Adventures in Astrophotography

Perigee Moon Rising

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:45:17 +0000

The Moon reached perigee the other day. Perigee is the closest point in the moon’s orbit around the Earth, making this moonrise just a bit larger than all the others. Additionally, the Earth was very near perihelion, the side of Earth’s elliptical orbit closest to the sun. Extra sunlight increased the reflected luminosity of the Moon, making it seem bigger and brighter still. This full moon was referred to as the Wolf Moon by native Americans because it comes during the middle of the winter. Cold, hungry wolves would howl in distance as the moon rose. It’s was also sometimes called the Snow Moon. The moon will now start to get out of our way, allowing for some deep sky observing/imaging in the days and weeks ahead. (If only the weather would allow for this)

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1/100s at ISO400
* 300mm f/5.6
* PhotoShop CS2 Levels (mac version)
* Neat Image noise reduction

Earthshine

admin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:08:03 +0000

I woke up this morning to a beautiful crescent moon. It was just climbing above the mountains to the east of my home. I decided I needed to snag a shot of this. Once outside, the amount of Earthshine became apparent. This was actually going to be a nice shot. I quickly put the Canon Rebel XTi onto an old beater of a tripod and quickly attached my 75-300mm zoom lens. To better frame the scene, I pulled back to 130mm providing the following view. Not too shabby, huh? Checkout this higher powered view taken via eyepiece projection to 48x through my Astrophysics Starfire 160 Refractor

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon
Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 1s at ISO800
* 130mm f/4.5
* Astro Physics Starfire 160
* PhotoShop CS2 Levels (mac version)
* Neat Image noise reduction

Moon, Stars and Clouds

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:45:21 +0000

Here’s the view I found myself under on the other morning (9/25). Skies were mostly clear and a nice crescent moon had just come up over the mountains to the southeast. I’ve not yet looked up the name of the star pictured next to the moon (likelihood of this happening is descending towards nil).

Note the earthshine visible in the image. Earthshine is sunlight reflecting off the Earth and back onto the moon. It makes a beautiful sight. Earthshine is most apparent just before and just after the new moon.

Me, Moon, Mars and Saturn

admin — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:46:32 +0000

Here’s a shot taken the other night (7/5/08) atop a ridge in Utah’s Uinta Mountains. Located about 10 miles up the Trout Creek drainage at about 9400′, we’re prepping for what would turn out to be an amazing night of observing. That’s me and the ObDob posing in front of a gorgeous alignment (moon, regulus, mars and saturn).

Skies above Trout Creek were easily mag 7… with amazing transparency and pretty nice seeing. We spent the night visiting with old friends (M13, M51, M57) and enjoying the wonders of the summer Milky Way.

M13 The Hercules Star Cluster

admin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:35:50 +0000

Here’s a close up view of M13, The Hercules Star Cluster. This is a cropped version on the previously posted image. It definitely has more information to display. In the eyepiece, Hercules looks like a collection of diamonds on a black velvet background. In the big scope, it is one of the most amazing astronomical views I’ve ever experienced. I think I’ll need to hit this again on a night of rock solid seeing… so that I can really show the pinpoint nature of the stars in the core of the cluster.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: M13
* Constellation: Hercules
* Magnitude: mag 5.8

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 120s at ISO1600
* PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Astro Physics Starfire 160

Gem Of The Summer Sky – The Hercules Star Cluster (M13)

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:43:07 +0000

I’m finally getting back into my imaging routine… so let’s start things off with one of the gems of the summer night sky… Globular Cluster M13 aka The Hercules Star Cluster. This is simply the finest globular cluster visible from northern locations. It is so big and bright that it looks good in virtually any size telescope… or binoculars. It’s even visible to the unaided skies if you can free yourself from the obscuring effects of light pollution. This was an ideal object to get things rolling again… as it is such a simple object to image (its visible through the camera view finder) and doesn’t require much image processing to get it looking good. It even looked nice reviewing it on the LCD on the back of the camera.

Here’s a wide angle view of the cluster…. taken at prime focus through my Astro Physics Starfire 160 refractor. This is one of the first shots since getting one of my drive motors rebuilt. Thankfully, I’d not moved things… so my alignment is still pretty nice. I’m planning to do a bit of drift aligning in the coming days/weeks… to fine tune this even further.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: M13
* Constellation: Hercules
* Magnitude: mag 5.8

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* 120s at ISO1600
* PhotoShop CS2 Curves (mac version)
* Astro Physics Starfire 160

Star Party At Kitt Peak

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:46:28 +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.

Solar Activity On The Rise

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:08:07 +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

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:06:44 +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. 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

admin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 11:53:07 +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.