This is a compilation of over 70 photographs taken with three different Canon DSLR cameras over a period of 1 1/2 hours.
Monday, June 29, 2015
It's CONJUNCTION night! Jupiter and Venus!
About 9:35 pm PDT, I went out doors, looked to the west and there is a spectacular conjunction of Jupiter and Venus (the brighter one on the lower right) ! This is the closest they will be to each other visually for some time to come.
Also captured in the image (Canon t3i with a 1,000 mm lens) are Jupiter's four major moons! From upper left to lower right they are: Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto. That was a photo surprise for me!
Just as spectacular in binoculars right now, too!
Also captured in the image (Canon t3i with a 1,000 mm lens) are Jupiter's four major moons! From upper left to lower right they are: Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto. That was a photo surprise for me!
Just as spectacular in binoculars right now, too!
Friday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Northern Lights seen from La Pine, Oregon !
After a KP-8 event from the Sun earlier, this morning, the northern sky gently lit up with auroras! Though the human eye could not make out the colors (or maybe it is my old eyes that cannot!) the colors popped in the digital cameras I was using (Canon t2i, Canon t3, Canon t3i). All were taken at ISO 3200, 30 sec, f/4.5, daylight color balance, and with wide angle lens.
These images were enhanced to bring out the colors that were really there. Program used: GIMP
The whole display lasted over 1 1/2 hours!
Some of these made it on to our local TV station Z21 website (and I presume on air) !
These images were enhanced to bring out the colors that were really there. Program used: GIMP
The whole display lasted over 1 1/2 hours!
Some of these made it on to our local TV station Z21 website (and I presume on air) !
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Beautiful evening in the observatory with the Moon
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Just practicing... practicing... practicing!
Much about astrophotography is about practice.
It takes time to understand all the practices that can make for a good astrophoto.
And that means having sufficient number of clear skies in a row to create a habit.
Such is where I am at after a long "winter" of cloudy skies (but little precipitation.)
So I am "out of practice" and the only way "in" is to take every opportunity to "practice" more.
Summer is rapidly approaching which means less "night" in the night skies and observing (and taking astrophotos) needs to be done much later in the evening or better still in the early am (say, 1 to 3 am).
Last night was nice here after a warmish 70+ degree day. I opened the observatory about 10:15 pm and set things up for astrophotography instead of astrovideoing. Without a goto mount, finding objects, even with a focal reducer, is not easy. After much poking around in the sky I looked at my star chart and decided to point in the region east of the constellation Leo where there are many galaxies close (visually) to one another. Couldn't miss!
Here is a test (only a test, mind you) of 36, 20 second exposures stacked with Deep Sky Stacker of the area near M86. I used my modded Canon XSI body (not the best choice for the subject) on the Celestron C8 telescope (classic version) with the Celestron focal reducer (which makes for a wider field of view but reduces the exposure time by about 40%). This is a cropped (1/4th) view of the full image. It is equivalent to a 12 minute exposure but is quite grainy due to the high ISO setting on the camera. With more exposures stacked it would have reduced the grain considerably.
M86 is the bright blob in the upper right hand corner, a large galaxy indeed.
The other galaxies are (left to right) NGC 4425, NGC 3307, and NGC 4413.
The biggest problem I encountered was the position of the telescope at the time which I was attempting to photograph these galaxies. It revealed itself as slightly streaking stars (instead of the round stars it should have been.) This was due to the telescope's moving from one side of the meridian to the other side. The mass of the scope shifts and the gears don't engage as tightly as the scope approaches its meridian. Only after the scope is sufficiently past the meridian do the gears mess tightly enough to prevent "slop".
What does this mean? Either I need to start the photo session much sooner (more and more unlikely as summer approaches) or I need to get to bed earlier and wake up in the middle of the night when my subject is no where near the meridian or well past it.
Some of this you can learn by reading but experience drives it into your brain!
Practice, practice, practice!
It takes time to understand all the practices that can make for a good astrophoto.
And that means having sufficient number of clear skies in a row to create a habit.
Such is where I am at after a long "winter" of cloudy skies (but little precipitation.)
So I am "out of practice" and the only way "in" is to take every opportunity to "practice" more.
Summer is rapidly approaching which means less "night" in the night skies and observing (and taking astrophotos) needs to be done much later in the evening or better still in the early am (say, 1 to 3 am).
Last night was nice here after a warmish 70+ degree day. I opened the observatory about 10:15 pm and set things up for astrophotography instead of astrovideoing. Without a goto mount, finding objects, even with a focal reducer, is not easy. After much poking around in the sky I looked at my star chart and decided to point in the region east of the constellation Leo where there are many galaxies close (visually) to one another. Couldn't miss!
Here is a test (only a test, mind you) of 36, 20 second exposures stacked with Deep Sky Stacker of the area near M86. I used my modded Canon XSI body (not the best choice for the subject) on the Celestron C8 telescope (classic version) with the Celestron focal reducer (which makes for a wider field of view but reduces the exposure time by about 40%). This is a cropped (1/4th) view of the full image. It is equivalent to a 12 minute exposure but is quite grainy due to the high ISO setting on the camera. With more exposures stacked it would have reduced the grain considerably.
M86 is the bright blob in the upper right hand corner, a large galaxy indeed.
The other galaxies are (left to right) NGC 4425, NGC 3307, and NGC 4413.
The biggest problem I encountered was the position of the telescope at the time which I was attempting to photograph these galaxies. It revealed itself as slightly streaking stars (instead of the round stars it should have been.) This was due to the telescope's moving from one side of the meridian to the other side. The mass of the scope shifts and the gears don't engage as tightly as the scope approaches its meridian. Only after the scope is sufficiently past the meridian do the gears mess tightly enough to prevent "slop".
What does this mean? Either I need to start the photo session much sooner (more and more unlikely as summer approaches) or I need to get to bed earlier and wake up in the middle of the night when my subject is no where near the meridian or well past it.
Some of this you can learn by reading but experience drives it into your brain!
Practice, practice, practice!
Monday, April 6, 2015
Updated Photo Of April 5, 2015 Total Lunar Eclipse
I did a little post-processing on my photo to bring out more colors. Due to the need to capture the deep reddish-orange of the portion of the Moon in the umbra (the darkest part of the Earth's shadow on the Moon) I had to over-expose the brighter limb (which was in the penumbra shadow section.)
The blueish-purpleish cast is due to the Sun's light passing through the ozone layer in our atmosphere.
The blueish-purpleish cast is due to the Sun's light passing through the ozone layer in our atmosphere.
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