With a very clear night and the moon rise not expected for several hours, I set up the iOptron SkyTracker to capture images of the Milky Way and Cathedral Rock in Sedona. The star image was 4 minutes in length and shot at ISO 1600. The SkyTracker works well enough that the stars still appear as points with this long-exposure image. A second image was then taken using the same exposure settings but with the tracker turned off in order to get a sharp foreground.
The Milky Way rises above Cathedral Rock in Sedona.
Taking the images was easy. So was the post processing. It turned out that combining and blending the two images was harder than I thought. But the result was worth it.
Several years ago, Lowell Observatory recognized that the 117-year old Clark Telescope was in need of restoration and began raising money for the necessary work. One of the ways in which they were able to raise the capital was to create a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. It was through this campaign that I made a contribution to the restoration.
Yesterday, May 16, 2015, Lowell Observatory held a Sneak Preview of the restored Clark Telescope for “special donors.” Honestly, I was surprised that my contribution made me a special donor but I gladly accepted the invitation.
The evening program began with a slide show of the dismantling, cleaning, and finally, the reassembly of the telescope. The primary objective lens, not unexpectedly, was quite dirty from over a century of use. This may partly explain why I was unimpressed when I looked through the Clark back in 1999 at the planet Mars. Here’s an excerpt from an email in May 1999:
Yesterday evening I went to the Lowell Observatory since they had an open
telescope viewing night. The local astronomy club was also there with their
telescopes. I got a very nice look at Mars and was able to vaguely see the
northern polar ice cap. Later, I viewed Mars again through their [Clark]
telescope but it wasn’t as nice as through the smaller amateur scope. Oh, well.
The highlight of the evening, of course, was viewing the restored telescope and dome. The telescope itself is not ready for astronomical viewing as the restoration crew continue to finalize their adjustments and alignment. Soon, soon…
Here are a few photographs of the telescope.
The “business end” of the Clark Telescope with dials and finder scopes for alignment.The Clark Telescope, pedestal, and newly renovated floors and dome.The Clark Telescope. Note the truck tires used for rotating the dome.
Education has replaced research as the primary use of the Clark Telescope with guests enjoying both daytime tours of the telescope and viewing celestial objects in the evening. I’m looking forward to getting another view through the newly restored Clark Telescope.
With the moon well past full combined with very clear and dark skies it was time again to do some night sky astrophotography. On an earlier outing, I had taken a few “exploratory” images of potential targets. It was now time to take some longer exposures.
My first target was Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a dark nebula of gas and dust that is close to the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus (and located adjacent to the better known constellation Scorpius).
Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. The planet Saturn is in Scorpio and is located in the upper right of the image.
My tools for the night were a Nikon D700 DSLR (fairly old camera technology by today’s standards), a Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lens (a short telephoto lens that works well for astrophotography), a tripod, and an iOptron SkyTracker equatorial mount for tracking the stars on long exposures.
I took 10 exposures each of 4-minutes duration and then stacked them using the (free) Deep Sky Stacker application. The resulting image was post processed in Photoshop CS6 using Astronomy Tools v1.6.
The result isn’t bad considering I’m still pretty much an amateur at this astrophotography thing. For comparison, check out this amazing version of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex at the APOD site.
The next night was almost as clear so I returned again to my viewing location near Mormon Lake. This time, I used an ultra-wide angle lens (16mm). Here you can see the Milky Way rising in the east with Saturn in Scorpio and visible in the center right part of the image. The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is also visible to the right of the Milky Way. The glow in the lower right is from the city of Phoenix—locateded over 150 kilometers to the south.
Milky Way rising.
While capturing these images I was treated to the yipping of coyotes, hooting of owls, and could hear a small herd of elk grazing in a nearby meadow.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy is still visible in the sky in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is not as bright as it was a few months ago but can still be seen with a pair of binoculars. It is probably best viewed in the evening as Cassiopeia moves lower in the sky overnight and in the early morning hours. This makes it more difficult to see as there is more atmospheric attenuation at these lower elevation angles.
Sky map for locating Comet Lovejoy (03/22/2015) using the free and open source Stellarium planetarium software.
Using my recently acquired iOptron Skytracker for tracking night sky objects I took numerous exposures totaling 14 minutes (9x60s@iso1600; 10x30s@iso3200). These were then stacked in Deep Sky Stacker (DSS), a very good and free program designed for astrophotography.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy on 03/16/2015. A faint tail can be seen extending to the upper right.
The resulting image was then post-processed using the Astronomy Tools v1.6 actions in Photoshop.
Here are a few recent images of the nearly-full moon rising above the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. The day before the full moon is often the most photogenic time as the landscape is still bathed in sunset light while the moon has already climbed well above the horizon.
But if only it was that easy! Earlier in the day I had used The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) to find a location. I decided that a position on SR64 north of Williams, Arizona, would work and at that distance the moon would appear quite large juxtaposed against the mountains. Unfortunately, when I arrived at my predetermined spot I was not able to see the mountains. Numerous cinder cones and small hills completely blocked my view. I wish TPE was more intelligent than this photographer and would let me know of obstructions.
With less than 15 minutes until moonrise and one-half hour until the moon would be above the peaks, I had to find a new location quickly. I backtracked south on SR64 and then east along Route 66 but hills and trees continued to block my view. When I did finally get a clear view I was too far south and the moon would rise south (right) of the peaks. I stayed around for a few minutes to get a few consolation images of the moonrise then headed east again. Arriving in Parks, Arizona, I turned north and kept looking for a location with the moon above the peaks and a clear view. Finally, I found this location.
Although these were not the images I thought I was going to get I’m still happy with the result.
Note: No speed limits were broken while trying to reposition!
