DOP interview with Charles Cramer
Another insightful interview with one of today's photography masters has been published on Digital Outback Photo. The interview is with noted landscape photographer and instructor Charles Cramer. Mr. Cramer will be the guest instructor at the upcoming Fine Art Summit in November which I will be attending. I invite you to listen to the interview for some wonderful background and insight into the photography of Mr. Cramer.
Rho Ophiuchus and Antares Nebulae Complex
Well, I finally finished my first DSLR astrophotograph and my first astrophoto in nearly 4 years. It was a very steep learning curve, but I came close to my original visualization. I have more information at the astrophotograph webpage below. I hope you enjoy the image and I look forward to more compositions this summer.
Rho Ophiuchus with Canon 350D and 135mm f2L lens
PhotoTech EDU at Google
I stumbled across a collection of presentation videos archived at Google Videos that discuss various aspects of photography in detail. The topics vary widely and even include some astrophotography presentations. There is a ton of material here and I have only begun to review it. The material is very detailed and at times overly technical, but hey it is Google. One interesting tidbit I found was a discussion at the end of Ben Lutch's Astrophotography presentation where Google is mapping the entire heavens with images from anyone willing to contribute their astronomical photos to the project. Depending on your interests, there is a wealth of information on this site. I encourage you to check out the topics and see what catches your eye. Here is a link to the search results for "phototech EDU" at Google.
Like falling off a bike
Great news! I finished painting the house. So with that project out of the way I can now spend some time at the processing computer. That is exactly what I did today. It was a very frustrating first few hours. I can't believe how difficult it was for me to get back into the swing of enhancing astrophotographs, but it was like I had never worked on them before. I was constantly "falling off of the bike" and I nearly gave up entirely. At one point I thought I simply did not have enough data for the image to work the way I visualized. And then, it hit me, and I regained momentum and have successfully gone through one iteration of image enhancement on the Rho Ophiuchus image. I have plenty of data to work with and I am pretty confident I can get the image to what my initial visualization was for this composition. It takes a great deal of time and many iterations for enhancements to come to completion. I also like to step away from the image and let things "stew" a bit as I contemplate the direction the image is taking. So, I am working very hard on new stuff, it is just taking some time to get through the process and get things posted. Thanks for your interest in Jeff Ball Photography and there is much more to come.
P.S. I also spent several hours today preparing for my upcoming presentation at the Almost Heaven Star Party. I hope you can make the event and I hope to post my presentation on the website after the event in August.
A winner of a night
Another night under the stars and this time the transparency cooperated. Last Friday night I visited the wonderfully dark skies of my friend Rob Adkins home in Wayne County. We had a wonderful night of photographing and viewing. The dark lanes of the Milky Way were easily visible from Sagittarius to Scorpius, even with bright Jupiter in the middle of them. We viewed numerous deep sky objects with and without the OIII filter. The views were just stunning on this night and compared favorably to any I have had anywhere over the years. We viewed Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and Mars-all in one night. The seeing really steadied nicely for some wonderful early morning views of Jupiter.
Upon first review, it looks like I have at least 2 hours of very good data to work with on Rho Ophiuchus. Astrophotography images come slowly as preparation, imaging, and processing are extremely involved. I hope to have the image up soon. I am about 50% finished with painting the house. Once that project is completed, I can get back into updating images and the website.
The Herschel 400 Astronomical League Project is underway
It’s not too late to join. We are about 30 objects into the Herschel 400. Hope to get another session in soon. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel so you get notifications on LIVE STREAMS.
Angels in Monoceros: The Monoceros M2 Complex
The Monoceros R2 molecular complex (often shortened to Mon R2) is a massive giant molecular cloud and one of the nearest active star-forming regions to Earth. It's a dynamic stellar nursery embedded in dense gas and dust, where new stars—particularly massive ones—are actively being born.
Key Facts
Location: Southwestern part of the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn), near the border with Orion. It's part of the larger Orion-Monoceros cloud complex.
Distance: Approximately 2,400–2,700 light-years (around 830 parsecs).
Size and Structure: The main dense core is relatively compact (a few light-years across), but the overall molecular cloud and associated nebulae span a wide area—reflection nebulae alone stretch up to about 2° in the sky. It's situated well below the galactic plane, which makes it stand out in certain observations.
Age and Activity: Star formation here began roughly 6–10 million years ago. It hosts an OB association (young, hot, massive B- and A-type stars) that illuminates surrounding dust, creating prominent reflection nebulae with bluish hues. There's also significant emission from ionized gas (red glows) and dark nebulae that appear as shadowy silhouettes blocking background light.
Notable Features:
A central hub of massive star formation with embedded clusters, molecular outflows, and HII regions.
Infrared observations (like those from VISTA or 2MASS) penetrate the dust to reveal hidden young stars and protoplanetary disks.
It's a key site for studying early stellar evolution, variability in young stellar objects (YSOs), and the interplay between massive stars and their natal clouds.
The most famous and photogenic part of Mon R2 is the region around NGC 2170 (the Angel Nebula), a striking reflection nebula with wing-like dust structures, glowing blue from scattered starlight, mixed with red emission and dark lanes. Wider views of the complex reveal a richer tapestry of colorful gas, dust filaments, and star clusters.
Credit: GROK 2/28/26
Click on image for larger view.
New Astro Camera: OM-3
Join me for a LIVE conversation about this new astro camera coming to the market. Is this the best option for you? How does it compare to other options? https://www.earthandskyphoto.com Correction: when discussing Bulb mode with Canon, I incorrectly said it had a limit of 30”. I meant to say manual exposure has a max of 30”. In bulb, you need to use a remote control or app for exposure time control. The problem is you can’t set exposure time for stills in the camera menu. I was made aware that Olympus no longer owns the OM system. It is owned by Japanese industrial Partners, a private equity firm. For content on the OM-3 for astrophotography, please see Ben Chapell’s Narrow Band channel. https://youtube.com/@TheNarrowbandChannel?si=GcWY-BM9skG9LPhY
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