Milky Way

Imagine being able to see our own galaxy, the Milky Way, with the naked eye. But you have to get away from all light pollution, away from cities and even local lights. The moon must not interfere either. Wait to get night vision (10-40 min), no lamp on or mobile phone on - then you will see the Milky Way as a band across the sky. These pictures were taken in Gekland and there you can also see the center of the Milky Way, which is seen as a large cloud in the night sky. This part of the Milky Way cannot be seen from Sweden.

The center of our galaxy is located 26,000 light-years away from Earth in the Sagittarius constellation. It features a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*, which is about 4 million times heavier than our Sun. Thick cosmic dust hides this busy, star-packed region from normal view.

Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way contains between 100 and 400 billion stars. Because we are inside the galaxy and obscured by thick clouds of gas and dust, we can only roughly calculate the total by measuring the galaxy's mass and observing the movement of its stars

Bright NLC´s

 

Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, forming in the mesosphere about 76 to 85 kilometers (50 miles) above the surface.

Meaning "night-shining" in Latin, they appear as electric-blue, silvery, or glowing wisps during summer deep twilight when they are illuminated by the sun from below the horizon.

Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), also called polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) when viewed from space, are a tenuous atmospheric phenomenon. Unlike typical weather clouds that form less than 12 miles above Earth, NLCs occur at the very edge of space.How

For noctilucent clouds to form, three precise ingredients are required:

Extremely Low Temperatures: Temperatures in the mesosphere must drop below -120°C to -140°C.Water

Trace amounts of water vapor must be present.

Tiny dust particles are needed, primarily from micrometeors burning up in the atmosphere.

Water vapor freezes onto the meteoric dust to form microscopic ice crystals, which reflect sunlight. Their striking blue color is a result of the ice crystals scattering sunlight in the upper atmosphere.

Noctilucent clouds are a seasonal and latitudinal phenomenon. They occur only during the summer months when the upper atmosphere above the polar regions experiences its coldest temperatures.

Northern Hemisphere: Best viewed between mid-May and mid-August, primarily at mid-to-high latitudes (roughly 45° to 80° North, including northern Europe, Canada, and the northern United States).

Southern Hemisphere: Best viewed between mid-November and mid-February

Photos taken in Vallentuna Sweden 16-17/7 2026.

Night sky disappearing?

Is this night sky soon gone forever?

We have light pollution, Starlink satellites, and soon maybe sun-reflecting satellites too?

 Light pollution is the overuse or misdirected use of human-made artificial lighting outdoors, altering natural light levels at night. This global environmental problem obscures the starry sky, wastes energy, and harms both human health and ecosystems.

 More than 10,000 Starlink satellites currently orbit the Earth. We see them crawling across dark skies, no matter how remote our location, and streaking through images from research telescopes.

SpaceX recently announced that it wants to launch one million more of these satellites as orbital data centres for AI computing power.

 Mirrors in Space? The FCC Just Approved a Sun-Reflecting Satellite, and Astronomers Are Worried

For now, a single satellite has been cleared for a test demonstration, but the company making it hopes to eventually launch 50,000 of them into orbit.

 This picture was taken on the southern part of the island of Zakynthos, Greece, during a family vacation. Most of the island has light pollution that ruins the night sky, so we took a drive to the southern part where there is no city. And the next mainland to the south is Libya, so the sky was amazingly dark and beautiful. The center of the Milky Way appeared as a cloud in the night sky.

 It would be devastating in many ways if the night sky disappeared more and more, even today not many people have seen a truly dark starry sky. The only way for us to realize our place in the universe, how small we are and that we have to take care of each other.

Eruptions

 

2 eruptions on the sun's eastern edge today from groups 4478 & 4479. Otherwise a fairly calm sun on the disk but a new sunspot is in the works on the western edge as well as a beautiful prominence.

Great sunspots

Several sunspot groups with active areas. Many eruptions have occurred from these areas in the days, some strong, and have now created auroras as far south as +36 New Mexico. Here in Sweden it is far too bright right now for us to be able to see any auroras. Today's images were taken with CaK filter 394 nm which is in the border area between the photosphere, which is visible in white light, and the sun's chromosphere, which is reserved for narrow-band H-alpha filters. In addition to the structures known from white light, such as sunspots, the network of chromospheric flares distributed over the entire solar surface also becomes visible, which precedes the formation of sunspots, as well as supergranulation cells and Ellerman bombs.

Giant sunspot group

Active Region 4478 (AR 4478) is a giant sunspot group on the surface of the Sun that was discovered as it rotated forward on the eastern solar limb. This region has quickly gained attention as one of the largest sunspot groups in modern history, on par with the historic region AR 3664 from 2024. Characteristics and Size Enormous scale: The region spans an area significantly larger than planet Earth. It is so large that it can be seen with the naked eye if you wear approved solar eclipse glasses. Magnetic complexity: The sunspot group has been classified with the highest possible magnetic complexity (beta-gamma-delta). This means that its magnetic field lines are tightly entangled. Explosive potential: The complex magnetic structure means that AR 4478 carries enough energy to trigger powerful M-class and X-class solar flares.

Noctlicent clouds and owls

A clear summer night with fog over open areas. Noctilucent Clouds are visible in the sky. All around me I heard screams in the trees and saw several owls, Strix aluco owls, chicks screaming for food. I managed to catch one of them flying between the trees.

Noctilucent Clouds are thin clouds of ice crystals that form at an altitude of 85 kilometers in the mesosphere. They are the highest clouds on Earth and are visible during the summer months when they are illuminated from below by the sun which is then below the horizon

Active Sun

 A really lovely view through the scope today! A lot of activity at the sun with some great prominences today.

Wonderful prominence

A beautiful view through the Ha solar filter the other day with a fantastic prominence at the eastern limb. 

Sunny Days

On sunny days, you want to take the opportunity to photograph the sun, which is quite active now with nice prominences on the edge of the sun and quite a lot of activity on the solar surface as well. All images from the Carpe Noctem Observatory and taken with a Ha solar filter.

The sun is the undisputed powerhouse of our solar system. Constantly fusing hydrogen into helium in its core, it radiates a staggering \(3.8 \times 10^{26}\) Joules of energy every single second. This output completely dwarfs human energy consumption, providing a nearly limitless engine for life on Earth

Dusk meets the northern lights

Dusk meets the northern lights over the sea on the east coast of Sweden. As darkness falls, the Milky Way emerges, our galaxy consisting of billions of stars. The image shows the area in the Swan with a lot of nebulosity with the bright star Vega next to it. Below the Milky Way, faint colors of the northern lights are visible, which are eaten up a little by the twilight. Among the rocks are bright areas that are marble, a beautiful place with an exciting geological history.

A prominence on the western edge of the sun is escaping into space. A prominence is a huge, arc-shaped cloud of hot gas and plasma held in place by the sun's strong magnetic field. If the magnetic field becomes unstable, the entire structure can rupture and be hurled into space at a speed of several million kilometers per hour. The image was taken on May 22, 2026 from the Carpe Noctem Observatory in Sweden. 

The Sun 24th of may 2026

A clear morning, but a very turbulent atmosphere and poor visibility. But I still took a chance on taking some pictures. It turned out 4 exposures with 200 stacked sequences per image, then stitched together in Photoshop.

Solar activity on May 24, 2026 is at an elevated and very active level, which is expected as we are close to the expected maximum period of solar cycle 25. Main measurements and events. During the last 24 hours, mainly C-class eruptions have been recorded, including two C3 eruptions early in the morning. The total number of observed sunspots remains high, indicating a continued high potential for further eruptions (such as M or X-class) in the next 24 hours. The last geomagnetic storm noted was at level G2 (moderate storm) on May 16, and currently there are relatively calm geomagnetic conditions.

Solar Prominence

In solar physics, a prominence, sometimes referred to as a filament,[a] is a large plasma and magnetic field structure extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the much brighter photosphere, and extend outwards into the solar corona. While the corona consists of extremely hot plasma, prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the chromosphere. Prominences form over timescales of about a day and may persist in the corona for several weeks or months, looping hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space. Some prominences may give rise to coronal mass ejections. Exact mechanism of prominence generation is an ongoing target of scientific research. A typical prominence extends over many thousands of kilometers; the largest on record was estimated at over 800,000 km (500,000 mi) long, roughly of solar radius. Photos taken back in 2022 using my Ha Solar filter and telescope.

Our star

Our beautiful star keeps our planet alive; without it there would be no life. On this warm sunny day the viewing was very nice, with a calm atmosphere and no major turbulence. The view through the eyepiece was fantastic! There was a lot of activity on the solar surface with active areas around sunspots and larger filaments. On the edge of the sun there were fantastic prominences; they were significantly larger than our own planet.