04/06/24

 A few weeks ago I captured this image one night.  Over several days I worked on processing it because it is an image you can't just look up into the sky and see.  This is the Flame Nebula which is near the left most star, Alnitak, in the Belt of Orion.  Below the Flame Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula can also be seen, sort of.  😉 This is a stack of 15 images and I learned while doing this that I need a lot more.  😁  The Flame I was able to bring out fairly well with processing but the Horsehead is fainter and did not work as well.  With more images to work with you capture more and more light and detail.  I will try this one again next winter when Orion is higher in the sky again.  It's getting dark way too late these days too which makes it difficult as well.

3/2/23

 It's a Palindrome Number day!  😃  I took this image a couple of weeks ago now.  I processed it a couple of different ways and had a hard time deciding which I liked better as they both had pros and cons.  Both were stacked from 9 images.  One I basically just processed like a normal photo and this one I did the techniques used by some astrophotographers.  I think this image had a bit more detail in it.  This is the Orion Nebula which is located in the Sword of Orion when you are looking at it.  It can be seen with the naked eye if you are in a fairly dark location.  I took this image using my Pentax K3 III camera with a manual 300mm lens and astrotracer which allows me to take the 10 second exposures that I did to not blur them from the movement of the stars during that time.

10/8/22

 A couple of weeks ago now I went out and took some images of the Milky Way core.  It's the center of the Milky Way galaxy and has a lot of detail and beauty in it which makes it the subject of photos.  This is my first attempt at getting a good image of it.  

There were some difficulties because my chosen spot to photograph it had much more light pollution than I was expecting and also the moon was out to the west and causing even more light pollution.  It was windy out as well so I was not able to get as many good images as I wanted.  This is a stack of 6 images.  You use stacked images to take out some of the noise created while using long exposures and high ISO levels in the camera.  I then watched several videos to learn some techniques to bring out the detail in what I captured and this is the result after I tried those techniques.  Not the best one ever, but I was happy with my first effort. The glow at the bottom is the light pollution I am talking about.

5/17/22

 On Sunday evening there was a lunar eclipse occurring.  I only photographed the first part of it due to I have photographed a full one before and I am getting older and needed to get to bed as it was a work night.  😄  I only had time to work with one photo but I was rather pleased with it.  When viewed large especially, you can see stars in the image as well.  Not a sight you can usually photograph in one exposure with a full moon.  I thought the color turned out well too.  I'll have to share my sequence one day after I have time to process the images I took.

4/9/22

 I am rather happy with today's image even though it didn't work out quite like I wanted.  I went out last week to try an Orion Nebula image.  I wanted to get several images to stack which allows you to reduce the grain.  It was a windy evening and I only got 2 shots out of the 8 I took to come out fairly well, the others had a bit of elongation in the stars due to slight wind movement even though I was using a really heavy duty overkill tripod.  This image is actually the very first one I took and I ended up not stacking it with the other, I just processed this one and was pleased with the results.  The nebula can be, sort of, seen by eye, it's why Orion's belt looks somewhat fuzzy.  I was really pleased and amazed by what I could capture with my camera.  I shot this at f13, 500mm, for 40 seconds at ISO 400.  As I have mentioned, my camera has had an update which allows it to track the movement of the stars by computation from the sensor to not get star trailing in long exposures required to get images like this.  I hope to try again for more images to stack to get more detail and less grain and a closer image but may have to wait for this one until next winter when Orion is back in the sky in a better position.

4/2/22

 This is another of the test shots I did with my new camera update.  This is a stacked image of the Pleiades constellation, also known as the 7 Sisters.  I took 4 images and stacked them together to get a clearer image without so much "noise" that results in low light images.  I shot this with my 300mm at 40 seconds each image at F11 and 800 ISO.  When viewed large you can see rays coming off the larger stars so I was pretty pleased with how this turned out.

3/26/22

 Today's image is a bit different for me.  My camera got a firmware update which allows me to capture the night sky in long exposures without using a GPS addition.  It does it with the sensor of the camera.  It's very involved but very cool.  If you do long exposures without GPS help or without additional help the stars can start to trail and not look round any longer.    Before it got all cloudy and rainy I have been experimenting.  One of the few things I like about winter is that I get to see the constellation of Orion.  This is an image I made of that that I thought turned out pretty well.  This was a 25 second exposure.  I am still working on lenses and other issues for more telephoto type images that I will be sharing when I am happy with them.  This image is definitely best viewed large by clicking on it.

1/16/16

Posting a bit late today as I was out at Konza Prairie for the beginning of today.  It's turned into a rather nice day so far, not as cold as I expected though I think we are in for that tomorrow.  Since I was out at Konza I decided to post an image that I took there a while back.  I shot this one evening after a meeting on a very clear but very windy night.  I was pleased that I got a clear shot because the exposure time was around 20 seconds.  The light on the grass came from the porch light on the main house where we were having the meeting and this is the view up the hill from there of the Milky Way.

11/9/15

Another lovely day here in Kansas.  I was out on Konza Prairie this past Tuesday for a meeting.  I had my camera along and decided to try some star shots after the meeting was over.  It was such a clear evening and the Milky Way was quite visible but it was pretty windy out and I was doing some fairly long exposures.  This one was 15 seconds and I tried to protect it while it was taking the photo.  I must have done OK as it did not look all blurry so I was quite happy.  I liked this image with the silhouette of the Flint Hills.  The light is from the city of Manhattan.

9/11/15

Well, it cooled down nicely.  This image, my B&W project this week was long exposure and as always you can view that image by clicking on my photo on the right side of the Blog in the About Me Section.  I took this image this past weekend at Rollag, MN.  This is Gunderson Pond on the grounds of the Steam Threshers Reunion.  I loved the color of the lights on the pond but I think the stars stand out better in the B&W version.  They both have their strong points.

11/16/13

What crazy weather today.  It's up to 60 degrees already at only 8am.  Windy as well of course.  Can't have it be warm and not windy.
Anyway, this is another of my night long exposure images at the railroad bridge.  I liked how this one turned out with the dark bridge and the sky full of stars.

10/3/13

I have been experimenting a bit with star shots since I have been seeing ones from a particular photographer on Google Plus.  He even has a site with tips and how tos. This is my third kind of major attempt at photographing stars and I was rather pleased with how this one turned out.  You can see the Milky Way fairly clearly.   I took this on this past Saturday night at a spot I figured would be pretty dark for this type of thing.  It's a 25 second exposure.