Astronomy for Change Celebrates the 2026 Summer Solstice with Two Jewels of the Summer Sky

Imaged with Insight Observatory's Remote Telescope Network

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As the 2026 Summer Solstice arrived on June 21 at 4:24 AM EDT, marking the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, Thomas Madigan from Astronomy for Change took the occasion to turn his attention to two of the most stunning deep-sky objects the summer sky has to offer — and he did it using Insight Observatory's world-class remote telescope network.

In a feature article published on the Astronomy for Change website, Dr. Daly explores the science behind the Summer Solstice — explaining how the Earth's 23.5-degree axial tilt, not its distance from the Sun, is responsible for the seasonal changes we experience — before guiding readers toward the southern summer sky and two spectacular globular clusters now well-placed for observation.

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Two Globular Clusters, Two Hemispheres, One Network
Leveraging Insight Observatory's remotely accessible 0.40-meter (16″) Ritchey-Chrétien Deep-Space Reflectors, Dr. Daly captured 16-minute exposures of both targets from opposite sides of the world:

Messier 22 imaged by Thomas Madigan on Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, AFIL-19, located in Pie Town, New Mexico, USA.

Messier 22 in Sagittarius was imaged using Insight Observatory's instrument at Pie Town, New Mexico, USA. Located approximately 10,000 light-years from Earth, M22 is one of the brightest and most richly populated globular clusters in the night sky, harboring between 100,000 and 300,000 ancient stars.

Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram of Messier 22, based on image data from the Insight Observatory and created by Thomas Madigan.

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Messier 4 imaged by Thomas Madigan on Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, AFIL-40, located in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile.

Messier 4 in Scorpio was captured with Insight Observatory's telescope in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile. At just under 7,000 light-years distant, M4 is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. This proximity makes it appear notably larger in the field of view, even though its stellar population is comparable to M22. It can be found just west of Antares, the brilliant red giant heart of the scorpion.

Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram of Messier 4, based on image data from the Insight Observatory and created by Thomas Madigan.

Both clusters are currently well-placed in the southern sky through June and July and are accessible to backyard observers with a good pair of binoculars — a point Mr. Madigan enthusiastically emphasizes in his article.

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Science Beyond the Image
What makes this collaboration particularly noteworthy is what Mr. Madigan plans to do with the data next. In an upcoming follow-up post, he will release full-resolution images of both M22 and M4 alongside Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams generated using PixInsight's HR Plotter — a third-party add-on tool that produces scientifically valuable stellar classification diagrams directly from imaging data. The HR diagram, one of the most fundamental tools in stellar astrophysics, reveals a cluster's age, stellar composition, and evolutionary history — elevating these images from purely aesthetic works to scientifically meaningful datasets.

This kind of work is precisely the mission that drives the partnership between Astronomy for Change and Insight Observatory: combining the accessibility of remote telescope technology with rigorous scientific methodology and public education.

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About the Partnership
Insight Observatory's remotely accessible telescope network spans five continents, giving educators, researchers, and enthusiasts worldwide access to professional-grade instrumentation from their homes or classrooms. The collaboration with Astronomy for Change reflects a shared commitment to advancing public engagement with astronomy and making deep-sky observation accessible to all.

To read Mr. Madigan's full Summer Solstice 2026 article and view the complete imagery, visit: 🔗 https://astronomyforchange.org/summer-solstice-2026-and-two-favorite-celestial-jewels-of-the-summer-sky/

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Beyond the Classroom: 4th Graders Photograph Nebulae and Galaxies

Students in Ms. DeSantis’ 4th-grade class at Plymouth South Elementary School, located in Plymouth, MA, recently had the privilege of participating in Insight Observatory's educational outreach program, an experience that proved both motivating and deeply inspiring.

The project began with students exploring the Insight Observatory website to familiarize themselves with the 16” Dream Aerospace System astrograph reflector telescope and its location at the Utah Desert Remote Observatories. Through guided discussion, they examined why Beryl, Utah, serves as an ideal site for deep space photography and broadened their perspective by researching other premier observing locations around the world. With that foundational knowledge in place, each student selected either a planetary nebula or a galaxy to be photographed by the telescope using Insight Observatory's Educational Image Request (EIR) application.

Students then undertook a comprehensive research project on their chosen object, covering the three main classifications of nebulae, the processes by which nebulae form, and the remarkable distances and physical scales involved. By the time their images arrived, students were already deeply familiar with their subjects — which made the moment of receiving their photographs all the more rewarding.

Just a few of the deep sky targets, Ms. DeSantis ' 4th-grade class imaged remotely on Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, ATEO-1, located at Utah Desert Remote Observatories.

Upon seeing their images, the class engaged in rich discussion about the immensity of cosmic distances and the extraordinary variety and beauty found among deep space objects. Students consistently highlighted two aspects of the project as most memorable: the vivid colors and diverse shapes revealed in their images, and the anticipation of waiting for their photographs to arrive. They also expressed a sense of wonder at the fact that a ground-based telescope on Earth is capable of capturing objects located light-years away.

The class extends its sincere gratitude to Insight Observatory for providing both the imagery and the supporting information that made this project such a meaningful and enriching experience.

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Telescopius - Astronomy Planning Made Easy

Insight Observatory recently developed a beneficial partnership with Telescopius.com (formerly known as DSO-Browser). Telescopius is a great online tool for astrophotographers who are planning an astrophotography session. The website provides plenty of useful information covering the deep-sky objects visible from your telescope's location and hosts an active community with an image gallery to share your images.

The Insight Observatory Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) locations are listed in the Telescopius Observatory Parameters section.

Since developing and releasing the ATEO Portal, Personal Image Request (PIR), and Educational Image Request (EIR) online applications for accessing Insight Observatory's three remote telescopes, we have always provided a link to Telescopius.com to allow imagers to get some recommendations for deep-sky targets. Our online applications, in text, provided the ATEO remote telescopes' geographic coordinates and locations so the user or student could enter them on Telescopius.com to view and choose targets from our two remote observatory locations. Recommending using Telescopius to our users was very helpful with selecting targets both in the classroom and for personal use.

In late February this year, Insight Observatory and Telescopius partnered up to bring the perfect deep-sky target selection possible with the use of the ATEO remote telescope network. Insight Observatory's two remote telescope locations are now integrated into the website. When a user or student chooses one of our three telescopes to image with, then clicks telescopius.com to look for target recommendations, the location of the telescope and observatory is immediately selected. There is no longer a need to enter in the coordinates and locations manually. If you go directly to telescopius.com and click in the "Observatory Parameters" field, you will see Insight Observatory listed. When clicked on, it displays all three ATEO remote telescope locations. SkyPi Remote Observatory for ATEO-1 and ATEO-2A and Deep Sky Chile for ATEO-3. One of my personal favorite "What's in the Sky Tonight" features is the hourly and monthly altitude graph that displays the rise, transit, and set times of a deep-sky target. That gives the imager information for the best time to capture that object.

Screenshot of Telescopius.com's Telescope Simulator tool demonstrating the field of view of M45, The Pleiades through Insight Observatory's 16" f/3.7 astrograph reflector, ATEO-1.

Telescopius' owner and developer, Sebastian Garcia, went above and beyond in addition to the features he developed previously mentioned. Sebastian also added all three ATEO remote telescopes to the Telescopius Telescope Simulator. This tool allows users and students to select a telescope and deep-sky target to analyze the field of view (FOV). There have been numerous occasions when working in the educational environment when we would receive questions from instructors asking which telescope would be the best to image certain objects. Now users and students can see how the object "fits" in the field of view of the telescope they are choosing. This makes the process of our educational programs more intuitive than they already are.

Insight Observatory would like to thank Sebastian Garcia for his contributions and efforts to our ongoing mission of "Bringing the Universe to Classrooms Around the World!"

Telescopius is a free online application and is funded largely by donations via Patreon and PayPal.

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Observing and Photographing Meteors

On just about any evening under a dark sky, you’re likely to see a meteor or two streak across the starscape. They catch you by surprise, serving as a reminder that space is not static - things are moving out there, and fast. With the annual Perseid meteor show upon us, Orion Telescopes and Binoculars provides the following guide on how to successfully observe and photograph meteors.

What Are Meteors? 

Often called "shooting stars," meteors are really particles from outer space - fragments of comets and asteroids - that burn up from friction as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. While still in space, the particles are called meteoroids. A very bright meteor is about the size of a grape; typical meteors are more the size of tiny pebbles or grains of sand. A very large meteor may break up as it penetrates the atmosphere, throwing off sparks. Occasionally, a meteor may even make noise as it shoots through the air, though this is rare. The largest meteors do not completely incinerate and actually land on Earth as rocks, called meteorites.

A fireball is a very bright meteor loosely defined as being brighter than the planet Venus, whose maximum magnitude is -4.7.

Perseid meteor shower to illuminate the night sky the week of August 11th - Image by Mansfield News Journal.

Ordinarily, you can see about one meteor per hour at a dark-sky location if you watch the sky continuously. These are sporadic (random) meteors, not associated with specific meteor showers. You will see more meteors after midnight since you are then on the "forward" side of the Earth as it moves along in its orbit.

Meteors En Masse - Meteor Showers 

A meteor shower happens when the Earth enters a swarm of meteoroids, usually debris from a comet that trails along in the comet’s orbit. At certain times of the year, the Earth’s orbit intersects that of a comet, and we get pelted with the debris.

Then, the meteor rate rises to 10 or 20 per hour, and possibly even 100 or more per hour at the maximum of some showers! The meteors in a shower all appear to come from the same general area in the sky. More precisely, if you trace the path of each meteor backward, you’ll find that they converge near one point in the sky. That point is called the radiant, and it is different for different showers. Each shower is named for the constellation in which its radiant is located. For example, the Perseid shower in August has its radiant in the constellation Perseus. It is often hard to tell whether a meteor belongs to a particular shower or not since even during a shower, some meteors appear far from the radiant or are moving in slightly different directions.

Because they occur at particular positions in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, meteor showers recur on the same date every year. Most showers last two or three days; some are longer, and some are very brief.

Some meteoroid swarms have orbital periodicities of their own, so we don’t encounter them every year. For example, the Leonids were spectacular in 1933, 1966, and 2001. In the "off" years, few or no Leonid meteors are seen.

Below is a list of major showers; many minor ones are producing smaller numbers of meteors. One major shower, the Quadrantids, is named for an obsolete constellation corresponding to part of Bootes.

Observing Meteors

Meteor watching is like fishing. You cast your sights upward, sit back, wait a while, and see if you get any bites. You’ll increase your chances by going to a dark-sky location, away from suburban light pollution. Most meteors aren’t very bright, so you’ll see more of them if you go to a dark country site. Your chances of logging meteors are also improved when the Moon is below the horizon, or during the new Moon phase, as moonlight can wash out all but the brightest fireballs.

Observing meteors is a naked-eye activity. You don’t need, or even want, a telescope or binoculars to view meteors, as these will only restrict your field of view. You want to be able to visually canvas as much of the sky as possible because meteors can flash anywhere. For scientific work, you’ll need a star chart (for plotting meteor paths) and a ruler (to hold up against the sky to note exactly where a meteor went). More important is a lawn chair and, if appropriate, blankets to keep you comfortable during your vigil.

You will notice that meteors not only differ in brightness but also in speed and length of travel. Some appear to move relatively slowly, glowing for a second or two, while others streak quickly and are gone in a fraction of a second. Some of the brightest meteors leave vapor trails in the sky that can linger for several seconds after the meteor has disappeared.

While looking for meteors, you’ll see plenty of airplanes and satellites, too. How do you distinguish them from meteors? For one, meteors move much faster. Another dead giveaway for an airplane is a blinking light. Binoculars will help you identify airplanes, which normally have more than one light. A satellite looks like a slowly moving star. An iridium satellite occasionally reflects sunlight so that it looks like a bright, slow meteor; however, the movement is much slower and it fades out rather than burning up suddenly.

Telescopic Meteors 

Occasionally, you’ll see a tiny, distant meteor in binoculars or a low-power telescope. These are called telescopic meteors and are so rare that you probably shouldn’t spend time looking for them — but take note when you happen to see one while viewing other things.

Photograph a Falling Star

Photographing meteors is relatively easy — if you encounter a meteor at the right place and right time! The technique is to use a DSLR or camera with a manual exposure setting using a normal or wide-angle lens (preferably f/2.8 or faster) and take a long exposure of the stars. If a bright meteor comes through the field, the camera will probably catch it.

The camera can stand on a fixed tripod (recording the stars as trails due to the Earth’s motion) or on a clock-driven telescope (to get pinpoint images of the stars). Light pollution and your local sky quality conditions will limit how long the exposure can be before the image quality degrades. Experiment with different exposures and ISO settings to determine the best results for your set-up and location.

You’ll likely catch a lot of airplane and satellite trails in your pictures, too. You can distinguish them from meteor trails by their uniform thickness (or the regularly spaced dots from an airplane’s blinking light). A meteor trail is usually not uniformly thick, but rather almost always exhibits a bright "head" where the meteor burned up.

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A Perspective of M57 - The Ring Nebula

Recently one of Insight Observatory's generous Patreon supporters, Luis V., requested a dataset of M57, The Ring Nebula, from the 16" f/3.7 Dream astrograph reflector (ATEO-1). After processing the data myself in CCDStack for him, I realized how good the data of M57 really was. Unfortunately, my processing skills don't come close to what most astrophotographers are capable of doing with good image data. Therefore, I shared out the dataset of M57 with Utkarsh Mishra, one of Insight Observatory's Starbase dataset subscribers who is also an accomplished image processor.

Cropped image of M57 - The Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra. Image data acquired by Insight Observatory's ATEO-1 and the 2 Meter Liverpool Telescope. Image processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

What surprised us both was that with such a small amount of data, Utkarsh was able to pull out so much detail of the planetary nebula as well as the background. Utkarsh processed close to only 4 hrs of data acquired from the 16" f/3.7 reflector remote online telescope. 1 hour of Luminance, 50 minutes of Red, 40 minutes of Green, and 45 minutes of Blue (all binning 1x1). He also added H-Alpha data from the 2-meter Liverpool telescope at 120 seconds with a 35% blend of RGB from the telescope. The H-Alpha data exposed the outer part of the Ring Nebula much more than the LRGB data from ATEO-1 could do alone. The 15th-magnitude spiral galaxy IC 1296 is also visible just to the upper right of the nebula in the cropped frame above. The software applications used by Utkarsh for processing were Pixinsight, Photoshop CSS, and DeepSkyStacker.

The complete field of view (FOV) image of M57 - The Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra. Image data acquired by Insight Observatory's ATEO-1 and the 2 Meter Liverpool Telescope. Image processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

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Illuminating The Iris Nebula

Insight Observatory had the opportunity to be involved in another imaging collaborative. This time, a mosaic image of The Iris Nebula, also known as NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4. This deep-sky object is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. Paul Swift, a talented and well-known astrophotographer teamed up with another accomplished astrophotographer, Carmelo Falco, to produce this illuminating image of the Iris Nebula below.

Mosaic image of The Iris Nebula, also known as NGC 7023 processed by Paul Swift using data collected by Carmelo Falco, Insight Observatory, and the majority of the data by Paul himself.

This mosaic of the Iris Nebula is made up of data from different focal lengths. 380mm, 1330mm, 1525mm, and 3400mm. This image shows some magenta at the core in the form of reddish photoluminescence. The data collected by Paul Swift was from his backyard in Valencia, Spain. His setup consists of VSD Vixen 380mm and 14" Orion Optics AG 1330mm Newtonian astrograph on a Paramount MX mount, an SX-46 CCD camera with an SX Maxi wheel (with Luminance, Red, Green and Blue filters) from Starlight Xpress Ltd.

The central area image data of the nebula was collected by Carmelo using a 16" f/7.8 (customed 3400mm) Ritchey-Chretien telescope on an RM500 mount accompanied by an Apogee Asping GG16m CCD camera, Orion SteadyStar - Lodestar guiding system, and a Baader Luminance, Red, Green and Blue filter set.

The Three imaging systems used to collect data of NGC 7023, The Iris Nebula. Carmelo Falco's 16" f/7.8 Ritchey-Chretien (left), Paul Swift's 14" Orion Optics AG (above right), and Insight Observatory's 16" f/3.7 Dream astrograph reflector, ATEO-1, (lower right).

Additional Luminance data for the outer areas of the nebula was collected by Insight Observatory's 16" f/3.7 astrograph reflector, ATEO-1. This image data was purchased by Mr. Swift as part of Insight's "Datasets on Demand" service where astrophotographers may request data to be acquired from ATEO-1 and ATEO-2A for the purpose of combining the image data with their own. After delivery of the requested image data, it is then added to the Starbase dataset library. Starbase is a deep-sky dataset subscription service that will be accessible via Insight Observatory's ATEO Portal this mid-summer.

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Eagle Nebula Collaboration Project

Insight Observatory's remote telescope was recently involved in a deep-sky imaging collaboration between two experienced astrophotographers. Utkarsh Mishra and Zhuoqun Wu teamed up to combine and process datasets resulting in the image below of Messier 16, The Eagle Nebula. The Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue data was acquired by Utkarsh with Insight Observatory's 16" astrograph reflector (ATEO-1) hosted in Pie Town, New Mexico, and the H-Alpha data was taken from Chilescope by Zhuoqun using a 20" ASA Newtonian astrograph. The data files were stacked using PixInsight and processed in Adobe Photoshop.

Insight Observatory has recently had an increase in deep-sky dataset subscribers that are involved in image collaborations with other astrophotographers using equipment at other locations around the world. Very exciting!

Messier 16, the Eagle Nebula imaged by Utkarsh Mishra and Zhuoqun Wu. 10 300-second Luminance, 14 300-second Red, 11 300-second Green, and 10 300-second Blue frames taken from ATEO-1 along with 50-Minutes of H-Alpha data acquired from Chilescope.

The Eagle Nebula (cataloged as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula and The Spire) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745–46. Both the "Eagle" and the "Star Queen" refer to visual impressions of the dark silhouette near the center of the nebula, an area made famous as the "Pillars of Creation" imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The nebula contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions, including the aforementioned Pillars of Creation.

The Eagle Nebula is part of a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is cataloged as IC 4703. This region of active current star formation is about 7000 light-years distant. A spire of gas that can be seen coming off the nebula in the northeastern part is approximately 9.5 light-years or about 90 trillion kilometers long.

Source: Wikipedia

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What's In the Sky - October 2018

October nights will be full of celestial treats to see with binoculars and telescopes. Here are some of Orion Telescopes and Binoculars' top October stargazing suggestions.

Draconids Meteor Shower

The annual Draconid meteor shower peaks just before nightfall on October 8th. While the Draconid isn't usually the strongest of meteor showers, it is known to have spectacular outbursts. Look towards the constellation Draco for your best chance to catch a glimpse of a Draconid meteor.

New Moon

For the best conditions to see the galaxies and clusters described above, plan a stargazing session for the night of October 9th, when the New Moon will provide dark skies. This is the best night of the month to observe the night sky since light from stars and faint deep sky objects won't have to compete with bright moonlight.

NGC 281 - The "Pacman Nebula" - Imaged on ATEO-1 by 5th-Grade Students at Plymouth South Elementary School, Plymouth, MA.

A Challenging Nebula

Making a small equilateral triangle with the stars Eta and Alpha Cassiopeiae is the elusive Pac-Man Nebula, NGC 281. The Pac-Man is a famous target for astrophotographers, but it's not very easy to observe visually. From dark sky locations, you can pick out its faint glow with large binoculars, but a telescope at low power with the help of an Oxygen-III filter will show it best.

NGC 253 - Imaged by Michael Petrasko and Muir Evenden of Insight Observatory.

The Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)

Around midnight local time on October 3rd, the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) will be well-positioned for viewing as it will be at the highest point in the sky. Cataloged as both H V.1 and Bennett 4, this 7th magnitude beauty is also known as Caldwell 65, and due to both its brightness and the oblique angle, is often called the "Silver Dollar Galaxy."

Orionids Meteor Shower

After midnight and before the Sun rises on October 21 – 22, you can feast your eyes on the Orionid meteor shower. Look towards the eastern sky, where the constellation Orion will rise, for your best chance to see an Orionid meteor. As many as 50-70 meteors per hour will appear to radiate out of Orion Telescopes and Binoculars' namesake constellation. The full Moon’s brightness may hamper the visibility of all but very bright meteors.

Uranus at Opposition

Take advantage of the elusive planet Uranus as it reaches opposition on October 23rd. With Earth positioned between Uranus and the Sun along a roughly straight line, the opposition is when Uranus will be in its orbit's nearest point to Earth. Grab a star chart or StarSeek app to track down this magnitude 6.5 planet, which is just below naked-eye visibility, in the constellation Pisces. Since it's so far away from Earth, Uranus will be a very small bluish-green dot in large telescopes. While sighting the ice giant planet can be a challenge, it's worth the effort to know you're looking at one of the most distant planets in the Solar System.

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights where light pollution and bright moonlight do not overpower the stars.

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Hosting ATEO Images on Astrobin

After carefully seeking out an online gallery solution for their Deep-Sky Image Database of images taken by the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO), the crew at Insight Observatory has selected Astrobin.com as the platform.

AstroBin is an image-hosting website specifically designed for astrophotography. The service was created out of the desire to end something that had been going on for too long... The waste of incredible material to the sea of chaos that the Internet can be. For years, fantastic astrophotographs have been uploaded to Internet Forums, often with little or no data, or to general-purpose image hosting websites, invariably with no data attached.

Such an image would be seen by some people, then quickly forgotten, and reduced to nothing more than a bunch of pixels in the giant wasteland of the Internet.

Screenshot of IC 5067 - The Pelican Nebula Imaged on the ATEO on Astrobin.com.

Astrobin is the response to an effort to host, collect, index, and categorize the output of astrophotographers all over the world so that their precious data would serve a purpose, and have meaning forever.

This online service also allows "groups" to be created that will benefit Insight Observatory in separating and keeping track of data collected by school groups and individuals that utilize the ATEO remote robotic telescope located in New Mexico well as other third-party remote telescope networks they use.

Besides being able to describe the details of the image on their "Technical Card", Astrobin has useful educational features built into the website such as overlapping plates that label stars and other objects over the image as well as a "Sky Plot" chart that displays the deep-sky object's exact location.

http://www.astrobin.com/users/insightobs/

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An Eclipse Chaser’s Tale: February 16, 1980

Among astronomers, Eclipse Chasers are generally defined as those lucky enough and well-financed enough to travel the globe, placing themselves in the moon’s shadow wherever and whenever it falls. Some witness dozens of these stunning events during a lifetime. Me, well not so much. I’ve witnessed exactly one. Yet I am an “Eclipse Chaser” of a sort, nonetheless.

The glow of the Solar Corona During Totality All Photos by Harry Hammond.

Dirt roads in the bush of Africa can be notoriously lumpy, carved with ridges, and scalloped with potholes galore. Bouncing around in a safari-style van, we steered from village to village in the Southern corner of Kenya, seeking our quarry of clear skies. No matter the discomfort, though; totality was approaching, and we still could not dodge the thin morning clouds overhead while staying within the predicted path of totality. Our driver, a local called “Eddie” was a native Kikuyu, and knew his way around; we trusted him to make the best guesses at where we would find clear skies. As we quite literally bounced up and down, to and fro, we occasionally stuck our heads out windows, peering through handheld solar filters to get a look at the partial phases. We checked our watches nervously. We needed to pick a site soon.

Moon Eclipsing the Sun.

With perhaps 30 minutes until totality, we skidded to a dusty stop in a remote village and chose a clearing near a sagging and well-worn schoolhouse to set up equipment. Our group ranged in experience from neophytes to experts, and gear ranged from the simple naked eye to plastic-covered Mylar filters to sophisticated astrographs. At 11:19 local time, we experienced what we came to see. It was four-plus minutes of incredible sensation. Observing totality is, well, surreal. Breathtaking, moving, life-changing; all you’ve read about, and more.

As the moon continued past totality and partial phases resumed, the local school kids (perhaps aged six to ten) happily celebrated with us. One of the most memorable experiences of the entire trip was watching these youngsters see the eclipse through a telescope. Invariably, as the view settled in the eyepiece, they would give a shriek of excitement, pull back, laugh uproariously, and begin dancing. What a delight! A dozen or more barefoot, raucous kids running in circles, jumping, laughing, and shrieking joyously. They had just witnessed the unreal, the magical.

Solar Prominences During Totality.

You do not have to travel to Kenya or any other exotic locale to see next year’s solar eclipse. If you live in the United States, on August 21, 2017, will find a host of “Eclipse Chasers” heading for the 70-mile wide path of the moon’s shadow as it travels almost diagonally across the U.S., from Oregon to South Carolina. Those outside this path will see the sun partially obscured by the moon, the amount dependent on the observer's distance from the centerline. You can chase this one on modern, four-lane highways. Don’t miss it.

Information on solar eclipses, along with a century’s worth of scheduling can be found on eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Harry Hammond
Mashpee, MA

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Cobb Astro Park

On Saturday afternoon, January 30, 2016, The Cotuit Library hosted a talk entitled "The Sky Show" for the general public presented by Barnstable High School astronomy teacher, Michael Gyra and one of his students, Albert Brox III. The presentation started with Mr. Gyra showing a PowerPoint presentation displaying impressive pictures of occasional stargazing and observing sessions he and his astronomy students put on at Sandy Neck beach located in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Mike also displayed a series of astronomical slides and shared interesting facts about them. A few that stuck out were the distance of astronomical objects and the gravitational lensing. One of Mike's former students, Kevin Harrington is graduating from Umass with a double major in Astronomy and Neuroscience. Kevin was part of a team who identified 8 new sources (early galaxies) through gravitational lensing.

Cobb Astro Park - Photo by Mike Gyra.

What I found to be the most impressive part of the talk was what Mike and a team of others accomplished on the campus of Barnstable High School. The center courtyard at the High School was a forgotten space for many years, overgrown with weeds and basically ignored. Over the span of 11 years, since 2004, Mike and his team (as well as help from students) transformed the courtyard into the Cobb Astro Park. The park features gardens, murals, mosaics, marble sculptures, a labyrinth, and an observatory. The park has an unmistakably Greek Esque decor, with Doric columns all around its perimeter, an amphitheater, statues of Poseidon and The Winged Victory, an interactive sundial, and murals depicting the Parthenon and astronomical constellations.

Albert Brox III Controlling  the 14" Telescope in the

David B. Cole Observatory - Photo by Mike Gyra.

Located at the center of the park is the David B. Cole Observatory, which features a retractable roof, a computer control room, and houses a Celestron 14" telescope equipped with a CCD camera system for imaging celestial objects. This brought us to the last part of the presentation. Mike's student, Albert, took over the lecture to display his collection of images of deep-sky objects he had taken through the observatory's telescope. Albert Brox III, a sophomore at the high school had imaged deep-sky objects M42 - The "Great Orion Nebula", M13 - The "Great Hercules Globular Cluster, and my personal favorite of his images, M1 - The "Crab Nebula" in the constellation of Taurus, a supernova remnant from a supernova first recorded by Chinese astronomers in AD 1054. Albert acquired and processed all of the images himself with astronomy imaging processing software such as MaximDL and Gimp. The amazing part of this story is that Albert has only been imaging for a little over half a year since the observatory became operational in July of 2015.

M1 - The "Crab Nebula" Imaged by Albert Brox III.

I was fortunate to meet and speak with Mr. Gyra and Mr. Brox after the talk about their accomplishments and how inspiring they were and how nice it was to hear of a high school participating in great depth with astronomy education. Mike and I also discussed a plan about Insight Observatory and Barnstable High School collaborating on astronomy projects with his astronomy classes for the next school year.

A sincere thank you to Mr. Gyra and Mr. Brox for sharing their interests and passion for astronomy with the public. Also, a special thank you to the Cotuit Library for their continuing series of talks on the subject of astronomy.

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Image Processing with Instagram

After recently installing the Instagram app on my iPhone, I found it has a well-designed and intuitive image processing tool built into it. The staff at Insight Observatory recently decided to add Instagram to its list of Social Networks as a platform to publish Astro-images that they or their clients have acquired using remote robotic telescopes for educational or personal purposes. Back on December 16, 2015, I personally imaged M42, the "Great Orion Nebula" remotely from Siding Spring, Australia. The exposure time was 5 minutes captured with a One-Shot Color CCD camera. After downloading the raw image file from my DropBox account onto my smartphone, I thought to myself "Why not make this image the first one to post on the new Insight Observatory Instagram account?"

M42 Processed with the Instagram Editing Tool.

As I proceeded to post the image of M42, I discovered the image editing tool in the app. I started experimenting with the app's tool and I saw that the editing tool extracted much more information from the image than could be seen on the original raw image file. This gave me the idea of integrating the Instagram app with lessons that Insight Observatory has developed for secondary schools that include imaging with remote robotic telescopes. The students could incorporate image processing with the Instagram app. It is already very popular and well known with many students of this age group. Most students are familiar with how to use the app as they most likely use it for personal social media purposes already. The Instagram app will also allow students to easily share the Astro-images they acquire and process with their friends and family on social media.

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Checkbook Astronomy

Held annually under the dark August skies of Springfield Vermont, a large gathering of amateur telescope makers unfolds on weekends chosen to coincide with the Perseid meteor shower. Called Stellafane, this “Shrine to the Stars” happening is attended by thousands of amateurs from around the world. They are all hoping to get in some dark-sky observing and admire telescopes designed and fabricated by others. This is all conducted in a friendly outdoor-camping, "down-home" atmosphere (which belies all the genius and mind-boggling technology at hand).

1990 Stellafane Convention - Springfield, Vermont.

In the late seventies, during a Stellafane's Friday night “Under the Tent Talks” sharing, I had the good pleasure of hearing a relative newcomer to the world of amateur astrophotographers. He had quickly zoomed nearly to the limit of what one could do with amateur gear, and his inspiring work was showing up in Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazines. His name was David Healy, and he was from Long Island, NY.

David stepped behind the modest podium and said respectfully to the assembly of mega-nerds, “I am not a telescope maker (huh? This is Stellafane!), I am a telescope BUYER.” The audience was caught off-guard and cracked up. He then went on to explain how his astrophotos were made with gear he had purchased. It was a talk graced with wit, insight, and plenty of self-effacing humor.

Hey, who has not lusted over those shiny Schmidt-Cass telescopes, CCD cameras, and exotic telescope mounts, jumping from the full-color pages of astronomy mags? But oh those prices! Gonna cost you to crank out dramatic astrophotos, son! David Healy candidly admitted he had the dough, being a NY-based stockbroker/analyst. But he lacked fabrication skills and hit the hobby head-on with his checkbook, with superb results.

I have always been scratching for funds to do astronomy. It’s just the way it is. No sour grapes toward Mr. Healy or anyone else who can afford big-ticket toys, particularly if they are used as productively as David’s were.

But for me, there is a significant upside to being a "bucks down" amateur. Maybe I can make what I need. If you think there are limits to the telescopes and gear that can be made by nonprofessionals, take a trip to Stellafane, or browse the pages of Sky and Telescope to nix that notion. True, I had a decent scope that I had saved up, to serve as the platform for my system. What I needed but could not afford, were costly accessories to create long-focus color shots of galaxies, nebulae, and clusters.

Many of my homemade projects cannot be described in detail here, but they were necessary items, like a permanent scope pier, gear racks, a heated dew cap, modest electrical gear, and the like. One particularly rewarding item was a “cold camera”, which chilled film with dry ice during exposures to enhance light response. (These were pre-CCD days!) Challenges to keeping the film dry (but cold), handling film under the night sky, and developing exposed color film chips all had to be overcome. But they were.

And there is the nub. Sure it's exciting as ever to open that FedEx package to extract the astronomical treasures therein. But how about “rolling your own” once in a while? Let’s get our hands dirty because benefits abound. An accessory that you’ve designed, constructed, and put to successful use can be a source of immense pride. I still take joy in the fact that Astronomy Magazine used an article and photos I put together describing the construction of the aforementioned dew cap, to produce a three-page feature color article on it! Best of all, that dew cap worked beautifully. Total cash outlay? Ten bucks.

I guess one could call that piggy bank astronomy.

Harry Hammond
Mashpee, MA

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Students Observe Venus, Jupiter and the Moon

The rewards of witnessing students acquire their first visual views and photographic images of Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon are absolutely priceless. On the evening of Tuesday, April 28th, 2105, at 7:30pm EDT, 10 students from the Astronomy Club at the Sacred Heart School in Kingston, MA, gathered at the Kohout-Dingley Observatory located on the school's campus grounds. The goal for the evening was to observe and learn a little about Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon through the observatory's 11" telescope with direction from staff members from Insight Observatory.

Students Prepare to Observe at the Observatory.

Shortly after the sunset and the observatory dome was opened up with the telescope ready to go, a few students started to trickle in along with the school's longtime science teacher and astronomy club advisor, Joe Masi. As twilight began, we pointed out Venus, the "Evening Star" as it began to shine bright in the western sky. The 11" telescope was then trained on the inner planet to allow students to get a peek. Most of the observers reacted by stating, "I can see a phase... It looks like a gibbous moon like tonight’s moon phase."

Sacred Heart Senior, Cam K. Photographs the Moon.

After all the attending students got their first look at Venus through a telescope, we then slewed to the bright-gaseous planet, Jupiter. The seeing was fantastic as usual during and just after twilight. The North and South Equatorial Belts were very apparent. There were also four of Jupiter's moons visible in the field of view. I had every student sit comfortably in the observing chair to allow them to take their time viewing the solar system's largest planet. After they focused the telescope to best suit their view, just about every one of them responded "Wow! That is so amazing! I can see the moons and belts... The belts are a reddish color".

The Moon Featuring the Crater Copernicus Imaged by
 Sacred Heart Student, Cam. K. w/ his DSLR Camera.

Last but not least in any way for sure, was our last target and Grande finally for the evening... The Moon is Earth's nearest neighbor. The phase was a waxing gibbous that provided an excellent view of the popular crater, Copernicus. The shadows observed within the craters and mountain ranges of the moon made the viewing that much more spectacular. One student attending, Cam K., brought his DSLR camera with him as he was there to photograph the observatory and its equipment for a school newspaper article. After viewing Jupiter and the Moon, he asked if he could try photographing the objects through the eyepiece. Cam used the method of holding the camera and zooming into the eyepiece with a telephoto lens as well as steadying the camera on a tripod. This method of astrophotography is known as "eyepiece projection".

In most cases, one would get a camera adapter to fasten the camera body to the focuser of the telescope for this method. However, just as an experiment, his very first results were surprisingly good. Cam is now interested in learning more about astrophotography. While cam is an avid photographer, he made a comment while he was photographing Jupiter through the telescope..."This is the farthest object I have ever focused on and photographed."

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Old Dogs and New Tricks

As Mike Petrasko shared in "A Pilgrim's Progress" right here on Insight Observatory, we recently had the pleasure of delivering a talk at a local library, outlining our experiences with amateur astronomy over the last 30-plus years. While composing the astrophotography content of the talk, one thing was glaringly apparent: things have changed!

Celestron 8" Telescope Prime Focus Astrophotography 

Setup Circa 1995 - Photograph by Jefferey R. Charles

So, at the risk of sounding like the old-timer who laments "well, back in MY day....", it might be worth noting the differences between taking an amateur astrophoto before robotic telescopes, and after, now that the process can be entirely automated. Back in the day, unless you were operating a sophisticated observatory telescope, there was no scrolling menu to pick desired objects to observe, no automatic telescope alignment, no automatic correction to telescope tracking errors, etc. Spending an hour or more with your eyeball glued to a guide star while the exposure was underway (to correct for tracking errors) was par for the course. (And of course, this assumes one actually had the object framed in the camera.) Handling film pieces, strips or rolls carelessly could destroy a whole night's efforts.

Modern equipment available to the amateur has streamlined these tasks immensely. With accurate alignment provided by the newer amateur scopes and mounts, one need not even SEE the object. If you have selected an object from the telescope's large library (THOUSANDS of choices), you can be sure the mount has slewed to the correct location. Cameras for astrophotography have kept pace too. No more struggling with accurate focus, loading film, changing filters, monitoring shutter time, etc.

Let's take a look at how an image was acquired in the "old" days, perhaps circa 1995. Start with careful set-up and accurate polar alignment of the telescope. Focus on an available star (sometimes a marathon of frustration in itself!). Acquire the object to be photographed in the field of view, assuming it can be seen (otherwise, just how good are your setting circles?). Find a guide star nearby, bright enough to do the job and center the guiding optics on it. Take a deep breath to let all vibration settle down, then open the shutter with the cable release. Now just, er, relax! Only an hour or so of awkward close monitoring of the guide star with tiring eyes, cross-hairs, correcting motors, and joystick...

Modern Remote Robotic Telescope
For Astrophotography

Well, as satisfying as results could be from those techniques, modern, robotic, and remotely managed telescopes are the rage. How about sitting at a nice warm desk, picking an object from a computer program, kicking off an automated process, hitting the sack, and waking in the morning to find a knockout astrophoto, (or two or more, even of different objects) sitting in your inbox? You can learn how to accomplish dramatic results through Insight Observatory's partnering with iTelescope, using robotic telescopes located in dark skies in the U.S., Spain, and Australia.

Yep, there is a bit of nostalgic romance when doing things the old way. But this Old Dog likes the best of both worlds. I still like to get out under the night sky, but I now leave the cold temps and no-sleep marathon sessions to iTelescope's New Tricks, using world-class gear.

Remote control and remote imaging are here to stay, and the results stand for themselves.

Harry Hammond
Mashpee, MA

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