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

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Solstice Lunar Eclipse

The last time there was a lunar eclipse on the Winter Solstice, Galileo was serving his "sentence" for being a naughty astronomer. Although I had grand plans to do all sorts of shooting of the eclipse, in the end I merely observed the beautiful sight, then took a few snaps with my Nikon D700 and 180mm lens as clouds began rolling in (right after totality).

If you missed this Winter Solstice event, don't worry -- I believe it happens again in about 90 years.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

From Witch to Sword

Here is a 5 panel mosaic in Orion that I shot last week during 3 nights in my new observatory -- woo hoo! I especially enjoyed being out of the wind when it was 18 degrees.

I tried to shoot a mosaic of this last year, but the weather knocked me out (got a few subs, but could never complete it). So I am happy I finally got it.

A few things I noticed about this area...

There is a Ha ring of nebulosity around Rigel that I did not know about. I shot the Witch Head a couple of years ago w/o Ha (since the Witch is a reflection neb), but this time I used Ha in all panels since I was incorporating M42. I guess Rigel's stellar winds are carving out a bubble in the gas and exciting the Ha. Anybody know?

I also enjoyed all the cool galaxies that "litter" the area around the Witch.

FSQ 106EDX f/3.6
STL-11000M -25C
5 panels
HaLRGB 15,90,25,25,25 (per panel)
CCDStack, PixInsight, CS5

Bigger image seen here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neutronman/5245334825/