Chris Howard's Blog

Now that’s an anemone–a “giant green anemone” (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) in the intertidal zone at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Sony A7S, Rokinon 35mm #montereybay #montereybayaquarium

Another shot of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, overlooking the tidepools. Except for a few pigeons and a seagull or two, we were almost alone. A little cloudy, a little rainy at times, but amazing weather overall. Sony A7S, Rokinon 35mm, #montereybay #MontereyBayAquarium

A beautiful batch of “Strawberry Anemones” (not really anemones, but corallimorphs, Corynactis californica) at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Sony A7S, Rokinon 35mm

#montereybay #MontereyBayAquarium

Monterey Bay on a beautiful April morning, looking out from the aquarium toward Sand City and Fort Ord, Sony A7S, Rokinon 35mm #montereybay

The ZWO AM3N is here! I think this is the final component needed to complete my super portable astro rig. I now have a new EQ mount, the ZWO AM3N. I bought this last week and it showed up last night. I’ve been using ZWO mounts for almost five years. I pre-ordered the original AM5 when it was announced in 2021. The AM5 has always been an amazing mount, and this one, the AM3 is its little brother, smaller but still very capable with the same strainwave (harmonic drive) gearing. It only weighs 3.9kg/8.6 pounds but can handle up to 13kg/28 pounds of astro gear. (Not planning to get anywhere near that). My plan is to be able to have a full ultra-portable setup, with EQ mount, William Optics RedCat51 refractor, cooled camera, and power in one medium-sized backpack. The AM3 mount will be the heaviest component, with a 20-30Ah LiFePO4 battery second, coming in around 3kg. I powered it up last night, changed the access password, updated the mount firmware to the latest, and then played around with slewing to different targets, letting it track for a bit before returning to its home position. Everything behaved flawlessly. Can’t wait to get this under clear night skies! More on my astro blog: https://chrishowardwriter.com #astrophotography #zwo

I started capturing imaging data for the Iris around 2 in the morning, and ended up with 61 good subs around 4:45am. The Iris Nebula (LBN 487, NGC 7023, Caldwell 4) is about 1300 lightyears away in the constellation Cepheus. Imaging notes: April 11, 2026 astro session in the backyard, CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0, 2x2 binning), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 61 3-minute subs stacked in PixInsight 2x drizzle, 12 dark calibration frames. #astrophotography #astronomy #nebula #nightscape More here: https://ChrisHowardWriter.com

The “Owl Nebula”, M97 (NGC 3587) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper), about 2000 lightyears away. The Owl is relatively new, forming in the last 8000 years or so from a small to medium sized star, ejecting ionized gasses, including hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, toward the end of its life.  This image is from my April 9, 2026 astro session in the backyard, CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 129 3-minute subs stacked in PixInsight, no calibration frames. 

One from last night’s session, the “Hamburger Galaxy” (NGC 3628), a spiral galaxy, about 35 million lightyears away in the constellation Leo. We’re seeing it edge-on from our perspective on our planet. Imaging notes: April 11, 2026 astro session in the backyard, CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0, 2x2 binning), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 83 3-minute subs stacked in PixInsight 2x drizzle, 12 dark calibration frames. I think the combination of binning and drizzle makes this scope and camera combo work. #astrophotography #astronomy #galaxy #nightscape

More backyard astro in galaxy season. This is M101 (NGC 5457), the “Pinwheel Galaxy” in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper). It’s over 21 million lightyears away from us. M101 is almost twice the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way, with over a trillion star systems. Imaging notes: This is from the April 8, 2026 astro session in my backyard, Apertura CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 160 2-minute subs stacked in PixInsight, no calibration frames. #astrophotography #astronomy #galaxy #nightscape

A little frosty this morning after the imaging session. I’m still using the same mismatched (sort of) setup, with the Carbonstar 150 (600mm fl) scope and the ZWO ASI715MC camera. I spent the entire night capturing 120-second subs of M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy. I’ll post that soon! #astrophotography #astronomy #telescope #backyardastrophotography