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Corpus Christi stargazer is ready to view annular eclipse from his personal backyard observatory

In the backyard of his southside home, Billy Beckett's passion for stargazing shines.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Excitement continues to build for Saturday's annular eclipse.

It's an event that's drawing people to town from all over, as Corpus Christi is the center point for the astronomical event.

In the backyard of his southside home, Billy Beckett's passion for stargazing shines. Beckett is the head of the Corpus Christi Astronomical Society.

"You see all of the time the James Webb telescope has just launched recently. You see all of these beautiful images that NASA takes with that telescope? Well, I wanted to take my own images and say hey, I took that picture," he said.

About 5,000 years ago, in the Cygnus region of the Milky Way, a massive star exploded, leaving behind a colorful and eerie cloud of ionized gas and dust that Beckett was able to capture with his telescope setup.

"You would think that looking at that telescope that's it's very high end but it's not. This is a middle of the road telescope I could spend a lot more money on it," he said.

To do that, he said he'd have to take out another mortgage on his house. So, for now, he'll continue to watch the skies and capture great images like these to share with the world—all from his backyard.

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