Comet Imaging Session - October 14, 2025

I saw some clearing in the western sky after sunset and this itched me to do an impossible imaging attempt on the C/2025 R2 Swan. With almost whole sky with patchy clouds, I forgot using my main imaging rig and just use my trusty Dwarf 3 Smart Scope to locate and image the comet. I was able to put the comet into the field with a modest 15sec exposure as longer exposure washed out the field. After around 4 mins total exposure , I can see the green comet near the star Sabik in Ophiuchius to confirm it in the lower right area of the field of view through passing clouds and haze but since it was off center, I had to re-enter the comet but got clouded out totally instead :( Nevertheless,I'm still glad to be able to see it today. Will attempt again if sky permits in the days to come with better exposure.

Solar Imaging Session - October 12, 2025

The sky this afternoon is partly cloudy and seeing condition is fair. The huge NE Hedgerow Prominence is still visible but has slightly deteriorate a bit compared to yesterday view but nevertheless still spectacular! AR4248 Region continues to grow as well as AR4246 Region. There is a new AR4252 Region emerging from the SE limb and may become a prominent sunspot in the days to come after it totally emerges out of the limb. I was able to image both WL and Ha closeups as well as full disk solar in whitelight. I had a close call with hard rain after I started to packup! Whew!

Solar Imaging Session - October 11, 2025

The sky is partly cloudy this afternoon and seeing condition is fair. It's been almost 5 months now since I did any solar imaging due to bad weather and busy work schedule. So I use this opportunity to image the the full disk Sun using Dwarf 3 Smart Scope. I was also able to image a huge NE Looped Prominence and AR4248 Region under cloudy condition before I got totally clouded out in the end. Initially, I got clouded out after I setup and waited for almost an hour and decided to packup. After I almost completely packed up, there was a small window of open sky with some haze for me to quickly setup once again to image the Sun. Oh well.... Better have some images than nothing at all! :) LOL

Lunar Imaging Session - October 7, 2025

The sky this evening is cloudy but lots of cloud opening so I use my Dwarf 3 Smart Scope to image the Full Moon at Astro Mode Stack of 20 images of 1/2000sec exposure and Gain 0 at AZ Mode.

Lunar Imaging Session- October 5, 2025

The sky tonight is partly cloudy but I can see the Waxing Gibbous Moon rising from the eastern horizon so I tested Samsung S25 Ultra 100x digital zoom to see how it looks like. Not bad is what I can say but of course can't compete in sharpness against afocal or prime shots taken with mirrorless camera or astro camera but I think it is good enough for layman's point of view.

Total Lunar Eclipse Imaging Session - September 7-8, 2025

The sky in the evening was very cloudy and the Full Moon is playing hide and seek with us the whole evening till early morning time of next day! There is a total lunar eclipse that is visible in the evening near midnight. I was joined by my son KC as well as his friend Cha who is interested in learning astronomy as well as astrophotography. I setup my Borg 76ED Refractor with Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera mounted on ZWO AM5 mount. KC set up his Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Canon EFS55-250mm zoom lens as well as Dwarf 3 smart scopes so that we can also image using them. The eclipsed Moon continues to play hide and seek with us the whole session and luckily, despite the clouds covering the Moon most of time, we were able to still locate the Moon and image the eclipse through thin and thick clouds. As totality approached at around 1:30am, we were able to see the faint Moon that almost makes it invisible and hard to view through our naked eyes and we rely on our more sensitive imaging equipment to monitor and capture it. We continue to document the event till past 3am when the Moon is completely covered by thick clouds as well as some light drizzle that signal us to end the session.

Lunar Imaging Session - September 6, 2025

The sky this evening is cloudy but I was able to get some thin clouds and clearing for me to take a snap shot of the Waning Gibbous Moon using my Dwarf 3 Smart Scope at Astro Mode at AZ mode. Stacked of 20 images at 1/1000sec exposure at Gain 0. This is a test shot for tomorrow night's total lunar eclipse which will start September 7 around 11:28pm as the Moon enters penumbra phase and partial eclipse (umbra) will start past midnight toward September 8 at 12:27am and gradually enters totality at around 1:31pm. Maximum Totality occurs at 2:12am and ends at 2:53am. After that, Moon will start to exit umbra at around 3:57am and exits also penumbra at 4:55am signaling the end of the eclipse in its entirely.