GerryC
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gapc.bsky.social
GerryC
@gapc.bsky.social
550 followers 2.9K following 180 posts
I am a retired Biology/Science teacher from Adelaide. I am now trying my hand at astrophotography, learning French and reading Ancient History. Zoo volunteer and bird lover. He/him. I follow a lot of scientists. There is no obligation to follow back
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gapc.bsky.social
Just recieved some greeting cards from @rachelhollisart.bsky.social in the post. Thanks so much Rachel.
This female superb wren was the first one I saw and it looks stunning. As a bird lover, I can highly recommend her work.
This is print of a female superb wren by Rachel Hollis. It is a small bird but fills up this screen. It is predominately plain brown in colour, with a white breast and reddish bill and lores. Her long tail points up at almost 90 degrees to her body.
November 12, 2025 at 2:15 AM
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I've done another, much better version. Slightly different angle for some reason.
August 19, 2025 at 3:23 AM
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This is a Seestar version of the Eye of God or NGC 7293. It is a plantary nebula, found about 650 light years from Earth. 🔭#astrophotograpy #seestar #astronomy
The Eye of God or NGC 7293 really does have an eye shape. The central part is a circular shape with a green hue. There is another middle circle outside of this with a light coloured dust and then the outer part gives it the eye shape and is a darker orange colour. There are a moderate number of stars through and around the nebula.
August 15, 2025 at 7:08 AM
gapc.bsky.social
This is a trial of one of my first star clusters, M6. I've done a bit to try and highlight the nebulosity around the stars, but I might have overdone it. Still, it looks nice. 🔭 #astrophotograpy #astronomy
M6 in this image is a group of around 20-30 stars that are about 1600 light years from Earth. It is not a tight cluster, and some of the stars form V shapes. They are surrounded by a blue nebulosity. In the top right-hand corner is more nebula, although it is more of a traditional brown-orange colour.
August 4, 2025 at 1:22 AM
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My version of the Lagooon Nebula. If only I had $680 million! Can you arrange it @vrubinobs.bsky.social?
🔭🧪
M8 or Lagoon nebula. 4,000 light years from Earth, it looks like the head of a horse that is on fire. The 'snout' is at the base of the nebula and has a red-orange bridge of dust. The 'eyes' are about halfway up the image and, at least, the left 'eye' is looking right at you! The forehead is a lighter orange colour with a set of stars in the middle of the 'forehead'. The rest of the head trails off into dust on the left hand side. The nebula is surrounded by many stars but there are about 20 stars featured prominently on the 'head'.
June 24, 2025 at 6:25 AM
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Last night was superb viewing here in Adelaide as well. I focussed on M8 and here it is straight out of my Seestar.
M8 or Lagoon nebula. 4,000 light years from Earth, it looks like the head of a horse that is on fire. The 'snout' is at the base of the nebula and has a red-orange bridge of dust. The 'eyes' are about halfway up the image and, at least, the left 'eye' is looking right at you! The forehead is a lighter orange colour with a set of stars in the middle of the 'forehead'. The rest of the head trails off into dust on the left hand side. The nebula is surrounded by many stars but there are about 20 stars featured prominently on the 'head'.
June 19, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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My latest image of the Carina Nebula. It's 7500 light years from Earth. It was taken over 3 delightfully clear nights here in Adelaide. Still working on my processing techniques - this is a trial using Peter Zelinka's 2025 Workflow.
The Carina Nebula consists of three major parts that look a bit like a pinwheel. The top 'wedge' is a reddish plate of dust with what looks like a dinosaur head of slightly brighter dust on the side. The bottom right 'wedge' is still mainly red but consist of two pieces, the top of which looks a bit like a crocodile head with teeth and the bottom is just a rectangula blob of dust. The middle left 'wedge' is the brightest and most spectacular part. It is triangular in shape and the central part of the triangle is very bright with lots of stars. There are lots of stars throughout the image. It is hard to describe but I hope I did it some justice.
May 16, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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The Trifid Nebula, M20. This is the compilation of four nights of work on the Seestar S50. This is becoming a favourite for me. #astrophotograpy #seestar #astronomy
This is the Trifid Nebula which is about 4100 light years from Earth. It is a rounded shape with the top half looking like an orange ball with numerous cracks on the surface. The 'ball' sits on a green base. It is surrouded by stars from our Galaxy and include other dust elements in the top right of the photo and lighter sections of orange dust throughout.
May 7, 2025 at 5:10 AM
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Here is the starless version. What incredible drama and detail. This nebula is rapidly becoming my favourite.
See previous description the original view of NGC 6188. All I have done is remove the stars which you can do when processing the image.
April 9, 2025 at 5:35 AM
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Just finished processing the Firebird Nebula. I used EQ mode, mosiac mode and planning mode over two nights and captured 545, 20-second images. Click on the image to get the full impact. Starless version to follow.
#astrophotography #seestar #astronomy
This is the Firebird nebula although you would have to use your imagination to see a bird in the image. This 'bird' appears to have a small head with two eyes near the centre of the image and then streaks of dark pink colour on the top of the 'wing' with a darker colour on the underside. The rest of the image consists of streams of light and dark coloured 'clouds' of dust that extends from, surrounds and reaches into the 'bird'. There are hundreds if not thousands of stars in the image looking, for the most part like tiny pinpricks of light.
April 9, 2025 at 5:32 AM
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Just finished processing this NGC 3324 Nebula. 320 20-second subs on the Seestar S50. I don't know if I have overdone it, but I am pretty happy with it. Long live nebula season!
#astrophotography #seestar
This is NGC 3324, also called the Gabriela Mistral Nebula. The image mainly contains stars, including a cluster of stars near the bottom. The nebula itself looks like a round fireball with the left half of the 'ball' a bright red colour. This slowly fades across the right half of the 'ball', which then seems to disintegrate on the edges. There are some other wisps of the nearby Carina Nebula featuring in the top and left corner of the image.
April 3, 2025 at 11:03 AM
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This is my starless view of the Firebird Nebula. It looks dramatic and you can really see the details and dimensions of the dust and gas.
This is a starless view of the Firebird Nebula. Whilst processing this nebula you can remove the stars and just focus on bringing out the dust and gas that give this nebula it's shape. It does look like a bird in that you have a 'head' in the middle with two wings spreading out to the top and bottom of the picture. The wings look like long, thin turbulent brown clouds. The head and some of the wings are backlit. I am sorry that my description is so inadequate but I hope you can get a sense of the image.
March 27, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy). 1300+ 20sec images using Seestar S50 in the new equatorial mode. I'm still working on my processing but I'm very pleased with this!
Southern hemisphere galaxy called M83 or the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. It is 15 million light years away from Earth. This photo was taken with the Seestar S50 smart telescope and shows a central bright 'bar' of stars. It has around four swirls of stars radiating from the centre. It shows tinges of red throughout.
March 26, 2025 at 5:53 AM
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NGC 2024 or the Flame Nebula, with a cameo from the Horsehead Nebula. I took it with my Seestar over two nights using the relatively new Planning feature. #astrophotography #Seestar
The flame nebula is in the bottom middle of the image. It looks like an upside-down tree in this photo because it was taken in the Southern Hemisphere. Essentially, it is some stars that are shining through some dust or gas that are giving it a red colour, but some of that colour is blocked by other dust which looks like the outline of a tree.
March 10, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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Here is the starless version. I post it only because it makes the galaxy a little clearer and I find such images fascinating.
During the processing of a galaxy, there is a step where you can remove most of the surrounding stars and leave only the feature you are focussed on - in this case, the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy. Other than that, the description is the same as my first photo in this post.
February 5, 2025 at 3:52 AM
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This the NGC 1365 or the Great Barred Galaxy. 56 million light years from Earth. Nine hours of exposure on my Seestar. #astronomy #astrophotography #galaxy
The galaxy sits about half-way down the image. There is a bright centre with two bright but short lines of stars running above and below the centre of the galaxy. Then there is a 45 degree curve line of stars from the top of the top line to the left and the bottom of the bottom line to the right.
February 5, 2025 at 3:49 AM
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It still amazes me that I can take a photo of this galaxy (the Southern Pinwheel) even though it is 15 million light years away. #astronomy #galaxy #southernhemisphere
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is a spiral galaxy photographed from Adelaide, South Australia. It is 15 million light-years from Earth.
January 27, 2025 at 7:30 AM
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Mount Taranaki in New Zealand. Little snow or cloud. Not a great photo but fantastic to see live.
Mount Taranaki, New Zealand in the background. Former volcano.
January 6, 2025 at 7:40 PM
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Finally got the Horsehead Nebula over a couple of nights. Happy with the result although it's a bit dark. #astronomy
This is the Horsehead Nebula (IC 434). This is an emission nebula which means that a horsehead-shaped gas cloud is blocking light from behind so it looks like the head of a horse. Two big stars from the Orion constellation are featured at the middle-right and bottom of the photo. The nebula is a red colour and is about 1200 light years from the Sun.
November 19, 2024 at 4:51 AM
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We used to have a number of these. They connect directly to your laptop and act as an alternative camera. They were so cheap that we got a few so that students could take photos and movies of their own specimens.
November 15, 2024 at 10:41 PM
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Three Blackbird (Turdus merula) chicks happily sleeping. They are not native here in Australia but, as a bird lover, I am happy to call them 'acceptable'.
You can see the heads of three young Blackbird chicks inside a very comfortable and solid nest
October 23, 2024 at 7:31 AM
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Finally, I did it. Took a few nights.
NGC 7293 Southern Hemisphere version
October 4, 2024 at 6:56 AM
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Trentham falls, Victoria, Australia. One of the best explanations of local geology that I’ve seen.
September 18, 2024 at 11:15 PM
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This is the view with some stars just for comparison
August 22, 2024 at 10:48 PM
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I was processing the nebula NGC6188 or the Firebird Nebula and I thought this starless view was pretty impressive.
The Firebird Nebula or NGC6188 showing the nebula but not the stars
August 11, 2024 at 3:10 AM