Ville MiettinenApr 10Season end 2021Season 2021-2022 has ended, once again the lack of astronomical darkness has come and deep sky imaging cant be done until autumn. This...
Ville MiettinenApr 5Visiting UAA star partyThe Covid-19 pandemic has limited all public events worldwide. In Finland it seems to settle finally atleast to some degree and Ursa...
Ville MiettinenMar 31Three year anniversary of the observatory!On this day three years ago, a green light was given to the building process of the Castle of clouds -observatory. To celebrate I...
Ville MiettinenMar 30Skywatch 26th of MarchYet another beautiful late-spring season night! A small display of auroras danced in the north and also a Stable Auroral Red-arc (SAR)...
Ville MiettinenMar 27My second AAPOD!Todays AAPOD might be familiar to my readers. My photo of the Seahorse Nebula was selected as Amateur Astronomy Picture of the Day today...
Ville MiettinenMar 24The Medusa NebulaIn the constellation of Gemini at a distance of 1500 light-years away lies an old planetary nebula called Abell 21, also known as the...
Ville MiettinenMar 24Revisiting the WizardIn late 2021 I shot the Wizard Nebula as one of my side-projects (seen here), but the data wasn't that great due to poor quality data....
Ville MiettinenMar 21Extremely bright fireball!*Edit 24.3.2022 - it was confirmed that this fireball most likely dropped a meteorite. The landing site is unfortunately in the lake...
Ville MiettinenMar 14Skywatch 13th of MarchA moderately strong geomagnetic storm sparked beautiful display of auroras at the observatory. Some lunar halos are visible too - what a...
Ville MiettinenMar 6Gems of Ursa MajorThis pair of galaxies lies in the constellation of Ursa Major, on the right is a grand design spiral galaxy Messier 81. This galaxy is...
Ville MiettinenJan 26Skywatch 25th of JanuaryOn this night there was a small but bright aurora display on the northern horizon. Also a rare form of aurora, called Stable Auroral Red...
Ville MiettinenJan 16Pressure wave of Tonga volcanoMy observatory weather station captured something really intresting, a sudden spike in atmospheric pressure of 2 hPa. After a bit of...
Ville MiettinenDec 11, 2021Skywatch 1st of DecemberThis night offered alot of different phenomena - from insanely bright fireball in the begining of the night to small display of auroras...
Ville MiettinenNov 23, 2021A multi-purpose travel rigBecause everything runs very smoothly at my observatory I've had time to start building a portable setup that I can take easily with me...
Ville MiettinenNov 10, 2021Lion's roarSh2-132, also nicknamed as the Lion nebula is 10,000 to 12,000 light-years away from Earth in the Perseus arm of our Galaxy. The...
Ville MiettinenOct 9, 2021Hidden jewel of CygnusIn 1867 a french astronomer and assistant of Paris Observatory, Charles Wolf and the founder and director of the Bordeaux Observatory,...
Ville MiettinenSep 21, 2021Automated observatory health checkWhen I visit my observatory I often check all sorts of bits and pieces to see if they are working - for example heaters that keep the...
Ville MiettinenSep 12, 2021Seahorse nebulaThis elongated dark nebula is called Barnard 150. It's sometimes referred as the Seahorse nebula for obvious reasons. An American...
Ville MiettinenAug 16, 2021Automate my weekend, please!This weekend I brought my scope back to the observatory for installation. We had big plans so I was really excited about it! I started...
Ville MiettinenAug 12, 2021DIY gear reduction for 100mm Esprit focuserI've had some problems with belt slipping with my focuser, so I decided to redo the parts that attach the focuser shaft to the motor. To...