Hunting the Hunter

I couldn’t believe it – finally a chance to catch the great Orion Nebula whilst still in the early springtime sky. The Orion Nebula has been an elusive object. It’s one of the first deep sky objects I tried photographing through my new CPC-800 telescope in 2015. And I did manage to grab a marginally […]

C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Martian fly-by

One reason I don’t observe from home often is the narrow swath of clear sky I have through my wooded lot, even in the best conditions. But here, I caught Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) just in time!

The Planets Are Back!

It’s September 2022 and the planets are back! Well, at least at a reasonable hour. I posted a Jupiter image in the previous blog entry but I was up pretty late to catch that. Saturn is high in the sky at around 11:00 PM now, with Jupiter a couple of hours behind, and Mars after that. I got one of my best images yet of Saturn.

A perfect night at the cemetery

Nice weather returned to the cemetery for the evening of August 19, 2022. With the moon nowhere in sight and Saturn now plainly visible just after dark. And – with Jupiter in tow a couple of hours later – it was about as perfect a night as we get.

Darker and Starrier

Another gorgeous night at the cemetery on 7/26/22, and I’m continuing my flirtations with M101. A little less sky glow than from my previous attempt at the Pinwheel Galaxy, and a little cooler – less thermal noise in the camera. And, I timed it just right with my failing battery and managed to capture 53 images.

A dark and starry night

And stormy? Distant lightning was evident on the horizon, despite better than average transparency overhead and the beautifully clear sky from horizon to horizon. Yet, distant flashes punctuated the otherwise perfect night. No matter, the lightening must have been quite some distance away.

It blew up!

A blown-up view of M57.

Another shot at the Ring

Here’s another shot of the Ring Nebula, M57. 34, 90-second sub exposures stacked together worked better in my f10 telescope than 81, 30-second subs even though total exposure times were within 20% of each other.

…And still catching up

The Trifid Nebula – M20 Here’s a shot of the Trifid Nebula – meaning “three lobed”, designation M20. Taken spur-of-the-moment, this is a single 3-minute exposure taken at 6400 ISO. I almost never shoot at 6400, but was looking for instant gratification and figured I’d give it a try. My Canon camera delivered after just […]

Catching Up

Yes, it’s catch up time starting with this reminder – keep looking up! As an astrophotographer – amateurish as I may be, I often forget those words. I’m far too engrossed in staring at my computer screen. I’m computing all day. Work, web, emails and spreadsheets. Fortunately, my distain for cell phones (mostly) spares me […]