PeakAstronomy

22/04/2026

16/04/2026

I've not been on social media much over the last 9 months. My mum became seriously ill in April last year and after 3 months in hospital moved from the east coast over to Cheshire to be near me. She passed away in November, followed very suddenly a week later by my sister.
I'm now feeling ready to return to my posting after a long break.
What better way to start than with a new comet that's currently passing Earth before disappearing into the depths of the solar system for another 170000 years.
You have to be quick to capture it over the next 4 or 5 days, low in the Eastern sky (in Pegasus) just before dawn.

22/11/2025

Comet C/2025 K1 (Atlas) spit into 3 pieces last week after passing the sun. It's heading past Earth next week and it's now possible to see the 3 sections of the core.
This picture was captured from my garden in the early hours of Wednesday morning using an 80mm aperture telescope and astronomy camera. The comet is fairly faint so I stacked 60x60s images together to create the final image.
RVO80ED scooe, ZWO asi533 mc pro camera, HEQ5pro mount. Processed in SiriL and Graxpert.

24/10/2025

The clouds finally parted at the beginning of this week in time to catch the amazing comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) as it approached its closest point to Earth in 1300 years.
This is a particularly bright comet, visible with the naked eye in dark areas.
This picture is composed from a stack of 25 x 30s exposures at 200 gain, captured in Devon on 21st October with an Askar SQA55 telescope and asi2600mc duo astro camera mounted on an HEQ5pro mount.

08/09/2025

Last night's

05/08/2025

Milky Way core captured from the Parsley Hay Dark Sky Site in the Peak District in July.

11/07/2025

July's full moon, the "Buck Moon" rising over the hills from our campsite last night.

03/07/2025

Over the last week there have been amazing displays of over the night skies in the UK, peaking between 2 and 3am. Here's a quick panorama from last night in the Peak District.
These clouds form in the outer layers of the atmosphere, around 80km up, and in summer they reflect the sun which is only about 10° below the northern horizon.
One of the great things about them is you don't need any special kit to photograph them, even on a mobile phone they look great.

03/07/2025

Over the last week there have been amazing displays of over the night skies in the UK, peaking between 2 and 3am. Here's a quick panorama from last night in the Peak District.
These clouds form in the outer layers of the atmosphere, around 80km up, and in summer they reflect the sun which is only about 10° below the northern horizon.
One of the great things about them is you don't need any special kit to photograph them, even on a mobile phone they look great.
Peak District National Park The Guardian The One Show BBC Sky at Night Magazine Visit Peak District & Derbyshire BBC Breakfast BBC Derby

12/06/2025

Another view of the and - the moon's equivalent of a solstice but only occurs every 18.6 years when the moon rises and sets at its most southerly point in the sky.
This photo is a series of exposures taken roughly 2.5mins apart capturing the rising over the .