Rob Tilsley
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stargazerrob.bsky.social
Rob Tilsley
@stargazerrob.bsky.social
2.1K followers 580 following 230 posts
Astrophotography shenanigans.
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stargazerrob.bsky.social
Saturn and Titan last night in IR.

The atmosphere was not cooperative 😂
Telescopic view, Saturn to the lower right, tilted at aprox degrees. Planet's equator appears as a bright band, bordered by a dark band in the north and south hemispheres. Rings very narrow, can just make out the gap between the ring and the planet on both sides. Titan is a small white blob in the top right,
September 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Got a view of the lunar eclipse!! 🙌
View through a ‘finder scope’, of the lunar eclipse, this is after totality, with the earth’s shadow carving out a portion of the moon (lower left third brightly illuminated, the rest appears dark). The moon has just risen above the horizon with trees and a TV aerial in the frame. Ghost image of the moon faintly appears above
September 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Nice bit of anticrepuscular ray action last night
View of the moon rising over a distant wooded area (shot on the standard ‘wide’ lens of an iPhone, so the moon is an absolutely tiny white disc). In the sky, a diffuse, dark line goes from the middle right to lower left.
September 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Stayed up until the street lights went off last night
Monochrome night photograph, looking up at a street light that is off (which is just right of centre). Behind it, the Milky Way streaks vertically through the frame, dividing the sky roughly in half. There's a bit of mist and murk around but it's a very starry sky. The Andromeda galaxy is just to the right of the to of the lamp, appearing as a small smudge. There's a tree on the right, lit by another street light, one that unfortunately stays on all night.
August 23, 2025 at 1:27 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Tonight's view of the Milky Way
Starry, cloudless, night scene photo. Field in the foreground, with fence posts going to a vanishing point on the right. Single house light shines brightly on the far side of the field. Hedgerow high on the right. Milky way starts in the top left, and finishes just off to the right of centre near the horizon. The image has been processed to appear reasonably ‘natural’ so the cloudiness of the Milky Way is whitish. There are two planes that have drawn short lines in the sky during the exposure. The rest of the sky is densely packed with stars, the ‘teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius is low in the centre, and the ‘Altair Family’ appears quite clearly near the top left.
August 21, 2025 at 11:10 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Last night's star trails as seen from my back garden
August 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Nice Noctilucent cloud display going on at the moment, as seen here from South West England. #Buckfastleigh #Devon #NoctilucentClouds #NLC
Night scene, dark foreground with a few scattered streetlights and houses. Deep blue and yellow twilight colours, with white and delicate noctilucent clouds spanning the frame horizontally
June 29, 2025 at 10:07 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
View of Corvus in last night's sky

#Buckfastleigh
Night landscape. A road in the foreground goes away and to the left, surrounded on either side by bushy hedgerows. A small tree on the right rises out of the hedge, and branches from a tall tree enter the top of the frame. The sky appears blue due to the long exposure picking up moonlight. Starry sky, with a small patch of clouds in the top left. The constellation of Corvus (the crow) is centered, the brightest stars appearing as a trapezoid.
May 4, 2025 at 3:46 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Last night's sky
Night scene. Star filled sky. Perseus and the 'fish-hook' asterism on the right, appearing horizontal. Hugely overexposed crescent moon just left of center, shining brightly with diffraction spikes and internal reflections. A road in the foreground curves off rightward into the distance framed by hedgerow on either side. The road leads to a small group of trees in the distance.
May 1, 2025 at 7:43 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Beginning to lose the winter constellations to twilight now

Shot 13/4/25 #Buckfastleigh #Devon
Night landscape photograph. Sky appearing blue due to twilight and moon light in a long exposure. Cloudless sky, with numerous stars, Orion left, Taurus Center, and the Pleiades to the right. Jupiter a bright white star-like object above Taurus. Rural landscape of fields, lit by a low, bright moon, left of the image in shadow, right illuminated. Small town in the center shines out with many street and house lights. There's a layer of clouds just above the horizon.
April 14, 2025 at 9:10 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Non-AI image I took 3 years ago at Durdle Door, Dorset
Monochrome night landscape, taken from ground level. Large stone arch (Durdle Door) sits to the right of centre, framed by the Milky Way above, and a calm sea below. The shoreline curves away and to the left of the viewpoint meeting a sandy beach. The Milky Way appears as a bright area going from top left toward the arch, within the brightness there are dark lanes and details from interstellar dust.
April 12, 2025 at 8:53 AM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Gassendi Crater as seen last night 🔭

#Astrophotography #Moon
Monochrome telescopic closeup of the lunar surface, presented East ‘up’. Gassendi is framed by relatively smooth areas either side, Mare Humorum to the left and Letronne Crater and Oceanus Procellarum to the right. Gessendi appears as a large crater with low walls, intricately patterned floor, with criss crossing fractures ‘Rimae Gassendi’, and multiple central peaks. Gassendi is said to look like a diamond ring, with Gassendi A being the diamond, seen here to the right of Gassendi.
April 10, 2025 at 12:04 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
The 'Moon Maiden' aka Promontorium Heraclides

April 8th 2025
Monochrome telescopic closeup of the lunar surface, presented east ‘up’. Mare Imbrium fills the top right of the image, a vast smooth area with a sprinkling of small craters here and there. Below that, Sinus Iridum, the ‘bay of rainbows’ is in the terminator area between night and day appearing as a large semicircle (the incomplete remnants of a crater) with a bumpy rim. Promontorium Heraclides is the western edge of the bay, a pointed cape jutting into Mare Imbrium, it may (with some imagination) resemble a woman with flowing hair looking left.
April 9, 2025 at 8:04 AM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Lunar South - April 7th 2025
Telescopic monochrome view, presented south ‘up’. The terminator starts in the upper left and proceeds diagonally down and right due to the waxing gibbous phase. The left area of the image is a huge number of medium craters, closer to the terminator there are large craters (from left to right), Newton (floor completely in shadow), Short, Moretus, Gruemberger Clavius, Longomontanus. Further to the right, everything falls to darkness sharpy.
April 8, 2025 at 3:55 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Electra (one of the bright stars in the Pleiades) getting occulted the other night. Realtime-ish playback
April 6, 2025 at 6:48 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Better?
Image from original post presented ‘North up’
April 6, 2025 at 7:11 AM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Cropping in hard, to try and see what can be ID-ed, there's some fun stuff!
Crop from the above image. Image quality getting a bit rough! Hoping to draw attention to craters right on the edge, there are several large, prominent craters with central peaks casting long shadows. There appear to be many hills/mountains around the craters with detail highlighted by the low light. Cropping in hard, to try and see what's can be ID-ed, there's some fun stuff!
April 5, 2025 at 9:12 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
The Lunar South Pole

4/4/25
Telescopic monochrome close-up of the lunar south pole region, presented ‘south up’. The terminator runs vertically on the right hand side, lunar features fall to total darkness quite rapidly. Craters on the terminator are just catching their first light, the right hand side of their rims brightly lit. The south pole region is heavily cratered, and there are many slopes with dramatic light and shadow.
April 5, 2025 at 8:45 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Jenner is described on its Wikipedia entry as being "on the far side of the Moon"! Feels cool to catch a glimpse of it
Same Mare Australe region as the previous image, panned to the left revealing some new landscape. Jenner is extremely foreshortened, appearing as a dark streak, with a bright white central peak as the other image, with white text and an line highlighting where the crater is
April 5, 2025 at 8:11 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Tried to ID some of the craters near the limb, such a rich landscape!
Close up view of the limb of the moon, cropped from the first image in this thread. The horizon is bumpy with the rims of craters. Many large craters in view. Labelled craters: Lyot, very large crater with a dark basin, a cluster of smaller craters within it on the right. Jeans X, Smaller crater, very foreshortened by the viewing angel, bright wall. Jeans, lighter floor than the surrounding craters, indistinct edge. Chamberlin, dark featureless looking area just short of the limb. Gill, deep crater with a very warn wall. same as the previous image, with labels added in white text with lines pointing to the craters
April 5, 2025 at 8:00 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Rimae Janssen (the fine, dark line near the center) is 140 kilometers long, spanning from Fabricius Crater to the southeast outer wall of Janssen.
Close up from the post above. Janssen is very warn and deteriorated, appearing a large rough hexagon in the middle centre. Rimae Janssen is a dark line, the main part curing in a U shape, there do appear to be other splinters fracturing off in the mid point. Fabricius sits to the left as seen in this view, crater rim casting a shadow on the left of the crater floor, and a messy, busy central peak area consisting of several little outcrops.
April 5, 2025 at 2:53 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Moon - April 4th, 2025 ~22:00UTC 48% illuminated.

Made the most of a bit of favorable libration to get a good look at Mare Australe and surrounding area.

8" reflector at 3000mm
Telescopic monochrome view. The moon presented south east ‘up’, The limb of the moon arcs across horizontally, featureless jet black space above. The lunar surface is heavily cratered, with the intensity and roughness increasing towards the right of the image which is more toward to the south pole area. A large valley (Vallis Rheita) starting in the lower left, goes away from the view curving inward, pointing toward an area containing smoother regions, and darker albedo which is Mare Australe.
April 5, 2025 at 2:33 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Part of tonight's moon. Enjoyed seeing Janssen (large crater just above center), and Vallis Rheita. Also cool to get a view of Mare Australe (mare in the far south east).

#Moon #Astrodon #astrophotography
Telescopic view of the southeastern region of the 26% illuminated waxing crescent moon, presented north 'up'. The lit region of the moon appears to curve, coming to a point in the lower left of the image. There's a single isolated peak shining beyond the end of the point. A heavily cratered area of the moon. Janssen is near the center of the image and is a large crater containing many other craters. Vallis Rheita is to the upper right of Janssen and is a valley that curves along to the right and down, with quite a few crater impacts. Mare Australe appears as a smoother area right on the very edge of the lower right.
April 2, 2025 at 10:59 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
It begins!!
View through a finder scope - very bright crescent moon to the lower right, Pleiades star cluster to the top left
April 1, 2025 at 8:35 PM
stargazerrob.bsky.social
Tonight's sky over #Buckfastleigh #Devon
Wide angle landscape night photograph. The town appears a dense cluster of street and house lights amongst an unlit foreground. Moon setting in the lower right appears bright but is really only a thin crescent, it's blown out though so you can't really tell, except there is a 'ghost' artifact revealing the crescent. The sky is cloudless and full of stars with Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades dominating the center. Jupiter appears as a very bright, white star-like object shining brightly above the distinctive 'V' asterism in Taurus.
March 31, 2025 at 10:15 PM