Category: Sky Phenomena - My Stardust Observatory

~ Rustic red Super (Perigee) Full Moon rising on 7th October 2025 ~

10/7/2025

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.

~ Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) low in western sky 21st September 2025 ~

9/21/2025

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

~ Golden Moonlight glitters on the water 8th September 2025 ~

9/8/2025

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.

~ Complex Sunspot group AR 4197 on Sun 31st August 2025~

8/31/2025

~ 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.

~ Venus & Jupiter in a beautiful coloured dawn sky 17th August 2025 ~

8/17/2025

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.

~ Large sunspot group AR 4115 on surface of Sun 16th June 2025 ~

6/16/2025

There is another large sunspot group on the solar surface that is very active and will most likely produce a CME in the next couple of days.

While taking my images high cloud came across the sky and produced a lovely solar halo around the Sun, I took these images through a thin layer of cloud.

Images taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with the attached solar filter at 1x and 2x magnification, 20 images captured which were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

~ Cyclone Alfred bears down on QLD coast 7th & 8th March 2025 ~

3/8/2025

We had been watching this cyclone for the past week as it travelled out at sea off the coast of Queensland as a Category 2 cyclone! Then on the 7th of March, Cyclone Alfred turned toward the coastline near the Gold Coast. We were right in the firing line, with the southern trailing arms of the storm producing winds at over 130km hour, it hit our coastline during the night of the 8th, the house was shaking and the wind sounded like a freight train! Oh My!!!

The last time the Gold Coast got a direct hit from a cyclone was over fifty years ago so we were very lucky indeed that it crossed just north of us near Morton Island and was downgraded to a Category 1 as it crossed over the islands to the north of us…Wow the power of nature, it’s so mighty :-o

Credit: Screenshot 6pm 9 News 7th March 2025 ~

~ Wow! Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) in western sky at Mt Tamborine ~

1/21/2025

We were not expecting that!

I grabbed my husband and camera and raced up to the top of Mt Tamborine to try and see if we could see the comet…. and Wow, I spotted the comets tail still in the very light twilight sky, which was amazing. As it got a little darker it came out in all its glory :-D

It was a bit smoggy from a bush fire low on the horizon, and I think that’s why the coma area of the comet was glowing a golden colour.

Images were taken between 7.30 – 8pm 20th January 2025, with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-40mm lens on a tripod with exposures from a couple of seconds up to 30 seconds; ISO was from 200 to 1600.

~ Spectacular crepuscular rays at dawn (4.30am) 30th December 2024 ~

12/30/2024

I woke up very early this morning and looked out my bedroom window and Wow!

The eastern sky was just stunning; the dawn colours were amazing with beautiful crepuscular rays of light right up the horizon… I was off and running to grab my camera, what a way to start the day :-D

Image was taken with a Canon G7x M11 camera with manual focus, ISO 125 1/80th second exposure.

Early morning Rainbow after thunderstorm (6.40am) 23rd November 2024

11/23/2024

I just love it when we have an early morning thunderstorm, I raced outside with my camera when the Sun peeked out in the eastern sky to see what was happening in the west, and there it was!
A beautiful rainbow to light up my day :-)

Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens with settings at 1/350th second and ISO200.