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Best Astro Memory of 2024

Off-topic Eclipse Sun
Steven Fanutti
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Steven Fanutti avatar
Steven Fanutti avatar
Hi everyone,

As 2024 draws to a close, what is your best Astro memory of the year (photographic or visual)? Any particular project that you tried this year that worked out well?

Here's mine...

Visual: the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

Photographic: The Carrington-sized sunspot back in May.


The Sun - May 09, 2024

Favourite Project: Photographic chart making from my images. Here's my latest...


Veil Nebula Finder Chart


My current ongoing project is making astrometry calculations of objects completely manually. NO CALCULATORS, NO COMPUTERS. I developed my own calculating methods that replace logarithms in my work. I use my photos to visualize plotting objects on a 3-D coordinate chart, using Galactic Coordinates and a mathematical set.

Steven
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Thomas avatar
Thomas avatar
Mine is without a doubt my trip to the Arctic and this awesome aurora display. Aurora Pretty much 2024 was the year of aurora for me. Saw them several times on my trip and then got treated to a few great shows at my house.
Tim Ray avatar
Tim Ray avatar
This is a great topic!

Mine was the April 2024 Solar Eclipse trip with one of my friends. It was his 2.4" Tasco refractor that he used to show me Saturn, my first light! That was the 2nd grade. We are now 60. He was also with me during the 2017 Solar Eclipse.  A great trip. Also, I received my first TPN and TP in 2024.
Abdul Thomas Jnr avatar
Abdul Thomas Jnr avatar
For me it has to be the Aurora of October 10th. Watching the whole sky exploded from this bortle 7 park just showed how intense that flare was. Best thing I've witnessed since I  started this hobby in 2021
Dave Erickson avatar
Dave Erickson avatar
Trip to Texas with family to see the total solar eclipse. Aurora viewing, with grandkids, from the observatory in southern California...

The "Eclipse RIG" on site Fort Clark Texas


Totality visable through clouds...Spictacular!!


Rare Southern California Aurora lites up the observatory...
Dan Brown avatar
Dan Brown avatar
I can't decide between the solar eclipse or the October aurora. To see the aurora at 42 degrees, and it was past the zenith, was incredible. The 120 mile long traffic jam after the eclipse was also incredible.
It was good year for me in regards to other natural phenomena too, I saw a bright comet and experienced an earthquake, quite rare in NH.
Dan
Steven Fanutti avatar
Steven Fanutti avatar
Dan Brown:
I can't decide between the solar eclipse or the October aurora. To see the aurora at 42 degrees, and it was past the zenith, was incredible. The 120 mile long traffic jam after the eclipse was also incredible.
It was good year for me in regards to other natural phenomena too, I saw a bright comet and experienced an earthquake, quite rare in NH.
Dan

For me, I get excited about any normal solar day as much as an eclipse. I took no photos during the eclipse because I didn't want to miss out on the experience working the camera. But the view through my 56 mm Meade eyepiece was way better than just the eclipse glasses. For me, the build up to totality was the best, seeing the crescent Sun gradually disappear. I scouted out a location beforehand in the totality zone. On eclipse day, the clouds parted just in time. I have no regrets as I fully enjoyed the eclipse, not being distracted tending to electronics. At my observing location it was about 1 minute and 45 seconds of totality.


My Visual Solar Setup

I did want to capture the Sun the day after just to record the level of solar activity near the eclipse day. Solar activity calmed down, but seeing the corona the day before was a treat that I will probably never see again. But I am content with white light solar observing and photography. I have my perfect setup that gives me the results that I am looking for. My solar photography in 2024 really improved by a quantum leap thanks to Siril.



My Main Solar Setup


The Sun - April 9, 2024
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Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
my memories are boring, lol

maybe, the best memories for me are:

the recent meteor shower (I think it was the Perseids? no, the Geminids); I remember seeing like 8 meteors total that night, even though I didn't originally intend to see them; I guess I should've set up my mirrorless to take pictures or video, but I was too busy with my telescope

another memory is, the first time I used a telescope with a monochrome camera and an H-a filter; in those days, it felt unreal what I could see in just 5 minute exposures

and maybe I'll include the feeling I got the first time I ever captured a nebula, like 3-4 years ago; it was one photo with my old DSLR and crappy lens, of M42; it was only like a 2s photo, but I remember feeling so surprised that I captured anything like that, I remember thinking how "out of place" that thing looked in the sky (that was my thinking before); I later confirmed that it was actually M42 (it was originally just a test, I think I wasn't expecting to capture it); that M42 photo is what sparked my curiosity and caused me to find out about this hobby, and the rest is history.

my second or third DSO captured was M31, it was this short integration (one of my first times trying out stacking), with my newborn processing skills:

I think this is about 15 minutes of integration

I remember I was so PROUD of this, lol

and this is M31 revisited, about 2 years later:

(image is in my gallery and profile pic, but flipped 90 degrees, not sure if this rotated view looks better)
Steven Fanutti avatar
Steven Fanutti avatar
Oscar:
and this is M31 revisited, about 2 years later:


WOW! That M31 H-alpha image is amazing! I tried H-alpha imaging years ago, but I gave it up as I simply didn't have time to take such lengthy exposures. Here's one of my better H-alpha results taken around 2016, imperfectly combined with an RGB image:


Veil Nebula - NGC 6992/6995

Sometimes, I wonder if it was a mistake to give it up, but there's a whole universe of short-exposure astrophotography to explore. I think short-exposure astrophotography should get more attention than it does. Here's the same image, processed in two different ways where I brought out the colors of bright and faint stars:


Gamma Cassiopeiae


Gamma Cassiopeiae

I did major revisions of photos of past years in 2024 and posted them on AstroBin. My processing skills really improved in 2024.


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Andrew Murrell avatar
Andrew Murrell avatar
Earlier this year at Ozsky 2024 in Coonabarabran, a small group of observers set out to try and see the Quasar J0529-4351. Armed with my 25" Dob Ptah and a finder-shart to pinpoint the object we found Quasar. This Quasar is the Brightest object in the known Universe. It gets energy from the material surrounding the Black Hole in the Galaxy's centre. It formed only 470 million years after the Big Bang. To our knowledge, this is the first and only visual observation of this object.
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Steven Fanutti avatar
Steven Fanutti avatar
Andrew Murrell:
Earlier this year at Ozsky 2024 in Coonabarabran, a small group of observers set out to try and see the Quasar J0529-4351. Armed with my 25" Dob Ptah and a finder-shart to pinpoint the object we found Quasar. This Quasar is the Brightest object in the known Universe. It gets energy from the material surrounding the Black Hole in the Galaxy's centre. It formed only 470 million years after the Big Bang. To our knowledge, this is the first and only visual observation of this object.

I once saw M22 and M101 through a similar sized Dob at StarFest in 2004. Even 20 years later, I haven't forgotten the experience.
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HR_Maurer avatar
HR_Maurer avatar
After considering to nominate comet Tsuchinshan in the morning sector from La Palma, i decided to nominate my trip to Norway. The comet was a good experience, but not as good as expected.
The trip to Norway and the Lofoten Islands, on the other hand, was a full success. It wasn't my first Lofoten trip - at all. I've just been there last year. This year i came earlier, though, already in late August. I wanted to have fully green trees, not yellow, at least in the first days. The first nights lasted only four hours of astronomical dawn or so... and i had very well defined ideas of where to go. I based my location decisions on the current weather conditions.
I wouldnt say i had much better conditions than last year, but i got more good imagery than last year out of my work. My favourite is this one:
Steven Fanutti avatar
Steven Fanutti avatar
The comet was a good experience, but not as good as expected.


I thought the comet was overhyped. To me, a "comet of the century" is one that is so bright that it casts shadows or you can see it without effort even from urban areas. I looked and saw nothing. If you have to drive to a far away dark site to see it, sorry, in my opinion that's not a "comet of the century". Far more impressive to me was Venus emerging into the evening sky and Jupiter reaching opposition.
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Jean-David Gadina avatar
Jean-David Gadina avatar
I started this hobby in January, so I have many great memories, as everything is new.
I bought my first telescope, and a few days later, I installed it on my balcony to try to image the Orion Nebula.
If I had to pick only one memory, it would be this one.

I took a single exposure since I did not know about stacking.
I was shocked to discover the result.

The image is not great, of course, but I remember dancing in my apartment when I saw it, as I was so happy.
I would never have imagined being able to capture that from my city.

This kick-started the hobby for me, making me want to learn, experiment, and discover the beauty of our universe.

I can't wait to try to image M42 again now that I have more experience.

Clear skies and happy new year, folks!

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HR_Maurer avatar
HR_Maurer avatar
Steven Fanutti:
The comet was a good experience, but not as good as expected.


I thought the comet was overhyped. To me, a "comet of the century" is one that is so bright that it casts shadows or you can see it without effort even from urban areas. I looked and saw nothing. If you have to drive to a far away dark site to see it, sorry, in my opinion that's not a "comet of the century". Far more impressive to me was Venus emerging into the evening sky and Jupiter reaching opposition.

To me, the comet of the (quarter) century has been C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). It wasnt more difficult to see than Tsuchinshan, i hink, and it had such amazing tails!
Léo Duchêne avatar
Léo Duchêne avatar
A hard choice but my first experience watching noctilucent clouds during a camping night with friends near a Swedish lake is up there ! Almost beats Northern lights as to me the photos of the clouds are a closer reflection of what the real experience felt like! 

AstroRBA avatar
AstroRBA avatar
Great topic !

its nice to read about the successful pursuits of our fellow Members;

Mine was finally getting (somewhat) comfortable with narrow band imaging at 3900 mm albeit with 7nm filters - I’ve picked up a set of 3nm filters now and hopefully that will be my story for 2025!

And just in fairness to all of those not so good astro pursuits, I’m started a new topic for “Worst Astro Memories of 2024”! Ha ha! 

Pete (the troublemaker)
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Daniele Borsari avatar
Daniele Borsari avatar
One of my best memories from 2024 was a night under the skies of the Teide National Park. During my trip to Tenerife I got the chance to do visual astronomy with Alessandro Marchetti's 32" Dob (what a piece of engineering!!!). What left me speechless was seeing M13 with all the resolved stars in it, but also M51 and M17 were like watching a picture.

This is a 30 seconds picture done with my smartphone.
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Nagy Marcell avatar
Nagy Marcell avatar
My astro rig slowly comes to life! I started working this summer after leaving university -to be on correspondence course- I have also got a mobile observatory  -what needs a lot of renovation - Little story: I wanted a really good imaging rig for lucky imaging (on budget) , and I found an old big telescope (made in 2004) in Holland for super cheap (the seller told me that he was told that the scope was made by Pegasus Optics and its lambda 1/10, but thats all the information I got about its quality, what could have been a lie but I took the gamble). After 2 months of planning and negotiating with the seller about the possible transportation methods I got the scope in early October. My initial plan was just to restore it  because it had a really good build but it was really old.After its long travel to Hungary and when I looked through the whole build, I had to realize that it was too old to be useful to my needs so i had to rebuild the whole scope. I found a really good plan and I got permission from its maker (Matteo Mellone) to use up his design. I have got the carbon rods from alibaba for tenth of the price what I found in EU. (which is really good!) The frames will be from casted aluminium, for what I got everytghing (finally) -cheap kiln from aliexpress- 3D printers for making the mold (from my side hobby/buisness) etc... The old scope was stored in a garage until the day before yesterday, and yesterday I moved it to my little workplace. And here came the really good news, because I found a documentation on the mirrors back. Its indeed a Pegasus Optics mirror, with QSP coating, and it has a 96.5504 Strehl ratio which confirms the 1/10 lambda. I am super super happy right now! I have also got the perfect camera for this scope in late July (when I found the scope on te-les-koop.nl ) I was an insane search.. because the shops didnt have it. I finally found after a long search the QHY 183M used for sale in Italy for almost half the price! I have got the color filters (without luminance ) so I am super happy with this year, the lot of headache was worth it! Soon I will start the moldig of the frames of the scope! A last word about the soon to be scope : its a 20" f4 prime focus astrograph, specially designed for imaging. (the design is not finished, it does not show the focusing mechanism and the new triangulated spider vanes. (the camera will stick out of the scope- I ordered smaller rods what I initially needed)
Dan Brown avatar
Dan Brown avatar
Nagy Marcell:
My astro rig slowly comes to life! I started working this summer after leaving university -to be on correspondence course- I have also got a mobile observatory  -what needs a lot of renovation - Little story: I wanted a really good imaging rig for lucky imaging (on budget) , and I found an old big telescope (made in 2004) in Holland for super cheap (the seller told me that he was told that the scope was made by Pegasus Optics and its lambda 1/10, but thats all the information I got about its quality, what could have been a lie but I took the gamble). After 2 months of planning and negotiating with the seller about the possible transportation methods I got the scope in early October. My initial plan was just to restore it  because it had a really good build but it was really old.After its long travel to Hungary and when I looked through the whole build, I had to realize that it was too old to be useful to my needs so i had to rebuild the whole scope. I found a really good plan and I got permission from its maker (Matteo Mellone) to use up his design. I have got the carbon rods from alibaba for tenth of the price what I found in EU. (which is really good!) The frames will be from casted aluminium, for what I got everytghing (finally) -cheap kiln from aliexpress- 3D printers for making the mold (from my side hobby/buisness) etc... The old scope was stored in a garage until the day before yesterday, and yesterday I moved it to my little workplace. And here came the really good news, because I found a documentation on the mirrors back. Its indeed a Pegasus Optics mirror, with QSP coating, and it has a 96.5504 Strehl ratio which confirms the 1/10 lambda. I am super super happy right now! I have also got the perfect camera for this scope in late July (when I found the scope on te-les-koop.nl ) I was an insane search.. because the shops didnt have it. I finally found after a long search the QHY 183M used for sale in Italy for almost half the price! I have got the color filters (without luminance ) so I am super happy with this year, the lot of headache was worth it! Soon I will start the moldig of the frames of the scope! A last word about the soon to be scope : its a 20" f4 prime focus astrograph, specially designed for imaging. (the design is not finished, it does not show the focusing mechanism and the new triangulated spider vanes. (the camera will stick out of the scope- I ordered smaller rods what I initially needed)

Wow! Please keep us posted on your progress.
Dan
Nagy Marcell avatar
Nagy Marcell avatar
The progress is a little bit slow, so I tend to forget to update along the way but I will try my bestsmile
Willem Jan Drijfhout avatar
Willem Jan Drijfhout avatar
The installation of my telescope at a remote hosting site. This came on-line in Q2 2024 and resulted in a 10-fold increase in collected exposure time. Happy to have been able to shoot 39 images. For anyone interested, feel free to check out the '2024 summary' blog on my website.
Astro With RoRo avatar
Astro With RoRo avatar
For me it absolutely would have been seeing C/2023 A3 rising over the Sydney Opera House through my bino's and managing to capture it on camera:

https://www.astrobin.com/17rx7t/
Lachlan Wilson avatar
Lachlan Wilson avatar
Mine I think is quite quirky and unique. I was invited to an Observatory in QLD in Aus, where there was loads of Obs grade equipment. We were using a ASi6200MM for imaging deep sky targets  (and getting quite decent results),  however the connection to the filter wheel didn't work due to the wheel being QHY brand. After some research, we conluded that we can' connect to it without a QHY camera. 

Turns out the Observatory had a very old QHY600M, which didn't work for imaging (I think the sensor was busted), however the electronics worked fine. Getting permission from the owner, we used the QHY600M as a "secondary" camera, whose purpose was to purely be a connection to the filter wheel. The cap is off the camera, due to a lack of it, and also it didn't particularly matter. 

Photos of the attachement (extremely dodgy) are below. It may be considered as an astrophotography crime, however I will plead not guilty as it worked perfectly.

Overall very fun memory of trying to work that all out, as well as praying in front of the camera that it would work. 
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AstroÅmazer avatar
AstroÅmazer avatar
Started deep sky astrophotography with a telescope and modified mirror less camera this year. 6 months in, have learnt a lot. A lot of the skills from landscape and lunar photography didn't seem relevant with DSOs. The whole rigging, balancing, guiding part of it was new. And while I have openCV and image processing experience, all the issues with image registration, interpolation etc that comes with the stacking process had a bit of a learning curve. Also, the amount of attention to detail required for this hobby caught me off guard. I am still a freeware only person and once I got the hang of Siril, life was so easy. 

If I was to pick a single moment, I'd say I am proud of figuring out why I was getting dumbbell shaped small stars even though my large stars were perfectly round. Turns out Deep Sky Stacker, with bicubic interpolation was not getting the pre- and post-meridian flip images stacked properly. Moving to lanczos-4 in Siril solved the issue.
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