From Last Year: Eclipse!

One of the last things i shot for the paper last year was the only lunar eclipse that would happen on the Winter Solstice in my lifetime. Naturally the clouds would prove troublesome.

M-O-O-N

Just a random Moonshot.

(400mm + 1.4 teleconverter from the parking lot of our newspaper)

Georgia Guidestones

The North Celestial Pole swirls above the Georgia Guidestones on Wednesday, December 1, 2010 in Elberton, Ga. The granite monument often referred to as the "American Stonehenge" have ten guiding principles engraves on them in eight different languages.

With this horrifically cold weather, its made for some crystal clear nights. I decided to take advantage of this and truck out to the Georgia Guidestones to make a star trail shot. It works but i almost wish i had shot it tighter. We shall see as life goes on.

ISO 100, 17mm @ 2.8 for 15 minutes. (Converted from Raw) No idea what is reflecting in the lower right.

Leonid Meteor FAIL

Stars swirl around the North Celestial Pole. (D700, 14mm/3.5 15 minutes)


Seems like every time i try and do something space or astronomy related, it ends up in a giant cluster****.

There was the time i photographed a space shuttle at night with a remote and i got pretty pictures of smoke. That one was my fault.

This time, the meteors just weren't there. The Leonids, named for the constellation Leo, just didn't show in any photos. Granted it was supposed to be an off year as they were supposed to only be about 20/hr here on the east coast.

After staying up all night, the fog rolled in around 3 AM and thats all she wrote.

I ran two cameras: One pointed at polaris to get the swirl, with the intention of getting a meteor streaking across the sky (D700, 15 min, f/4, ISO 100, 16mm fisheye) and the other going 30 sec aimed at the eastern sky (D2x, 30 sec 14mm/3.5 ISO 1600) and i only have one partial MAYBE. I did find 3 airplanes.




I'm not sure what that line is. It might be a meteor but really faint. It didn't seem like an airplane as it doesn't continue all the way through the frame and it doesnt have the pulsing strobe light like you usually see from an airplane.

Star Trails, pt 2.....

Stars swirl above a lighthouse outside Poplar Springs Baptist Church near Watksinville, Ga., on Monday September 7, 2009. (Ed. Note: The pink colors are sky-glow originating from Watkinsville and Athens while the greenish light is coming from a streetlight behind the lighthouse)

(15 minutes, 20mm, ISO 100, f/4, Nikon D700)

I enjoy a good star trail shot every now and again. This is a church outside of Watkinsville that i found while feature hunting. Sadly it has a green streetlight that doesn't seem to have a switch or anything that would easily render it dark.

It works but i need to find a much darker place to try and something to frame it over.

*** Edit *** This was picked up as one of the Associated Press' "Photos of the Day" or something of that nature. It was also posted on MSNBC's Photo Blog. And The Orlando Sentinel's Photos of the Day.

Astrophotography, take two

Okay, while this looks really cool, it could have been better.

The details: ISO 200, 17mm f/2.8, 30 minutes, D2x, Long NR On. Original is in raw. And a fresh battery.

Here's what i don't like. First, Sowers gets the nod. An exposure that long needed f/4 or f/5.6. Second, the sharpness just kills me. While it said it was on infinity and it looked like it was on infinity, turns out infinity really isn't infinity at 2.8 on that lens. Shoulda been sharper. Third - Reprocity failure seems to happen on Digital too.

So thats 1/2 an hour of taking the picture then 1/2 an hour of in-camera post processing while it was sitting in the back seat while i drove home. I was not going to wait around another 1/2 hour just for it to process and see if it turned out. Luckily it did (hense the raw usage).

Anyways, thats one more project down and in the books. Turns out my boss has gotten more calls and emails wanting to buy a reprint of it then anything he's gotten in the past few years. (Shame i cant get a commission on sales) My ME said it shoulda printed 1 column wider, and i agree there. But here's how it should have looked. Well, 576 pixels wide of how it shoulda looked.

Comets!

Astrophotographer Michael Covington looks up at Comet Holmes outside of his Athens home on Thursday, November 1, 2007.

And i have one of his books too. Covington has three books on astrophotography, including his latest on digital astrophotography. This was the last picture i took, 30 seconds with a red flash popped. You can find his books here at Amazon.

Then i took a picture of Comet Holmes through his telescope, so here it is in all its glory.

Astrophotograpy, Take one.

This is a work in progress. Hopefully i will go back and do it right in the next few days.

This is the Watson Mill Covered ridge here in Georgia. Built in the 1800s, its creepy as all get out to drive over, yet the North Celestial Pole is conviently right over the bridge. One cannot ask for a better photo.

This was at ISO 200, f/2.8 for 8 minutes. (No noise NR) The 15 minute one looked much better (stars wise) but just wasn't good enough. I'll keep working on this, I'm expecting to do a 1/2 hour exposure with some NR.