Blue Jazz

We went for a walk last night, well after dark, so the girls took their flashlights along. One green and one blue, the blue had the glowing baton part turned on and was operated by a 2 year old who just wanted to move it around. Hold the shutter open and walk down the sidewalk.

Syracuse Astronomical Society Public Viewing

We had a blast at the SAS last night. We saw a comet, Jupiter and 3 moons and a nebula. I did take along a camera with a 11-18mm lens to capture a wide swath of the night sky.

That's the Milky Way running vertically through the center. This is nearly overhead with a slight tip to the east. For you photo junkies out there, this is ISO 1250 F/4.5 11mm manual focus to infinity.

Here's another shot of the Milky Way looking east off the horizon.

Red light is easier on your night vision, so they have red lights inside their observatory building. There's one more public viewing next month, weather permitting. You can find out more about this little slice of amazing on their website. These are best seen in original size on black in a darkened room.

Wide Angle Astro-photography

I had to wait a whole week for a clear sky with no moon. It was worth it, I'm pretty happy with the results. I set the camera up in the middle of the yard, next time I get all the way out back, more open sky. This is pretty simple to shoot. It takes a little trial and error, but as long as you can get the shutter to stay open long enough you can shoot the stars. You'll need a camera and a tripod, a dark field or yard and of course spectacular skies.

You might think that I posted the same image twice, but the second one I shut the camera off and skipped the high pass that the D50 does to cancel out the hot pixels. Can't tell the difference, don't worry most people won't. Never let them tell you "you can't do it". These are 30 second exposures at f/4.5 at 1600 ISO.

Update:

You can pick out the constellations Corona and Bootes. If your really sharp you'll spot Virgo and Serpens Caput as well.

There are still some places in the world where it is really dark at night. Check out this great video from William Castleman. This is worth seeing at full screen.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.