Lagoon Nebula and other objects in the Night Sky

January 3, 2017

Back in late summer, I had a chance to capture multiple long-exposure images of a portion of the Milky Way that is rich in star clusters, nebulae, and dust clouds. I had seen some online images of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and was certain that it was bright and large enough to capture with a DSLR camera and small telephoto lens.

The image above is a stack of 11 photographs. Why stack multiple images? Single exposures of the faint details in the night sky will usually have a lot of noise. Stacking multiple exposures will help eliminate random noise in the image and improves the overall signal-to-noise ratio. Even Hubble Space Telescope stacks images!

These images were shot at ISO 800, 60 second exposure, and f/2.8 aperture. The lens is the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G. The camera was mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker. Image stacking was done using Deep Sky Stacker. The stacked image was then post-processed in Photoshop using the Astronomy Tools Action Set.

The other Messier objects in this image include:

The image below is a screen shot from the free and open-source application Stellarium and shows the approximate location of the images above.

Screen capture from Stellarium showing Milky Way.

A Full Moon Rises above Garland Prairie

November 19, 2016

The full moon rises above an old barn in Garland Prairie, near Parks, Arizona.

Weather permitting I plan to shoot this scene again during the December full moon and hope there is snow on the ground.

Objects in the Night Sky

October 24, 2016

The past several weeks have presented opportunities to photograph objects in the night sky. Exceptionally clear skies and dark nights allowed me to capture some long exposures of portions of the Milky Way. Other nights had interesting alignments of the moon with one of more planets.

Early in September, Venus and Jupiter aligned with the Moon in a nearly straight line in the western sky just after sunset. Compare this with an image taken a month earlier. In the course of a month, Mercury has dropped below the horizon while Venus and Jupiter have switched locations with Venus rising higher in the sky as Jupiter dips lower.

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Summer Vacation 2016 — Part I: Sierra Nevada mountains

September 14, 2016

This summer we travelled through several western states over a period of about three weeks. Major attractions included watching the Perseid meteor shower in the Nevada desert, backpacking in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, viewing the waterfalls on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge, and hiking in the northern Cascades of Washington. The weather was good with light rain on two days and heavy rain once—and that was on the drive home.

Here are some photos from Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains.

Car camping near <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Peak_(Nevada)" target="_blank">Boundary Peak</a> in the Nevada desert. This was the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower and the dark skies resulted in a great show. — Car camping near Boundary Peak in the Nevada desert. This was the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower and the dark skies resulted in a great show.

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Milky Way and Wupatki National Monument

July 11, 2016

With exceptionally clear skies, a waxing cresent moon in the west, and the Milky Way rising in the east it was time to head out and photograph…something wonderful. And so we set out for Wukoki Pueblo in Wupatki National Monument.

Here is what the National Park Service has to say about this structure:

An architect today might win an award for designing Wukoki Pueblo. The corners, angles, and lines of masonry are meticulous. From its base, the eye is drawn skyward to a height that inspires awe of this ancient craftsmanship.

Indeed, the lines of this remarkable structure do draw your eyes upwards to the stars and the Milky Way. How often was this view seen by those who lived here ca. 1100–1200 A.D?