Archive for December, 2025

A collection of SeeStar night sky “happy snaps”

December 31, 2025

I have found the SeeStar S50 to be fantastic for variable star photometry and general night sky imaging.

For those of us with less spare time than we’d like, chronic back pain, and a willingness to allow our hobby to evolve (or some subset of these), devices in the category of “smart telescope” like the SeeStar, are something of a revolution.

The S50 field of view (0.73 x 1.29 degrees) is great for many deep sky objects (nebulae, star clusters, galaxies) variable stars, asteroids, some comets, Luna, and the Sun. My current primary use cases are deep sky objects and variable stars.

The fields in which variable stars appear are often themselves quite varied and beautiful and that deserves a separate post.

Below is a small gallery of some deep sky images I’ve taken with the S50 from my back yard over the last year or so, each with a catalog designation, name, constellation (unless obvious from the name) and total exposure time (from multiple 10 second images stacked by the device). Noise reduction has been applied to most via the SeeStar app.

M 16: Eagle Nebula (Serpens, 21 mins)
M 8: Lagoon Nebula (Sagittarius, 5 mins)
NGC 7293: Helix Nebula (Aquarius, 19 mins)
C 92: Eta Carina and Keyhole nebulae (4 mins)
M 42: Great Orion Nebula (3 mins)
NGC 5128: Centaurus A galaxy (19 mins)
M 17: Omega or Swan Nebula (Sagittarius, 22 mins)
see below (1)
M 1: Crab Nebula (Taurus, 50 mins)
Abell 21: Medusa Nebula (Gemini, 36 mins)
M 104: Sombrero Galaxy (Virgo, 22 mins)
see below (2)
NGC 2244: Rosette Cluster (Monoceros, 24 mins)
NGC 253: Sculptor or Silver Coin Galaxy (Sculptor, 38 mins)
NGC 3293: Gem Cluster (Carina, 5 mins)
M 22: globular cluster (Sagittarius, 1.5 mins)
M 20: Triffid Nebula (Sagittarius, 7 mins)
47 Tucana: globular star cluster (4.5 mins)
  1. Horsehead (Barnard 33) and Flame (NGC 2024) nebulae (Orion, 51 mins)
  2. NGC 2070: Tarantula Nebula (Large Magellanic Cloud, 16 mins)

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62

December 25, 2025

Carl Sagan (Wikimedia)
Christopher Hitchens (Vanity Fair)

I turned 62 on November 26th 2025.

Carl Sagan and Christopher Hitchens were both 62 when they died.

Sagan was born on November 9th 1934. He died on December 20th 1996 from pneumonia after a struggle with myelodysplasia, in which bone marrow stem cells fail to yield mature red, white blood cells and platelets.

Hitch was born on April 13th 1949 and died on December 15th 2011 after a battle with oesophageal cancer, and in the end, like Sagan, from pneumonia.

I remember a feeling of deep sadness and loss when I heard the news of Sagan’s death. I did not know of Hitch until about two years after he died but recall a retrospective sense of loss upon becoming familiar with his work.

Sagan was a scientist, author, presenter of the inspiring Cosmos series, co-founder of the Planetary Society, and the prototype of all future successful science communicators.

Hitch was a fearless journalist, writer and speaker, with an amazing recall of literature and history, an ironic wit, and blistering debating skills.

They were both great orators with a masterful grasp of the English language.

They both warned about the dangers of pseudoscience, irrationality and ideological thinking.

Both are sorely needed and missed at a time when opinions seem to carry as much weight as reasoned argument and the findings of Science.

They were not alive for long enough.

I wish they were still here.

Our world needs more like them.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. (Carl Sagan)

Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way. (Christopher Hitchens)

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