See the Drop-Down Menus above for photos of various Astronomical Objects. The order of the Menus generally flows from the largest and most distant objects – “Galaxies” – all the way down to the smallest – “Snowflakes”, which can be found under “Nature Photos”

If you are a repeat visitor, a log of recent additions to this site can be found at the bottom of this Page.

For any Questions, Comments or Suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me at: ssmith9831@gmail.com

About me and this Webpage

A sample of some of my photos:

Globular Clusters are tightly bound groupings of hundreds of thousands of old stars located in the galactic halo and are remnants of the formation of our galaxy. At this time there are 160 known globular clusters in our Galaxy but there may still be undiscovered clusters that are obscured by the galactic bulge. This photo of M68 is the final object in my years-long effort to photograph the 66 Globular Clusters that are visible from my location in Colorado. More examples of these object can be found on my “Star Clusters” page.

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On this night the Moon and Saturn were in what is called a “Conjunction” or close approach – they appeared to be near to each other in the night sky even though they are in reality separated by millions of miles. At the time of this photo the angular separation was approximately 37.5 arc-minutes.

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For the better part of 2024 the approach of comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was eagerly anticipated as it was predicted to reach “Naked Eye” visibility. As shown in the photo above a it didn’t disappoint and is projected to be the best “Naked Eye” comet since Comet NEOWISE in 2020 and is being called the most photographed comet in history. At the time of this photo the Comet was faintly visible to the naked eye after emerging from behind the SUN only days earlier. this photo was taken under less than ideal conditions – a waxing moon and clouds – but showed up easily in binoculars and photos. This photo was taken from Daniels Park, CO at 7:50 pm MDT looking West. 40-150mm lens – f5 – ISO 3200 – 10 sec.

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7:45 PM MDT – 40-150mm lens – ISO 3200 – 6 sec
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The Comet the following evening. The seeing conditions were better with fewer clouds and better clarity, but the light from a full moon tended to overwhelm the view of the faint tail.
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A close-up photo of the comet shining at magnitude +3.7 and also shows the faint “Anti-Tail” projecting downward from the head. Photo is from a stack of 11 frames – 82mm – f5.6 – ISO 3200 – 8 second exposures.
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By this date the comet was high enough to appear above the trees blocking my view of the western horizon so that I could get some long exposure photos from my observatory. This photo was taken through my 80mm ED refractor and is from a stack of five frames – ISO 3200 – 20 second exposure. At this point the magnitude of the comet was +5.4, near the limit of naked eye visibility from a dark site. For more photos of this and other comets visit my “Comets” page in the Header Menus above.

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2024 was a banner year for displays of the Aurora Borealis with two major events which were visible from Colorado and locations further south. The first event occurred on the evening of May 10/11 which I unfortunately missed and the second was on the evenings of October 10/11 which I did mange to observe and photograph – see below.

The Aurora Borealis on October 10, 2024 as seen from my backyard looking to the East.
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This picture is looking South toward the city lights of Castle Rock, Colorado.
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The source of the Aurora in the pictures above was from an eruption of charged particles (A Coronal Mass Ejection – CME) from the Sunspot group 3848 on October 8th. Travelling at 2.9 million miles per hour it took two days for the Mass Ejection to reach Earth on the evening of October 10th. Three days prior to this photo at the time of the eruption the sunspot group 3848 was centered on the solar disk directly facing the earth.
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The “Milky Way” as seen from the dark skies at Lake McConaughy Nebraska. For the uninitiated the “Milky Way” is our home galaxy. Our solar system is located in one of the outer arms of our spiral galaxy so when we are viewing the Milky Way we are looking edge-on toward the center of our galaxy. What appear to be bright clouds are actually billions of densely packed stars bisected by dark lanes of interstellar dust. The constellation of Scorpio and its brightest star Antares is center-right. The photo was taken with my Olympus E-M10 MKII camera and a 7.5mm fish-eye lens. Three frames (15 sec exposure ISO 3200) were combined to make the final picture.
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In April 2024 “The Great North American Solar Eclipse” gave millions of people across the United States the opportunity to view a total solar eclipse. While Colorado was not on the path of totality, a 65% partial Eclipse was visible from my home. Go to “The Sun“ page for more details and photos.

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In March 2024 I was able to tour the observatory complex located at the summit of the Haleakala Volcano on the island of Maui. Go to the” “Activities“ page for more details and photos.

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On May 19, 2024 a Supernova (designated SN2023ixf) was detected in the Galaxy M101 which is 20 million lightyears away in the Constellation of Ursa Major (The Big Dipper). The energy released by a supernova can often rival the brightness of its host galaxy. On the Right is a photo of M101 that I took several years prior showing the Galaxy without the supernova present. Here are links to detailed articles on the the event:
https://skyandtelescope.org/…/bright-supernova-blazes…/
https://www.astronomy.com/…/bright-supernova-now-in-m101/
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Photo of Southern constellations and stars taken from onboard a moving cruise ship during our recent Hawaii Cruise. None of these objects are visible from my home in Colorado so I was excited to be able to capture some of these southern hemisphere stellar wonders. The photo is from a stack of three 15 second hand-held exposures which along with the movement and rocking of the ship accounts for the slight elongation of the star images. Of note in the photo is the Alpha Centauri star system which is our nearest stellar neighbor at 4.37 light years distant. Omega Centauri is the largest and brightest brightest globular cluster in our galaxy, while the the Southern Cross constellation is as iconic in the southern skies as the Big Dipper constellation is in the north.
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Because the orbit of the Moon is tilted slightly to the the Ecliptic (the orbital path that the planets follow) there will occasionally be times when the Moon passes in front of the planets blocking them from view for a short time. The photo above was taken as the planet Mars emerges from behind the Moon on this most recent occultation on December 7, 2022. At the time this photo was taken Mars was 51 million miles distant while the moon is only 1/4 million miles away. The juxtaposition of the two bodies in the same field-of-view provides a dramatic sense of scale.
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Left – A recent photo of Jupiter showing the “Great Red Spot” and one of the four Galilean Moons – Io.
Right – A recent Pass of the International Space Station appears to arc gracefully above my house.
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Photos of ‘The Great Christmas Conjunction” of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in 2020. The two planets have not appeared this close to each other in the sky in over 800 years (1/10 of a degree or 1/5 the diameter of the Full Moon). Though they appear to be nearly touching they are in fact separated by over 500 million miles. The photo on the Left was taken with a Digital camera and a 45mm lens @ f2.8 – 3 sec exposure ISO1250. The close-up photo on the Right shows both planets and three of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons (Ganymede was behind Jupiter at the time) taken through my 120mm refractor telescope. Since it is difficult to capture Jupiter, Saturn, and the Galilean moons all in focus with a single exposure through the telescope, the photo is actually a composite of three separate frames which were combined to render the image to show what was visible through the telescope.
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Left – Photo of Jupiter.
Right – As always, Saturn is a magnificent sight.
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Photo of Mars – Each year the Earth and Mars approach one another as they orbit the Sun but since their orbits are elliptical rather than circular the minimum distance that separates the two planets varies from year to year. On October 6, 2020 Mars approached to within 38.6 million miles and was brighter than every other planet in the solar system with the exception of the Moon. Mars won’t be this close to the Earth again until the year 2035. On the Right is a map identifying the major surface features as seen in the photo. The South Polar Ice Cap is visible on the lower right side of the planet.
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Left – The comet NEOWISE was the surprise event of July 2020 becoming easily visible to the naked eye and arguably the best naked-eye comet since 2002. Right – A time-lapse photo of a thunderstorm taken at Lake McConaughy in Nebraska.

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Recent Additions or Edits to this Website

  • 4-27-26: Star Clusters – Open Clusters – “M38 in Auriga – Starfish Cluster”
  • 4-27-26: Star Clusters – Open Clusters – “NGC 1907 in Auriga”
  • 4-23-26: Double Stars – Serpens – “6 Serpentis BU 32”
  • 4-22-26: Double Stars – Ursa Major – “Alula Borealis STF 1524”
  • 4-20-26: Globular Clusters – Canes Venatici “M3”
  • 4-20-26: Globular Clusters – Hydra “M68”
  • 4-20-26: Globular Clusters – Scorpio “M4” & “M62”
  • 4-17-26: Double Stars – Hydra – “STF 1473”
  • 4-16-26: Carbon Stars – “U Hydrae”
  • 4-15-26: Double Stars – Equuleus – “Beta Equulei HJ 3023”
  • 4-15-26: The Nearest Stars – Added RECONS #98 “GL Virginis”
  • 4-15-26: Double Stars – Virgo – Replaced Photo of “Gamma Virginis – Porrima”
  • 4-15-26: Double Stars – Virgo – “k Virginis STF 1704”
  • 4-15-26: White Dwarf Binaries – “LHS 448 – Virgo”
  • 4-14-26: Double Stars – Virgo – “SKF 891”
  • 4-14-26: Double Stars – Virgo – “Theta Virginis STF 1724”
  • 4-13-26: Double Stars – Hydra – “STF 1474”
  • 4-13-26: Double Stars – Hydra – “Theta Hydrae HJ 2489”
  • 4-12-26 : Variable Stars – Updated the Light Curves for “T Draconis”
  • 4-10-26 : Star Clusters – Globular Clusters – “M62 in Ophiuchus”
  • 4-8-26: Double Stars – Cancer – “Alpha Cancri HJ 110”
  • 4-5-26: Double Stars – Cancer – “STF 1300”
  • 4-2-26: Double Stars – Cassiopeia – “STF 283”
  • 3-19-26: The Moon – Added Photos of the March 3rd Total Lunar Eclipse
  • 3-18-26: The Nearest Stars – Added wide-field photo of 40 Eridani
  • 10-31-25: Double Stars – Cassiopeia – “Psi Cas H V 83”
  • 8-27-25: Updated Nature Photos – “Humming Birds“
  • 7-2-25: Double Stars – Serpens – “STF 1945 & STF 1990”
  • 6-20-25: Skyscapes – “Mars-Regulus Conjunction”
  • 3-29-25: Double Stars – White Dwarf Binaries – “SKF 45”
  • 2-6-25: Double Stars – Cassiopeia – “STF 45”
  • 12-28-24: Double Stars – Lacerta – “KPP 2277”
  • 12-28-24: Double Stars – Ursa Major – “STF 1315”
  • 12-27-24: Double Stars – Cassiopeia – “FOX 106”
  • 12-9-24 : Double Stars – Piscis Austrinus – “Alpha PsA – Fomalhaut”
  • 12-1-24 : Kuiper Belt Objects – “Pluto in Sagittarius 9-1 & 9-3 2015”
  • 11-30-24: Double Stars – Pisces – “Delta Piscium – BUP 11”
  • 11-28-24: Carbon Stars – “TX (19) Piscium”
  • 11-27-24: Double Stars – Pisces – “65 Piscium – STF 61”
  • 11-27-24: Double Stars – Pisces – “35 Piscium – STF 12”
  • 11-26-24: Double Stars – Pisces – “Alpha Piscium – STF 202”
  • 11-19-24: The Nearest Stars – “IL Aquarii – Ross 780”
  • 11-16-24: Double Stars – Orion – “STF 667”
  • 11-16-24: Double Stars – Pisces – “72 Piscium TOK 225”
  • 11-12-24: Planets – “Moon-Saturn Conjunction 11-10-24”
  • 11-12-24: Double Stars – Pisces – “HJ 10”
  • 11-12-24: Double Stars – Piscis Austrinus – “H VI 119”
  • 10-20-24: Double Stars – Leo Major – “STF 1448”
  • 10-20-24: Double Stars – Leo Major – “81 Leo – HJ 4433”
  • 10-14-24: Home Page – Comet “C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS”
  • 10-14-24: Double Stars – Ursa Major – “KR 32”
  • 10-14-24: Double Stars – Camelopardalis – “STF 1455”
  • 10-14-24: Double Stars – Ursa Minor – “STF 1410”
  • 10-12-24: Home Page – “The Sun 10-11-24”
  • 10-12-24: Home Page – “Aurora Borealis 10-10-24”
  • 10-10-24: Double Stars – Leo Minor – “11 Leo Minoris – HU 1128”
  • 10-9-24 : Star Clusters – Globular Clusters – “NGC 2419 & STF 1118 in Lynx”
  • 10-9-24 : Double Stars – Lynx – “NGC 2419 & STF 1118 in Lynx”
  • 10-8-24 : Double Stars – Libra – “STF 1899”
  • 10-8-24 : Double Stars – Libra – “STF 1962”
  • 10-8-24 : The Nearest Stars – “LHS 2 – GJ 1002 in Cetus”
  • 10-8-24 : Double Stars – Perseus – “STF 441 “
  • 10-6-24 : Double Stars – Capricorn – “24 Capricorni – SEE 439 “
  • 10-6-24 : Double Stars – Capricorn – “Omicron (12) Capricorni”
  • 10-4-24 : The Nearest Stars – “Lacaille 9352 – LHS 70”
  • 10-4-24 : The Nearest Stars – “Ross 154”
  • 10-4-24 : Double Stars – Aquila – “ROE 112”
  • 10-4-24 : Double Stars – Aquila – “23 Aquilae STF 2492”
  • 10-1-24 : Double Stars – Hercules – “WFC 216”
  • 10-1-24 : Double Stars – Lynx – “KR 29”
  • 9-29-24: Double Stars – Libra – “Mu Librae BU 106”
  • 9-26-24: Double Stars – Sagitta – “HJ 2851”
  • 9-23-24: Star Clusters – Open Clusters & Asterisms – “Kemble 2”
  • 9-22-24: Double Stars – Scutum – “Delta Scuti RST 4594”
  • 9-21-24: Double Stars – Scutum – “ARN 95”
  • 9-19-24: Nebulas – “The Scutum Star Cloud”
  • 9-19-24: Star Clusters – Open Clusters & Asterisms – “M11”
  • 9-18-24: Double Stars – Lacerta – “15 Lacertae BU 451”
  • 9-18-24: Double Stars – Lacerta – “16 Lacertae STF 2960”
  • 9-17-24: Double Stars – Libra – “KX Librae H N 28”
  • 9-17-24: Double Stars – Leo Major – “7 Leo” & “74 Leo”
  • 9-16-24: Double Stars – Monoceros – “Zeta Mon STF 1190”
  • 9-16-24: Open Clusters – “NGC 1502”
  • 9-16-24: Double Stars – Cygnus – “Lassell 1”
  • 9-15-24: Star Clusters – Globular Clusters – “M79”
  • 9-11-24: Double Stars – Hercules – Revised “Alpha Herculis”
  • 9-10-24: New MENU Item – Double Stars A-C – “Bemporad Doubles”
  • 9-10-24: Double Stars – Leo Minor – “UU Leo Minor STTA 104”
  • 9-9-24 : Double Stars – Leo Major – “Delta Leonis STT 573”
  • 9-9-24 : Double Stars – Leo Major – “Zeta Leonis STFA 18”
  • 9-8-24 : Double Stars – Lacerta – “10 Lacertae S 813”
  • 9-8-24 : Double Stars – Lacerta – “2 Lacertae HJ 1755”
  • 9-7-24 : Double Stars – Lacerta – “STT 477”
  • 9-7-24 : Double Stars – Lacerta – “Alpha Lacertae BU 703”
  • 9-4-24 : Carbon Stars – “Chi Cygni”
  • 9-4-24 : Carbon Stars – “RS Cygni”
  • 9-2-24 : Variable Stars – “Chi Cygni”
  • 8-29-24: Double Stars – Sagitta – “Epsilon Sagittae H IV 26”
  • 8-28-24: Double Stars – Sagitta – “U Sagittae & STF 2500”
  • 8-28-24: Double Stars – Sagitta – “STF 2634”
  • 8-27-24: Double Stars – Gemini “Mu Geminorum BU 1059”
  • 8-27-24: Double Stars – Gemini “Nu Geminorum STTA 77”
  • 8-26-24: Double Stars – Antila “Zeta 1 & Zeta 2”
  • 8-26-24: Double Stars – Cassiopeia “STF 121”
  • 8-26-24: Star Clusters – Open Clusters & Asterisms – “NGC 2266”
  • 8-26-24: Double Stars – Coma Berenices “KPP 1714”
  • 8-24-24: Edited introduction to “The Nearest Stars” Page
  • 8-23-24: Double Stars – Hydra – “HJ 4465”
  • 8-22-24: Double Stars – Orion – “Xi Orionis J2016”
  • 8-22-24: Double Stars – Pegasus – “Fox 103”
  • 8-22-24: Double Stars – Sagitta – “Zeta Sge AGC 11”
  • 8-22-24: Double Stars – Serpens – “5 Serpentis STF 1930”
  • 8-22-24: Double Stars – Serpens – “Psi 1 Serpentis STFB 12”
  • 8-22-24: Double Stars – Serpens – “d (59) Serpentis STF 2316”
  • 8-20-24: Double Stars – Vulpecula – “STF 2521 & HJ 2871”
  • 8-20-24: Double Stars – Vulpecula – Close-up “HJ 2871”
  • 8-19-24: Double Stars – Andromeda – “STT 5”
  • 8-18-24: The Nearest Stars – “Proper Motion of Groombridge 34”
  • 8-17-24: New MENU Item – “Nature Photos”
  • 8-16-24: Star Clusters – Globular Clusters – “Mayall II”
  • 8-31-24: New MENU Item – “Variable Stars“