Leaderboard

Back on page three of this thread is an image and mention of those mythological and astronomical twins, Castor and Pollux. They are back for your viewing pleasure in the night sky with Jupiter joining them, an added bonus this year. At least for those stargazing in the Northern Hemisphere anyway. For right now, you will need to wait until late at night, Very Late. or Very Early in the morning if your clock works that way. A little after midnight. Look a little to the left of Orion and there these three will be forming an arc. Procyon is along for the arc ride... As long as the clouds are not too much, the arc is visible even in cloudy, light polluted skies like the one shown here. This is the equivalent of a just almost but not quite ten minutes stars exposure with a five seconds clouds exposure.

Nothing is perfect and everything is a compromise so other brands and other FF cameras will have their own issues. For myself on my XT30, I've disabled the touch screen and the various function buttons so I can simply concentrate on exposure and composition. My only wish is, and a feature that I'd get a new camera for, is to be able to set a double or triple push requirement for the menu button.

Many star-gazers see Constellation Cassiopeia riding high in the autumn sky as a "w" or "m" shape. It also sits next to Constellation Cepheus which holds some very beautiful clusters and nebulae. One is the Lobster Claw Nebula (Sh2-157): https://www.astronomy.com/observing/deep-sky-dreams-sharpless-2-157/ Other favorites include the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635): https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12247 and the Northern Lagoon Nebula (NGC 7538); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7538 This region has some lovely clusters you can see simply by looking up in the right place, while using binoculars (or if you have very good night eyesight, just look up) for them. Messier Object M52: https://freestarcharts.com/messier-52 and NGC 7510: https://theskylive.com/sky/deepsky/ngc7510-object This exposure, timed at just under 54 minutes in Bortle 9 skies, almost hints at the lobster's claw, but really it needs more exposure time to make it visible in photos, darker skies would also help. If you search the internet, you can find some fantastic renditions.

Blood Moon and More... This moon is waxing up to be September's Corn Moon. This year, the Corn Moon offers more than telling us it is harvest time. This moon will be the longest blood moon of the year. It happens September 7 - 8 (The Earth's shadow eclipses the moon.). Folks in Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe get to see a lunar eclipse. https://www.timeanddate.com/news/astronomy/moon-september-2025 After the waxing comes the waning... Waning Corn Moon.