Blog - Galactic Images

The Planet Mars on 01-30-2025 at 01:46 UT

By John Chumack|2025-02-01T21:59:37+00:00February 1st, 2025|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #martianpolaricecap, #natgeo, #QHYCCD, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Mars, Planets, Space|

Mars was showing some nice details including the Polar Ice cap, not bad for the Planet being only 14 arc-seconds in diameter.
C-11 Telescope, 2x barlow, ADC, QHY462mc Cmos Camera, 3.3ms exposures, Fire-Capture SER Video, 5,000 out of 15, 000 frames
stacked in Astrosurface, Registax6, and Adobe Raw CC 2025
Captured from my backyard Observatory in Dayton, Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Jupiter with The Great Red Spot & Moon Europa on 01-30-2025 at 01:33 UT

By John Chumack|2025-01-31T12:48:45+00:00January 31st, 2025|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #QHYCCD, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Astronomy, Europa, Jupiter, Planets, Space|

Jupiter with The Great Red Spot & Moon Europa on 01-30-2025 at 01:33 UT

Finally after several weeks of Poor Earth atmospheric seeing(boiling), I got a break

and capture this image with decent details in Jupiter’s atmosphere Wednesday night.

The seeing was a 7 out of 10 from my backyard observatory.

C-11 Telescope 2x barlow, ADC, Bisque MyT Mount, QHY462MC Cmos Camera,

5.8ms exposure, SER Video in Fire-Capture,

processed and stacked in Astrosurface, Registax6, Adobe Raw cc 2025.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Lunar Occultation of the Planet Mars – Reappearance 01-14-2025 UT

By John Chumack|2025-01-21T16:15:50+00:00January 21st, 2025|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #lunaroccultation, #marsoccultation, #natgeo, #QHYCCD, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #Universetoday, Astronomy, Moon, Space|

The Moon has a Nipple!!!???

“it looks like a Nipple” said my wife Charlotte, and

I just about died laughing and now I can’t unsee it

The Lunar Occultation of the Planet Mars

The Reappearance at 03:20 UT 01-14-2025 UT,

While looking close-up over the Sea of Smyth (Mare Smythii).

You can see Mars(reappearing) rising above the rim of Hirayama Crater, nearing the end of this wonderful occultation.

You can see surface details on Mars and the Polar Ice cap as well.

My C-11 Telescope, Bisque MyT Mount, ADC, 2x Barlow, QHY462MC Cmos Camera, Fire-Capture Software, Full Frame,

665 SER video frames x 2.3ms exposures, Processed in Astrosurface, Registax6, Adobe Raw CC 2025

Captured from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Lunar Occultation of The Planet Mars – Seestar 50s Sequence

By John Chumack|2025-01-21T16:07:56+00:00January 21st, 2025|Tags: #lunaroccultation, #occultation, Mars, Moon|

Here is my image sequence from the Lunar Occultation of the planet Mars, captured using the Seestar 50s Scope, and periodically capturing a quick AVI video, then processed and stacked each video to get a single final image as the Moon passed in front of Mars.

Tracking the Moon, I recorded the little orange dot(Mars) before it got occulted (left) through its reappearance(right).

The real challenge was in post processing trying to correct all the individual images for the Seestar’s Alt-AZ rotational effect during that time frame. In hindsight I should have set it up in Equatorial mode, but I was too busy setting up & preparing for capturing Mars at High Mag with my C-11 scope during this event. I was trying to remember to hit the Seestar’s record button periodically.

The Close-up of Mars (upper corner) showing the Polar Ice cap was captured with my C-11 Scope the same night.

My previous posts have all the details.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

The Lunar Occultation of the Planet Mars on 01-14-2025 UT

By John Chumack|2025-01-15T12:29:06+00:00January 15th, 2025|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #lunaroccultation, #natgeo, #occultation, #QHYCCD, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Astronomy, Mars, Planets, Space|

The Lunar Occultation of the Planet Mars
We were lucky enough to have clear skies for this, …here is one of my preliminary quick process shots of the Full Wolf Moon Lunar Occultation Of Mars last night, I captured both disappearance and the reappearance of Mars close-up with my C-11 Telescope from my backyard in Dayton, Ohio. I have a ton of Data to process yet and lots of Video footage from my QHY462 Camera, but thought I would toss this quick one out taken 01-14-2025 @ 02:08 UT., as it may be a while before I have the time to go through it all. More to come later!

C-11 Telescope, ADC, 2x Barlow, QHY462MC Cmos Camera.
Fire-Capture software SER Video Files.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Jupiter with moons Io & Europa captured on 10-08-2024 at 10:20 UT

By John Chumack|2024-11-05T13:30:46+00:00November 5th, 2024|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #joviansystem, #natgeo, #QHYCCD, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Astronomy, Europa, Io, Jupiter|

Jupiter with moons Io & Europa captured on 10-08-2024 at 10:20 UT from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio. The Seeing was 8/10, so I got some decent cloud top details.

C-11 SCT Telescope, Bisque MyT Mount, QHY462MC Cmos Camera, 2x Barlow, ADC, Fire-Capture Software, SER Video File Captured, 6ms exposures,

3,100 frames stacked out of 7,300, Processing in Astrosurface, Registax6, Adobe Raw CC 2025.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) on 10-19-2024

By John Chumack|2024-11-02T16:15:31+00:00November 2nd, 2024|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #comet, #Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, #cometA3, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Space|

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) on 10-19-2024,

Canon 6D DSLR Camera, Celestron AVX Tracking Mount, 4 inch diameter ES F7 Triplet APO refractor Telescope, tracking the nucleus, ISO 2000, 24 x 15 second exposures, 6 minute total exposure time.

Captured from Fairborn/Enon, Twin Towers County Park, Bath Township, Ohio USA.

The comet is dimming a bit, but it is still visible in binoculars, and climbing higher everyday, and now the moon is out of the way for a little bit too, it should be easier to see in Binoculars or telescopes.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) on 10-18-2024 – A Close-up

By John Chumack|2024-11-01T11:40:01+00:00November 1st, 2024|Tags: #C/2023A3TsuchinshanATLAS, #ChumackObservatories, #comet, #Comets, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, #ZWO, Space|

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) on 10-18-2024, A Close-up with one of my Seestar 50s Portable Telescopes.

5 x 2 minute subs stacked on the Comet’s Nucleus, 10 minutes total exposure time. You can see the Comet’s Anti-tail as well.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on 10-15-2024

By John Chumack|2024-10-29T11:10:30+00:00October 29th, 2024|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #comet, #Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, #Comets, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Astronomy|

Here is my first shot of the Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, shot it from the Community Park in Fairborn, Ohio. After chasing holes in clouds, I finally ended up there. It cleared enough for me to nab this shot when the comet got real low around 8:30pm….I did get some nice ones wider angle through clouds too, but those will come later.

the little fuzzy patch to the right of the comet just above the tree is Globular Star Cluster M5.

Capture details:

Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Canon 6D DSLR, Sigma 150mmm-600mm, set to 260mm, F5, camera on a tripod, ISO 2000, a single 4 second exposure

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on 10-16-2024

By John Chumack|2024-10-28T15:10:03+00:00October 28th, 2024|Tags: #ChumackObservatories, #cosmos, #GalacticImages, #JohnChumack, #natgeo, #skyatnight, #solarsystem, #universe, #Universetoday, Space|

Finally after clouds /rain and more clouds, I capture a shot I’m happy with! Comet 2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS on 10-16-2024 with whitetail deer, and a satellite trail near the top of the frame. The constellation Corona Borealis is at the top of the frame above the house in the field. No T-Cr b did not go into outburst yet!

Canon 6D DSLR on a Tripod, 24mm-105mm lens, set to 24mm, F4.0, ISO 1600, a single 4 second exposure, just after clouds started to clear.

The strong moonlight from the rising Full Moon made it look like daylight and lit up the field and the Whitetail Deer, the moon and the Park was at my back, moonlight was coming through the trees and casting shadows onto the road in front of me. This was captured just outside of John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com