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| Sometimes the Moon looks mysterious. Seestar S30 video clip stacked and processed post capture. Image Credit Pip Stakkert. |
"Sometimes the Moon looks mysterious
Sometimes it appears cold and lonely
Sometimes it seems close
Sometimes far away
Sometimes it is a source of light pollution
But always, the Moon is Mozart's Queen of the Night"
Joel Cairo CEO the Jodrell Plank Observatory.
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| The Cygnus Loop a collection of composite images captured with the JPO's Seestar S30 in August and September 2026. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust. |
" We wanted to put together a panorama of individual images captured with the Seestar S30 to show the full extent of the Cygnus Loop in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. The Loop is quite large, 3 degrees in diameter, which is roughly equivalent to forty-five times the area presented by the Moon. Unfortunately, the night Kurt chose to capture the data started well but as the night proceeded conditions deteriorated, as the Moon rose and the clouds appeared. Consequently, the above composite image uses the best data we have from two or more autumnal nights". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory
"This image presents a composite astronomical collage showcasing key sub-regions of the Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 103), a large supernova remnant located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The mosaic brings together distinct narrow-band emission structures captured through astronomical imaging, highlighting the expanding shockwaves produced when a massive star exploded thousands of years ago.
Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960 / The Witch's Broom)
Visible on the right side of the collage, the Western Veil exhibits delicate, filamentary shock fronts predominantly glowing in the light of ionized hydrogen (H alpha) and doubly-ionized oxygen (O III). The bright, central foreground star silhouetted along the filament is 52 Cygni, an unrelated spectroscopic binary that serves as a primary visual landmark for this segment of the remnant. The linear, swept-back tendrils illustrate where the expanding blast wave is encountering interstellar clouds, compressing and heating gas to tens of thousands of Kelvin.
Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992 / NGC 6995)
Positioned on the left side of the collage, this arc represents the eastern boundary of the expanding blast wave. The prominent red hue corresponds to ionized hydrogen gas (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm), outlining dense, curtain-like sheets of gas viewed edge-on. The complex, curved geometry reveals localized variations in the density of the surrounding interstellar medium.
Pickering's Triangle (Fleming's Triangular Whisp / NGC 6979)
Located in the upper section and spanning toward the central background, this fainter, triangular network of delicate filaments represents a central cloud complex of the Cygnus Loop. Unlike the sharp outer arcs, Pickering’s Triangle exhibits an intricate, web-like structural diffuse emission, formed where the blast wave interacts with diffuse interstellar gas within the interior of the remnant shell". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory
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| Part of the Constellation 'Sagitta the Arrow' showing the Nova V488. The image is a compilation panorama of two stacks of images captured last night with the Observatory's Seestar S30. |
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| Image and plate solving credit: Astrometry.net |
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| Google Gemini's go at identifying Nova Sagitta V488 - which Kurt believes to be wrong! As most AI software warns 'AI can make mistakes'🤣 |
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| Kurt's best guess at the location of Nova V488 based on the images and charts available on the internet from credible sources |
| "Last night from the Jodrell Plank Observatory, we managed to capture a few photons from the Cosmos. Kurt and his team were battling against the clouds and a waning gibbous Moon , which in concert did much to make imaging difficult! |
Kurt was very keen to image the current nova in the constellation Sagitta is named V488 Sagittae (also designated as Nova Sagittae 2026 or N Sge 2026).
The Seestar was the obvious choice bearing in mind it's quick set up, reasonable field of vision and the brightness of the nova at mag 6 to 7.
It is however very easy to mix up stars in and around the plane of the Milky Way where you are often spoilt for choice.
We do however believe we have captured an image which shows the nova." - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO the UKs most easterly Astronomical Observatory.
" Out of courtesy, I uploaded Kurt's best guess to Google Gemini and in response and without further comment it corrected it's annotation to agree with his. Either it just wants to please everyone or it has some way to go before 'world domination" 🤣 -Joel |
| Google Gemini's corrected annotation |
V488 Sagittae (also designated Nova Sagittae 2026 / PNV J19450648+1822422) is undergoing a classic thermonuclear nova explosion.
At the centre of this cataclysmic variable system is a dense white dwarf in a tight binary orbit with a stellar companion star.
As this accreted layer of hydrogen accumulates on the white dwarf's surface, extreme gravitational forces compress and heat the gas.
This sudden, runaway thermonuclear blast violently ejects the outer envelope of accumulated hydrogen into space at thousands of kilometres per second. The explosion causes the progenitor system—previously an extremely dim magnitude ~21 speck—to violently brighten by hundreds of thousands of times into a bright 6th–7th magnitude optical transient before beginning its slow radiative cooling and decay phase.
Unlike a supernova, the underlying white dwarf survives the blast intact, and after the ejected shell dissipates, the mass-transfer accretion process will eventually begin anew.
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| Pickering's Triangle and the Witches Broom Nebula. Seestar S30 EQ mode. Cropped selection from a 60 minute stack of 60 second light frames. |
"Part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and the remnants from a supernova. One of the joys of the Northern Hemisphere's summer and early autumn skies " - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory in Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.
The Western Veil Nebula & Pickering’s Triangle (Cygnus Loop)
This wide-field capture features two prominent components of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant: NGC 6960 (the Western Veil, or Witch’s Broom) and Pickering’s Triangle (Simeis 3-188). Located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, these intricate filaments trace the expanding shockwave of a core-collapse supernova that shattered a massive star roughly 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Arcing across the upper section, the Witch’s Broom forms a sharp, delicate shock front visually anchored by the bright foreground star 52 Cygni (mag 4.2). The ribbon displays strong colour separation created by distinct atomic transitions: rich magenta-red hues from ionized hydrogen (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm) complemented by subtle cyan filaments corresponding to doubly ionized oxygen ([O III] emission at 500.7 nm), where supersonic shocks heat the interstellar medium. Across the lower frame, Pickering's Triangle unfolds into a intricate web of braided gas threads, showcasing diffuse hydrogen emission interlaced with faint ionization boundaries.
Acquisition & Processing Details:
Telescope/Camera: ZWO Seestar S50 (Equatorial Mode)
Integration: 60 × 60s exposure lights (1 hour total integration)
Gradient Correction: GraXpert
Star Separation: StarNet GUI
Post-Processing & Composition: Affinity Photo 2
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| The Martian Vista captured by the mast-cam of the Curiosity Rover. |
| NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS |
" When you make something well it does last, even in the most extreme of environments. This image taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars at its highest elevation to date, really underlines the extreme nature of the Martian Environment.
In a timescale of one million years the Sun will have begun to heat up as part of its ageing process. Life on Earth will eventually become impossible. In the meantime, rather than prioritising humanity's escape to Mars, we might be better to invest resources in protecting our environment and defending the one 'Million Years', which is an enormous amount of time and represents at least 100,000 future generations". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.
"I was surprised to see our sponsor's image of the Andromeda Galaxy, captured with the Seestar S30, in the September issue of Astronomy Now. Who knew the 'old boy' would get to be astronomically popular?" - Kurt Thrust current Director of Jodrell Plank Observatory.
" Kurt was getting his head around an update of the Seestar App and as part of the process pointed the S30 at the Elephant's Trunk Nebula IC1396 for a couple of minutes. He then forgot all about it. When I came across the data, I noticed that the 'Elephant' had been photobombed by a meteor, possibly a Perseid straggler" - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO the UK's most easterly Astronomical Observatory.
" The Seestar S30 was on 'outreach work' and was used by Kurt to image the short period comet 220P McNaught in the early hours of this morning whilst it was moving against the background of the Constellation Cetus. The comet surprised everyone this year by unexpectedly brightening in the night sky.". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.
Comet 220P/McNaught is a short-period, Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of approximately 5.51 years. First discovered by astronomer Robert H. McNaught in May 2004, its orbit is characterized by a perihelion distance of ~1.56 AU, an aphelion extending to ~4.68 AU near Jupiter's orbit, and a low orbital inclination of ~8.1°.
Morphological Features in the Exposure:
Optically Dense Coma: The image captures a highly condensed central pseudo-nucleus surrounded by an asymmetrical coma. The bluish-white hue around the nucleus stems primarily from cyanogen ($CN$) and diatomic carbon ($C_2$) radical gas emissions driven by solar ultraviolet radiation and photo-excitation.
Structural Dust Tail:
Extending towards the upper-right quadrant, the prominent tail consists mainly of millimeter- to micrometer-sized dust grains pushed outward by solar radiation pressure along the anti-solar direction.
Outburst Morphology: to
The pronounced brightness and extended structure visible here align with 220P's dramatic activity phases, such as the major outbursts where sublimating subterranean ices (like $CO$ or $CO_2$) violently ruptured the refractory mantle, ejecting massive plumes of dust and volatile gases.
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| Enlarged crop of the original stacked image. |
