iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 17/04/2026

A work in progress... M106. I need more data on this target. This is only an hour per channel, LRGB. 🔭 The weather has been awful, along with everything else that's kept me away from my hobby. Oh well, at least I got something! Lots of little fuzzies along with the main target. 😁

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Reposted by Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦

Astropotamus 🔭🦛 @astropotamus.com · 29/10/2025

Life Hack: Tracking the phases of the Moon or following planetary transits encourages discipline and focus on long-term goals. It also drives home how little time we have in this life so make the most of it!

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/10/2025

That's 30 seconds within ASI294MM and a luminance filter. Basically, just a test shot.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/10/2025

And the image is nice and flat now. :)

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/10/2025

I forgot to replace the descant tab in the camera. It probably won't be an issue until spring, but I should do it before I get another case of frost on the sensor. Also, I'm getting some exaggerated, uneven, diffraction spikes. I think I have a reflection off the spider I'll need to fix.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/10/2025

Wow! I was able to work on my 🔭 tonight, and get it all back together. My OnStep board is working great! On top of that, after a quick collimation, I now have ROUND STARS in the corners of my images. No more bats! 🤣 I have a couple more things to do before I can image again, but this is great! 1/3

This is the star Mirfak, and the surrounding star-field.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/10/2025

Unfortunately I got skunked. There isn't a clear spot in the sky from horizon to horizon. Maybe next time.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/10/2025

All the equipment seems nominal. Just waiting for the clouds to clear. Just a couple stars poking though now and then. Hopefully it actually clears up around 11pm (1h 40m from now).

An image from my astro camera. Mostly clouds but a couple of stars poking though.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/10/2025

filter wheel with it. That's such a pain. I can also keep guiding without any issues while focusing, since the guide scope focus won't change. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully the quality of the subs doesn't get worse. I'm only running 800mm of focal length. The sky is supposed to clear at 11pm. 🤞

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/10/2025

and I couldn't get rid of all the flex. There was also some kind of strange reflections I was getting on both the guide and main camera that I think were related. Getting rid of the OAG also means I have enough backfocus to install a manual rotator. Now I can rotate the camera without rotating the

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/10/2025

I replaced the electronics in my observatory mount with a board running OnStep a few months ago, and haven't been able to test it beyond a bench test since. I also decided to attempt switching away from using an off axis guider and back to a guide scope. The OAG made for a complicated optical train

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/10/2025

I'm trying to get some astro stuff 🔭 done tonight. I haven't been able to do anything for over a month now. As the days get shorter, I need this hobby to keep my sanity and keep the seasonal depression at bay. 🧵

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 30/09/2025

I haven't been able to do very much astro stuff because of work. However I was able to attend a couple of days at the Black Forest Star Party at Cherry Springs State Park earlier this month. I did some #astrophotography but haven't had time to process. Here are some pictures from my phone. 🙂

A long exposure of people and telescope equipment at night dimly illuminated by red light

Milky Way shot. The Andromeda galaxy is visible on the right side vertical center.

Milky Way shot. I took this picture pointed straight up.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 13/08/2025

Thanks Des! I had to delete and recreate the post because there was an error in it. That's what I get for staying up till 4am processing and posting. 😅

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 13/08/2025

I've finally processed & published my image of #M16 the #Eagle #Nebula! This was my summer project, plagued by rain, clouds, bugs, & malfunctions. I had to toss much of the data, but what was left made this. Not too shabby! 🔭 More info and high quality on my AstroBin Page: app.astrobin.com/i/bf9nmg

M16 - Eagle Nebula [In SHO]
by BensAstroStuff

Published: Aug 13, 2025

Total integration: 8h 18m

Integration per filter:
- Hα: 2h 32m (76 × 120")
- SII: 2h 44m (82 × 120")
- OIII: 3h 2m (91 × 120")

Equipment:
- Telescope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 200P
- Camera: ZWO ASI294MM Pro
- Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G
- Filters: Optolong H-Alpha 7nm 2", Optolong OIII 6.5nm 2", Optolong SII 6.5nm 2"
- Accessories: Sky-Watcher Quattro Coma Corrector, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW 7 x 2″, ZWO OAG (Off-Axis Guider)
- Software: GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), INDI Library Ekos, KDEdu KStars, Nikita Misiura StarNet, Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2, SetiAstro CosmicClarity, Siril Team Siril, Steffen Hirtle GraXpert

For more information, visit AstroBin:
https://app.astrobin.com/i/bf9nmg

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 15/07/2025

@siril.org released 1.4-beta3 a few days ago! siril.org/download/202... I helped by reporting on and testing the fix for bug \#1562, which caused a crash when trying to compose an image from RGB channels. :) It's a great tool for #astrophotography 🔭

siril.org

Siril 1.4.0 Beta 3

Introduction Bugs fixed in beta 3 Stability and robustness Python scripts and programming interface Alignment User interface and display Other fixes ...

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 25/06/2025

This past weekend I was at the Cherry Springs Start Party. There was a single night that was good for astrophotography, and I acquired enough data to create this image of the Crescent Nebula. 🔭 Full resolution and acquisition details on my Astrobin page: app.astrobin.com/i/kejtxh

An Astrophoto of the Crescent Nebula, taken by Ben's Astro Stuff.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/05/2025

Absolutely fascinating. I've explained to people the size and scale of things in the images that I take, but Seven Machina does the math. Space is mind-bogglingly huge.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/05/2025

This is the beginning of my next major project. I expect it's going to take a few months. 🔭 The Eagle Nebula. This is only 90 minutes of luminance. My previous image of this target was three years ago, and can be found here: app.astrobin.com/i/ob5rlv

An astrophoto of the eagle nebula. Monochrome.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 16/05/2025

Some people are worried, but I think the kids are gonna be alright. 🤣

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 12/05/2025

Yeah... I'm not going to live that down any time soon. I was so tired. At least I got it right on AstroBin.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 11/05/2025

Oh jeez... I even got it wrong in the alt text. 🤦

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 11/05/2025

Thanks! I wish I could edit the post. What can I say... It was really late when I posted. 😪 At least I got it right on AstroBin!

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 11/05/2025

New image! I finally found enough free time over the past couple of weeks to process my images of M31, the Whirlpool Galaxy. 🔭 Full Resolution and capture information: app.astrobin.com/i/g7if5a

An astrophoto of M31, the Whirlpool Galaxy

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 02/05/2025

I've done a little bit of streaming in the past, but it's been a long time. It wouldn't be anything very formal. Just a hang-out style stream.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 02/05/2025

I have a lot of data on M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) but unfortunately work has blown up and I haven't had time to process anything. I hope that next week I'll have some time to do so. 🔭 Also, would anybody be interested in watching me stream either acquisition or processing sessions? I'm curious.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 29/04/2025

Everybody starts somewhere! Here's my first imaging setup back in 2021.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 29/04/2025

Hopefully the last of these thin clouds are gone before I start imaging tonight. 🔭

It's a picture of mostly sky. It's just after sunset and there are thin clouds in bands low on the horizon. There's an observatory with the shutter open in the lower left-hand corner.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/04/2025

How... How do you know about my NASA shirts?

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 18/04/2025

I understand, but I only say 'not very big' because our astronomy club has things like this. I'd like to see what data you got with your radio telescope! There used to be someone in the club that did that, but it was before my time as a member.

That's not an observatory... *this* is an observatory!

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 18/04/2025

It's not too big. It's a Newtonian with a 200mm aperture. Here's a picture of what it's doing right now. Note that the door is for hobbits. It's only about 4ft tall. It's a small observatory.

A picture taken with a fish-eye camera of the inside of my observatory. The telescope is pointing out though the shutter in the dome.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 18/04/2025

Not 5 minutes later... another one. Not as easy to see the tail though.

Another airplane putting streaks in my astrophoto.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 18/04/2025

So I'm imaging M51 tonight, and this just happened in one of my sub-frames. You can make out the tail of an airplane, lit up by it's own lights. 🔭

It's part of a single frame astrophoto. You can see the ghostly shape of an airplanes tail in between the streaks from it's lights.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/03/2025

Yes, I'm ok with that, as long as they're not being redistributed. Perhaps I should make some dedicated wallpapers in standard monitor resolutions and ratios.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 28/03/2025

Ok folks, this is a big one. The first fully integrated image from my new imaging setup. Over 13 hours of M101, LRGB. 🔭 It's not as perfect, but a great start! I also got some Hα data, but I didn't integrate that. I might make a Rev-B in the future to include it. app.astrobin.com/i/g3h77y

app.astrobin.com

M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy - AstroBin

My first fully integrated image from my new setup. The faint lines are not satilites, but rather difraction spikes from stars outside the field of view. I'm going to come up with a solution to fix th...

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 26/03/2025

It's cloudy, so I'm using the time to take calibration frames.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 22/03/2025

Well, I didn't get a full night. Thin clouds came in and spoiled it. However, I think I have enough to make a decent horsehead image, and hopefully tomorrow night I'll be able to finish acquiring for M101

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Reposted by Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Whoa: The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft got a spectacular view of Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) as it passed close to the Sun. Look at that enormous, splintered tail! This comet won't be seen again for another 600,000 years. 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 19/03/2025

Horsehead has dropped too low to image properly. I've switched to M101. I'm going to leave it here to run on it's own while I try to sleep. Hopefully I'll wake up to a full hour of each L/R/G/B. This is the last of the L.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 19/03/2025

The Horsehead & Flame nebula in Oiii. Trying to get as many subs as possible before the moon comes up and washes it out. This is a single 5min sub-frame.🔭

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 17/03/2025

Also, this is one of the reasons that I purchased new equipment late last year. Even though I bought used, I knew that this would drive up prices even in the used market. I mean, not that I need excuses to feed my astro addiction... 😅

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 17/03/2025

They never think the leopard would eat *their* face.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 16/03/2025

Clouds and rain all weekend. I won't be able to do any imaging. 😢🔭 There may be some clear nights this coming week, but that means trading sleep for it. I've done that plenty of times. We'll see.

A fully overcast, cloudy, and rainy sky over my observatory.

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Ben's Astro Stuff 🇺🇦 @bensastrostuff.com · 14/03/2025

If you look closely, you can see the piece of garden hose I'm currently using to flexibly hold the motor against the track. 🤣 It needs to flex to handle the slight changes in the distance from the cog to the track. It's still a bit of a work-in-progress. 😅

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