RSS Feeds
The sky finally cleared a bit tonight after more than a week of clouds and rain, so I captured the First Quarter moon plus one day (three frames stacked in The Gimp) through my 6" reflector and D60 at prime focus. Click the Full-res link below for best view.
Full-res Image >>
Tags: moon astrophotography || 0 comments
Finally captured Kepler tonight! The image is Kepler passing by Saturn through my 6" reflector with a 20 second exposure at ISO 3200. Click the "Large" links for best views.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe this is the first and only capture of a Kepler satellite pass, at least by amateur astronomers/astrophotographers.
Medium || Large
And the same image only inverted. You can really see Saturn's moons in this one:
See this post on how you can find sighting opportunities in your area.
Tags: saturn kepler || 0 comments
Took some images of the ISS (with Discovery docked) pass tonight from Talking Rock, GA. The first ones are a bit off level because the camera was "piggybacked" on my 6" reflector on an equatorial mount. I did that so as not to get any star trails. I'm going to rotate and crop them in a bit, but I also like these as they show a wide angle. The last two are the best and capture the ISS at it's brightest. There are a couple mysterious objects in there as well. The light polution is from the town of East Ellijay, about 8 miles to the north.
Tags: iss sts-119 discovery || 0 comments
CalSky.com has added STS-119 (Space Shuttle Discovery) and the Kepler satellite to their database. To find sighting opportunities in your area, go to http://www.calsky.com, enter your location and store using your email address. Once you have your location setup you can view a list of passes by using the following links.
Kepler:http://www.calsky.com/csephem.cgi?&object=Satellite&number=34380
STS-119:http://www.calsky.com/csephem.cgi?&object=Satellite&number=99999
For me there are passes this evening of both satellites, but the clouds are thick. If you happen to use this info and are able to capture any passes, please let me know and I will be sure to post here.
[stephen]
Tags: iss nasa kepler sts-119 discovery calsky || 0 comments
Discovery is set to launch today at 7:43 p.m. on a mission to the ISS. Don't miss this one! We are seeing some of the last of the Space Shuttle missions now, so this is a must see! Here's some high(er) resolution video feeds for NASA TV provided by Yahoo. If you are going to watch online these are better than the link on NASA's site.
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Edit: Woops! That should be STS-119. Thanks for pointing that out, TaviGreiner.
Tags: nasa sts-119 discovery || 0 comments
One last capture of the full moon next to Saturn with a thin layer of cloud which produces the corona/halo effect.
Tags: moon saturn full-moon || 0 comments
Sunset with Venus time-laps animation.
Medium
Tags: venus sunset || 0 comments
Uploading sunset images captured from Talking Rock, GA today.
Tags: sunset || 0 comments
Took 4 gigs of the sun setting with Venus and the full moon rising with Saturn tonight. Uploading while processing...
Full Moon with lunar corona and Saturn: Medium || Large
Processing sunset with Venus...uploading shortly.
Tags: moon saturn full-moon sunset || 0 comments
Took this image of the moon and Saturn at 3:27 a.m. this morning. The moon was 99% (waxing gibbous) full and Saturn was at opposition on the 8th I believe. So, this was Saturn at opposition plus two and a Full Moon minus one.
Camera: Nikon D60Exposure: 1/2 sAperture: F4ISO Speed: 3200Focal Length: 55.0 mm35mm focal length: 82.0 mmLens: Nikkor 55-200mm F4-5.6 ED VR
Tags: moon saturn opposition || 0 comments
NASA's Kepler is set for launch tonight. I've put together some feeds for NASA TV. These are higher resolution than the one on NASA's site. Coverage starts at 8:30 p.m. EST with the lauch set for 10:49:57 p.m. EST
Tags: nasa kepler launch || 0 comments
Just captured comet Lulin next to Praesepe (Open cluster - M44 - NGC 2632) a few minutes ago with my Nikon D60 at 200mm. The image is a stack of 7 captures one at 45 seconds and the rest at 30 seconds plus one 30 second dark frame. The moon was still out so I had to keep the exposures short.
Tags: lulin comet praesepe m44 ngc2632 || 0 comments
