My 2025 Astrophotography Year in Review
2025 was a year filled with new equipment adventures (ultimately overcome but challenging at the time); dark skies travel – another fabulous trip to the Atacama Desert and an amazing birthday dark skies trip to Utah; three one-night stands in the Beast; and the taking away and giving back of my front patio imaging location.
One last image from our birthday Dark Skies Trip to Utah
My 65th birthday trip (YES, in October 2025!) was to explore possible camping venues on Utah BLM land, look for Milky Way foreground sights, and to capture DSO data from the dark skies of Bryce Park Place in Cannondale, Utah. As you read back in October – the trip was a complete success! What I alluded to, but never got back around to, was processing the images I captured of the Milky Way, Orionids Meteor Shower, and Comet C-2025 Lemmon. As I was closing out my 2025 AP Journal last weekend – I realized my negligence with those images…so I made that right today (17Jan2026) – better late than never!
The rest of the story (and images!) of my 12 Days of Christmas mono imaging extravaganza
I spent my 12 Nights of Christmas imaging from our front patio with Big Bertha and the latest addition to my astrophotography arsenal – the ZWO ASI6200MM mono camera and 7×2″ filter wheel. There were a lot of equipment, software, and processing hurdles to overcome…but, when it was all said and done, there are images to show for the effort! I’ll let you be the judge (and ask you to share your opinion) of whether you prefer the dark skies color camera images or their mono counterparts.
Dialing in my Mono Data Collection and Processing
Second light with the ZWO ASI6200MM mono camera and filter wheel came in mid-December giving me the opportunity to work through issues and learn a few key aspects of mono data collection and processing. I still have a LOT to learn and data to process, but for now enjoy the continuing saga of my step into the mono imaging world.
December’s Cold Supermoon processed as a Mineral Moon
The final supermoon of 2025, the Cold Moon of December was the last of three consecutive supermoons this year (October, November, December). The Moon’s surface material, known as regolith, has subtle color differences dictated by the mineral composition in any particular area. This mineral distribution on the lunar surface was mapped in great detail by the US Clementine probe in 1994, but you can post-process images of the Moon showing these colors without having to launch a spacecraft to do so – which is exactly what I did here!!
The plunge into mono imaging – second time’s a charm!
Between my unsuccessful attempts at capturing the faint OIII transmissions of the OU-4 Giant Squid within the SH2-129 Flying Bat Nebula and my curiosity with learning a new technology (imaging with a monochrome camera)…I suggested a birthday present idea to Paul…a QHYCCD MiniCAM8 monochrome camera with a built in filter wheel and the seven astrophotography filters (LRGB and SHO). He jumped right on it, ordering the new camera in mid-August, so it arrived in time to be an anniversary present.
It turned out that while the idea of an integrated camera/filter wheel seemed like a good idea, QHYCCD’s implementation caused it to now turn out so well for me. I could never get the filter wheel driver to function properly and consistently. So, I ended up returning it. Then Paul jumped right on it again, ordering a new ZWO ASI6200 full frame mono camera and a ZWO EFW 7×2″ filter wheel – pushing me head first into the deep end of mono image capture (and processing!)
Second time was a charm (…or was it the push into the deep end? After all, I am a good swimmer!). On 15 November, I had a chance at first light with the ZWO camera and filter wheel from the newly opened HCH front patio – and successfully captured OIII data on OU-4! As an added bonus, I spent the rest of the night after SH2-129/OU-4 set capturing Ha, SII, and OIII data on SH2-240 Spaghetti Nebula. So, not only had I captured mono data with the camera and filter wheel, but I had two disparate data sets to put my (very nascent) mono image processing skills to the test.
Birthday Dark Skies Trip to Utah
My 65th birthday trip was planned to explore possible camping venues on Utah BLM land, look for Milky Way foreground sights, and to capture DSO data from the dark skies of Bryce Park Place in Cannondale, Utah. The trip was a complete success! We decided that driving the Beast this far, to camp on BLM land for DSO imaging purposes didn’t make sense – so we abandoned that objective upon arriving in Cannonville after two long days of driving. We found a few potential Milky Way venues. Mother Nature cooperated with three nights of clear skies, no bugs, and cold (but not unbearably so) overnight temperatures!
Good News: Clear skies during the New Moon & Bad News: Rain = Green Grasslands = Mosquitos
We planned our September 2025 dark skies trip to New Mexico’s Kiowa National Grasslands. Originally the weather looked like it was going to allow a 3-day trip. When Mother Nature got wind of that plan, she chuckled and painted clouds into the scenario…turning it into a 2-day trip (more like 1.5 nights of clear skies). Not to be deterred, we packed up and headed out in the Beast…commenting as we drove into the Grasslands how we’d never seen them (or New Mexico) so green. Little did me know, that since Mother Nature couldn’t produce enough cloud cover to convince us to stay away from dark skies during the New Moon…she would paint swarming and hungry mosquitos into the scenario and chase us off after a single night!
One night in the Expedition in Springfield CO
We did a repeat of our 2023 anniversary / dark skies trip this year, when Mother Nature again vetoed our planned high-country (a.k.a. cool enough weather in August to camp comfortably in the Beast) dark skies trip and only provided a single night of clear skies at the Comanche National Grasslands (SE Colorado where the temperature was 100+ degrees). I spent a night imaging from (and sleeping in) the Expedition while Paul and Zeus stayed in the nearby Cobblestone Inn; then we drove to Albuquerque for a special celebration of our 38th wedding anniversary and Zeus’ 10th anniversary “Gotcha Day”
CSASTRO Presentation on Atacama Desert imaging – 19Aug2025
I presented at the Colorado Springs Astronomical League (CSASTRO) Club’s Monthly Meeting, 19 August 2025, on my adventures imaging in the Atacama desert. The meeting invite and a recording of the presentation (with fair warning of what you’re getting yourself into if you watch it!) are below.