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

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Inside Rho

The Rho Ophiuchus area is HUGE, and this is only a "small" piece of it that fits in my field of view. As such, it almost feels like we are inside of it.

You may recall (or not) that I imaged an extremely WIDE field of this area along with the entire Scorpius constellation back in April -- my "Scorpius Rising" image. Anyway, this is a much tighter shot that focuses on some of the incredible dark and dusty nebulosity found there.

I had some issues collecting the data for this image (clouds, trees, gradients, tequila) but after a bit of processing I was able to arrive at something I like. Heck, I love it! Space is just so damned neato (feel free to quote me on that).

For fans of stats...

FSQ 106 EX f/5
STL 11000M -10C
L,R,G,B
100x10x15x15
Maxim, CCD Stack, CS3

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well you soon got the knack with your new camera. A nice and smooth image with plenty of detail, there's a lot going off in this photo.
How are you finding the camera?
Keep those images coming.

Neutronman said...

Thanks Dave!

I gotta say that I am really loving this camera. It is built like a tank and works brilliantly with Maxim. I really enjoy having control over the seperate color passes (and greater sensitivity) that a mono chip camera gives you. Also, the dynamic range is far superior to what I was used to - perfect for getting those subtle shifts of color and detail.

It is obvious to me now why this camera has been such a staple for astro work.