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

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Just Passing By...

Looking at close-up shots of these HUGE celestial objects can be very abstract -- there is no easy way to relate to them. Okay, mentally picure the distance of 25 million lightyears. Did your brain explode? Well mine does. So I am interested in somehow showing the relationships between these massive objects so that I can start to develop a better sense of them.

A few days ago, the Moon passed very close to the Pleiades. So I took the opportunity to try to image the two icons together. I used a new rig (an AstroTrac with a modified Canon 450D, Nikon 85mm lens, and mixed with some higher res data taken with my Takahashi FSQ scope). This was an interesting blend of gear and technique. As you can imagine, there is a HUGE dynamic range between the incredibly bright moon and the relatively dim Pleiades, so processing this image was tricky.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy it. I'm pleased with the results and look forward to capturing other interesting "fly-bys".
Image taken on 3-30-09

No comments: