Feb 8, 2026

The Great Orion Nebula was a showpiece — under Atacama's Bortle 1 skies, the nebula's vast wings of glowing gas extended far beyond the bright Trapezium cluster at its heart. Delicate wisps and dark rifts carved through the nebulosity, with the faintest outer regions visible to the naked eye. At 1,344 light-years away, this is the closest massive star-forming region to Earth — a stellar nursery where new solar systems are being born right now.

47 Tucanae was stunning — the second brightest globular cluster, with its dense core blazing and individual stars resolved to the very center. Its position near the Small Magellanic Cloud made for an extraordinary visual pairing.

Jupiter was stunning through the telescope — the cloud bands were sharply defined across the planet's disk, with subtle color variations between the darker belts and brighter zones. The four Galilean moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — were visible as bright points flanking the giant planet like a miniature solar system.

The Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud was resolved into a stunning web of filaments. This is the most active star-forming region in our galactic neighborhood — if it were as close as Orion, it would cast shadows.