M22: The Great Sagittarius Globular Cluster Messier 22 (M22) is a globular cluster in the constellation Sagittarius, located about 10,000 light-years from Earth. I recently started taking Adam Block’s DeepSky Academy course. I highly recommend it. This astrophotograph is the result of the “Stars and Star Clusters” workflow from that course. I stacked the RGB data provided by Adam Block and processed it in PixInsight. Lifelong learning is very important to me, and I enjoy staying up to date on the latest astrophotography processing techniques and in all sorts of other areas. The desire to keep learning is like fuel for my brain. How about you? Do you enjoy taking courses (whether related to astrophotography or not)? Maybe you’re taking one right now? Clear Skies!

This is one of my telescopes, and it’s my first “real telescope” (before this, I had another small telescope years ago, which was practically unusable and therefore rather disappointing). I’ve taken most of my photos with it, including lunar, solar, planetary, and deep-sky astrophotography. The four astrophotos were also taken with this Newtonian telescope. I’ve owned it since 2017 and still enjoy using it to this day. This Sky-Watcher telescope offers pretty good value for the money. Over the years, I’ve upgraded it with, among other things, an automatic focuser from Baader Planetarium, the 2" BDS-NT Diamond Steeltrack Focuser (excellent focuser => no backlash!), a 3D-printed primary mirror mask, and a mirror heater for the secondary mirror. In 2019, I switched from a Sky-Watcher NEQ5 mount to a sturdier mount capable of handling a heavier payload, the iOptron CEM60 (see photo). I still use the Sky-Watcher NEQ5 mount for my smaller telescopes. I purchased this telescope equipment, with the exception of the 3D-printed primary mirror mask and secondary mirror heater, from Astroshop.be (formerly: AstroMarket). I’m not being paid to promote them, but I do want to emphasize that I’ve always received high-quality service from Astroshop.be. Hopefully, we’ll have some clear nights again soon so I can get back to using this telescope setup :-). I’m really looking forward to spending time under the starry sky again. Do you have a favorite telescope? Clear Skies!

Mineral Moon - Waxing Gibbous Moon 89% I stacked 50 frames of old data from the waxing gibbous moon phase and processed them in Affinity V3 to create this mineral moon. The images were taken with a Canon EOS 750D DSLR, paired with a Sky-Watcher Explorer Black Diamond N200/1000 (Newtonian telescope), mounted on a Sky-Watcher NEQ5 mount.