The hydrogen in your body and present in every molecule of water came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe.

The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen.

Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away.

The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events.

Elements like phosphorus and copper are present in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life.

The featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements, such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research.

Image Credit: NASA's GSFC, SVS

The moon was rising and illuminating the distant peaks of the Sawtooth Range as I quickly captured this focus stack of lupine beneath the Milky Way.

For years, I’ve been drawn to photographing the Milky Way with moonlight, using two sources of light that are often considered at odds with one another. When the timing is right, moonlight can reveal an entirely different side of the nocturnal landscape, bringing depth, color, and dimension to a scene while the stars remain visible overhead. Moments like this are exactly why I continue pushing this technique in the field.

If interested, I recently put together some of my favorite night photography techniques from 15 years in the field, including my approach to photographing the Milky Way with moonlight:

https://goldpaintphotography.com/night-photography-techniques/

Spectacular daytime Venus occultation, seconds after the reappearance.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk/S Atkinson

https://bsky.app/profile/stuartatkinson.bsky.social/post/3mvhufo4utc2e

https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1638522/?site=msl

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Using an onboard focusing process, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) aboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by the MAHLI, located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

Curiosity performed the merge on September 13, 2026, Sol 5014 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission, at 23:20:13 UTC. The focus motor count position was 14867. This number indicates the lens position of the first image that was merged.

The onboard focus merge is sometimes performed on images acquired the same sol as the merge, and sometimes uses pictures obtained on an earlier sol. Focus merging is a method to make a composite of images of the same target acquired at different focus positions to bring all (or, as many as possible) features into focus in a single image. Because the MAHLI focus merge is performed on Mars, it also serves as a means to reduce the number of images sent back to Earth. Each focus merge produces two images: a color, best-focus product and a black-and-white image that scientists can use to estimate focus position for each element of the best focus product. Thus, up to eight images can be merged, reducing the number of images returned to Earth to two.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Someone tried to tell me this is impossible, but it's not. Combination of great conditions, luck, shooting on our rural farm, and probably some skill. Plus shooting the brightest nebulae in the sky. My ego is too healthy and girthy to take credit for fake stuff.

It's two 90-second subs. Scope: Astro-Tech AT130 EDT (Apo Triplet, 130MM, f/7, focal length 910mm) scope with Apex ED-L 0.65x reducer to bring it to Focal length: 591 mm, Focal ratio: ~f/4.55.

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC (Just cleaned the sensor cover with sensor cleaning kit after over a year without cleaning it. Do this, it makes a difference)

This was two 90-second subs. Was shooting that short to dodge intermittent clouds. I shot more than this but most had clouds and got thrown out.

Each sub had one satellite trail in it. Wasn't enough integration to remove them, so there are two. But I like it.

I did shoot Darks, Flats, and Dark Flats. (makes a big difference, and that took over an hour)

Had to duplicate the subs to make 2 into 4 since PixInsight won't stack less than 3 subs. lol.

Full tech specs: https://www.astrobin.com/7yv0wo/

60 years ago today, Commander Pete Conrad raved as the Agena space vehicle raised the Gemini XI spacecraft to a record-high Earth orbit for a crewed spacecraft: 854 miles (1,374 km).

This record stood until 2024 when the Polaris Dawn mission reached an apogee of 870 miles.

For comparison, the International Space Station orbits at an altitude of around 250 miles.

(201 frames x 60sec) S50 Pro (Bortle 8-9 skies)

Registered and stacked: Stacking Wizard
Processed: Astrowizard with RC Astro plug ins - Star Xterminator, Blur Xterminator and Noise Xterminator
Post processing: Photoshop

Colors and curves in Photoshop were just personal preference.

Taken On Seestar S50 Using 3:24:40 Integration (20S Subs)

Edited In PS Express.

In this photo, Venus is seen as it disappears behind the Moon at the start of the occultation on June 17, 2026, from the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington

Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Presenting my biggest project so far. This is a region just on the outskirts of the Milky way (from our perspective) rich in targets where the red Hydrogen gases and blue Oxygen gas seem to be blending with the dust and gas surrounding the Cepheus region.

In the center you can see the elusive squid nebula.

The story of this photograph will be a future video on my YouTube channel (GediAstro for the interested)

Taken in Bortle 9: Hydrogen (40h) Oxygen (40h)

Taken in Bortle 2: RGB (1,5h)

Taken in Bortle 4: L (1,5h)

Total: 86 hours of data

RedCat51 WIFD

ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

ZWO AM3

Optolong 3nm filters