@deepskydave.bsky.social
A few days ago my pals Ed Jacoby, Alan Goldstein, and Alan’s family had a behind-the-scenes tour of the treasures from the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum from its executive director, Annie Graeme Larkin. What a spectacular day!
February 12, 2026 at 1:37 PM
A few days ago my pals Ed Jacoby, Alan Goldstein, and Alan’s family had a behind-the-scenes tour of the treasures from the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum from its executive director, Annie Graeme Larkin. What a spectacular day!
The other day I went down to Bisbee with friends Ed Jacoby, Alan Goldstein, and Alan’s family. We visited the Graeme Family, who were involved as miners at Bisbee for decades, and saw their unparalleled collection of Bisbee minerals. Drawers and drawers of everything you can imagine.
February 11, 2026 at 3:36 PM
The other day I went down to Bisbee with friends Ed Jacoby, Alan Goldstein, and Alan’s family. We visited the Graeme Family, who were involved as miners at Bisbee for decades, and saw their unparalleled collection of Bisbee minerals. Drawers and drawers of everything you can imagine.
I’m bringing a few artifacts to show the crowd at our I Heart Pluto Festival this week in Flagstaff. There’s a first edition of Lowell’s book Mars, Percival Lowell’s childhood spelling book, and my telescopic sketchbook inscribed by Clyde Tombaugh, David Levy, and myself.
February 10, 2026 at 6:43 PM
I’m bringing a few artifacts to show the crowd at our I Heart Pluto Festival this week in Flagstaff. There’s a first edition of Lowell’s book Mars, Percival Lowell’s childhood spelling book, and my telescopic sketchbook inscribed by Clyde Tombaugh, David Levy, and myself.
Robert Eckheart and Scott Dearinger created this red hot shot of the Horsehead Nebula and environs in Orion, one of the most complex areas of emission, dark, and reflection nebulae in the Orion Molecular Cloud. Enjoy!
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Robert Eckheart and Scott Dearinger created this red hot shot of the Horsehead Nebula and environs in Orion, one of the most complex areas of emission, dark, and reflection nebulae in the Orion Molecular Cloud. Enjoy!
One of the sky’s great deep-sky objects, the Orion Nebula is depicted here in amazing detail by Bob Fera and Steve Mandel. They captured the nebula in an eight-pane mosaic showing the entirety of the Sword of Orion.
February 9, 2026 at 2:05 PM
One of the sky’s great deep-sky objects, the Orion Nebula is depicted here in amazing detail by Bob Fera and Steve Mandel. They captured the nebula in an eight-pane mosaic showing the entirety of the Sword of Orion.
This field in Cassiopeia, imaged by Chris Schur, is loaded with deep-sky objects. The Bubble Nebula lies in the center, with open cluster M52 to its upper left, and open cluster NGC 7510 to the lower right. Emission nebulae like NGC 7538 (above and right of center) carve through the area.
February 6, 2026 at 3:02 PM
This field in Cassiopeia, imaged by Chris Schur, is loaded with deep-sky objects. The Bubble Nebula lies in the center, with open cluster M52 to its upper left, and open cluster NGC 7510 to the lower right. Emission nebulae like NGC 7538 (above and right of center) carve through the area.
On February 3 James Kevin Ty captured this wonderful image of a sunspot group and active region in H-alpha, with his Borg 76ED refractor and ZWO webcam. Enjoy our star’s latest antics!
February 5, 2026 at 2:26 PM
On February 3 James Kevin Ty captured this wonderful image of a sunspot group and active region in H-alpha, with his Borg 76ED refractor and ZWO webcam. Enjoy our star’s latest antics!
Richard Whitehead has nicely captured the Witch Head Nebula in Eridanus, one of the sky’s prominent reflection nebulae. Lying at a distance of about 1,000 light-years, it is faint visually but pretty straightforward to record photographically. Enjoy!
February 5, 2026 at 1:53 AM
Richard Whitehead has nicely captured the Witch Head Nebula in Eridanus, one of the sky’s prominent reflection nebulae. Lying at a distance of about 1,000 light-years, it is faint visually but pretty straightforward to record photographically. Enjoy!
Lying 444 light-years away, the Pleiades is one of the closest open clusters to us. Its seven bright stars are passing through a molecular cloud in their orbit about the galactic center, creating a bluish reflection nebula that can be seen in large scopes. Nathanael Martin image.
February 4, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Lying 444 light-years away, the Pleiades is one of the closest open clusters to us. Its seven bright stars are passing through a molecular cloud in their orbit about the galactic center, creating a bluish reflection nebula that can be seen in large scopes. Nathanael Martin image.
The Double Cluster in Perseus offers one of the sky’s richest fields of stars for binocular and low-power telescopic observers. Both clusters, NGC 884 (left) and NGC 869, lie about 7,500 light-years away. Chris Schur’s portrait captures the field and faint nebulosity exceptionally well.
February 3, 2026 at 1:53 PM
The Double Cluster in Perseus offers one of the sky’s richest fields of stars for binocular and low-power telescopic observers. Both clusters, NGC 884 (left) and NGC 869, lie about 7,500 light-years away. Chris Schur’s portrait captures the field and faint nebulosity exceptionally well.
Here’s an extraordinary shot of the third largest spiral in the Local Group, M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. Notable for lacking a central supermassive black hole, the galaxy is riddled with pinkish star-forming regions, easily visible in this image by Bob Fera and Steve Mandel.
February 2, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Here’s an extraordinary shot of the third largest spiral in the Local Group, M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. Notable for lacking a central supermassive black hole, the galaxy is riddled with pinkish star-forming regions, easily visible in this image by Bob Fera and Steve Mandel.
Check out the Moon as imaged by Scott Dearinger on January 28, filled as it is with maria and craters, and really nice, subtle colors. Enjoy!
February 1, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Check out the Moon as imaged by Scott Dearinger on January 28, filled as it is with maria and craters, and really nice, subtle colors. Enjoy!
On January 28 Jamie Cooper imaged Jupiter, producing twin portraits with his 16-inch scope. The image on the right was made with a near-infrared filter. Enjoy!
January 31, 2026 at 4:43 PM
On January 28 Jamie Cooper imaged Jupiter, producing twin portraits with his 16-inch scope. The image on the right was made with a near-infrared filter. Enjoy!
Take a look at this really nice mosaic of central Orion, including the Orion and Horsehead nebulae, shot by Nathanael Martin. A really crisply captured and finely processed result . . .
January 30, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Take a look at this really nice mosaic of central Orion, including the Orion and Horsehead nebulae, shot by Nathanael Martin. A really crisply captured and finely processed result . . .
Some time ago Frank Dibbell recorded this nice shot of the Hercules Cluster, one of the great globulars in the northern sky. Its greater than half million stars predate the Milky Way’s disk, messaging us from the universe’s early days.
January 29, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Some time ago Frank Dibbell recorded this nice shot of the Hercules Cluster, one of the great globulars in the northern sky. Its greater than half million stars predate the Milky Way’s disk, messaging us from the universe’s early days.
Check out this new image of NGC 346, a star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, lying some 210,000 light-years away. Bob Fera and Steve Mandel recorded a rarely imaged deep-sky object in the Southern Hemisphere.
January 29, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Check out this new image of NGC 346, a star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, lying some 210,000 light-years away. Bob Fera and Steve Mandel recorded a rarely imaged deep-sky object in the Southern Hemisphere.
This is a throwback: John Vermette’s extraordinary image of the Milky Way above Arizona’s Meteor Crater, the result of an impact some 50,000 years ago. Enjoy.
January 28, 2026 at 4:16 PM
This is a throwback: John Vermette’s extraordinary image of the Milky Way above Arizona’s Meteor Crater, the result of an impact some 50,000 years ago. Enjoy.
Richard Whitehead’s latest image shows one of the great star-forming regions in our area of the Milky Way, the Rosette Nebula, in spectacular detail. Stellar winds from the young, hot stars in the cluster have excavated the central “hole,” helping to create the rosette shape.
January 27, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Richard Whitehead’s latest image shows one of the great star-forming regions in our area of the Milky Way, the Rosette Nebula, in spectacular detail. Stellar winds from the young, hot stars in the cluster have excavated the central “hole,” helping to create the rosette shape.
Recently Bob Fera and Steve Mandel have captured a wide swath of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the remains of a massive star that exploded about 11,000 years ago. The stars have been removed from this image in order to concentrate on the structure of the expanding gas. Enjoy!
January 26, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Recently Bob Fera and Steve Mandel have captured a wide swath of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the remains of a massive star that exploded about 11,000 years ago. The stars have been removed from this image in order to concentrate on the structure of the expanding gas. Enjoy!
I hope you will join us for the annual I Heart Pluto Festival in Flagstaff, produced by Lowell Observatory. I’ll be hosting on Saturday, February 14, at the Orpheum Theater. Alan Stern, Andy Chaikin, and Chad Trujillo will speak. For a schedule, see iheartpluto.org.
January 23, 2026 at 3:13 PM
I hope you will join us for the annual I Heart Pluto Festival in Flagstaff, produced by Lowell Observatory. I’ll be hosting on Saturday, February 14, at the Orpheum Theater. Alan Stern, Andy Chaikin, and Chad Trujillo will speak. For a schedule, see iheartpluto.org.
Chris Schur has captured an extraordinary field in the Perseus Milky Way centered on the reflection nebula NGC 1333. Surrounding it are reddish Herbig-Haro objects and a yellowish reflection nebula at upper right, LBN 734. Enjoy!
January 22, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Chris Schur has captured an extraordinary field in the Perseus Milky Way centered on the reflection nebula NGC 1333. Surrounding it are reddish Herbig-Haro objects and a yellowish reflection nebula at upper right, LBN 734. Enjoy!
On Monday evening Chris Cook captured colors of the fantastic auroral display from Joshua Tree National Monument in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. What a beautiful astronomical portrait!
January 21, 2026 at 1:02 PM
On Monday evening Chris Cook captured colors of the fantastic auroral display from Joshua Tree National Monument in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. What a beautiful astronomical portrait!
This is such a nice time of year because of the bright evening winter Milky Way stars. Adrian Bradley’s wide-field image of Orion and environs captures the spirit of this great area of sky perfectly. What a beautiful shot!
January 20, 2026 at 2:00 PM
This is such a nice time of year because of the bright evening winter Milky Way stars. Adrian Bradley’s wide-field image of Orion and environs captures the spirit of this great area of sky perfectly. What a beautiful shot!
Start your week with an incredible new shot of the Rosette Nebula, one of the winter sky’s best stellar nurseries, located 5,200 light-years away in Monoceros. Robert Eckheart and Scott Dearinger created this fantastic image showing the nebular gas and young star cluster within.
January 19, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Start your week with an incredible new shot of the Rosette Nebula, one of the winter sky’s best stellar nurseries, located 5,200 light-years away in Monoceros. Robert Eckheart and Scott Dearinger created this fantastic image showing the nebular gas and young star cluster within.
Check out David Abbou’s shot of Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon near its closest approach to Earth on October 20, 2025. A marvel in our skies . . .
January 16, 2026 at 3:13 PM
Check out David Abbou’s shot of Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon near its closest approach to Earth on October 20, 2025. A marvel in our skies . . .