My 2024 Astrophotography Year in Review
2024 was a good AP year! It included eight nights in dark Colorado or New Mexico skies spread across four Beast trips, six nights of glorious Southern Hemisphere skies at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile’s Atacama Lodge, and a total solar eclipse viewed and imaged from San Saba, Texas. As I was tidying up my 2024 astrophotography journal, creating the Year in Review summary that I always put at the front of that (even more verbose than these blogs (444 pages!)) document, I thought it might make a good blog, so here it is!
New Years Eve dark skies
On 2025’s New Years Eve weekend (29-31Dec2024), we were able to get out for a final hoorah of dark skies with a couple of clear, albeit very windy, nights at the Mills Canyon rim in New Mexico’s Kiowa National Grassland. We got to the site, easily situated and leveled the Beast, and made quick work of setting up camp. I set up both Big Bertha and the Southern Cross to take maximum advantage of the waning nebula “season” and our two nights in dark skies.
Thanksgiving Plan-B and December’s month-long laptop struggles
We cancelled our planned Thanksgiving trip to Cincinnati because of Zeus – he had been bitten by a horsefly who, apparently, had deposited a worm into his paw. On Monday afternoon (25Nov2024), before our Tuesday departure, he started limping, by Monday night he could barely walk, and when I got up early on Tuesday morning to take him for a trail walk before leaving for DEN, we discovered the bloody paw – and he would not walk more than a few feet before sitting or laying down. Our amazing vet discovered and removed it – and he was back to his normal self by Wednesday, but by then it was too late to make the trip. After cancelling the Cincinnati trip, we briefly thought about driving to Albuquerque or going on our planned dark skies trip over the long weekend. But we ultimately decided that since it was still a holiday weekend it would be better to just stay home away from the maddening crowds on the roads. So, I decided to set up Big Bertha and capture some data from the front patio, so as not to completely forego the clear nights of and surrounding the New Moon. That move started a month-long struggle with my HP laptop that I use to control Big Bertha…this blog is that story and the images that I was able to capture in spite of it!
Merry Christmas 2024 & Happy New Year 2025
Merry Christmas 2024 & Happy New Year 2025!! We hope that you had a fabulous year and are prepping for an even more spectacular 2025! Our year went by way too fast – filled with flying, astrophotography, beekeeping, a prolific grape harvest, and fun friend times.
A placeholder – the bad and ugly Dolphin Head Nebula, good to follow (hopefully)
WARNING: The image you see below is a COMPLETE PLACEHOLDER! As the title implies – this is the bad and ugly version of the Dolphin Head Nebula. The primary objective of the front-patio imaging session was to confirm my framing for future imaging of the object in dark skies (specifically Southern Hemisphere dark skies) – which was a success (i.e., the nebulosity IS in the center of the frame). After I finished processing it, I’d originally planned to quietly add the hack job (er, I mean…completed image) and my notes to my journal and step away. But, then I decided – sometimes you have to admit, own, and share your failures!
November’s Beaver Supermoon processed as a Mineral Moon
“The final supermoon of 2024, the Beaver Moon of November was the last of four consecutive supermoons this year, a series that began with August’s Sturgeon supermoon. The Moon’s surface material, known as regolith, has subtle color differences dictated by the mineral composition in any particular area. This mineral distribution on the lunar surface was mapped in great detail by the US Clementine probe in 1994, but you can post-process images of the Moon showing these colors without having to launch a spacecraft to do so!
Update: Take #2 of the front patio framing experiment
I’d added CTB1 Garlic Nebula to my target list last year and planned to capture it this year starting in October. But when I planned the sequence in SGP’s Framing & Mosiac Wizard, I couldn’t see where the nebula was within the star field. So, I built a sequence as best I could, guessing at where the garlic head-shaped nebula was located. As I was doing the trip planning for our October dark skies trip, I decided I didn’t want to spend precious dark skies time capturing the area around/near or just a portion of the DSO. So, I deferred the target from my October dark skies trip’s plan until I could validate the framing during an imaging session from the front patio. This is the result of that framing test…Take #1 (that validated the need for this experiment!) and Take #2 (that dialed in the location!!)
October dark skies adventure: 2^3 targets!
After a crazy month of September spent crossing the globe on business travel – a week in DC, two weeks in Australia, and a week in Boston – and looking forward at the (equally crazy) calendar for the rest of the year, we decided to take advantage of the October New Moon weekend. I got home late Friday night from Boston and we took off as early as we could get packed up for the dark skies of the Comanche National Grasslands in Southeastern Colorado. We’ve been focused on Base 2 math – with my 2^6 birthday in October 2024 – thus the 2^3 theme of this blog. Two nights of imaging, with two telescopes each planned to image two targets is two raised to the third power, or eight images!
The Final Puzzle Piece in the Auto-Focuser Saga Falls into Place!
Since returning from my March 2024 Atacama Desert imaging trip, I’ve been struggling with hardware and software issues. The GPS card in my Rainbow Astro RST-135 mount seems to have been the final malfunctioning piece of hardware to be identified, diagnosed, and fixed in early June. Mid-June provided the first clear skies to give the full set-up a test run. …and it seems apropos that I would chose to image M8 Lagoon Nebula!
Exercising and experimenting with the focuser and auto-focuser
I spent from mid-August through early September working to overcome the issues I’ve encountered with the ZWO EAF autofocuser. Running (inside) in/out movement experiments to determine the various telescope’s movement in response to the EAF’s commands and (outside in clear skies) exercises with the SGP EAF algorithm. I don’t yet have a full data set across all my telescopes and filters – but I can say – I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel and I have prevailed over that pesky little red box!!