Finally another photo night

It was partly cloudy when I left for the mountains Saturday evening, but the skies cleared not long after I arrived at my imaging site. The humidity in the air made the seeing very stable, and a cool breeze made the evening very pleasant. I did not have much problem with condensation on my optics, even with the higher humidity, and I would say that the gentle breeze helped in that regard. I did manage to get about 2 hours of imaging in before the high clouds and fog stopped the astrophotography.

The image above is the constellation, Sagittarius. It is located in the south, and it's stars form a recognizable "Teapot" shape. In the bright area, just above and right of the teapot's spout is the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The bright star on the left is not a star at all. It is our planet neighbor, Jupiter, which is easily spotted in the southern skies all evening.

Camera - Canon EOS 40D

Lens - Tamron 18-50 MM f2.8 Zoom Lens, set at 50MM f2.8 - ISO 800
22 Minutes of exposure (11x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is a widefield area in the constellation, Sagittarius, containing the nebulae, M8 (lower nebula) and M20 (upper nebula). Above and to the left of M20, the Trifid Nebula, is the open cluster, M21. Below and to the left of M8, the Lagoon Nebula, is the globular cluster, NGC 6544.

Camera - Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 70-200MM f2.8 Zoom Lens, set at 200MM f2.8 - ISO 800
6 Minutes of exposure (3x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

Moon is up. It's hard to do Astrophotography

Ahhhh. The skies clear up, and of course it happens when the moon is up in the evenings. Astrophotography is difficult, but not impossible, when the moon is glaring in the sky. That is why I usually avoid planning astro shoots when the moons is up. However, I am not one to miss a clear night sky, so I think I might head into the mountains tonight to do some observing. Trade the cameras for the big telescopes and work on my Astronomical League Double Star list. Maybe work on the Globular Cluster list as well. I highly recommend get out in the evening, find a dark site, kick back and enjoy the stars. Rejuvenating, it is.

More Image Processing

The weird thing about astrophotography is that as much time you spend shooting images, you spend at least an equal amount of time processing them. I decided to combine some images taken with two different cameras of the same subject. The idea is that the more digital data you capture, the better your overall image. So, I shot M8 and M20 in Sagittarius with my Canon EOS 40D and my Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D. By using a scaling procedure, I was able to align the images with two stars that were visible in all the images, even though the images were made with different cameras, with different fields of view. The result is below.

The Image above is M8 and M20 in the constellation, Sagittarius.

Cameras - Canon EOS 40D and Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
54 Minutes of exposure (27x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

Latest Images of the Night Skies

We finally had a good night for astrophotography on July 1, 2008. I went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway with my imaging gear and started shooting. I ended up with about 4 hours of exposures. Below, I have put together some examples of what I shot the other night. With each image, I will list the gear I used to make the shot, as well as the exposure totals.

The Image above is a wide field shot of the Milky Way. The bright star above the trees is not a star. That is our neighbor planet, Jupiter.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Tamron 11-18MM f4.5 Lens, set at 11MM f4.5 - ISO 800
12 Minutes of exposure (6x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is an area shot in the constellation, Sagittarius. There are two bright nebulae in this image, and one fainter nebula. The larger, bright nebula on the right is Messier 8 (M8) (NGC 6523), the Lagoon Nebula. The smaller, bright nebula is Messier 20 (M20) (NGC 6514), The Trifid Nebula. Above M8, and slightly to the right, near the top of this image is a fainter star forming region designated NCG6559. These Nebulae are located along the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
28 Minutes of exposure (14x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is an area shot in the constellation, Ophiuchus. This area has very faint nebulosity, and it takes plenty of exposure to get the nebula to show in an image. The triple, "Mickey Mouse", looking star is Rho Ophiuchi. This is called the Rho Ophiuchi nebula. What is unusual about this area is the array of colors displayed in a relatively small area of the sky. This area can be found just above alpha Scorpii, Antares, the bright red star in the constellation, Scorpius.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
60 Minutes (1 Hour) of exposure (30x2 minutes)

AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking