Here is a video clip showing Comet Catalina moving across the background of stars near Arcturus on New Year's Day, 2016 - from a Port Orchard, Washington back yard...

Here are photos of Comet Catalina that I shot early this morning, on New Year's Day. The conditions were very tricky as there was a very bright moon nearby, along with a bring star (Arcturus) whose light also interfered. The photos here show a stacked series of images, along with a single shot from the camera.

Be sure to watch for Comet Catalina as it climbs higher in the morning sky. As 2016, the Comet will be very close to Arcturus, to the north of a line formed by Mars, Venus and Spica. Here is a story by Sky and Telescope, and a handy finder chart, as well.

This was taken with my Motorola Droid MAXX phone. Mt. Rainier and the Capitol can also be seen in the photo.

Happy Thanksgiving! The skies in the Seattle area are clear but hazy, due to a pressure inversion. The moon is a day past full and very bright in the sky. Despite that, I photographed the Andromeda Galaxy over Port Orchard, Washington. The Canon 60D was piggybacked atop an 8" Orion Astrograph Newtonian on a Celestron Advanced VX mount. Total exposure time was 45 minutes (15x180 sec subs with 5x180 darks at ISO 1600, 200 mm Canon lens). I would have been able to bring out far more detail on a darker night, but this was the best I could do with what was given to me tonight. :)

Here's a view of the planet Uranus. Tonight, the planet is very near the moon and the skies are bright. This image was captured with an Orion G3 Starshoot CCD camera at the business end of an 8" Meade LX200 with a Lepus .62 telecompressor in between. This is 150 four second exposures stacked with Maxim DL. I had to quit when everything iced up.
A careful eye will see artifacts in this image caused by the glare from the nearby moon...

12″ Meade LX90 telescope; Canon EOS 20D at prime focus, single exposure.

Single exposure, Canon EOS 20D. Meade 12" LX90.

What a beautiful moon tonight ... there is a large wildfire in Chelan county, east of the Cascades Mountain Range. The smoke gives the nearly-full moon an eerie color. I got this shot tonight from my Port Orchard, Washington home. (Canon T3i, 70mm).