Captured over three windy but beautiful nights at the 2026 Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys, this Seagull Nebula image reflects both the magic of the southern skies and a week shared with old and new friends alike.

My first Winter Star Party delivered a week of clear, cool Florida Keys skies and 10 hours on M101. Captured in HaLRGB at f/3.8, this Pinwheel Galaxy image blends fast optics with careful PixInsight processing.

Captured during the Winter Solstice event at Big Cypress National Park, this image of M45—the Pleiades, was created from 75 two-minute exposures using a fast f/3.6 imaging setup. More than 2,450 attendees shared the night as live-stacked images revealed this iconic star cluster in real time, blending public outreach with a deep-space target that first sparked my astrophotography journey nearly 20 years ago.

The Soul Nebula sits about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, paired with its more famous neighbor, the Heart Nebula.

Battling clouds, failed guiding, and a rushed manual focus, I still managed to capture this stunning comet from our Harold Campbell dark site using my Askar FRA600 and ZWO 2600 Duo.

What do we have here, 3 targets one frame!

A vivid portrait of the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, blending reflection, emission, and dark nebulae captured in 2.5 hours from the Starry Night Ranch in Florida.

A swirling sea of gas and dust surrounds the bright star Sadr in this deep narrowband image captured from Deep Gap, NC.

Imaging M3 is more than just an exercise in precision — it’s a quiet confrontation with scale, time, and the staggering probability that life might be far more common than we once imagined.

Captured with the CarbonStar f/4 Newt and ZWO 2600MM Duo under dark Florida skies. Framing wasn’t ideal, but the detail came through beautifully.
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