Kim and I just got back from the Texas Star Party in Fort Davis, Texas. We went with our friends Trey and Laura and had a blast. It was also great seeing my pals from the local TAS group, as well as some new astro buddies.During the week long event, we stayed at the Sproul Ranch. Right next door is this huge Radio Telescope. The first night of the star party was partly cloudy, so I decided to shoot some wide fields of the dish. I really like how the lighting and clouds worked out with this shot.
This telescope is one of several that are connected together in a huge array. Others in the array are as far away as Hawaii. The resolutions achieved by the array is amazing (they could read the fine print of a newspaper on the moon)! We actually got a great tour of the telescope a couple of days later and were allowed to climb to the top and walk on the dish -- awesome.
Nikon D700
Nikon 20mm lens (borrowed from my pal Hugh)
45 sec f/4 (ISO 3200)
6 comments:
Beautiful shot. The dish almost looks alive in some strange way, like it might start walking around. But then again I get pretty spooked in the wilderness at night, so maybe it's just my imagination.
No, you are correct. It does indeed get up and walk around, terrorizing the locals. It was built on an Indian burial ground ground (a big mistake in hindsight).
Nice photo! - I love the diffusion of the stars. Did you use a diffusion filter on the 20mm lens? If so, which one did you use? The effect looks great!
Thanks Marion! No diffusion filter -- the clouds provided "natural diffusion"
I know this is some time after you've taken the shot, but do you have this in a higher res? I'd love to use it for a multi-monitor background!
Hi John! :-)
I really like yous blog and photos here! I also love astronomy-astrophotography!
Besides that, I love music!
You (and everyone here!) are welcome to check my new music page-project on soundcloud (it's mostly space music!)
https://soundcloud.com/astrofaros
On last track (Distant signals) you'll see a well-known (to you!) cover track photo!
https://soundcloud.com/astrofaros/astrofaros-distant-signals
Usually I use cover photo of mine or from NASA, but I liked so much your photo that I decided to use it here (I hope it's allright with you!) I gave you the proper credit-link to this blog, as you can see (just click on every photo to reveal story-credit!) Also, there is a same named (Astrofaros) facebook music page! There you can see your photo again (this time bigger & blended!) with the proper link to your page! :-)
Every comment is welcomed! :-)
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