Faint Aurora

A quick and faint Aurora last night with some fluorescence of fungi and cliffs by a lake.

 

The spider and infinite

A tiny spider on planet Earth, with the infinite expanse above. I encountered the spider while examining a mushroom; I had removed a leaf resting on it, revealing the spider tucked away in its shelter. I took the opportunity to photograph it under UV light, though I avoided shining the light directly at it, out of consideration for its eyes. I hope it finds a new place to take shelter. Above this spider—which measures about 1 cm—lies the open star cluster known as the Pleiades (M45). Located approximately 440 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, it features a physical core with a radius of about 8 light-years, giving its central, densest region a diameter of roughly 15 to 17 light-years.

So beautiful

A small daisy in the darkness. There is so much beauty to see on our planet, especially the small things we don't always notice. In the sky, the constellations Auriga and Perseus are visible, along with the bright star Capella. Available as print. 

The small things and the starry sky

 The small and important things on the ground and the starry sky.

Glowing Fungi and Big Dipper

Plants fluoresce under UV light primarily because of chlorophyll and specific chemical compounds (like polyphenols) within their tissues that absorb invisible ultraviolet radiation and re-emit it as visible light. As always, I love photographing the small alongside the vastness of the sky—yet, in the end, everything is merely relative.

M45 Plejades the open cluster

The open star cluster the Pleiades (M45) is visible to the naked eye and resembles a miniature Big Dipper. The Pleiades—also known as Messier 45 (M45) or the Seven Sisters—is one of the most famous and easily visible open star clusters in the night sky. Located in the constellation Taurus, it is the Messier object closest to Earth.

Distance from Earth: Approximately 444 light-years.

An open star cluster surrounded by a reflection nebula.

Very young by cosmic standards—around 100 million years old.

Number of stars: Contains over 1,000 confirmed stars in total, though only a few are visible to the naked eye. It appears in all the images. 

Glowing rocks, lichens and mushrooms

The time-lapse shows 90 minutes of the Earth's rotation, captured while I was out photographing nearby. I found a small giant puffball hidden in the moss, as well as a fungus growing on a dead tree (a saprophyte). I also photographed lichens on rock outcrops. Certain minerals in the rock shift color when illuminated with UV light, fluorescing beautifully.

Small mushrooms and the nightsky

While searching the darkness for lovely little subjects, I stumbled upon these small mushrooms on a tree branch—beautiful! In the sky, one can see the section of the Milky Way containing the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. To the left of the star Deneb in Cygnus, a large and beautiful nebula—the North America Nebula (NGC 7000)—is visible. I photographed it using just a single 20-second exposure through the tree branches.

Moon with Earthshine

Early this morning, the moon could be seen with earthshine. Earthshine occurs when sunlight strikes the Earth and the reflected light bounces onto the moon.

This makes it possible to see the entire lunar disk at times—even the dark portion not illuminated by direct sunlight. The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "ashen light."

It is best observed during a new moon or when the moon appears as a thin crescent.

Andromeda galaxy

Did you know you can see a galaxy with the naked eye? It’s true, though you do need a dark, clear sky free of moonlight. You can make it out with the naked eye if you know where to look. As someone who’s been at this a long time, I use a trusty star atlas, but nowadays there are apps you can download for stargazing. Viewed through a small pair of binoculars, it is a spectacular sight. The Andromeda Galaxy—as it is known—lies about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a spiral galaxy containing billions of stars, much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. These galaxies may eventually collide, as Andromeda is moving toward us, though that is a long way off; the predicted collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way is expected to occur in roughly 2–5 billion years, resulting in the formation of an elliptical "blob" galaxy dubbed "Milkomeda" or "Andromeway." This so-called "collision" is expected to be more of a gentle merging than a violent smash-up—it must be an amazing sight in the sky!

The image is a single 15-second exposure. 

Glowing mushrooms & Big Dipper

A dark and clear night in a nature reserve with high biodiversity. As usual, I’m looking for small things on the ground that fluoresce under UV light. And at one point, the ground lights up in yellow/green – incredibly beautiful waxcap mushrooms. Waxcaps are very important for conservation because they act as key indicator species for species-rich and valuable environments. Many species are extremely sensitive to changes, making their presence a sign of high biodiversity. 

In the sky, the Big Dipper can be seen, slightly obscured by a tree. The Big Dipper serves as a perfect 'window' to distant galaxies because the constellation is pointed straight away from the Milky Way’s dusty and star-packed disk. When we look toward the Big Dipper (which is part of Ursa Major), we’re gazing straight into deep intergalactic space, free from the obscuring gas and dust clouds that otherwise block the view along the Milky Way’s band.

Saturn in opposition

Today, October 4, 2026, Saturn reaches its opposition. This means that the Earth passes directly between the sun and Saturn, which means that the ringed planet is exactly on the opposite side of the Earth in relation to the sun. In the picture, the planet is seen in the middle just above the trees. In binoculars you can see a tendency to rings. It shines with a significantly calmer light compared to the stars, slightly red in color. The picture shows a cliff illuminated with UV light and the feeling is like looking over an ocean with illuminated islands in the tropics. But it is lichens that fluoresce in fantastic colors.

A quick session of the sun

 

Mushrooms & Saturn

Small mushrooms hiding in the grass with planet Saturn above. You see the planet as a bright "star" low to the left of the tree.

Moon & Saturn

A clear evening with the moon behind thin clouds but Saturn between clouds. 

Saturn was a quick expo but the moon so I created a high resolution mosaic of several images. 

The moon is in a waning moon (after the full moon on September 26), where about 94–97% of the moon's surface was illuminated, so beautiful mountains & craters are visible. 

Saturn is a gas giant that is mostly made of hydrogen and helium.

It has a diameter of about 116,460 kilometers (about nine times larger than Earth).

So light that it would float on water if there was a bathtub that was big enough.

A day only takes about 10.5 hours.

Surrounded by wide, thin rings made of ice and rock.

Has a large number of moons, of which Titan is the largest. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere. Distance 1.2 to 1.4 billion kilometers.

Harvest Moon rising

 

Mushroom and Vega

Another clear night with a bright moon. This time, I found a beautiful *Boletus edulis* (porcini mushroom). Below it stands a solitary trumpet lichen fluorescing a vivid blue, while the porcini glows with a greenish hue. *Boletus edulis* is an edible mushroom found in both deciduous and coniferous forests. Technically, it is a bolete. It forms mycorrhizal associations and is therefore dependent on host trees.

In the sky, the bright star Vega is visible in the constellation Lyra.
It lies approximately 25 light-years from Earth, emits a bluish light, and rotates so rapidly that it is flattened into an egg-like or ellipsoidal shape.
Its mass is roughly 2.1 to 2.5 times that of the Sun.
It shines with a luminosity about 40–50 times greater than that of the Sun.
Surrounding the star is a disk of dust and asteroid belts that may indicate the presence of a planetary system.

Glowing moss and fungi under the stars

Glowing moss and a little fungi under the stars.

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Fungi & Night Sky

A clear evening in the woods behind my house. Simply walking around looking for beautiful little objects is a pleasure. It is now mushroom season, and many of them fluoresce under UV light. These fungi are vital, acting as nature’s cleanup crew by breaking down dead wood and leaves, thereby returning nutrients to the soil.
What we pick and call a "mushroom" is merely the fruiting body. Beneath the ground lies a vast, intricate network of fungal threads known as mycelium. It is through this mycelium that the fungus absorbs water and nutrients from the soil.
Symbiosis with trees (Mycorrhiza): Many of our most common edible mushrooms live in symbiosis with forest trees. Through underground contact, they exchange services: the fungus provides the tree with water and minerals, while the tree supplies the fungus with sugars (carbohydrates) produced via photosynthesis.
The soil's kidneys: Fungi are extremely efficient at absorbing substances from the soil. Unfortunately, this means they can also take up and store environmental toxins, heavy metals, and radioactive substances (such as cesium) if they grow in contaminated soil.
Visible in the starry sky are the constellations Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Auriga.

 

Beautiful prominence

 A quick look at the sun between clouds and the view was wonderful. A very nice prom at the limb.

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The chromosphere of the sun - high res photo.

The chromosphere is the thin middle layer of the Sun's atmosphere, located just above the visible surface (photosphere) and below the outer atmosphere (corona). It comes from the Greek word chroma, meaning color, because it shines with a bright red glow during total solar eclipses. The red color comes from glowing hydrogen gas, specifically the hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) light wavelength. It extends roughly 2,000 to 4,000 kilometers (about 1,200 to 2,500 miles) above the solar surface. Unlike inner layers, it gets hotter as you move outward, rising from about 4,000 K near the bottom to 10,000 K (or higher) at the top. Possible to see/photograph: Spicules: Narrow, grass-like jets of plasma that shoot upwards from the bottom layer before falling back down.

Prominences and filaments: Huge, cool loops and clouds of gas held above the surface by magnetic fields. Visibility: It is normally hidden by the blinding brightness of the photosphere below, but it is visible during total solar eclipses or through special solar filters.

Photo taken with several photos stitched together as a high res photo of the sun.

Blue Trumpet Lichens and starry sky

 

Solar from Carpe Noctem Observatory