs shares has all the details on these heavenly rays!
 
Please find below an excellent explanation of crepuscular rays by Mitchel Cooms.

The clouds are back again, but I didn’t mind at all this time because when I looked up high in the sky there in all its glory was a beautiful solar halo around the Sun.

​My image was taken with a Canon G7x Mark11 camera on manual focus…. keep looking up you never know what you’ll see ;-)

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.

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.

​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
​

Tonight looked absolutely beautiful with the golden moonlight being reflected on the water as the Moon was rising, just 12 hours previously in the early morning there was a partial eclipse of the Moon.
 
I was unable to take any pictures of the eclipse, as the sky was cloudy, this lovely view makes up for it :-)
 
My image was taken with Canon 70D camera and a 28-400mm Tamron lens on a tripod; exposure time was 3 seconds, ISO200.

​~ The solar surface with complex sunspot AR 4197 ~ 
~ 31st August 2025 ~

​Now there’s a very interesting sunspot group on the surface of the Sun designated AR 4197, it’s very large and active and has many smaller sunspot that appear to be interconnected with each other… it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with this area in the next couple of days!
 
It’s a treat but nearly every morning the Suns light shines (refracts) through the cut glass that surrounds our patio, it’s so pretty. Today I capture an image with my iPhone with all the colours :-)
 
Solar images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with an attached solar filter, 20 images were captures then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

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.