Simply Awesome

Here is a simple shot of the Milky Way I took last week at Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus. It is not a great photo with a wonderful foreground of beautiful mountains or a well framed landscape of trees and lakes. Nope, it is just a quick shot looking toward the center of our home galaxy... but it is awesome.

I never tire of photographing it. Nothing gives quite the same "sense of place" as seeing this view from Earth. And watching the summer Milky Way spiral arm rise and fall is positively hypnotic. It makes all the problems in the world seem less important... as we spin eternal.

What a dish!

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)