Chasing the Gegenschein from a backyard in the Alps
How a dark window between two autumn storms gave us our first clear glimpse of the counterglow — and what it taught us about rural light pollution.
Observation log · live
Charting humanity's path through the cosmos, one observation at a time.
A growing archive of deep-sky notes, mission updates, and field reports from observers who keep their eyes on the night sky and their notebooks close at hand.
Featured observation
November 14, 2024
A spiral galaxy in Leo reveals a quiet season of supernova watch
Eleven nights of patient imaging in Bortle 4 skies gave us our clearest view yet of NGC 3621 — a barred spiral drifting through the constellation Leo. The team logged faint new sources near the outer arm, and three of them are now on the transient watchlist.
Field notes include exposure timings, filter rotations, and a discussion of why autumn's stable atmosphere favors long integrations on low-surface-brightness targets.
11.4 hrIntegration
Bortle 4Sky quality
3Transients flagged
From the journal
Latest articles & field notes
Long-form essays, observing reports, and instrument reviews from the people who spend their nights under the stars.
What the Europa Clipper flyby means for ground observers
The mission's first gravity assist isn't just engineering — it shifts the Jovian system into a friendly configuration for amateur imaging through early 2026.
A practical workflow for narrowband imaging on a budget
Three filters, a small refractor, and a clear schedule: how a fixed setup can produce publishable Hα-OIII-SII composites without renting a remote rig.
Three nights at the High Desert Dark Sky Site
Field logistics, a surprise windstorm, and a globular cluster that almost slipped past us — a working observer's account of a weekend in the Mojave.
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From the field
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A few notes from the people who keep the archive open in a tab on long nights.
"The narrowband workflow guide saved my October. I'd been fighting gradient removal for two seasons, and the order of operations laid out here fixed it in a weekend."
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