The area around the star Rho Ophiuchus is one of the most colorful in the night sky. It’s a favorite of mine and I’ve been attempting to get a pleasing image of the area for a number of years. The area lends itself to wide views. Focal lengths from 50mm to 400mm work great. Last Tuesday I used the Canon 200mm lens to capture this image.
Imaged 5/26/09 from Fremont Peak State Park, California. Modified Canon 350D with Baader UV/IR filter. Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II lens operating at f/4. 36 x 5 minute exposures at ISO 800 (total exposure time is 3 hours). Processed with Nebulosity, Pixinsight, and Photoshop CS3.
Published on
May 25, 2009 in
Gear.
This is it. The glory of astrophotography. The glamour, beauty, and majesty that is sitting up all night in the dark, watching blinking red lights. Diet Pepsi never tasted so good.
Over the last couple of nights I’ve been waiting for Scorpius to rise in the East. Rather than playing more Peggle, I grabbed some subs of the two big money Messier globular clusters, M13 in Hercules and M5 in Serpens.
Imaged 5/19/09 and 5/20/09 from Fremont Peak State Park, California. Modified Canon 350D with Baader UV/IR filter. TMB 92mm f/5.5 operating at f/4.4 with a Televue 0.8x focal reducer. Each image is 60 x 60 second exposures at ISO 800. Processed with Nebulosity and Photoshop CS3.
Published on
May 21, 2009 in
Scenic.
About an hour before sunrise this morning, the crescent Moon, Mars, and Venus made a beautiful sight in the Eastern sky. Taken from Fremont Peak State Park in California.
Published on
March 28, 2009 in
Deep Sky.
To get to know the TMB 92mm, I set up in my backyard last night. It is not very dark where I live, even though I’m in the “county” part of Los Gatos with no street lights. I didn’t expect too much from this session other than some experience with the TMB 92mm and an understanding of how it vignettes with the 350D. I put an IDAS LPS-P2 filter (also a recent Astromart acquisition) on the system to see if I could lengthen the exposure time without sucking up too much light pollution.
I chose to image M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. M51 is a showpiece for both imagers and visual astronomers, although like most galaxies it can use a bit more focal length than I have available. It is in the constellation Canes Venatici. For a shakedown cruise, I think it turned out okay.
Imaged 3/27/09 from my backyard in Los Gatos, California. Modified Canon 350D with Baader UV/IR filter. TMB 92mm f/5.5 operating at f/4.4 with a Televue 0.8x focal reducer and IDAS LPS-P2 filter. 42 x 300 second exposures at ISO 800. Processed with Nebulosity and Photoshop CS3.
Published on
March 28, 2009 in
Gear.
I need to stop the random drive-by Astromart habit. This month it resulted in the acquisition of a TMB 92mm f/5.5 from a gentleman in Cupertino. This is a terrific astrograph and wide field visual telescope. The lens is an apochromatic triplet with an element of FPL-53 ED glass. Whatever that is.
I’ve always wanted to make an image of Barnard’s Loop, the huge supernova remnant in the constellation Orion. The night before New Years Eve I was up at Fremont Peak with this image as my primary goal. Conditions were good, with a temperature low around 40 degrees. Seeing was decent. Some dew came and went, and before I knew it I had lost 50 minutes of exposure time to a wet lens. I was able to keep 90 minutes worth of 10 minute exposures, plus some shorter exposures to capture the bright nebulosity in M42.
Imaged 12/30/08 from Fremont Peak State Park in California. Modified Canon 350D with Baader UV/IR filter. Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/4. Exposures: 9 x 600 seconds, 10 x 60 seconds, 10 x 10 seconds, all at ISO 800. Processed with Nebulosity, Iris, and Photoshop CS3.
Published on
January 2, 2009 in
Deep Sky.
Galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628 comprise the group known as the “Leo Trio.” The grouping is very pretty visually and will fit in a single eyepiece field in many telescopes.
Imaged 12/30/08 from Fremont Peak State Park in California. Modified Canon 350D with Baader UV/IR filter. William Optics Zenithstar 80FD operating at f/5.5 with a Televue 0.8x focal reducer. 15 x 600 second exposures at ISO 800. Processed with Nebulosity, Iris, and Photoshop CS3.
I spent the night before New Years Eve imaging up at Fremont Peak State Park. My first target of the night was a wide field of The California Nebula and The Pleiades. This is a nice pair of objects and they look great together in a wide field view.
The California Nebula (NGC 1499) is an emission nebula in the constellation Perseus, likely illuminated by the star Xi Persei. The Pleiades (aka The Seven Sisters or M45) is a cluster of hot young stars in the constellation Taurus. The Seven Sisters have been known since ancient times, having been mentioned by Homer in The Odyssey.
Imaged 12/30/08 from Fremont Peak State Park in California. Modified Canon 350D with Baader UV/IR filter. Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/4. 7 x 300 second exposures at ISO 800. Processed with Nebulosity, Iris, and Photoshop CS3.
Published on
November 16, 2008 in
Deep Sky.
Taken November 15th, 2008, from my backyard. It needs a bit more “signal” to bring out the faint nebulosity surrounding the star cluster, but as a first attempt with the new imaging setup, I’ll take it!
Updated 12/1/08: Updated to an image made on 11/30/08. Dithering during the 70 1 minute exposures has reduced the DSLR “pattern noise” quite a bit.
The area around the star Rho Ophiuchus is one of the most colorful in the night sky. It’s a favorite of mine and I’ve been attempting to get a pleasing image of the area for a number of years. The area lends itself to wide views. Focal lengths from 50mm to 400mm work great. Last Tuesday I used the Canon 200mm lens to capture this image.
