Badwater Milky Way
The setting Milky Way from the lowest point in North America. The night sky is remarkable at Badwater. The salt residue patterns adding a point of focus in the foreground. The town of Ridgecrest casts some light on the horizon, but that is the only light visible this location. Sitting in the middle of Badwater at night, taking in the beauty of the sky and hearing absolutely no sounds, created a tranquil environment for meditation and reflection. The Sony A7RIII was used with the Laowa 15mm f2 lens with 10 images of 10 seconds stacked to form a smooth Milky Way presentation.
Eagle Nebula from Spruce Knob, WV (Almost Heaven Star Party 2019)
My access to the sky below 0 degrees declination is very limited. That means I must travel to image an object like M16-The Eagle Nebula. On the first night we had very nice conditions early in the evening that afforded me the opportunity to take a late summer run at The Eagle Nebula. In 1995, the Hubble telescope captured one of the most iconic images of our universe to date-the Pillars of Creation. Those pillars are in the central part of the brightest section of the nebulosity in this image. I will never forget when that image was published. It captured the imagination of the entire world at the time. For details on the image, please see this link to the Astrobin page. I hope you enjoy the image and that it spurs in you a moment to contemplate the miracle of the creation of our universe.
New Gallery: Astro Scapes
Inspired by Richard Tatti of Australia through his amazing YouTube channel, I have opened up a new gallery of images called Astro Scapes. Richard is a master of night sky images in the landscape. He inspired me to scout and execute my first light painting technique shot at the remarkable location of Spruce Knob Tower at the summit of West Virginia’s highest peak.
This gallery will include any astronomical event or skyscape that features a landscape foreground. Please take a moment to peruse the new gallery and here is the new image. of which I am quite happy with. Have a great weekend!
Don’t forget, you can click on the image for a larger preview.
First Light with iOptron Skyguider Pro from Spruce Knob, WV
My initial testing of the iOptron Skyguider Pro was very positive. On my first visit to the highest peak in West Virginia, I had 3 imaging systems going simultaneously. The first was my traditional long telescopic deep sky imaging system, and the second was my tripod based system working on my new category of images- Astro Scapes, and then the third was my modded Canon T5i on the iOptron Skyguider.
The beauty of the Skyguider is that it takes a simple polar scope alignment and then point the camera at your object and fire away. On this night, I decided to use the fast Rokinon 85mm f1.4 lens at f2. Exposures were 30 seconds and I set out to capture about an hour of data. No darks or flats were utilized. It was truly an experiment. And I am very happy with the result. This system is a great grab and go or supplement to my main imaging setup. I am looking forward to many more nights with a fast lens and the iOptron Skyguider Pro.
The image is near the core of the Milky Way featuring Messier objects M16, M17, and M24.
Jeff's Blog
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