The sky handed me a reference photo tonight. That purple. Those lines. My brushes are already restless. ⚡🎨
#Photography #Lightning #Inspiration #ArtInspiration #MastoArt #Storm #NightSky

Took this photo on the night of 14 April 2026.
Jupiter can be seen in the top right-hand corner. More interesting is the ‘tail’. It was visible for about 15 minutes.
Is it a comet or a man-made object?

#astronomy #astrophoto #astrophotographer #astrophotography #nightsky

The clouds called dibs on the sky tonight, 4/15... Our observatory will be socked in, so the stars are taking a well-deserved night off! No worries — the universe will still be there next week. Come find us at our next WAS Weekly Wednesday Star Party!

was-ct.org

#Astronomy #StarParty #Westport #Connecticut #Stargazing #WAS #NightSky #CloudedOut #AmateurAstronomy #WestportObservatory

The Pacman Nebula
===============

NGC 281, the Pacman Nebula - a return to a familiar target in Cassiopeia. This time with a new setup and considerably more integration time, captured in the Hubble palette (HSO). The result is a view dominated by the warm red glow of ionized hydrogen and sulfur, punctuated by the brighter, subtly blue-grey core where the young star cluster IC 1590 drives the entire nebula's energy.

What fascinates me most about this object are the dark Bok globules - dense dust structures silhouetted against the glowing gas, slowly being eroded by the intense radiation from IC 1590. They look like they are being consumed, and in a sense they are. But deep inside their cold, shielded cores, gravity may be quietly winning - collapsing gas into new stars, born from the same clouds being stripped away around them.

Scope: Askar 103APO
Lens: Askar 1.0x Flattener
Camera: ZWO ASI 294MC Pro
Filter: Antlia Tri-Band RGB Ultra
Mount: SkyWatcher AZ-EQ5-GT
Guiding: SkyWatcher Evoguide 50ED with ZWO ASI 224MC
Controller: ZWO ASIAir Pro
Focusser: ZWO EAF

Integration time: 6hrs 40min

Full version and print available at:
https://adfr.io/astro/20260407_ngc281

#astrophotography #nebula #ngc281 #pacmannebula #cassiopeia #narrowband #hubblepalette #hso #deepsky #nightsky #space #astronomy #astrography #astrophoto #stars #stargazing

She was born a century too soon to be the Artemis Generation...but I bet she would have loved nothing better, as would countless generations before who looked up at the sky and asked a "Question to the Stars".

Painting by Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach.

#art #traditionalart #painting #oilpainting #beautifulwoman #beautifulgirl #nightsky #sky