Kevin Quinn

The twice yearly Awesome Astronomy Astrocamp is just the best 👍🏻

Light pollution/sky quality monitoring with SeeStars?

Lying in bed on a lazy Sunday morning, a thought came to me: given the ubiquity and popularity of SeeStars, the fact(?*) that they log location data, date and time, etc, would it be possible to log and collate sky quality data and how it changes over time ... We're all familiar with satellite trails in our images, so maybe the increasing frequency and sky brightness resulting from them could be monitored too.

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/05/07/light-pollution-sky-quality-monitoring-with-seestars/

Three promo codes for The song of Herzlte have been added: https://wp.me/p5KNFc-SP

Available now from Apple Books
https://books.apple.com/gb/book/a-decade-in-stargazing/id6762062229

A decade in stargazing, available for preorder now on #kobo 🔭✨🌘🌌

Volumes 1 and 2 of the 5 cosmic fragments series are now available from #kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/search?query=5+cosmic+fragments+&fclanguages=en&ssid=6SrSzlbFXSVRkCYjiTfG7&sid=d53a64f0-44e9-4f76-9062-60eb4b9ef5ab

#ebook editions of my #sciencefiction series are now available from #kobo #5cosmicfragments

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/series/5-cosmic-fragments

Quick flick thru of the new, second edition of Demystifying Visual Astronomy... Out now!

‘Almost a month’ Nope, scratch that … Six weeks in Namibia as a ‘guest astronomer’

I arrived at the &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge on December 1st, and it's now Boxing Day. Not quite a month, but it's close enough to a month for a round up. This has been the most amazing adventure ... From the moment I arrived in Windhoek, the long drive, the amazing skies, touring, showing, explaining the night sky to the guests, night after night, every night bar one when it was…

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2025/12/26/almost-a-month-nope-scratch-that-six-weeks-in-namibia-as-a-guest-astronomer/

Saturn was spectacular last night, with the moons putting on an amazing show. Look at the different colours, especially Titan! Shot with a #pixel7a, through a 16mm eyepiece in a C11

Sinus iridium, montes Jura, Plato

#kindle #countdown deal is still running, both volumes of the 5 Cosmic Fragments series only £2.99 each ... ends soon https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FR281QBN?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

Demystifying Visual Astronomy - Updated and revised second edition Out now!

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2023/04/12/demystifying-visual-astronomy/

Iota Cancri

Globular cluster NGC 362

Globular clusters … it’s not just about size

Okay, I've always enjoyed observing globular clusters. They're sparkly, enigmatic, and they definitely have 'WOW' factor. From M2 with its 150,000 stars, to M13 with its quarter of a million, or M3's half a million, they definitely inspire awe in the observer. And as for 47 Tucanae or Omega Centauri, well, they're just insane! Consider M71 or M56, however. Both undoubtedly have some appeal for the committed observer, but…

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2025/12/25/globular-clusters-its-not-just-about-size/

Betelgeuse and Sirius photographed on the night of January 11, with, seemingly, faint companion stars?

Field of view calculator

So, yeah ... I was messing around with Figma AI yesterday, and thought I'd see if it could develop anything relevant or useful to the astro community. I began by asking it to develop a Field of View calculator that would allow the user to customise the equipment, and then display items from the Messier catalogue ... Literally, ten minutes later it was done, and hopefully is now incorporated on my website ... It's not perfect, but I think it's…

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/02/21/field-of-view-calculator/

Idle Sunday binocular project…

As my Helios 10*50s don't have any way of attaching nebula filters I thought I'd have a go at seeing if I could implement some kind of bodge... A spare pair of objective caps with a hole cut in the middle took care of holding the filters in place, and a pair of rubber washers, left over from another project, prevents the filters from scratching the lenses ... Quite pleased with the result. OIII on one side, UHC on the other. Can't wait to…

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/03/08/idle-sunday-binocular-project/

The Song of Herzlte and other stories

Volume 2 in the 5 Cosmic Fragments series, is coming very soon! About the book: The journey through the void continues. In the second installment of the 5 Cosmic Fragments series, the silence of the universe grows deeper – and the questions more haunting. Following on fromThe Last Act of Human Kindness, keen astronomer Kevin Quinn returns with five more powerful visions of a future where scientific reality and human fallibility…

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2025/12/26/the-song-of-herzlte-and-other-stories/

Omega centauri 🤩

Three Apple Books promo codes for A decade in stargazing have been added: https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/giveaway-day/

https://amzn.eu/d/0clHIs1q

Comparing the un-comparable C11 versus 10-inch Newtonian

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/comparing-the-un-comparable-c11-versus-10-inch-newtonian/

I can neither confirm nor deny an enlarged and updated second edition of Demystifying Visual Astronomy coming soon, nor whether this is the new cover ... That is all...

Giveaway day …

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/giveaway-day/

for a limited time only, US readers can get this for just $1.99 #kindle countdown deal ... The Song of Herzlte: And other stories (5 COSMIC FRAGMENTS Book 2) https://www.amazon.com/Song-Herzlte-stories-COSMIC-FRAGMENTS-ebook/dp/B0GCSPNCT4?ref_=saga_dp_bnx_mbl_dp

Quick sketch of a very busy part of the Moon

Nope ...

I hadn't checked on my books' page on @firstlightoptics.bsky.social website for a while, by found this lovely review of A month on the moon at the weekend 🙏🏼❤️😀
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/a-month-on-the-moon-book-by-kevin-quinn.html

Nice review of The WOW! List on Amazon ... 'Almost perfect ...' I'll take that as a win 🙂🙏🏻🔭✨ The WOW! List: 50 stunning Deep Space Objects for amateur stargazers (The Night Sky Enthusiasts Series) https://amzn.eu/d/0aaMAm5k

A belated intro to the 5 Cosmic Fragments books

I'm not going to apologise for the self-promotional post, after all, what's the point of spending all that time writing, reading, researching, re-reading, editing, re-writing, etc if you're not going to get your work out there ... But this isn't just a promo push. I wanted to explain how the collections came about and why I wrote them. Unfortunately, however, I don't know the answers to these questions.

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/a-belated-intro-to-the-5-cosmic-fragments-books/

Available now. Volume 2 in the 5 Cosmic Fragments Series: Trade a free sample here: https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2025/12/26/the-song-of-herzlte-and-other-stories/

Open cluster NGC 2362, and Globular cluster NGC 1851

Murky seeing here in piddletrenthide...

https://amzn.eu/d/04UpMkKf

German and Spanish translations available now

Thanks to the wonders of Amazon's Kindle Translate, German and Spanish language editions of The song of Herzlte are available now (Kindle only): Which is quite amazing, really. For some reason, the translation AI is having issues with The last act of human kindness, but I'm told it will be available soon.

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/05/07/german-and-spanish-translations-available-now/

The 5 Cosmic Fragments series – human or AI?

Being hard at work on volume three of my sci-fi series, I'm becoming acutely aware of the explosion of the use of generative AI in both the mainstream publishing world (my day job), and indy/self publishing worlds. Dip into r/KDP or r/selfpublishing, for example, and you'll find that countless posts from people happily using/praising the use of AI in the development of their manuscripts, or refusing/disparaging its use.

https://theastroguy.wordpress.com/2026/04/02/the-5-cosmic-fragments-series-human-or-ai/

Absolutely loving this album right now:

ttps://open.spotify.com/track/6y5PIJmwbPDpeQAi03BbNC?si=Do3r7lP7RTGbqMARJluNHw