I have posted the weekly video and newsletter over at EadsyAstronomy for any interested in getting it. I have some items in the video not covered in the newsletter but the link is there if you would prefer to read it. Lots of information this week! Hope it helps! LINK
The title says it all and if you are interested, head over to Eadsy Astronomy to read about my observing report from last night and early this morning after the moon had set. I was able to observe all these objects and describe them. Here is the LINK.
I have had a couple of people reach out and ask how I make a digital sketch. So I took my sketch of Messier 15 from the other night of observing, imaged it and had it on my second monitor and in this video I show how I create a rough digital sketch based on my actual sketch using the free program GIMP. I hope that this answers some questions. It is 45 minutes long and at times GIMP hangs so there is some dead space. I have not and will not edit my videos as I want you the viewer to see what goes into this process. You can find the vidceo over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. If you enjoy the content please join, membership is free and you'll recieve an email whenever I post over there.
For the last year I have been observing, using my SQM and SQM L to take measurements of the night sky where I observe, and making account of local conditions. My favorite sites in the past have been to my southwest for several reasons. First is the locations off Forest Road 006 where in the past very dark. I would get 21.8 readings there, slightly down to the 21.6 to 21.7 range when the summer Milky Way was up. Over the last 15 years my sights on Forest Road 006 have gone done further. I typically this summer was getting 21.33 to 21.44 readings when the Milky Way was up in it's glory. Last fall, winter and this fall my readings are in the upper 21.4 to very low 21.5 range IF I am lucky. The light dome from Salt Lake City to Provo has gone from about 8 degrees in the sky to well over 20 degrees in the sky, or the equilvant of two fists on top of each other.
In addition as we have more and more population move into the area, this forest land has been discoverd and the disperse camping sites are now taken up in the spring, summer and fall with ATVers. As such I can go to my Forest Road 006 sites but only during the week. About 10 years ago the US Forest Service removed the Junipers out on this land LINK to improve native habitat for the Sage Grouse, Mule Deer and ranchers whose cattle use the area. It was done to stop the spread of cheet grass and allow natural plants to be reinstated. This did change the natural beauty of the area and at each of my observing areas, made the small lights from the city of Vernon in the distance more noticable IF one was looking to the north northwest.
My other go to site was one called Pit n Pole. Pit n Pole was an easy 35 minutes drive from home to then 21.5 SQM site. Driving out there was easy (as it was to Vernon or Forest Road 006). However from 2015 on with the increase use of the land out there, and because Pit n Pole has a bern or hill, and it is barely outside the No Shoot Zone for Five Mile Pass (an ATV and dirt bike area) shooters have taken it over. It is now filled with old TV's that are shot up and plenty of waste and shells. It is no longer useable as an observing site.
In addition, this will explain why the land use has so drastically increased out in these areas since 2015. Saratoga Springs Utah, a city about 25 miles west of Pit n Pole and about 53 miles northeast of Forest Road 006 has grown over 100% since 2015. In 2015 it was estimated that Saratoga Springs had less than 25000 people living there. Today, there are over 62000 people living in Saratoga Springs. This growth has resulted in the increase of many businesses and though the city has a ligtening ordinance, the increase of population and according housing and business has greatly increase the light pollution there as LED lights take over.
The next city Eagle Mountain, which is the next city west of Saratoga Springs and on the route to get out to the Pony Express observing areas and to the forest land south of Vernon (FR006 and others) is 41 miles northeast of the Forest Land south of Vernon and only 15 miles from Pit n Pole. This city has also seen over 100% growth from 2015 to 2025, growing from under 25000 in 2015 to over 71,000 today (housing has been traditionally cheaper there until recently). Again, the city of Eagle Mountain has a lighting ordinance, but this population growth and increase of business and several factories in the area has greatly increased light pollution.
The result was in about 2020/21 during and right after Covid, I had to begin looking for new observing sites. Over the last year this has continued as I seek to have to either drive a little farther for the skies I had back in 2015, or increase my aperture to have the same observing I had then. I did buy night vision equipment and that can help of course, but I love visual observing.
The result was I began looking for new observing sites and I have done that. This video LINK over at Eadsy Astronomy will explain the how and the why behind that. I probably will have to do this again over the next 8-10 years as by 2050 the population of Utah is expected to increase by over 2.5 million (mostly along the Wasatch Front) which is like adding the population of Idaho to Utah's current size. It also means that NOW is the time to get out and enjoy the dark skies of northern Utah. Soon, they will fade into a memory and one will have to go south and southeast and southwest of the Wasatch Front to find dark skies. That will be a very sad day in my opinion.
Here is the LINK to the weekly newsletter over at Eadsy Astronomy. I am also for now including the video portion of the newsletter. This will be a feature for contributing members after January 1st, 2026. So here is the LINK to the Vlogging of the Newsletter if you want to visually see it. In the video I share how to use Skyhound to find Findercharts for the visible comets and the site will tell you if the comet is visible depending on where you live. Take a look and remember, membership is free and come January some content will be for members only. I am including the vlogging newsletter for free for everyone at this time. So please take a look. Starting January 1st, 2026, the video part with the tidbits and extra's I include will be for members only. Membership is free.
Also, if you do decide to become a contributing member here are the benefits you receive. Please note I am happy for everyone who wants to be a free member, I just am going to offer a little bit more for anyone who wants to have access to the extra content and contribute for it. I will only post this about 1-2 times a quarter just so others can see what I am offering.
$5 / month⸱7 days free trial
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Behind the scenes video of my observing trips.
Weekly Newsletter emailed to you on Thursday's (one day before I post them).
Patron shoutout on social media/podcast or posts.
Additional footage of tips and reviews not offered to free memebership
$7 / month⸱7 days free trial
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Everything from Stargazer
Participation in a monthly Q&A where we discuss presubmitted questions.
Access to my Google Drive Atlas and Faint Objects projects, Observing Guides and Astronomy aides (Begins January 1st, 2026).
Monthly 20 minute call to discuss observing or questions from any posts if scheduled with me.
One on One Sketching Tutorials for 30 minutes a month.
$30 / month (this will increase to $70 a for a two hour session come March 1st, 2026).
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Everything from previous tiers
Attend one of my observing sessions in the field (Utah), scheduled and weather permitting, and receive direct support for observing or sketching. This tier you are paying for my time to support you up to 2 hours for a monthly session in the field. You may move to this tier as you want that montly support. Once you sign up for this tier I will email you with your registered email to set up a time to observe for the next month after you have paid this membership.
Limit of 3 per trip and only 3 trips are offered so no more than 9 slots are available per month. It is $30.00 per person currently and that will rise to $75 per person as of January 1st, 2026.
If you live outside of Utah or within the state, you are responsible for all travel costs and lodging, food etc. I do not supply that just my time at the observing field assisting you directly for two hours.
If you are from out of the area or do not have a telescope, I will arrange for you to use one of mine and will even instruct those new to the hobby how to use the telescope. I offer a 10" dob, a 100 mm ED Refractor, a 6" or 102mm Achromatic Refractor or use of my SeeStar S50 to learn how to use it and take your first images.
This level is designed for a month or two at most depending on how much help you want getting started in the hobby or with a particular part of the hobby. After that you can either return to the free membership or one of the lower tiers if you wish to have the benefits of the contributing memberships.
Also, there was interest in the Sketching App I mentioned, so here is a post over at Eadsy Astronomy LINK from my Blog here from May 16th, 2025 LINK that you can review. I have updated the post over at Eadsy Astronomy if you want to see the udated article.
I posted the images of the items I have observed and sketched using the app. I could see in time this replacing other sketching methods as long as you keep your observing eye covered with an eyepatch and minimize the light output when you go to observe, then cover the eye when you sketch. It can be done and saves a TON on not having to buy or take out equipment.
As a FYI I LOVE how my globular turned out using the app, best globular I think I've done! Click on the image for full size and check out the updated post over at Eadsy Astronomy. Membership is free and I am not posting all my posts on my blog so join if you want to receive an email of when I post there.
In my presentation that I shared yesterday, I forgot to put in this section about Etienne Leopold Trouvelot. Etienne was from France and fled France after Louis Napoleon Bonoparte came to power to Massachusetts. Anyway, I did a post about him and his drawings and sketching while he was employed at Harvard in their Astronomy Program. He did over 7000 sketches/drawings. Here is the LINK over at EadsyAstronomy and if you are lookign for something to read or do during this cloudy period, with a desire to see how 19th century astronomers were interpreting the universe, it is an interesting read. On the other note he was resonsible for introducing the Gyspy Moth to North America . . . it is all in my post. Here are some of his drawings/sketches. Head over to read, get the link to his online book or download the PDF of the book I've attached there.
I am presenting tonight at the Salt Lake Astronomical Society on Sketching. I have two sketching presentations, an older one I first created in 2016/17 and a new one I created yesterday. You can head over to EadsyAstronomy LINK and download and view the presentations. I will soon be adding tutorials about how to do deep sky sketching and lunar sketching using the Mellish Method and Digital Methods. Look for those tutorials. They will be free resources of course though paying site members will get additional footage as well.
Anyway, head over if you want to take a look at my presentations.
Today over at Eadsy Astronomy, I posted my old observing sheet that I made in 2008, modifying from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's observing sheet. In addition I updated a posted from my blog here from November 2024 about hunting down globulars in Andromeda. It includes links to many of the web's posts and info on doing this! Head on over and take a look at t hese two posts LINK. Sign up for a free membership and get email notifications whenever I add content to Eadsy Astronomy! Want to shout out to Kendra Taylar, Shane Smith and Richard Wolf-Jacobson for joining!
From Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge Globular clusters in M31 December 2018 LINK
I've posted the weekly Eadsy Astronomy Newsletter over at Eadsy Astronomy at this LINK. Some key talking points are Uranus at opposition with two findercharts to help you locate the planet. Neptune finderchart and more common DSO's and great less familiar DSO's to go and take a look at.
The other day I did a post on how I determine, based on the weather where I am going to observe. Well, today is my observing day for this week due to weather and I am heading out. It will not be the best of conditions as clouds come in around 1am to 2am but by then the last quarter moon is up and I'll be heading home after 4-5 hours of observing!
If you are interested in knowing where I decided to go and why, and the sites I used to determine that, head over to Eadsy Astornomy LINK and take a look. Please feel free to join, its free to join and then you receive email whenever I update the site which is usually daily. All content is free there. Here is a sample of two of the sites I use to determine where to go. Click on them and you'll see the conditions for tonight out at either my Lakeside or my Knolls locations I observe from.
As the title describes, I've made a 3 video series that shows how after I have created my sketches, how I take an image of them, transfer them to my computer and then refine and process them in GIMP. I show how I round and brighten my stars, how I sometimes enhance an image to make it match more of what I saw at the eyepiece and how I prepare them for publication. I hope this helps and if you have ideas on how to improve, I'd love to hear them in the comments either here or over at Paetron. The videos are housed on Paetron at EadsyAstronomy. You can join for free and receive email updates when I post there. If you're able and want to donate to support me sharing such content, please feel free to do so there. Again though, all the content is free. The Tutorial is at this LINK over on EadsyAstronomy.
Here is NGC 5557 a elliptical galaxy in Bootes that I sketched on July 23, 2025 at Cedar Mountain Wildnerness. The first is the raw sketch and the second is after I processed it in GIMP. I explain and show the differences and the reasons for the adjustments in my video.
Here are my observing notes: At 317x in the 7mm XWA 100 degree FOV eyepiece in my 17.5" f/4.4 dob, the galaxy shows as a round object with a very bright inner core and a stellar nucleus. The outer halo is very faint on the edge.
I made adjustments in GIMP to this sketch as I was happy with the actual galaxy I had sketched and I used GIMP to enhance the image so it matched what I saw in the eyepiece. More on the video!
The Sun is still showing it is quite active of late. If you have a solar telescope like I do, please take it out and look up, weather permitting. Don't EVER look at the Sun with your naked eye, unprotected. A solar telescope is made to do just that, look at the Sun.
This morning at around 5:00 a.m. EST, the Sun released a X5.16 solar flare. Want to learn more about and learn the various levels of solar flares and what they mean? Head over to this LINK at Eadsy Astronomy and learn more about this flare and other flares there.
This image from GOES-19 Suvi shows the flare and the correspoinding AR or Active Regions. Again, if you have a solar telescope it is well worth looking at the Sun, weather permitting right now.
Okay another post over at Eadsy Astronomy that shares in video how I basically go about using a variety of weather sites to determine when and where I am going to observe. This week, possible Thursday night .Next week, right now Wednesday is looking good but I've commited to presenting on Sketching at the Salt Lake Astronomical Club (which it wasn't on new moon!). We'll see how the weather turns out.
From this session I show that based on my favorite observing sites I use, I am either going to my observing spot #2 off of Forest Road 006 south of Vernon Utah or to Top View on Toon Road off the Pony Express road. I'd prefer FR006 that night but we'll see tomorrow on where the forecast is. Here is the LINK if you want to head over and view the video. It is free to look at. In the future however, I'll make a post there in general terms but the videos will be free for members of Eadsy Astronomy. It is free to be a member and have access, and if you enjoy the content I post, and can help make a monthly contribution to help me cover my time in posting stuff up, it would be appreciated and I'll give you a shout out in each post!
I did a post on this but I have now created a video recording of how I actually go about selecting a new observing site. It is for members of my Paetron Page, Eadsy Astronomy and is for free and paying members. So if your interested, simply join the page either for free or if you can make a contribution it is appreciated. If you find my content interesting, please feel free to join Eadsy Astronomy over at Paetron. You can sign up for free and all content is free. If your able and wanting to donate to help compentate for the time put into publishing it is greatly appreciated and I'll share a shout out each time I post with your name. Anyway, here is the LINK
Here is a LINK to my weekly newsletter if your interested in taking a look. I include a finderchart for Uranus if your interested! Please check it out, it's free. If you feel you want to support me and gain access to some of my videos of observing, sketching, imaging and such, and you can contribute feel free to join with a paid membership. It is appreciated!
Again, I have posted a little bit about my journey of lunar observing and how, though for many years I ignored and dreaded the moon, how I changed and transformed to where I love lunar observing and appreciate how it opens up so much more of the month for observing and I really don't have to travel any further than my backyard to do it! It is an easy set up and take down since I'm home and I usually get my grandkids to join me for the first hour!
Again the full post is over on my Paetron site. Feel free to head over at this LINK and take a look and read. It's free and if you so wish, feel free to join. I'll be adding soon how I go about doing lunar sketching and filming that as part of a podcast that I'll share with paying members at all levels. If you feel you can support me and my time in putting forward what I am doing and sharing, at any level it is deeply appreciated. If you can't the content is still free of course as my main goal is to share! Enjoy!
To learn more about this sketch head over to my Paetron site!
Over at this LINK you can see my post on my observations of Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon on October 20th, 2025 from my observing spot in Utah's West Desert off the Pony Express Road in my 17.5" dob and on October 28th, 2025 at the top of Butterfield Canyon, Utah, near my home, in my 10" dob and my TeleVue NP101. Also you can see my sketch of Comet C/2025 R2 Swan from that same location in the same telescopes.
I've also included findercharts for both these comets and for 3iAtlas which is coming out from behind the Sun and is visible from a dark site with a smaller size telescope or from a 10" or greater scope from a rural country sky.
Again, if you find the content helpful and enjoyable, please feel free to join up over at my Paetron site. memberships are $5, $7 or $10 and will include specific videos of my both observing, using and modifying equipment, video reviews and tutorials on how to observe, using a variety of equipment and in sketching. I'll soon move to add a video cast of my posts as well where I comment on them. If you can't join at this time, no problem as most of my content will be free.
I have included a new post on how I go about selecting a new observing site, my thought process and then my observations from the night of July 28th and 29th, 2025 at Horseshoe Knoll in Skull Valley Utah. It is over on my Paetron Page at this LINK. It is free, as it always will be but if you find what I do interesting, feel free to join at the $5.00 level if your able and I'll mention and thank you both in my posts and in my upcoming podcasts. Really, just trying to recoup some of my time and gas as I go observe and share my details.
