Comet C/2019 Y4 with TAL200K

Comet C/2019 Y4 yesterday evening April 20, 2020. Picture taken with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K f/8.5 with setting : ISO 6400, 11x60s exposure time. Raw pictures converted to DNG and stacking using DeepSkyStacker. Stacking was done with comet option.

Lyrid Meteor Shower this night.

It will be a clear sky and thus perfect to watch Lyrid Meteors. The best moment is to wait untill after midnight, wednesday morning. Nights are still dark and it's possible to see 15 meteors/hour.
Good luck :)

Whirlpool Galaxy M51

A combination of two sessions : session of April 21 and April 10 2020. Total exposure 51min. Picture taken with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K f/8.5. DeepSkyStacker was used to stack the pictures and CS4 for final editing.

The Pinwheel Cluster M36

Messier M36, an open star cluster, and known as the Pinwheel Cluster observed with Nikon D7500 and TAL200K f/8.5. Setting ISO1600 and 12x60s exposure. Raw pictures converted to DNG and stacked using DeepSkyStacker. Final editing with CS4.

New Comet C/2020 F8 SWAN - Naked eye comet next month May

Only very recently a new comet was discoverd which could be visible with the naked eye somewhere end of May. Currently the comet is only seen in the southern hemisphere but as from mid May the comet is also visible in the northern hemisphere. At that time however very low above the horizon and just after sunset.

It's not clear yet of this comet, C/2020 F8 SWAN, is periodical or not. Latest observations conclude the comet is hyperbolic and thus will be seen only once.

I uploaded the orbit elements of the comet C/2020 F8 SWAN already into Stellarium but as said above, changes are still possible. 

DeepSkyStacker and Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas April 9th 2020

Setting : fixed comet and stars

Editing comet pictures is not that easy... until my Helios collegue Walter demonstrated this.
First upload and select the pictures and next complete registration, but without stacking. Once this is done, click on each picture and select "comet" sign (right of the picture). Hold shift and select the comet and click the position. Do this for all pictures. Once completed, select stacking and use advanced setting. Click comets and choose "fix" comet or "fix comet and stars".  The difference between both is that with the first setting, the comet will be fixed with stars in the back showing up as startrails. The second setting takes more time and will both fix the comet and stars.

As a result I restacked my pictures from Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas from April 9th, 2020.

Setting : Comet fixed

Clear Skies

So far the end of March and the beginning of April had many clear skies. It looks that this weekend clouds will appear but as from Sunday onwards clear skies are showing up again...