Adventures in Astrophotography

Star Party At Kitt Peak

anthony — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:06:50 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending a small star party the other night on top of Kitt Peak in southern Arizona. For those of you not familiar with the name, it is home to the Kitt Peak National Observatory. We had a smallish moon to contend with throughout the night, but it was a wonderful experience nonetheless. Skies were amazingly clear and otherwise dark. The star party was organized as a side event for attendees of the International Dark Sky Association’s 20th annual general meeting which I was in town for.

We got a tour of the facilities which are home to a battery of telescopes ranging in size from small personal telescopes to the giant 4 meter telescope. Our portion of the star party had us under the dome at the visitor center (seen behind me in the accompanying image) taking in the sky with a 20″ RC telescope. Our “guide” showed us the planet Saturn, The Ring Nebula (M57), globular cluster M5 and galaxy M82. Each showed an amazing amount of detail… offered only to observers viewing under dark skies. Those of you under light polluted skies… sorry about this. You’ll need to arrange a road trip if you’d like to truly enjoy these objects.

On a related note, the accompanying image was taken by fellow dark sky warrior, Lance Diskan. Lance is the founder of the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition. Given that Flagstaff has the distinction of being The International Dark Sky Association’s First Dark Sky City, it’s obvious that Lance carries some serious dark sky credentials. Lance and his team over at Flagstaff Dark Skies are working tirelessly to protect and preserve the dark, star-filled skies above Flagstaff. All sky watchers owe these guys a debt of gratitude, not just those in Flagstaff. Their accomplishments just go to show what a small group of dedicated individuals can accomplish. I find it absolutely amazing that such a small portion of those who love the night sky actually do anything at all to protect it. This is a sad commentary on our society. We need more people like Lance to show up at planning commission meetings and tell them that we are sick and tired of the crummy lights that are regularly installed. If just a small number of folks showed up at each community, we could make some serious head way.

Multiple Solar Prominences

anthony — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:31:49 +0000

I’ve been watching a number of solar prominences come and go in recent days. Several seemed worthy of imaging. Unfortunately, when I went to grab my camera, I was unable to locate my Scope Tronix adapter. This was a bother, but I was too lazy to do anything about it. Until today, that is. Today, the Sun was sporting two pairs of large prominences on opposite sides of the Sun. This was more than even I could ignore

I knew that my adapter couldn’t be far… it’s always kept with my astro gear… err… with my photo gear… err. Well… I tore through everything and, there it was… sitting right where I put it… inside the case for my Coronado Solar Max 40

I brief play with focusing and I snapped the accompanying image. It doesn’t show all of the detail visible in the eyepiece. This is a shame as what I saw was quite amazing. Its also a shame because I’m aiming for much better. I’m still struggling with capture of the finer details in a number of types of images (planets & sun in particular). I suppose I’ll need to read up on things if I’m to overcome this (current) limitation.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Sony DSC-F717
* 1/100s at ISO400
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

Solar Activity On The Rise

anthony — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:33:14 +0000

Solar activity has been on the rise lately… with a slew of prominences showing up. I missed a huge one yesterday because of the weather. Fortunately, clear skies came before things fully subsided. As you can see… solar imaging is a whole new endeavor for me. I’m currently shooting with the Coronado mounted on a camera tripod. This puts some limits on what I can do. I’ve also got to work out some focusing details when I use eyepiece projection to capture the image. Anyway… it was nice to get out for a quick break this afternoon.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1/60s at ISO400
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

Checkout some of my other Solar Images if you have a minute.

The Moon & Planet Mercury In Conjunction

anthony — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:58:05 +0000

You never quite know when skies are going to cooperate on any given evening. Tonight, the stars (err… solar system objects) were in alignment. Checkout these shots of this evenings conjunction involving The Moon and The Planet Mercury. I’d actually forgotten about this alignment, and had to go home to get my camera and tripod. Around 8:30pm or so, I saw the crescent moon coming into view. I knew that Mercury couldn’t be far behind, but where would it appear. A quick peak at a sky map provided by Dr. Tony over at Spaceweather.com was all I needed. Back down the road (to my less obstructed western horizon) and 15 minutes later there was the first rock sitting just below and to the left.

I took a few shots with each lens to make sure that I’d have a good enough exposure to work with. I figured the wider field of view of the first shot made for a more neighborly feel. These are our nearest celestial neighbors, after all. The narrower field of view (I’d hoped) would show a bit more Earthshine. Alas, I needed a better view to the west to allow skies to further darken to capture this more distinctly. Oh, well….

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: Conjunction: The Moon & Planet Mercury

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* Image #1 - wide view 1/8sec @ f5.6 ISO400 70mm focal length
* Image #2 - narrow view 1/10sec @ f/5.6 ISO800 200mm focal length
* Adobe PhotoShop CS2 Curves & Levels
* Neat Image

Camping and Astronomy: They Just Go Together

anthony — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:00:09 +0000

Camping and astronomy are two of my favorite summer pass times. I love to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and surround myself with the wonders of nature. The silence of a clear mornings sunrise is not something we get to experience often enough these days. Daily hiking and mountain biking allow me to stretch my legs in ways my regular schedule does not allow.

Astronomy is also high on my list of ways to spend my time. For those of you with a similar mindset, there is no better way to observe the night sky than from a remote campsite. Far from the overwhelming light pollution of major cities, remote campsites offer some of the best observing opportunities left in the industrialized world. Here, star-filled skies are the norm. The Milky Way stretches overhead from horizon to horizon. The constellations you know and love are lost in the infinite number of stars that seem to fill the sky. As we’re just now coming into the warmer months, I’d urge you to make plans to get yourself out under the darkest skies you can find. Be sure to plan your trip so that the moon is in a smaller and/or later rising phase. I prefer last quarter through just past new. The last quarter moon is 1/2 illuminated (and shrinking nightly) and it doesn’t rise until after midnight. This leaves all the hours from sunset until moonrise as the darkest hours of the night. As I’m typically pretty wiped after a long week of work, these are about the only hours I can be guaranteed to be awake for anyway

Pictured here, you can see the ObDob…. a 25″ Obsession Dobsonian Telescope. This beast loves to get to places like this where it can really perform. This shot was taken a couple of weekends ago at our campsite on Gooseberry Mesa in extreme southern Utah. This is a regular spring/fall location of ours, as temperatures are ideal for all kinds of outdoor events (including deep sky observing). Skies are also quite good (minus the light pollution spewing out of nearby St. George (25 miles away). With your back to the offending portion of the sky, the view of the Milky Way is a wonderous site.

Clear Skies Again… Finally!

anthony — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:35:06 +0000

Winter still refuses to relinquish its grip on the Park City area. 6-8″ of snow fell again yesterday (4/24/08). Skies did clear for the approaching weekend, though and the forecast is calling for mostly clear skies for the next few days at least. I woke a bit earlier than hoped for… (5ish)… and decided to take advantage of some nice early morning views. I managed to checkout the giant planet, Jupiter… which was sitting high in the southeast. I snapped a couple of prime focus pics, but I didn’t get these focused sharp enough to be worth anything. The moon was sitting due south when I came out… and slightly to the west as I focused the camera on it. For all my complaining about how bright the moon can be, it is one sweet astro-photography target. Focusing on the moon is a non-issue as you can so clearly see the details in your camera’s view finder.

Details on the lunar surface are clear and crisp. The lunar terminator can be seen running along the edge of Mare Serenitatis, lighting up the far edge of Crater Posidonius. Visibility along the terminator is especially detailed because of the stark contrast.

Waxing Crescent Moon

anthony — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:49:52 +0000

Here’s a shot I snagged a while back of a waxing crescent moon. This was taken on a rare clear night this past February. I’m hoping the (eventual) arrival of spring here in Park City will allow me to get outside and start taking astro images again. Only time will tell…

Sweet Crescent Moon

anthony — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:33:13 +0000

I’ll start my first post in quite some time with this sweet shot of Sunday evenings crescent moon. This was a tiny sliver of a moon, just shy of 24 hours old. It was only because of the incredibly flat horizons to the west that I was able to snag this shot. This was taken from our campsite down at Gooseberry Mesa in extreme southern Utah. Note the existence of Earthshine in the image. Earthshine is sunlight that reflects off of the Earth and illuminates the non-sunlit portions of the moon. This is why you can actually see the moon in its entirety in this image

I need to tell you just how amazing the skies were here. Except for some sky glow along the western horizon (light pollution comes from nearby St. George, Ut and more distant Las Vegas, NV), the skies were nearly pristine. In the wee hours, the Milky Way spanned from southern horizon to the northern horizon. It was an almost spiritual sight. It was also nice to see some of my old friends… the summer constellations of Hercules, Cygnus, Lyra, Sagittarius, etc.

I got several nice hours of dark sky time after the moon had set. I hit a bunch of old favorites. The Orion Nebula was sitting low in the western sky as it got dark. The galactic pair of M81 & M82 were almost directly over head. This made for some incredible views through the big scope. With its long focal length, I could just barely squeeze the two galaxies into the field of view simultaneously. Cranking up the power forced me to look at one or the other in much more detail (not exactly a bad thing).

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon
* Magnitude: roughly mag -12
* Size: roughly 1/2*
* Phase: 23.9 hours past new

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 0.3s at ISO800
* PhotoShop CS2 Curves & Levels (mac version)

Multiple Solar Prominences

anthony — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:51:38 +0000

Todays clear skies brought the opportunity to do a little solar observing. Given how cold its been at night, this is a nice addition to the hobby.

I’ve almost got the focusing down for imaging. Views come quickly into focus, but through the view finder of my Sony camera, its still a bit of a struggle. This shot was the best I’d could muster in the alloted time. I’m hoping to work through the details a bit more rigorously in the coming weeks.

Anyway, here’s a trio grouped tightly together. Just to put things in perspective, each of these solar prominences are larger than our entire planet. These are some truly massive events. If you just think about the amount of matter and energy involved, it really helps to put things in perspective.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Sun
* Magnitude: roughly mag -27 * Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Sony DSC-F717 Digital Camera
* 1/50s at ISO200
*PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Coronado Solar Max 40 Solar Telescope

Total Lunar Eclipse Coming

anthony — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:36:50 +0000

Shortly after sunset on Wednesday, February the 20th, skywatchers across the Americas will be treated to a sweet total lunar eclipse. This will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2010 (so start praying for clear skies). Depending on where you live, you’ll get see all or at least most of the event. Those located to the east will see the Snow Moon rise as the Sun is setting. Shortly after that, the partial phase of the eclipse will begin. For those located in the mid-west and west, the moon will rise with the partial phase already underway. Regardless, most everyone in the view area should be able to see all of the totality phase.

Look for the moon to turn a coppery or reddish color during totality. This is caused because the eclipse will block all direct light, but not all light. Some light will filter through Earth’s atmosphere and still shine upon the Moon. This will give it a beautiful reddish color. No special equipment is required to view a lunar eclipse. Simply head outside during the event and you will be able to enjoy it. That simple. If you have a telescope or binoculars, you might as well plan on pulling it out for the event. Wide angle views of the eclipse should be simply spectacular. Those of you looking to image the event should plan on mounting your camera on your tracking telescope or tripod. You’ll need to take exposures of as much as 2 seconds…far more than you’ll be able to hand hold. A good idea is to bracket your exposures…. ie… take a 1/2 second image… a 1 second image… and perhaps a 2 second image. Compare these to see which works best for your local conditions. Those of you still using film… might start around 1/4 second… and simply take a number of exposures for each shot you’re looking to catch. This will dramatically improve your chances of getting some nice shots.

I’m hoping to put together a post that’ll focus on imaging in more detail. Check back between now and the 20th to see it. I’ll also have a review of the event (if its visible from here). Checkout Science@NASA for more details. Here’s a shot I took of the last total lunar eclipse… taken this past August.