Clear Night Is Now an App
You can now save Clear Night to your phone's home screen, where it opens as a stripped-back app with just the forecast.
The ramblings
Blog
Target guides, processing walkthroughs, and notes from under the night sky.
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Clear Night: An Astrophotography Forecast Tool
A new tool on the site that tells you whether tonight is worth setting up the telescope.
The Gallery and Blog Are Back
After a spell as a simple landing page, thatastrochap.com has a proper home again for images, write-ups and a handy forecast tool. Here's what's here, and what's coming.
Target Guide: The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)
A face-on spiral nearly twice the size of the Milky Way, packed with star-forming regions that light up beautifully with a dash of hydrogen-alpha. How to frame, expose and process it.
Target Guide: The Leo Triplet (M65, M66 and NGC 3628)
Three interacting spiral galaxies in a single field of view, each showing the scars of their gravitational tug of war. The image I'm most proud of, and how to capture your own.
Target Guide: The Sunflower Galaxy (M63)
A flocculent spiral whose arms dissolve into thousands of short, fluffy segments, like petals on a sunflower. A rewarding galaxy season target for a small refractor.
ASIAIR Pro vs Plus: Is the Upgrade Worth It?
After years with the ASIAIR Pro I've upgraded to the ASIAIR Plus. Here's how the two compare, what convinced me to switch, and how I've set the new device up ready for its first clear night.
2024 Highlights: Nebulae, Galaxies and Big Upgrades
It's the last day of 2024, so it felt like the right moment to look back over a year of astrophotography: the switch to mono, a string of nebulae and galaxies, and a completely unexpected glimpse of the Northern Lights from southern England.
First Light Images in SHO with the ASI2600MM Pro
After a couple of quiet months I finally have my first two SHO narrowband images with the ASI2600MM Pro to share: the Elephant Trunk Nebula and the Cygnus Wall, captured over multiple nights from the back garden.
Target Guide: The North America Nebula and the Cygnus Wall (NGC 7000)
The North America Nebula is too big for most telescopes, and that's fine. The Cygnus Wall, its brightest ridge, is a superb narrowband subject in its own right.
Target Guide: The Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396)
A dark pillar of dust and gas winding through a vast emission region in Cepheus. My first narrowband target, and still one of my favourite recommendations for anyone starting out in SHO.
Making the Whirlpool Galaxy Pop: First Time Imaging in HaRGB
Galaxy season and a rare clear night gave me the chance to revisit the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), this time in HaRGB with my new mono camera, the ASI 2600MM Pro.