2/5/2026 - 2/8/2026 Astrophotography

It has been a warm and dry winter so far, not great for relieving the drought, but excellent conditions for stargazing. I picked up a dual band filter to help bring out more color and detail in the nebulae images. It has been fun dialing it in and refining the technique. I still have a long way to go, but I enjoy the process because really I just love having an excuse to be out there under the night sky.

The filter makes it interesting to go back to the old haunts. IC1396 Elephant Trunk nebula, NGC 2467 Skull and Crossbones, NGC1893 Buffalo / Bison Nebula, and some other goodies including the Christmas Tree and planetaries Jones 1 and M76.

I also saw a fireball the other night and saw that it was reported on the American Meteorological Society (Event 850-2026), so I posted my observation and joined the crew of 44 fellow observers. Its neat to see that we made a ring around the entry point., which look ed to be over western Wyoming or so.