Neat interacting galaxy pair

 I often do my planning on the fly as I am usually to busy during the day or on cloudy nights to do it ahead of time.  This is also a bit self serving as I have an off-axis guider and need to validate in the field that I'm actually hitting the guide star I need.  I picked up NGC2444 only to discover later it's NGC2444 and NGC2445, which as an interacting pair is ARP 143.

Per Wikipedia they, "NGC 2444 is a peculiar lenticular galaxy in the constellation Lynx. The galaxy lies about 135 million light years away from Earth, which means, given its apparent dimensions, that NGC 2444 is approximately 50,000 light years across....  NGC 2444 has collided with another galaxy, NGC 2445. As a result of the collision, a bridge of young blue stars has formed between the two galaxies.... NGC 2445 and NGC 2444 (which lies about one arcminute away) form a pair, known as Arp 143"

Here's MY nova astrometry solve - https://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/12166075#annotated 

A pair of recent Mars

 Average conditions, different cameras!

Just trying to beat the pollen season!

Triple planet night

I don't often get time and clear enough skies for 3x planets at once, but this night I was lucky enough to be home just in time for Venus to be above the trees after sunset.

Seeing wasn't great this night but it's been a week of rain since, so I'll take what I can get!

Early New Years Eve Martian clouds

 

On Earth we are closing in on a new year but it's spring on Mars' Northern hemisphere. Lot's of North polar cap sublimation means CO2 runs abundant. As you can see plainly on the blue channel there's lots of evening clouds on Mars' volcanic region.

Also the animation was featured in Sky & Telescope events page Mars Extravaganza — Occultation and Opposition Rolled into One! - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope

Good read on Martian seasons 

evening on Mars' volcanic region

https://www.planetary.org/articles/mars-calendar 

Most recent Mars amidst a big backlog

I love fall for astronomy and while I thought my automation scripts were ready for a big planet season of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars they're still in need of tweaking - Michael A. Phillips' Astro Blog: Overview of Fully Automated Planetary Processing

Going back to the most recent Mars as it's my favorites I was happy to see the North Polar Hood and a prominent, dark Olympus Mons!  Here's a derotation of 4x 90s RGB's

And the whole set's animation that was partially lost due to, checks notes, "dog helped me tear down again, lost time due to FC not guiding well"

Just a foster, but Rosita from the Wake SPCA was a great dog and we wish here a good home, despite ruining our drywall and moulding!  

 

j2024-09-09_09-49.1_rrgb_mp

 Just a post of a QHY test on Jove...

Saturn and Titan

 

I tried a friends QHY200M camera out but didn't like the resolution and took advantage of decent skies.  Pretty happy with Titan.

Rest of the season here:

• Imgur - https://imgur.com/a/BtRPDvO 

• Google Photos - https://photos.app.goo.gl/hABBNtPAfVwgB45V8