Welcome to my Astrophotography Blog!

This is a journal of my adventures in astrophotography -- taking images of distant celestial objects. Please look around and feel free to add your comments, questions, and critique to any of the entries by clicking the "comments" button on the bottom of each entry -- or just say "howdy!

And don't forget to click on the images for a larger view!

So choose either the Red pill or the Blue pill and follow me down the wormhole....

JOhn

Comanche Springs Star Party

Comanche Springs Star Party
Doin' my thang at the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus (where I often become a "red ghost")

Dallas Sky

Rancho Venado Sky

Atoka Sky

Camanche Springs Sky

Monday, April 6, 2009

Galaxy Season Continues

Why so many galaxies this time of year? Well, it is partly because at night during this time of year, we are looking away from our Milky Way's galactic core and out into deep space. During the summer, our views are populated by the vast rivers of stars, dust, and nebulae from the spiral arms of our own galaxy. But looking away from our galaxy in the Spring reveals the great desert of space, populated by millions of other "tiny" galaxies that are unobstructed by our Milky Way.
Every star and large nebulae we see are part of our own Milky Way. This is why there are not too many wide field targets in the Spring, since we are looking away from them.
Anyway, here is a shot of M81 & M82. They are a lovely pair in the northern sky and one of the few wide field targets available at this time (framing them together).

Here are the stats:

FSQ 106 ED f/8
QHY8 camera
13 x 15 min
Maxim, CS3

By the way, you may recognize M81 as an image I took (by itself) at Christmas time with my LX200 scope (with a lot more magnification). Here it is for comparison :

4 comments:

Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

Just beautiful John. The top one esp with all the nice purples and magentas.

Neutronman said...

Thanks Bob! Glad you stopped by. Hope you guys are doing swell.

I will hopefully have a BUNCH of new images in a couple of weeks. Kim and I are heading to the Texas Star Party -- yeehaw!

Anonymous said...

Very nice, I like the detail in the second, beautiful image.

Neutronman said...

Thanks for your comments Dave, and thanks for stopping by.