Latest tool in the quiver – Baye-Aire remote controller
A couple of nights imaging in the cold New Mexico nights over New Years Eve weekend had me wishing for a remote control set-up that would allow me to sit inside the Beast to operate the equipment and check on sequence status throughout the night. Describing that latest “need” for the BeersAP equipment to Paul had him making it happen!
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.
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!
Powderhorn July 4th dark & clear skies!
We finally had a forecast for clear skies at a dark skies location during the New Moon weekend! (You may recall that the last time we had that was in January – for one windy and cold night!) So we packed up the Beast – with both the Southern Cross and Big Bertha (and all their paraphenalia), all our camping equipment, gourmet meal fixings, and Zeus – and headed to the Gunnison, Colorado area. We camped for three nights over the 4th of July long weekend very near to the spot we camped last June on BLM land near Powderhorn. We had windy days, but gloriously dark and still nights allowing me to capture data on seven (YES – 7!!) targets.
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!