So many satellites in this stack totaling only 5 minutes of exposure!!! Glad that the comet was bright enough to show up here. #astrophotography
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Parag
@astrovelo@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Photon gatherer 🔭; bicycle rider 🚴🏽
Science!!! 🧬🧪
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Joined June 04, 2025
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astrovelo.com
During my bike ride to work, I was huffing and puffing while going up on a hill. Another bicyclist came from behind and said as he passed me, “You’re doing great! Don’t look at me, I am cheating”. That was nice of him as he was on an e-bike.
One of the few orchids that grow in New England, pink ladies slippers is blooming right now. These can only be seen in the wild. They can’t be domesticated as they need a certain kind of fungus in the soil to grow. The rain brought out a lot of these newts on the trail as well.
The Coma cluster aka Abell1656 in Coma Berenices. Amazing to think that there are more galaxies than individual stars in this photo. About 1000 galaxies at 320 million light years. 🤯🤯🤯
UltraCat108; ASI2600MC-Duo; total exposure: 2.5 hours #astrophotography
The Soap Bubble nebula (PN G75.5+1.7) is a planetary nebula near the Crescent nebula (NGC6888) in the constellation Cygnus. The soap bubble is in the bottom left quadrant of the image. This bubble of ionized gas was ejected from a red giant - something that the Sun will eventually do. As this nebula is very faint and is surrounded by other diffuse nebulosity, it is difficult to image and spot. It was discovered recently in 2008. #astrophotography
Happy 100th birthday, Sir David Attenborough! What an amazing and fantastic life you have lived!
Thank you for articulating the beauty of nature and making countless hours in my and my children’s lives truly enjoyable and full of wonder.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@astrovelo/116363584611796786
The three bright objects to the right and below the Moon are Saturn, Mars and Mercury.
Thanks to the detective work... https://scicomm.xyz/@JohnBarentine/116364430988252835
Got up early this morning to catch Comet 2025 R3 (PANSTARRS). There were clouds along the horizon but then the comet moved above the clouds. I could easily spot it with binoculars but not with naked eyes. It has such a long tail. Hope it survives its encounter with the Sun and puts on a good display in the evening sky.
Nikon Z6; Rokinon 135mm f/2; 30×20sec
These days I am using solar energy to power my nightly astronomy sessions.
The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) is a large face-on spiral galaxy at about 21 million light years in Big Dipper. It is 70% larger than our Milky Way and contains more than a trillion stars. Gravitational interactions with nearby galaxies have caused the distortions in its spiral arms.
🔭UltraCat108; 📷ASI2600MC-Duo; total exposure: 2 hours (40×3 min)
Replying to
@xconde@social.chinwag.org This is not important only for amateurs like me but the satellite light pollution affects observations made by professional astronomers. Even with Hubble and Webb telescopes in space, a lot of observations are made by land-baseed telescopes.
Not having access to clear and dark skies is a huge loss for humanity.
Finished reading Orbital (https://hardcover.app/books/orbital-2023/reviews/@parag?referrer_id=79734) by Samantha Harvey. It was an excellent read! I really enjoyed it. It is fiction and also non-fiction. Beautifully written prose that is quite poetic at times.
Replying to
@LifeTimeCooking Interesting! I have never made it with moth. Should try that as I love moth. If you add the British version - kedjeri - then there are many more recipes including the ones with smoked fish or meat.
Replying to
@SRDas We went to Frida Kahlo museum and the huge archeological museum. Also visited the pyramids at Teotihuacan. Still lots to cover in the next visit. Definitely want to visit the lake with axolotls. Will add that library to the list.
Was out on a walk with my daughter in the neighborhood yesterday. Some neighbor girls were playing in the yard and playing music.
me: is that Harry Styles?
daughter: yes, they are!
Took me a few seconds to figure out what my ever proper genZ-er said.
As it has been a tradition for the last decade+, this was my birthday ride (https://www.strava.com/activities/18454958622). I meticulously created a route to match the number of miles with my age but took a wrong turn and ended up adding some extra miles. It was an enjoyable ride mostly on beautiful quiet backroads with minimum traffic and cloudy (52F) weather with no wind.
My most favorite flowering tree of the Spring season is Eastern Redbud. Such delicate pretty flowers with that fantastic color!