Photos of the Day: Capturing Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Images for the Third and Final Time...

Richard T. Par

Yesterday, I drove back to Diamond Bar's Summitridge Park in California to take one final group of photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).

I originally went to Summitridge Park for a third attempt last Friday, October 18, but showed up a bit later than I should have (around 7:30 PM, PDT) since I ate dinner at home beforehand. The marine layer coming in from the Pacific Ocean (43 miles away) was already obscuring much of the sky across Los Angeles County from my vantage point at Summitridge...making it more difficult for me to spot the increasingly-faint comet.

I arrived at the park a few minutes before 7 PM, PDT last night (sunset was at 6:11 PM, PDT), and as shown with the images that I've included with this post, Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is becoming less and less visible as it moves away from Earth. The comet, once it disappears from view at the end of this month, won't return to our inner Solar System for another 80,000 years.

Here are the settings on my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera for yesterday's cosmic photoshoot:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 800
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 2.5 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Hope you guys were able to spot Tsuchinshan–ATLAS over the past few weeks as well! Happy Sunday.


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

Photos of the Day: Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Pictures That I Took Last Night...

Richard T. Par

As promised in my Blog entry last Saturday, I went back to Diamond Bar's Summitridge Park in California yesterday to take more photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)!

Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was a bit higher in the sky on October 14, and was more visible than on October 12 since the celestial body was no longer caught in the glare of the Sun as it set below the horizon.

Here are the settings on my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera for last night's cosmic photoshoot:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 800
F-stop: f/4.5
Shutter speed: 4 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Will I head back out one last time to see this comet before it disappears from our skies for the next 80,000 years? We'll see.

I already took care of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with my two trips to Summitridge Park. Happy Tuesday!


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

Photos of the Day: My Snapshots of Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS!

Richard T. Par

A few hours ago, I drove down to Summitridge Park in the city of Diamond Bar to take photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)...which will be visible in the evening sky for the next two weeks or so. Once it heads back out to the Oort Cloud two light-years away, comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS won't return to our inner Solar System for another 80,000 years!

I used my Google Pixel 5 and Nikon D3300 DSLR camera to capture these snapshots. Here are the settings that I employed on my DSLR:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 1600
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 2.5 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

I plan on heading back out to capture more images of C/2023 A3 as it gets higher up in the sky over the coming days. This is my second comet in over four years (after comet NEOWISE in July of 2020) that I was fortunate enough to take photos of from Los Angeles County, CA!

Hope you guys are having a nice weekend.


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

Photos of the Day: SpaceX Launches a Classified Payload from the California Coastline...

Richard T. Par

Last night, I drove back to Summitridge Park in the city of Diamond Bar to see another SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Unlike the five previous Falcon 9 flights that I witnessed this year, yesterday's launch sent a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)—and not Starlink satellites—to Earth orbit!

It was at 8:14 PM, PDT, that a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NROL-186 payload lifted off from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4 East pad on the Central California coastline. While SpaceX's webcast of the launch ended (at the request of NRO) right after the Falcon 9's first stage booster touched down on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship waiting out in the Pacific Ocean, a couple of other spectators at Summitridge Park and I continued to observe as the second stage engine attached to last night's spacecraft made its way across the SoCal sky.

As shown in the fifth and grainy pic below (captured by my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera), I was able to watch the first stage booster conduct its reentry burn while disappearing in the horizon! Yesterday's photos were taken with both my DSLR camera and Google Pixel 4A phone.

Just like the other launch that I saw from Diamond Bar back in April, the Falcon 9's contrail wasn't as bright as the previous launch six days ago because liftoff occurred only minutes after sunset. It's all good.

I wasn't even expecting to get such a great view of yesterday's launch because I thought that the flight trajectory for the NROL-186 mission was going to be significantly different from those used for the SoCal Starlink launches. Thank God I was wrong!

As usual, I look forward to the next evening launch by SpaceX from Santa Barbara County. Happy Saturday!


Richard T. Par


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Richard T. Par

Another Spectacular SoCal Light Show by SpaceX...

Richard T. Par

A few hours ago, SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 new Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. This is the first time since early April, and fifth time overall since 2018, that I watched a Falcon 9 launch dazzle the evening sky from here in Los Angeles County!

Liftoff occurred at 8:40 PM, PDT...which was the ideal time for SpaceX to conduct a launch since the sky was dark enough for the Falcon 9's contrail to glow brilliantly above the landscape. Not only did the contrail shine above Southern California, but so did the Falcon 9's twin payload fairings and first stage booster (shown above) as they were absolutely visible during their return to Earth to be recovered by SpaceX vessels (including the drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, in the case of the first stage booster) waiting off the SoCal coastline in the Pacific Ocean.

I'll never get tired of seeing these spectacular light shows put on by SpaceX! I've read online that United Launch Alliance will launch its brand-new Vulcan Centaur rocket from Vandenberg sometime next year... What are the chances that Vulcan lifts off at dusk and follows the same flight trajectory as Falcon 9 so that rocket geeks like me can photograph it (using my Google Pixel 4A phone and Nikon D3300 DSLR camera, like I did tonight) in all its liquid methane and liquid oxygen-fueled glory?

We'll see!


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


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Richard T. Par

Falcon 9 delivers 20 @Starlink satellites to orbit from California pic.twitter.com/cIxiifeAGj

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 19, 2024

Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/oftsMhP728

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 19, 2024

Photos of the Day: A Supercarrier in Los Angeles...

On this Memorial Day, here are images that I took of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) while it was docked at the Port of Los Angeles for L.A. Fleet Week.

These photos of CVN-70 were taken last Friday...from Cabrillo Beach in the city of San Pedro. I could've went on a public tour aboard the deck of this supercarrier, but my goal of this trip was to simply see this formidable warship in person and take pictures of it with my Google Pixel 4A smartphone and Nikon D3300 DSLR camera.

Today was the last day to see CVN-70 while it was berthed here in Los Angeles County for Memorial Day weekend.

This isn't the first time that I've seen an aircraft carrier in person! I have an uncle who served aboard the USS Ranger (CV-61, which was decommissioned in 1993) and gave me and my family members a tour at San Diego's Naval Base Coronado (where the Ranger was stationed) back when I was a young kid.

Here's a fun fact about the Carl Vinson (unless you're a jihadist): It is the carrier from which Osama bin Laden was buried at sea after he was neutralized by SEAL Team Six in Pakistan back on May 1, 2011.

On this solemn day, remember all of the brave American men and women who fought and died for our country.


Richard T. Par


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Richard T. Par

Sunspots on the Solar Surface...

Richard T. Par

Last Friday, I went out into my backyard to take photos of the Sun as multiple sunspots were visible on its surface.

Using my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera, I captured the image above of the Sun with a large group of sunspots—known as Active Region 3664—visible in its southern hemisphere. These sunspots were responsible for the powerful geomagnetic storm that caused auroras to be visible in such low-latitude regions as Southern California and Florida two days ago!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spot the aurora last Friday due to cloudy weather here in Los Angeles County...and the solar storm wasn't strong enough to create more auroras when I tried to see them in person during a trip to Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains last night. It's all good.

Missing the aurora on Friday only gives me more motivation to visit Iceland and/or Norway someday to check out the Northern Lights from there! Carry on.

And Happy Mother's Day!


Richard T. Par

Aurora borealis in Los Angeles! pic.twitter.com/ZIT9zOZU3l

— Swati Mohan (@DrSwatiMohan) May 11, 2024

Northern Lights RIGHT NOW over #KeyLargo Florida, this is insane to see the Aurora Borealis so far south ! pic.twitter.com/iBljm17x82

— Mike Theiss (@MikeTheiss) May 11, 2024

Photos of the Day: The Annular Solar Eclipse...

Richard T. Par

This morning, I stepped outside of my house to take photos of today's much-anticipated annular solar eclipse...using my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera with a solar filter sheet attached to its lens.

The solar filter sheet, which was suggested by one of my brothers (who used it when he traveled out of state to view the Great American Eclipse of 2017), was purchased through this page on Amazon—and custom-fitted so that it could fit inside a UV lens that was placed at the front of my 300mm telephoto lens.

Needless to say, I'm extremely excited about how the pictures turned out! Not only did I get crisp images of the Moon passing in front of the Sun's surface, but I also captured a couple of sunspots on the solar disk!

Today's photos makes me want to travel out of state to be under the path of totality six months from now...when the next Great North American Eclipse occurs on April 8, 2024! I'll think about this some more.


Richard T. Par


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Richard T. Par