Every month, I present a talk at the Astronomical Society of Victoria on what’s up in the sky. They’re uploaded to YouTube and a few other video sites, and I talk about what visual observers can see at this time of year, what astrophotographers can image, as well as other things. One of the regular…

Taking monochrome images of a galaxy in red, green and blue light allows you to make a full colour image, in a similar way to your eyes detecting the three colours and your brain combining them in the colour image. But you add exposures taken through a Hydrogen alpha filter, which draws out emission nebulas in the galaxy.

For the Lunar Eclipse of September 2025, Bill used a remote facility that Sidereal Trading had installed at a club in Victoria to get a sequence of images. It didn’t go quite to plan, but he got the shots anyway.

What can this thing see? It’s a common question This is what a client asked me this morning. I’ve been asked a number of times now and I thought it’d be useful to have a prepared list, with specific examples. As the owner of a decent beginner telescope, you will be able to see examples…

Lunar eclipses, or blood moons, are really cool, and people love getting photos. But during the eclipse the Moon is dark and a photo doesn’t show the same details as a normal full Moon. This tutorial shows how to capture the sharpness of the full moon and still get the colour of the blood moon.

Have you had troubles pointing your telescope at the zenith? It’s especially difficult if you’ve got a long refractor, because the eyepiece or camera end of the refractor can run into one of the tripod legs. You can use a pier extender, but better still, you can use a pier tripod, which has a cental pier from close to the ground. No tripod legs, not obstructions.