Sam's Blog

Monday, May 18, 2026

Moon and Venus in the Evening Sky

18th May 2026

Taken with: Canon 7D / Canon 70-200 F4

Monday, April 27, 2026

Supernova in Galaxy NGC 5907

Supernova 2026kid in Galaxy NGC 5907

Long Long Ago in A Galaxy Far Far Away... Star died in a Spectacular Display...

it happened when dinosaurs still roaming the Earth. This galaxy is 46.5 million light years away means it takes that many years light to reach us. so basically we are seeing in past.

A tiny speckle in image below is Supernova in Galaxy NGC 5907 : 46.5 million light years away.

Supernova 2026kid currently 15.6 mag discovered on 22 April 2026.

I managed to capture it y'day 27 April 2026.

Captured with DWARF 3

Processed in Siril : 3x Drizzle and Cropped.

60sec / 60gain / 164subs : 2hrs 22min total.

Sun on 27 April 2026 : H-alpha and white light

Left : White light image taken with DWARF 3 : Stacked 500subs of 1/1250sec exposures.

Right: H-alpha light image taken with Coronado PST40, a specialized Solar telescope which shows Chromosphere of Sun : Its Mosaic of 4 panels two for disc and two for on the edge prominences.

Friday, April 10, 2026

Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS)

Finally after months and months wait got clear night and morning on April 10th.

So I took opportunity and set alarm to 3:30am, and headed out to darker sky (my place is bortle 7-8, but 20min of driving can get me into bortle 5)

Putting my recently acquired DWARF 3 smart telescope to its paces, quickly grabbed 80subs of 15sec.

Used auto stacked (unprocessed) fit from Dwarf and final processing done Siril & PS.

Location : Rocky View Country, AB

Saturday, April 4, 2026

Sun on 4-Apr-2026

Sun is currently peppered with small small sunspots.. here is my capture taken on 4-Apr-2026.

Telescope + camera : DWARF 3 + Solar Filter

Exposures : 100 x 1/4000s

Shot 200 subs | Stacked 100 best and wavelet processed in AstroSurface | Colorized and watermark added in Photoshop.

Friday, October 17, 2025

Another October .. Another Bright Comet ! Last year on same day (14 October 2024) I captured bright comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, this October Comet Lemmon is shining in the sky.

On 14 October 2025 I was able to capture two comet after sunset. SWAN is bit dimmer and close to horizon and Lemmon an easy target for binoculars.

Comet C/2025 Lemmon has very long tail, you can see in below pic the tail extends beyond the frame of 200mm DSLR shot.

This comet is expected to brighten even more. I wish it reaches the level of last years comet.

Canon 7D + Canon 70-200 F4

200mm / F4 / ISO3200 / 15sec x 22 sub
dark, flat, bias calibrated.

Comet C/2025 R2 SWAN

A nice comet visible after sunset on south-west horizon.

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Saturn : Titan shadow transit

When Saturn's rings are aligned edge-on with Earth. During this time, the orbital plane of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is well aligned to cast its shadow over Saturn. This rare shadow transit is visible during a few brief windows every 15 years.

I was fortunate to get enough clear sky to capture this event on 19 Aug 2025. The seeing conditions were not favourable with passing clouds and wind. I could not use barlow and have to resort to prime focus but still managed to get record shot.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Sun : Big Sunspot

Sun on May 7, 2025 : Sunspot 4079 (bigger one) & 4081 (smaller group top left)

This was very big sunspot and was visible to naked eye at sunset or with solar goggles (without telescope or binoculars)

I taken with Celestron 102GT + ASI678MC.

Monday, October 14, 2024

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS : Wide view

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS on 14 October 2024

This shot shows the extent of tail in this no crop shot.

Canon 7D + Tamron 17-50 F2.8

24mm / F4 / ISO3200 / 8sec x 7 sub

dark, flat calibrated.

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS - Close up

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Finally got clear sky to capture this beauty. Comet was very easy naked eye, and you can see anti-tail too. The Globular cluster M5 is visible in tail of comet.

Captured with Canon 7D & Canon 70-200 F4 at 200mm F4

Exposure : 2sec x 30 : Total 1min

ISO 3200

Tripod mounted (No tracking)

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Living upto expectations - Tamron 17-50 F/2.8

Dear Friends,

Recently I bought new lens for my Canon 7D as a replacement of Canon kit lens. TAMRON 17-50 F/2.8 non-VC. After going through lot of reviews for replacement of kit lens, there were few options Canon 17-55 F/2.8 IS, Canon 17-40 F/4 IS, Canon 16-35 F/2.8 IS and Tamron 17-50 F/2.8. Two canon lenses were currently beyond my budget so I left with two choices Caanon 17-40 F/4 or Tamron 17-50 F/2.8. I though its better to have F/2.8 as many times we struggle with low light situations with wide angle, this is maily true for indoor shots... Also in some reviews i have read Tammy is better in sharpness than Canon 17-40. So despite having dis-advantage of APS-C format lens I decided to get Tammy.

Being always felt bad about low quality of Canon Kit Lens, Canon 70-200 F/4 use to live on my Canon 7D all time. Once I receive Tammy the things changed and even in situation where i would / should have used 70-200 (like in Zoom & Aquarium) I kept shooting with Tamron 17-50.

There are some down sides to this lens..
- The Auto-Focus is slow compared to Canon Kit lens
- It noisy lens
- Zoom ring rotates in opposite directions

But above disadvantages are made to forget by the image quality it delivers !! And the build of the lens is Solid !!!

The images are Sharp, Color Contrast is almost same as Canon 70-200, once on beach when shooting with both lenses it was hard to tell which shot was taken by which lens unless it is obvious by wide angle !!! The Bokeh is Good though not best.

I am quite happy with the lens, and have high expectations in landscape photography.

Following are some of the photos taken with This lens...

Comments and Critiques welcome..

Cheers

Sameer

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Mill Creek Marsh Birding

Hi Friends,

I dont believe it took me 1 month to go for birding, to place which was very close to my place here in New Jersey. This is my first birding session in US. There is one nice Marsh Area near jersey city where I stay and more ever it is easily accessible by public transport.

More information about this site can be found @ http://www.njwildlifetrails.org/MeadowlandsTrails/Sites/tabid/443/Scope/site/Guide/MEADOWLNDS/Site/94/Default.aspx

Me and Ujju reached on Sunday morning at 7:30 at place. It was nice cool around 16 C and completely cloudy. The light was poor, but it was pleasant. The area is well maintained and not disturbed by anything / anyone. One can see lot of birds activity. Bird houses are posted in marsh is occupied by Tree Swallows and Sparrows. Red Winged Black bird was bullying other small birds, Mourning Dove and Canada Goose were searching for food on trails itself. Mallards can be seen everywhere in water, so as few snowy egrets and some gulls.

Checkout some of photos taken on trail, unfortunately i didn't had wide angle lens with me hence no area photos. only birds.

Click on Images to open big images.

At Entrance :

American Robin

Canada Goose

Cowbird

Mallard Duck - Female

Mallard Duck - Male

Song Sparrow

Red-winged blackbird - Male

Red-winged blackbird - Female

Tree Swallow - Male

Tree Swallow - Male & Female on their nest box

Yellow Warbler

Muscrat

List of Birds seen

1> Red-winged Blackbird - Male & Female

2> Tree Swallow - Male & Female

3> Song Sparrow

4> Yellow Warbler

5> American Robin

6> European Starlings

7> House Sparrow

8> Cow bird

9> Mallard Ducks

10> Canada Goose

11> Snowy Egrets

12> Mocking Bird

13> Gray Catbird

14> Mourning Dove

15> Gulls

16> Tern

17> Cormorant

18> Osprey

Comments and critiques welcome,

Regards

Sameer

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Karnala Bird Sanctury - 6 Feb 2011

Hi Friends,

I have been to Karnala BS on Sunday morning. In my last visit I did missed some prominent birds of Karnala. This time I spend more time sitting near Forest Department Guest House, and had one round on Haryali Trail. Saw more birds and more flycatcher this time. Following is the list of Birds I have seen and few photographs.

1. Red Whiskered Bulbul (शिपाई बुलबुल)
2. Red Vented Bulbul
3. Pompadour Green Pigeon
4. Brown Cheeked Fulvetta
5. Black Drongo (कोतवाल)
6. Ashy Drongo
7. Purple Rumped Sunbird (सूर्यपक्षी)
8. Purple Sunbird (जांभळा शिंजीर)
9. Crimson Backed Sunbird
10. White-rumped Shama
11. Golden Fronted Leaf bird
12. Rufous tailed Shrike
13. Reed Warbler
14. Chestnut Shouldered Patronia (रानचिमणी)
15. Green Barbet
16. Puff Throated Babbler
17. Erasian Golden Oriole (हळद्या)
18. Black Hooded Oriole
19. Common Iora (सुभग)
20. Booted Eagle
21. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher (नीलिमा)
22. Rufous Paradise Flycatcher (शाही बुलबुल)
23. Verditer Flycatcher
24. Black Napped Monarch
25. Green Bea Eater (वेडा राघू)
26. Spotted Dove (ठिपकेदार होला)
27. Common Shrike (खाटीक)

Many photos are not good but posted just for record of observation

Verditer Flycatcher

Verditer Flycatcher

Black Drongo

Ashy Drongo

Black Napped Monarch

Puff Throated Babbler

Rufous Paradise Flycatcher

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Brown Cheeked Fulvetta

Purple Sunbird - Male : This is amazing behavior I saw for the first time, Male was making noises and flashing Yellow-Orange Feathers on ( or below) shoulder. I never saw this in any photograph of Purple Sunbird. Not sure if this behavior was to indicate his teretory or to impress female, who was buzy collecting material for nest. Experts may shade more light on this...