Aurora Borealis tint the clouds over Colorado Springs
“Americans as far south as Alabama and Northern California are being treated to a show of the northern lights this weekend from a powerful geomagnetic storm which reached Earth. “The aurora is when we get energized particles that have left the sun in more quantities than usual, and they interact with Earth’s magnetic barrier,” Shawn Dahl, senior space weather forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explained to CBS News. The geomagnetic storm reached Earth Friday evening as an “extreme” G5, according to the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. Geomagnetic storms are ranked from G1 to G5.” (From: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maps-northern-lights-forecast-us-aurora-borealis/)
Total Solar Eclipse collage
The Great American Eclipse, visible in totality from Texas to Maine, was an event not to be missed! We, like many others, put our bets on Texas weather being clearer in early April than anywhere else in the country. But…in a weird twist of fate, those in Ohio and Maine had clearer weather. From our vantage point in San Saba, Texas we had clear skies right up until a big cloud rolled through about 15 minutes prior to totality! But it wasn’t completely dense, so we were able to see and photograph all the major phases of totality, get some interesting “eclipse in the clouds” images, and have another fun-filled and amazing adventure!
Milky Way over SPACE Atacama Lodge
The processing of the deep space objects from the Chile trip and then the processing of the total solar eclipse images from the Texas trip got ahead of my processing the Milky Way images I took while in San Pedro de Atacama. While the Southern Cross was imaging the IC2944 Running Chicken, Danita and I both imaged the Milky Way, that was stretched low across the southern sky.
Total Solar Eclipse – San Saba, Texas – 8 April 2024
The Great American Eclipse, visible in totality from Texas to Maine, was an event not to be missed! We, like many others, put our bets on Texas weather being clearer in early April than anywhere else in the country. But…in a weird twist of fate, those in Ohio and Maine had clearer weather. From our vantage point in San Saba, Texas we had clear skies right up until a big cloud rolled through about 15 minutes prior to totality! But it wasn’t completely dense, so we were able to see and photograph all the major phases of totality, get some interesting “eclipse in the clouds” images, and have another fun-filled and amazing adventure!
The most AMAZING astrophotography trip to the Atacama Desert!
Over two years in the making – planning, re-planning, provisioning, testing, packing – the most amazing and perfect astrophotography trip came to fruition in the gloriously dark and clear skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert in early March 2024. I couldn’t have dared to dream that the skies would be so dark and so clear – but they were – six nights of imaging, capturing the beauty of the Southern Hemisphere skies. …and days filled with touring adventures!
SHO Hubble Palette Rosette Nebula
Yesterday, as I processed the Rosette Nebula image I wondered what an SHO version might look like…
Clear skies during the full moon – Front patio equipment check
True to Mother Nature’s latest form, we had a string of clear nights – during and immediately following the full moon! Thank goodness for the LeXtreme light pollution filter! I decided to take advantage of the clear nights to run a couple of experiments ahead of the (rapidly) upcoming trip to Chile. First, I wanted to assemble the Southern Cross to make sure that I had everything I need for the trip packed. Second, I wanted to run everything (laptop, camera, mount) from the DC battery for a full night of imaging to make sure I didn’t run into the same problem I ran into during the Mills Rim trip with the RST-300 mount.
Stacking experiment with IC443 Jellyfish Nebula
In keeping with the trend I started in 2023 of creating images by stacking multiple session’s data. I created the image below from five sessions’ data collected over an almost two-year period. I also decided to experiment with different APP stacking techniques. I stacked data from five sessions using two different methods.
FINALLY – A Night in the Beast in Dark Skies
Mother Nature was doing her best at detering us from a January 2024 dark skies trip. BUT, when she opened a one night window assuming, like we have in the past, we wouldn’t take advantage of it, she didn’t understand just how desperate I’d become…
After “sleeping” on it…here’s NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula SHO v2
If you saw last night’s SHO v1, you probably realized it needed work. After “sleeping” on it overnight and thinking about how I had deviated from Ann Chavtur’s instructions and suggestions, I decided to create a v2…