One of the biggest challenges with Bode's Galaxy is getting plausible colours. I had another go at it, collecting 9.7 hours of usable data, across two moonless clear nights, a rare treat in South Wales. Image © Jane Clark

I will be on the BBC News channel at about 18:20 talking about T Coronae Borealis. @royalastrosoc.bsky.social

Bydda i ar BBC Radio Cymru rhwng 09:00 a 10:00 yn sôn am T Coronae Borealis. (I will be on BBC Radio Cymru between 09:00 and 10:00 talking about T Coronae Borealis.) @royalastrosoc.bsky.social

I've been telling people for years that the Orion Nebula, the only extraterrestrial nebula visible to the naked eye, is a factory for making stars. But you can't see them. My camera can. When photographed in infrared the stars can be seen on the photo.

I had a first go at M42, the Orion Nebula, through a ±3nm dual band Hα & OIII filter last night. It took me three hours to obtain an hour's worth of exposure, due mainly to intermittent cloud.

This rather unusual galaxy deep in the southern celestial hemisphere (un-poetically named NGC2442) looks to me a bit like an upside-down duck.

Messier 77 is a galaxy on the Celestial Equator. I processed this image, which was taken from Chile, from Telescope Live. Removing streaks in the raw image was a challenge. The spiral structure in this galaxy is unusual.

Anyone can copy a photo straight from a website. I’m more interested to be shown people’s own photos or original attempts to process professional images: these two activities take skill. This is the Perseus galaxy cluster from my backyard. It’s 1/4 billion light years away.

Just now

The Hidden Galaxy was only discovered a good century after most nearby galaxies because it is hard to see through the dust in our own galaxy. It is known in astronomy catalogues as IC342. Taken from my suburban backyard.

Recent autumn scene