Hey, it's been a long time (again). I feel like I've forgotten more than I ever knew about astronomy over the nearly 2 year blog hiatus but it's never too late to get back in the saddle.
Dew, no bueno
Last night was the peak of this year's Perseid meteor shower. I packed up my photo gear, my daughter packed up the bedding and snacks she requires, and we headed out to Mingo Observatory for a late night. The media likes to drum up excitement for the Perseids in particular by saying, "This shower is predicted to be very active!" This, of course, means nothing. Still, the main reason most of us go out and sit all night is the possibility of the ever elusive "meteor storm". I always assume this phenomenon occurs as soon as I call it a night, get in bed, and close my eyes. This is why you stay out until it's 3am and your camera lens has fogged over.
Car lights, also no bueno
The sky was clear and the moon had set in early evening, it was a perfect night. We arrived to quite the crowd out at the observatory. There had to have been 300 people there at one point. I was glad to see a large crowd out to stargaze but that also means there are cars (with giant bright lights blazing) and flashlights all over the place. This naturally makes photography, and even seeing the stars, difficult to say the least. Remember folks, when you're out observing, limit all white light (use red light if needed) and when arriving or leaving after dark use only your parking lights (trust me, you can see just fine, go slow). It takes approx 45 minutes to fully adjust your eyes to the dark (you can see surprisingly well enough) but it only takes seconds to ruin that adjustment.
Enough lecturing, here's some shots. I captured very few meteors and some unfortunately were caught during a taillight parade. I did play around with some full Milky-Way panoramic stitches, you can definitely see the light pollution problem we face in SW PA.
This one happened just as my exposure stopped and cut it short.
Check out the green tail on it though!
This was prety cool but the car lights interfered a bit.
Milky-Way towards Sagittarius
Galactic center, lots of stuff going on in there
Milky-way up and over from South to North (upside down)
Thanks for all the light Pittsburgh.
11 frames stitched
Bonus points: find the Andromeda Galaxy
Last weekend had beautiful clear skies and was pretty close to the peak of the Eta-Aquarid meteor shower so I spend the night at the Observatory at Bisbee Hill. My astro-buddy Jim had a spanking new Canon 60D he was chomping at the bit to try out on the scope. After resolving a bit of alignment as well as PC issues we decided to shoot a couple galaxies I've been wanting to hit. These three images were processed with out darks subtracted because Randy wasn't there to remind us (it's all your fault, Randy). I may reprocess them with darks later to see if it can improve anything.
We started with the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), that's always a favorite lying in the constellation Canes Venatici (Boötes'hunting dogs). This shot is 29 frames stacked and processed with Deep Sky Stacker then touched up a tad in Photoshop. The focus could be admittedly better but not bad for the virgin astrophoto on the new DSLR.
We then moved on to the Black Eye Galaxy (M64). Quite an interesting little (or unfathomably huge depending on your perspective) gem lying in the constellation Coma Berenices. This image is 29 stacked frames.
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Coma Berenices is apparently a satellite superhighway because we captured 4 of them traveling through our tiny window on the sky. Kinda nifty.
The Sunflower Galaxy(M63) is another found in Canes Venatici. It was pretty bleh in the individual images, I almost didn't bother processing them but after stacking it really popped (I guess that's the point though, isn't it?).
While we were shooting with the scope I had my camera shooting a time lapse of the Eta-Aquarid meteors. The radiant is in the constellation Aquarius and specifically the star Eta-Aquarii, "Eta" being the 7th brightest star of the constellation. Aquarius was set to rise in the east around 2:30 so I decided a "Milky Way rise" time lapse was in order. I set up my camera with a wide lens and intervalometer set at 45 sec and started shooting around 11:30pm until my battery died at 4:05am. I hoped I could make it until the Moon rose over the treeline but apparently I need to invest in a battery grip to double my power. I captured at least three meteors towards the end of the night. The local farm kids were having quite a party in the woods at the bottom of the video. At one point they decided it would be fun to drive a truck up to the observatory, but when we gave them the international sign for cut the lights (or maybe they thought we were threatening to cut their throats?) they quickly returned to their bonfire. This is my best time lapse to date, definitely something to improve on, I've got much more to learn.
On 7/22/12, the family and I drove from Pennsylvania to Arizona to visit my father and family. It was a long stretch from St. Louis to Albuquerque but a couple hours before we hit the hotel we drove under some amazingly dark skies. With much whining and gnashing of teeth from the back seat I pulled off at a random exit on I40 (marked Las Vegas) and into a field. Stepping out of the car, there was a collective WOW from the wife and kids as they looked up and saw the brightest Milky Way they have ever seen arching from horizon to horizon as I dug my tripod out from under coolers and suitcases.
Unfortunately, it was very warm that night causing an INSANE amount of nasty green noise in this 30 second exposure at ISO3200. Needless to say MAJOR noise reduction work was needed in post processing to salvage this shot. A car was nice enough to light the foreground for me and there was a thunderstorm in the distant horizon. I could have spent hours out there but we were pressed for time, I'm just glad the boss let me stop at all.
In my normal observing location in northwest Pennsylvania, the "Teapot" of Sagittarius is fairly low on the horizon and the curve of Scorpius' tail dips below. In the southern states both constellations are much higher meaning the bright center of our own galaxy is riding high in the southern sky giving a more spectacular view.
With a 10 day old moon setting at 2AM, I decided to head to the observatory, if only to visit with friends and relax a bit. The sky was mostly overcast, even showing us a 22 deg Moon ring at one point. As the Moon made it's final plummet around 1:30am the clouds parted and revealed a beautiful sky that was sooo worth staying up for. We waited patiently for the clear sky to darken after Moonset and opened the roof. We hopped around Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Lyra, and (of course) Sagittarius. Notable views of Wild Duck (M11), Dumbell Nebula (M27), Ring Nebula (M57), Double Cluster, and the the gorgeous Andromeda Galaxy. Unfortunately, it was too late and bright to do any astrophotography with the scope.
The stars started to dance in the eyepieces after about an hour of viewing as we were pushing 3:30am so we called it a night. Before I packed up the gear I took a 180 degree Panorama of the milkyway from horizon to horizon.
10 frames @ 18mm 30sec f3.5 ISO1600
Here's a single frame I took of the Milky Way flowing through the Summer Triangle, which is made up of the stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. There's lots of great stuff in there but look hard in this frame to find Brocchi's cluster, aka: the "Coathanger Cluster.
On Friday 5/25/12 our area was hit with some very severe weather but it was supposed to clear quickly afterward. So, not willing to waste a day off, I decided to head out to the observatory to wait out the storm. With the 360 degree view at a nice elevation it is perfect storm watching site as well. The storm was in full swing when I arrived but it wasn't on top of us yet. I quickly set up the tripod and using my shutter release to keep the shutter going at 30 sec exposures, it was dark so no need to worry about over exposure.
Lightning is one of the most impressive and surprisingly one of the easiest things to photograph if you don't over think it. Don't waste your time trying to snap as it happens, you'll only frustrate yourself. If you have a nighttime storm just set up a tripod and shoot continuously at 30 sec with a wide aperture, pour some wine and get comfy (and safe). For a daytime storm close the aperture and use shorter exposure times. Just make sure to grab your gear when the rain hits if you don't have a rain cover (link is the super cheap one I use).
As the night went on the storm moved south and the stars were visible above the thunderheads. Saturn and Spica are the most prominent objects above the clouds. All these shots were taken between 11pm and 1am.
Here's best shots out of 200 or so:
This is the shot I was waiting for!
Bright stars on the left are Saturn (upper) and Spica (lower)
When the sky finally cleared it was such low transparency and seeing was so poor that we didn't even bother opening the observatory roof.
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With summertime nearing, the Milky Way has been rising in time for some interesting photo ops. I've been trying to get a shot of the Milky Way arching over this particular dirt road or weeks and after 3 different tries I have something finally worth showing. Last night (5/27/12) I returned to this site located near the very rural Spartansburg, PA. While very rural you can still see the dramatic effects of light pollution. I'm anxiously awaiting the airing of the documentary The City Dark on PBS on July 5. I strongly urge you to watch and in the meantime, if you must have glaring property lights get some motion detectors or sky friendly fixtures and bulbs. Reconnect with the stars, there's a whole Universe out there. People need to realize we're part of something much bigger.
TURN THE LIGHTS OUT!
180 degrees, from Cassiopeia to Scorpius
Last night, Jim, Randy and I decided it was high time to break out the SBIG ST2000XCM and get some real photography going. We spent a good hour or more precision aligning and tweaking the scope. Mostly I stood in the way watching and at best was a pair of sharp eyes to sight guide stars for alignment while the guys twisted various knobs and timed star movements.
Then, hungrily rubbing our hands together, we hunkered down for the next 4+ hours in front of the computer screen searching for guide stars and refocusing and searching for guide stars and refocusing and... Now I know this sounds like the epitome of tedium but when spiked coffee and a bit of tequila are involved it becomes an all out astrogeek party. It really was a blast and we learned a few things even if we don't have photos, the next clear night we'll definitely have something to show. I believe the biggest problem we had was the sky, seeing was below average making good astrophotography near impossible even if we had all the kinks worked out.
While all this was going on I had my camera aimed at the observatory (with Polaris directly above) for 245, 1 min exposures the entire time. Hours of star (and astronomer) movement were captured and turned into this timelapse video.
All the frames combined using Startrails for this photo.
245 frames @ 59sec f4 ISO500
And at around 2am as I was about to head home the inner Milky Way made it's grand appearance with the summer triangle riding high in the east. The observatory is on the left.
Good things to come as summer is truly on it's way.
