Documenting the Sky

Purpose of the Archive

The Night Sky Archive serves as the astronomical field record of the Shank Gym Observatory. Its purpose is not scientific discovery or competitive astrophotography, but documentation. The archive records the night sky as it appears from specific places and moments encountered during travel and field expeditions.

Beginning in 2026, many entries correspond to Expeditions—an expanded framework that treats race travel and associated journeys as opportunities for observational fieldwork. Spartan events currently serve as the primary anchor for these expeditions, but the framework extends to other races and travel when conditions allow for observation.

Each entry preserves the sky as it appeared at a particular location and time, capturing the astronomical environment as part of the lived landscape of an expedition.

Field-Oriented Astrophotography

Traditional astrophotography often prioritizes technical perfection: long integrations, highly controlled imaging conditions, and extensive processing intended to produce gallery-quality images.

The Night Sky Archive follows a different philosophy. The goal is not perfection but context.

Observations are often made under real-world field conditions—sometimes after a race, during travel, or within limited windows of darkness. Equipment is intentionally simple and portable so observations can be made quickly when opportunities arise.

This approach treats the sky much like a field photograph in geology or ecology: an observation tied to a specific place, date, and experience rather than an abstract astronomical target.

Equipment and Capture Method

The archive relies on equipment that can be deployed quickly in field conditions. Observations are often made during travel or immediately following races, so portability and simplicity are prioritized over specialized observatory equipment.

Primary Capture Instrument

• Seestar S50 smart telescope — used for most deep-sky captures and automated tracking observations.

Supporting Documentation Cameras

Additional cameras may be used to document observing conditions, the surrounding landscape, and the broader context of each observation:

• Canon EOS DSLR — used for higher-quality environmental and landscape photography.

• Kodak PIXPRO WPZ2 — a rugged point-and-shoot camera used for quick field documentation in conditions where more delicate equipment would be impractical.

These cameras are not part of the astronomical imaging pipeline itself but serve to document the observational environment and field context.

Observation Categories

Observations in the Night Sky Archive are organized according to where they were captured.

NSA - Expedition Series Observations made during travel associated with races or other expedition activity.

SGO — Shank Gym ObservatoryObservations captured from the home observatory station.

MFO — Mobile Field ObservatoryObservations made at club observatories or other remote observing locations outside the Expedition series.

Processing Workflow

Post-processing is intentionally restrained and designed only to clarify the captured data rather than heavily reinterpret it.

Typical Workflow

1. Capture and live stacking - Conducted within the Seestar system.

2. Image stacking and calibration - Processed in Astro Pixel Processor (APP).

3. Final tonal adjustments - Performed in Darktable.

Post-processing is intentionally restrained and designed only to clarify the captured data rather than heavily reinterpret it. Image processing is conducted on a dedicated System76 workstation running Pop!_OS Linux, which serves as the primary environment for managing processing and storing astronomical image data.

Documentation Over Discovery

The Night Sky Archive does not attempt to discover astronomical objects or produce competition-grade astrophotography. Its purpose is documentation.

Just as the Dirt Project records soils and Deep Time examines the geological history of the places visited, the Night Sky Archive documents the sky above those same landscapes.

Together these instruments document the environment of each expedition—from soil beneath the feet to the sky overhead.

Research and Disclaimer

In most cases, I spend time reading about the objects being captured before or after an observation. This research is informal and motivated by curiosity rather than formal training. I am not an astronomer, but an interested observer trying to understand what I am looking at—its astronomical context, how it was discovered, and where it sits within the larger structure of the night sky.

All images in the Night Sky Archive are observational records created under field conditions and are intended for documentation rather than scientific publication.