Three New Images from 'the soon to be constructed' Night Sky Observatory

Observatory Plans

Plans for the groundbreaking of the new observatory building, Night Sky Observatory, are almost complete. Hopefully I can start digging the hole for the pier footing next week or soon after. I have all the parts except for the lumber, sonotube and concrete. Digging the hole is straightforward, but I need to have the lumber for the deck available to make sure the height of the concrete top is at the right distance from the deck floor when constructed. Once the concrete is poured it's all said and done - no more changes (at least not easy ones!).

Meanwhile, I was able to capture and process a few more deep space images. 

NGC 3242 - Jupiter's Ghost

Drifting through the constellation Hydra, NGC 3242 is a striking planetary nebula commonly known as Jupiter’s Ghost. The nickname comes from its nearly planet-sized apparent disk and vivid blue‑green glow, which early astronomers likened to the appearance of Jupiter through small telescopes. In reality, this object has nothing to do with the planet—it marks the final visible breath of a Sun‑like star that shed its outer layers near the end of its life, leaving behind a hot, dense white dwarf at its core.

NGC 3242 (HOO) - March and April, 2026
EdgeHD11/ASI2600mm
1hr 50min total integration time (Ha and Oiii)

Jupiter’s Ghost reveals beautifully layered structure: a bright elliptical inner shell, delicate outer halos, and subtle knots and jets sculpted by fast stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The characteristic turquoise color is dominated by doubly ionized oxygen glowing at specific wavelengths, giving the nebula its ethereal, eye‑like appearance. Though this cosmic shell spans roughly a couple of light‑years, it is fleeting on astronomical timescales—destined to fade as the central star cools and the nebula disperses into interstellar space.

HDR processing was used to highlight the inner structure. This is a cropped version of the original stacked image.

Arp 104

Arp 104, also known as Keenan’s System, is a striking example of an interacting galaxy pair captured in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. It consists of two galaxies—NGC 5216, an elliptical galaxy, and NGC 5218, a highly disturbed disk galaxy—locked in a close gravitational encounter in the constellation Ursa Major. The most eye‑catching feature of the system is the faint but distinct bridge of stars and tidal material connecting the two galaxies, a structure formed as their mutual gravity pulls stars out of NGC 5218 and stretches them across intergalactic space.

Arp 104 (LRGB) - April 2026
EdgeHD11/ASI2600mm
5hr 24min total integration time

This stellar bridge, spanning roughly 22,000 light‑years, offers a vivid snapshot of galactic interaction and evolution in progress. The encounter has triggered structural distortions and star formation, particularly within the dusty central regions of NGC 5218, while NGC 5216 appears comparatively calm and evolved.

NGC 4561 - Umbrella Galaxy

NGC 4651, often called the Umbrella Galaxy, is a striking spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, roughly tens of millions of light‑years from Earth, whose serene appearance hides a dramatic past. At first glance it shows a beautifully structured, nearly face‑on disk with sweeping spiral arms and a bright, compact core. But deep exposures reveal the real showpiece: a long, delicate tidal stream arcing outward like the handle of an umbrella. This faint stellar plume is the remnant of a smaller galaxy that NGC 4651 tore apart and absorbed, leaving behind a graceful ribbon of stars that wraps around the system.

NGC 4561 (LRGB) - April 2026
EdgeHD11/ASI2600mm
5hr 2min total integration time

Once again, I’ve had some issues with my flats not completely correcting my lights. So, I’ve cropped this image slightly to exclude the artifacts. And yes, once again PixInsight failed to register all the subs complaining about 3 red, 16 green and 8 blue. So, I used APP to do the calibration and registration (although I could have just supplied the PI calibrated subs). All lights were successfully registered.

The 'Need' for Infinity

Ultrafinitism, a philosophy that rejects the infinite, has long been dismissed as mathematical heresy. But it is also producing new insights in math and beyond.

This is a bit outside the usual scope of the blog, but it popped up in my email and caught my attention. I’m not planning to dive into it myself, but I’m sharing it to see what everyone else makes of it. An interesting read at Quanta Magazine. Comment below if you like.

Building Permit Received - Construction Starts on Night Sky Observatory

It's been a long time waiting (almost a month to the date) for my building permit to get approved and issued prior to starting the construction of the free-standing deck and pier for the Night Sky Observatory. But now with the permit in hand, it's time to start the first phase of the construction - the measurements and dig.

I was notified today that my SkyShed Pier will be shipped out either Wednesday or Thursday and should arrive sometime next week. I'll probably spend some time early next week taking measurements of the area where the deck will sit for getting grade angle and then start the digging of the 40" deep by 18" diameter hole for the concrete pier footing. The location is pretty flat, and initial 'quick' measures showed the incline to be only about 3 degrees, which would make the height difference of about 8".

Soldiers Delight Star Party - April 18, 2026 - 8:30pm EDT

Soldiers Delight Star Party - April 18, 2026

Don't miss the next SD Star Party - this Saturday evening!

"Crisis in Cosmology - aka, The Hubble Tension"

Tonight's lecture is on one of the most intriguing puzzles in modern cosmology: The Hubble Tension. This phenomenon refers to the discrepancy between the rate of expansion of the universe as measured by different methods. On one hand, we have measurements from the early universe, such as those from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), and on the other, we have measurements from the local universe, such as those using Cepheid variables and Type Ia supernovae. Despite the precision of these methods, they yield different values for the Hubble constant, leading to a tension that challenges our understanding of the cosmos. Today, we will delve into the methods used to measure the Hubble constant, explore the possible reasons for this discrepancy, and discuss the implications for our understanding of the universe.

All ages welcome.

All programs rain or shine. Time machines will be provided by the Westminster Astronomy Club.

You can find out about special local events by contacting us at https://www.westminsterastro.org/

Date: Saturday, March 18, 2026

Note time change for the Summer Months:
Time: 8:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

Location: Soldiers Delight Environmental Area - Visitor Center

5100 Deer Park Rd.

Owings Mills, MD 21117

 

New Images

A string of clear, cool evenings in Maryland can only mean one thing - Mikey is imaging again!

Here are my latest deep space objects.

First up, the Eyes Galaxies (NGC 4438 and 4435)

NGC 4438 is a striking, highly distorted galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, located about 52 million light‑years from Earth and forming the larger half of the interacting pair known as The Eyes. Once likely a spiral galaxy, NGC 4438 has been dramatically reshaped by gravitational encounters with nearby galaxies, including its close companion NGC 4435. These interactions have stretched its disk into long tidal tails, disrupted its structure, and stripped much of its gas, leaving behind a chaotic yet beautiful form that vividly illustrates the powerful effects of galactic collisions in a dense cluster environment.

The Eyes Galaxies
EdgeHD11/ASI2600 - April 8-10, 2026
LRGB - 6hr 21m integration time

This is a slightly cropped version of the original FOV. I had some issues with my Lum flats not correcting the large donut rings along the bottom and left edges. Cropping the image eliminated them (mostly). This is the third time I’ve had issues with the Lum flats. Need to investigate.

Next, M64 (the Black Eye Galaxy)

Messier 64, better known as the Black Eye Galaxy, is a striking spiral galaxy located about 17 million light‑years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. Its nickname comes from the dramatic, dark band of interstellar dust that cuts across its bright central bulge, giving the appearance of a shadowed or “bruised” eye. This dense dust lane absorbs starlight from the core, creating one of the most distinctive faces in the nearby universe.

M64 - the Black Eye Galaxy
EdgeHD11/ASI2600 - April 12, 2026
LRGB - 6hr 24m integration time

The galaxy contains counter‑rotating inner and outer regions, where gas in the outskirt's spins in the opposite direction from the stars and gas near the core—likely the aftermath of a past merger with a smaller galaxy. Where these opposing flows interact, gas clouds are compressed, triggering new bursts of star formation that add subtle color and texture to long‑exposure images.

Zooming in on the image you can see many more distant galaxies scattered throughout the field.

Goodbye Comet MAPS

From EarthSky: We just watched a comet die. Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) plunged through the sun’s atmosphere only 160,000 km (99,000 mi) above the surface. It went in as a comet. What came out the other side was a cloud of dust. You can see the video from the LASCO C2 coronagraph here.

So, it looks like there will not be an Easter comet this year. Discovered last January, MAPS set the record as the most distant sungrazer ever observed at the time. There was genuine hope it was large enough to survive perihelion, perhaps even becoming visible in broad daylight. But the sun had other ideas.

Latest on the Kreutz Sungrazing Comet C/2026 A1 MAPS

Between March 6th and March 9th, C/2026 A1 quickly brightened by almost 1.5 magnitudes, from 12 to 10.5. At the same time, its coma (the comet's gaseous envelope) expanded 50% from 6′ to 9′, and its core became more compact. Exciting news! Then from March 11–17, in a seeming setback, the comet's brightness plateaued and its well-condensed coma shrank back to 6′.

Qicheng Zhang and his team used the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the James Webb Space Telescope to photograph Comet MAPS on Feb. 7, 2026.
NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST MIRI; Qicheng Zhang et al. (Image processing: Melina Thévenot) CC BY-SA 4.0

So, the big question is will MAPS be a great comet?

SkyandTelescope has a good article by Bob King on the expectations for comet MAPS. Great simulation/animation by French optical engineer and amateur photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux is included.

SkyShed POD-S Delivered today

Today, March 23, 2026, marks the official beginning of the construction of NightSky Observatory at the Mangieri residence. OK, earlier this month I received the first actual part, the Surface Adapter and Flat Peir Plate for my mount from Astro-Physics. But the actual observatory building itself arrived today by Saia freight company.

Ordered back in December 2025 from SkyShed, the trip from Canada took a few days and the freight truck arrived this afternoon. Total weight was 1605 lbs. I had a couple of friends of mine on site to help with the offloading from the truck. The dome (in two sections) was the heaviest of the parts coming in at about 175lb a piece. The five pod bays were much more manageable. 

Now I was warned by the folks at SkyShed that the truck driver is only responsible for transporting the freight to my residence, hence the need for some friends to assist in the work. But my driver was an exceptionably friendly, outgoing guy who helped quite a bit in dismantling the wooden crates and getting the parts down to the side lawn of my property. Kudos to Saia!

The SkyShed Pier is still on its way and should arrive soon by UPS. With the weather improving and the ground warming up, it’ll be the perfect time to pour the concrete for the pier. After that, the 12'x12' deck will need to be built. Since the county permit is still pending, there’s no real rush.

Then I can build the observatory building. I already have an electrical contractor retained for the running of the AC and Ethernet lines to the new building. 

Hope to be up and running by early summer. We'll see 😎.

Update on comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS)

On its way to a close encounter with the Sun, with perihelion expected on April 4–5, 2026, comet MAPS is steadily brightening. By mid-March, it had reached magnitude 10—still far too faint to spot without optical aid. However, as it moves deeper into the inner solar system, and if it survives its close approach, it could make an appearance in Earth’s skies around Easter.

Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger - March 10, 2026.

In early April, some models predict it might shine as brightly as Venus, the brightest planet. But that’s likely an optimistic guess. It will probably reach a magnitude of 1 to -2, making it about as bright as some of the more prominent stars. These estimates are based on its brightness (18th magnitude) when it was still twice Earth’s distance from the sun. Magnitude 18 is far too faint to see with the naked eye, but it’s actually quite bright for a comet at that distance.

Sungrazers can be breathtaking, but their close proximity to the sun makes them hard to see. Even if MAPS glows as brightly as Venus, it will remain near the sun and low on the horizon. Here's a diagram showing the location of MAPS on April 4, at 6:30pm. Notice how close it is to the sun and only about 13° in altitude. Even at magnitude -4 (Venus' brightness) the sun is 1 billion times brighter! Still, there’s a chance we could witness something truly historic.

If it survives it's close approach to the sun, those in the northern hemisphere will have a better chance to see it as it starts to climb out of the sun's glare. On April 8th it will be 10° high at sunset.

April 8, 7:30pm

As the month progresses, MAPS will get a bit higher in somewhat darker skies. At 8:00pm on April 15th, altough still low in the western sky (10-15° high), it should become easier to see as the sun is now 4° below the horizon.

By the end of April, it begins to drop in altitude and will grow much dimmer as it moves away from the vicinity of the sun.

Plan ahead and pick a spot with a clear view of the western horizon. We just might get to see another Ikeya–Seki.

Soldiers Delight Star Party - March 21, 2026 - Topic: The James Webb Space Telescope

 

Soldiers Delight Star Party - March 21, 2026

Don't miss the next SD Star Party:

"Unlocking the Cosmic Secrets: The James Webb Space Telescope"

Join us on a captivating journey beyond the visible spectrum! The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), one of humanity’s latest cosmic sentinels, has already started to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. Imagine peering through the veil of dust and time, witnessing the birth of galaxies, the dance of exoplanets, and the cosmic symphony of star formation. In this exclusive talk, we’ll delve into the cutting-edge science, awe-inspiring innovations, and mind-boggling discoveries that JWST has provided. Buckle up, stargazers—Webb has already challenged our understanding of the Universe and is continuing to unveil the cosmos as never before!

All ages welcome.

All programs rain or shine. Time machines will be provided by the Westminster Astronomy Club.

You can find out about special local events by contacting us at https://www.westminsterastro.org/

Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026

Time: 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

Location: Soldiers Delight Environmental Area - Visitor Center

5100 Deer Park Rd.

Owings Mills, MD 21117

Stretching and HDR Processing

Although my previous post using M42, the Orion Nebula, was to demonstrate image stacking in astrophotography, the image based on the 80x8sec stack is quite good and so I decided to redo some of the post processing and make a few additional improvements.

First, the nebula suffers from the large dynamic range in brightness between the inner core and the subtle outer regions, i.e., the core tends to get 'blown out'. This is true of a number of objects that have bright interior regions, such as galaxy cores, and in this case, bright nebulae. M42 has the famous Trapezium Cluster, a young open star cluster with four equally bright stars in a tight orientation, located in the center of the nebula. But because the nebula itself is so bright the cluster is hard to make out.

Second, I did not properly account for the background when applying the Multiscale Adaptive Stretch (MAS) and so some of the fainter outer regions of the gases did not appear as I would like. 

But before showing the result of these improvements I need to explain the concept of stretching.

Stretching  

Both stacking and stretching are always necessary in astrophotography post processing. Whereas stacking helps increase the SNR of the image and gain the benefit of a long integration time without having to take extremely long exposures, stretching is necessary to make the image visible.

In astrophotography, stretching an image means remapping the brightness values in the photo so that very faint details become visible, without blowing out the bright parts. It’s a core processing step for deep‑sky images.

When you capture the night sky (especially galaxies, nebulae, or dust clouds), the camera records light in a linear way. If you have twice the light hitting the sensor, the pixel value where the light is recorded is twice as high. However, most of the signal from faint objects is packed very close to black. Only stars and bright cores of nebulae and galaxies stand out in the image. In fact, if you looked at the raw or stacked image, it usually appears almost totally black, maybe with a few bright stars. But there is a lot of data there; it just isn't spread across the range the human eye can perceive.

Stretching applies a non‑linear transformation that expands the dark tones, where most of the image data resides and compresses the bright tones. In other words, it separates faint structures from the background.

MAS is a form of stretching that has recently been introduced in PixInsight, my processing software of choice. Similar to the other tools in PixInsight I have used in the past, it stretches the image so that the faint data can be brought to light. However, MAS also provides some additional options to make the stretch even better and offers the user a lot of flexibility when it comes to contrast preservation, enhancement of faint details and removal of the background sky glow.

HDR Multiscale Transformation

Handling the large dynamic range in brightness of an object is accomplished with an application of a High Dynamic Range transformation process. Usually this is done by stacking subs with small exposures (to capture the bright areas) and large exposures (for the dimmer regions). The stacking process will then provide a more pleasing result preserving detail across extreme brightness differences. The HDR Multiscale transformation process allows one to do this without the need of exposing subs with different exposure times. You can apply it to the single final stacked image.

Applying the Processes

Here is the original image of M42 right out of the camera with minimal initial post processing. As expected, it is almost totally black. The bright inner core is visible as is the Trapezium cluster.

Applying the MAS stretch reveals the data lurking down in the image. This is the same image as the 80x8sec image in my previous post. The nebula now stands out (note the Trapezium is swamped by the bright emission gases in the core). 

However, the default settings on MAS use the complete image to determine the mean background intensity and so it was not handling the removal of the background as best as it could. By selecting an area of the image devoid of any real signal (I used a section in the lower left) and providing that as the background reference for MAS, the result is much better - the outer extent of the nebula can now be seen.

However, the core of the nebula is now even brighter, and the details of the gas structures is almost non-existent. This is the problem with M42 - the range of brightness between the lightest regions and darkest regions is very large. And this is where HDR comes in. Applying HDRMT with just the right settings (a trial and error manual process by the way) we get the following image.

A run through with Paint Shop Pro yields the final result, ready for printing and hanging on my office wall!. All the wonderful elements of this famous nebula are now clearly visible, from the inner core detail to the outer edges and even the Trapezium.