Welcome to Cloudbait Observatory, located under the dark skies of the central Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Here you will find details about the observatory itself, its history (and my own as an amateur astronomer), the science I conduct here, and a collection of images I've made. Details of the instrumentation I use and some of the tricks I've developed to make it work well are given.
I am very interested in instrumentation, and much of what I design is freely available to anyone interested. Details about some of these projects are posted on this site.
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), hidden behind the Sun for the last couple of weeks, can now be seen in the evening sky. It is easily seen with the naked eye as a faint column of light in the west after sunset, rapidly getting higher every night. More details.
Huge Geomagnetic Storm Sparks Bright Auroras
Our strongest Colorado aurora yet occurred on the evening of 10 October. See my report on all of our 2024 auroras here.
Total Solar Eclipse
I recorded the 8 April total solar eclipse from Arkansas. See my report here.
New Photography Section
I've added a section of photographs from Utah's beautiful canyon country, acquired on a recent horse packing trip.