25 January 2026
Just stepped outside to see how the sky looked, and Orion was in the southwest. Got out the binoculars instead of messing with the telescope. I was pretty amazed at how well this showed up in the 12x50 binoculars. Seeing was pretty steady, and transparency just so-so. There were also scattered clouds around. M42, the Orion Nebula, is one of the most photographed objects, by both amateurs and professionals. The Horsehead Nebula that has been shown a lot since Hubble Space Telescope imaged it is actually part of this complex Original sketch was made on white paper in the sketchbook I am using for a journal/log book. I then take a picture of it with my phone camera and email that to myself. I download and save the image in a folder for astronomy sketches. The file names typically include the object and date. Those downloaded images are then inverted using graphics software. With this new computer, I have been using GIMP to perform the inversion.