En el tiempo que hice esta fotografía de 33" de exposición, llovió y salió el sol. Las primeras gotas caídas en casi dos meses. El tiempo parece que se normaliza un poco y empieza a ser tan variable como caracteriza a ser en otoño.

Y tuve la suerte de captar dos Arco Iris en el cielo, más uno reflejado en las limpias aguas del río Tuela.

Puente de Hermisende (Zamora) Joya de la construcción civil del siglo XVIII.

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At the time I did this photography of 33 "exposure, it rained and the sun came out.The first droplets dropped in almost two months.The weather seems to normalize a bit and starts to be as variable as it characterizes to be in autumn.

And I was lucky enough to catch two Rainbows in the sky, plus one reflected in the clean waters of the Tuela River.

Hermisende Bridge (Zamora) Jewel of the civil construction of the XVIII century.

… when I was waiting for green light to cross the road, suddenly the streets and buildings were flooded with colors, the sky split, light beam came from nowhere … luckily the green light finally turned on and everything normalized… so don’t wait too long for green light… :))

Golden Canyon, Death Valley NP.

Ein weiteres, älteres Bild aus einer früheren USA-Reise. Ohne allzu politisch werden zu wollen, schließe ich mich der Meinung vieler meiner Foto-Freunde an, ich denke, ich werde vorerst auch erstmal nicht nach USA reisen. Ich habe dort einst viele tolle Leute kennengelernt, ich schätze meine amerikanischen Flickr-Kontakte wirklich sehr, aber als Nicht-AFD-Wähler (manch einer würde also pauschal "Kommunist" sagen😂 (nichts liegt mir ferner als das😁😂) ), warte ich erstmal ab, bis sich dort drüben die Lage wieder ein wenig normalisiert. Dann steht die USA wieder ganz oben auf meiner Liste, wo ich gerne mal wieder hin möchte.

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Golden Canyon, Death Valley NP.

Another, older picture from a previous trip to the USA. Without wanting to get too political, I agree with the opinion of many of my photography friends, I think I will not travel to the USA for the time being. I met a lot of great people there once, I really value my American Flickr contacts, but as a non-AFD (ultra-nationalism political party) voter (some would say to me "communist" across the board😂 (nothing is further from my mind than that😁😂) ) ), I'll wait until the situation over there normalizes a bit. Then the USA will be at the top of my list of places I'd like to go to again.

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Please darken your room and

turn the brightness of your display all the way up,

lay back, press L button and

enjoy this picture in full screen size ;-)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . looks muuuch better. PROMISE !

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Thanks for your visit, 1000 thanks for commenting

Thanks for watching the picture before FAVing 😉

La Campana Tibetana è un antico strumento musicale originario del Tibet ma diffuso anche in altre regioni asiatiche tra cui India e Nepal.

L'origine risale a circa 3 mila anni fa.

Dalla seconda metà del XX secolo questo oggetto venne accolto anche nella cultura occidentale.

La maggior parte delle campane tibetane presenti in commercio sono formate da leghe di bronzo, tuttavia quella più preziosa è composta da sette leghe metalliche: oro, argento, mercurio, rame,ferro, stagno,piombo. Ogni metallo corrisponde ad un preciso pianeta del sistema solare: Sole, Luna, Mercurio, Venere, Marte, Giove, Saturno.

Il suono emesso dalla campana tibetana risulta sintonizzato con le vibrazioni planetarie ed è per questo che sono ottimi strumenti per rilassarsi, meditare, fare yoga. Favoriscono l’equilibrio emozionale, conferiscono energia, migliorano la concentrazione, normalizzano la pressione sanguigna e stimolano anche il sistema immunitario.

Esistono due metodi per suonarle: colpendole come un gong o strofinandole sul bordo con l’apposito bastoncino.

Ma al di là delle regole base, ognuno di noi acquisirà man mano un proprio modo di suonarle che dipenderà anche dalle caratteristiche della campana tibetana stessa.

The Tibetan Bell is an ancient musical instrument originating in Tibet but also widespread in other Asian regions including India and Nepal.

The origin dates back to around 3 thousand years ago.

From the second half of the twentieth century this object was also accepted in western culture.

Most of the Tibetan bells on the market are made of bronze alloys, however the most precious one is made up of seven metal alloys: gold, silver, mercury, copper, iron, tin, lead. Each metal corresponds to a specific planet in the solar system: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.

The sound emitted by the Tibetan bell is attuned to the planetary vibrations and this is why they are excellent tools for relaxing, meditating, doing yoga. They promote emotional balance, give energy, improve concentration, normalize blood pressure and also stimulate the immune system.

There are two methods of playing them: hitting them like a gong or rubbing them on the edge with the special stick.

But beyond the basic rules, each of us will gradually acquire their own way of playing them which will also depend on the characteristics of the Tibetan bell itself.

A Mirror Image (in a plane mirror) is a reflected duplication of an object that appears almost identical, but is reversed in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface. As an optical effect it results from reflection off from substances such as a mirror or water. It is also a concept in geometry and can be used as a conceptualization process for 3-D structures.

Two-dimensional mirror images can be seen in the reflections of mirrors or other reflecting surfaces, or on a printed surface seen inside-out. If we first look at an object that is effectively two-dimensional (such as the writing on a card) and then turn the card to face a mirror, the object turns through an angle of 180° and we see a left-right reversal in the mirror. In this example, it is the change in orientation rather than the mirror itself that causes the observed reversal.

Another example is when we stand with our backs to the mirror and face an object that's in front of the mirror. Then we compare the object with its reflection by turning ourselves 180°, towards the mirror. Again we perceive a left-right reversal due to a change in our orientation. So, in these examples the mirror does not actually cause the observed reversals.

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Had another quick 30 mins (30 x 60s ) on the crazy Tarantula Nebula last night, no filters this run so got some different colours , been playing around in Pixinsight with removing stars early on in the processing and adding them back in later. Also had a bit of a play with Bill Blanshan's SHO normalization process icons, very cool to play with OSC data. Skywatcher Quattro 250 P and QHY 183cPro.

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

The nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, in the Orion constellation.

The Horsehead Nebula is approximately at 1400 light-years from Earth.

This is a two panel mozaic

Pre process : flic.kr/p/2mZk6WG

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -25°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optrolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : Panel 1-41x300s / Panel 2-36x300s

Total integration time 6,5h

Dark-100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : 25,24 January 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing each panels in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

DBE master Light

Split L,R,G,B layer from Master light

__L__

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Denoise

Ez_Soft Streatch

UnsharpedMask

LocalHistogramEqualization

__RGB__

Linear Fit

BackgroundNeutralization

PhotometricColorCalibration

Ez_Soft Streatch

Starnet++

CuvesTransformation with mask

SCNR star mask

Bring back stars with PixelMath

__LRGB__

LRGBCombination

Final CurvesTransformation

DarkStructureEnhance Script

Save as jpg

Clear Skies !

via Instagram ift.tt/2blBQ1b

NGC 6995 also know as the Eastern Veil is a part of the Cygnus Loop, a large supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus.

She is located around 2500 light-years.

Personally i see the face of the Joker 😄

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -5°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 128x300s

Total integration time 10,6h

Dark: 100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : 20,21,23,24,25 August 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

DBE MasterLRGB

___RGB layer___HOO

Split RGB channels to build Ha and Oiii

Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7

EZ_Soft Stretch

HOO combination with Foraxx formula

R=Ha

G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

B=Oiii

___L layer___

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Soft Stretch

Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with nebula mask

___LRGB___

Ez_Denoise

Curve Transformation

Annotation

Save as PNG

Clear skies !

I cant see anything wrong with any of these pictures, yet 2 of them are criminalized in around 70 countries of the world. In at least 10 of them those could be deadly. The earth has 195 countries and only 30 of them allow same-sex marriages.

Thats the reason why we make a big deal out of pride. Thats why its cool that companies suddenly use rainbow colors everywhere and celebrities run around with rainbow flags, even if its not for the -right- reasons. Normalize any and every (consensual) love. Promote empathy. Stop complaining. We dont need "sTrAiGhT mOnTh" bc being straight doesnt get you beat up, jailed or even killed. Cant heal what was never broken.

Love who you are. Theres nothing wrong with you but theres everything wrong with the world.

#pride #weStay

Never felt so alive:

youtu.be/IQhhS1TGl_c

Freetown Christiania, also known as Christiania, is an intentional community and commune of about 850 to 1,000 residents, covering 7.7 hectares (19 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital city of Copenhagen.

Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, relations between Christiania and Danish authorities have been strained. Since the beginning of the 2010s, the situation has been somewhat normalized and Danish law is now enforced in Christiania.

(Wikipedia)

My first successful astro mosaic! It's a total of 380 minutes of imagery, 11 different panels, so panel integrations average 34 minutes. The Orion, Running Man, Horsehead, and Flame Nebulae area has the most imagery behind it, as well as the Witch Head Nebula.

Imagery was acquired in 2019 and 2020 on 9 different nights from the same location under rural skies (Bortle 3/4). All subs were taken with my Fuji X-T10 and Samyang 135 mm on the iOptron SkyTracker Pro. Each sub is 60 seconds, taken at ISO 1600 with the Samyang 135mm open to f2.

I integrated individual panels using DeepSkyStacker, and used the 'remove light pollution' tool of Astro Pixel Processor to flatten integrations, which had substantial vignetting from being shot at f2. These flattened panels were then mosaiced with Astro Pixel Processor using the process outlined here: www.astropixelprocessor.com/part-3-register-normalize-int.... Curves adjustment, star reduction, and color tweaking were then done with GIMP. This image is downscaled 50%.

It's not a perfect process and the data has issues, but I'm happy with the result. It was fun to explore the less-imaged nebulosity between the Orion and the Witch Head Nebulae, and around Saiph.

I'm sure I'll keep tinkering with this, and I still plan to shoot the entirety of Orion this winter, but this is a nice mosaic in and of itself, so I wanted to post it.

Aug. 2021 update: I've been looking through my astro photos, ramping up for some imaging this fall and winter (hopefully I'll complete this Orion mosaic). I decided this image could use a little lightening.

There are many different types of figs, from dark purple to green and slightly purple.We have four fig trees, one of which is over 8 metres tall and unfortunately only bears false fruit. The smaller ones bear fruit at different times, so that we can harvest new fruit every month...Figs are very healthy

..Vitamin A (retinol) is good for the skin and mucous membranes as well as the eyesight of our eyes.

Vitamins B1, B2 and B6 regulate the metabolism and are important for the nerves.

The absorption of folic acid is a prerequisite for cell division and blood formation.

Biotin (vitamin B7) supports healthy skin, healthy hair and strong fingernails.

A high magnesium content promotes cell regeneration and energy balance.

It also contains potassium, phosphorus and iron. Potassium can help to normalize blood pressure. Iron is needed for blood formation.

Feedb

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

From Masako~ (fake_plastic_earth)

professor at CCNY for a physiological psych class told his class about bananas. He said the expression 'going bananas' is from the effects of bananas on the brain. Read on:

This is interesting.

After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.

But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school ( England ) were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand , for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking &Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking.. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal..

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels.. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack..

Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, 'A banana a day keeps the doctor away!'

Everwinter To dispense with moral judgment in international relations — as in any area of life — is to normalize and enable monsters.

NGC 6914 is a reflection nebula located approximately 6000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus.

+/- 3800 Stars in this picture

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -5°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 42x300s

Total integration time 3,5h

Dark: 100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : 28 April 2022

22 May 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

DBE MasterLRGB

___RGB layer___HOO

Split RGB channels to build Ha and Oiii

Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7

EZ_Soft Stretch

HOO combination with Foraxx formula

R=Ha

G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

B=Oiii

SCNR

Starnet++ build a mask nebula

Color Saturation

Curves Tansformation

___L layer___

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Soft Stretch

Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with nebula mask

___LRGB___

Ez_Denoise

Final Curve Transformation

Annotation

Save as JPG

Clear skies !

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

It's somehow incredible to me that, the same day I would see and take part in a protest against gun violence, I would see not too far from there, a child with a toy gun.

Yes, that red gun is a toy gun and I'm showing my fear of guns and probably (too liberal for some) side when I say that sometimes you have to look deeper into the ingrained symbolism that has impacted our culture and made guns very normalized.

I actually grew up in a household where I wasn't allowed to have a toy gun-even a water gun. I thought my parents were silly and mean at the time because, when summer came around and all my friends had these huge water guns, all I had were hoses and sprinklers but I get it now, the same way I get that having a building called "Sugar Plantation Condominiums" is racist. It might not be intentionally so but it's part of the fabric of America that normalizes racism just like marketing in the hot summers normalizes guns.

And maybe it's radical to think we should go out there and call out all these symbols as evidence of a larger problem but isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

We'd al love to carry on and just have another cup of gumbo (that will be vegan gumbo for me and yes that does exist) but there are some deep cracks in America and maybe we ought to ask some more why questions.

Here's a glimpse of the French Quarter on a Saturday night on Calle (too) Real.

**All photos are copyrighted. Please don't use without permission**

Cabaret du chat noir, Paris

The image shows the region around the stars RZ CAS and SU CAS in the constellation Cassiopeia. I intended to highlight the dark nebulae and filaments in that area and reveal as much as possible of the reflexion nebulae VdB 7 and VdB 9. There are also some dark nebulae in the frame (i.e. LDN 1355, 1357, 1358, see anntotated version D). Together they form a dark nebula composition that is sometimes calle "The Helping Hand" which is of course upside down in my image. The other bright star in the field SU CAS is a Cepheid star.

Shooting into this region was proposed by a friend whose focus was more on the variable star RZ CAS. RZ CAS is an eclipsing star with a period of 1.2 days. Image revision C is a fast-foreward gif-animation of the brightness variation I could capture in my Lum light frames.

I loaded the normalized frames into MuniWin and let it calculate the brightness variation curve of RZ CAS for that eclipse (see revision D). So this project was also my first attempt of a photometric astro work. The calculated curve has two gaps. The first one was caused by the meridian flip procedure that fell into the time of the eclipse. The second gap was caused by clouds. In the literature I found a maximum variation of 1.5 mag while mine is much less. This may be caused by the fact that in RZ CAS is quite saturated in my 60 s exposures which might have compromised the measurements.

Images generated over AI-analyses of an article on expanding smart doorbell technology. De Groene Amsterdammer

For more AI Art visit www.screenpunk.nl

12 yearlong pinholes, “shutter speed” one year: August 9 2020 - August 9, 2021, lumen print negative on Soviet-manufactured single weight warmtone photo paper, expired October 1990, appx. 2"x3. Nike Missile Site SF-88, Fort Barry, California. Map: D253 F2 Nike Battery SF 88L, As Built, Topo of Launcher Area, 1958, annotated. From the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Park Archives and Records Center. Assembled October 2023. 24" x 36"

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On August 9, 1945 the United States bombed Nagasaki, Japan, the second of two nuclear bombs which together eventually killed over 200,000 civilians. This action, which may have been unnecessary to accomplish its goal since Japan was already preparing to surrender, nevertheless is credited with ending World War II.

The Nike missile system was developed to defend the United States against approaching aircraft, and was designed to operate with a nuclear tip in order to increase probability of a kill. The Nike missile site at the Marin Headlands was one of 12 in the region equipped with these nuclear warheads, and since the maximum range was 100 miles, if they were deployed the resulting nuclear explosion would have destroyed in part and irradiated in total the San Francisco Bay area.

Children born since 1945 have had to grow up with the specter of imminent destruction their entire lives. This has irreparably changed how we deal with the concept of mortality, both individually and on a planetary scale. For nearly 80 years we have lived this way, and this incredible looming trauma has become so embedded in the human psyche to have become nearly normalized. This photographic assemblage is a document of one of those years.

This mural is located in Mount Horeb and was created by high school students with the aim of normalizing conversations about mental health. I especially love that it has a nature focus considering how much our natural world can help our mental health.

There were pride flags all over in this small town, which we were happy to see (Norway is one of the most inclusive countries and Mount Horeb was settled by Norwegians).

Autumnal equinox (22-23 September) – Winter solstice (21–22 December)

The word autumn comes from the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French), and was later normalized to the original Latin word autumnus. There are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but it became common by the 16th century.

Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season. However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns (especially those who could read and write, the only people whose use of language we now know), the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and fall, as well as autumn, began to replace it as a reference to the season.

The alternative word fall is now mostly a North American English word for the season. It traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in the 16th century, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".

During the 20th century, English immigration to the colonies in North America was at its lowest point, and the new settlers took their language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolescent in Britain, it became the more common term in North America, where autumn is nonetheless preferred in scientific and often in literary contexts.

with fd's Flickr Toys

Poznan, Poland

Winter

Gas Mask Project for Living Portraits

Trying to normalize the smog situation, Piotr finds daily life impossible to adjust to and having to wear the insufferable gas mask everywhere makes life less than tolerable. All of the things he once enjoyed are now a burden and a constant reminder of what was.

If you are interested in cooperation please contact me at ewitsoe@gmail.com

Join me on my personal websiteErik Witsoe or on Facebook

Erik Witsoe Photography

and Behance and Twitter Instagram and also Google +

Coyote (Canis latrans) at the north end of Robert Lake, Kelowna, BC. 397/3,814/145/31

I meant to post this one a month ago, but I guess it's better late than never....

Thanks so much to all who took the time to comment on or to fave this image. Your interest in my photo(s) means a lot!

When examining advertising campaigns throughout history different political, economic, and social issues are very obvious. Advertising always seems to mirror not only what is occurring across mass society, but also the themes unique to a diverse group of sub cultures in society during a particular time period. After closely exploring fashion ads throughout history it was clear how the ideas about body image have changed over time. Gradually it has become acceptable to show more and more skin and advertising in general has become much more sexualized. In the book Adorned in Dreams, Elizabeth Wilson explained how people have used fashion as a way to represent themselves and their reactions to society across the decades. She says, “In all societies the body is ‘dressed’, and everywhere dress and adornment play symbolic, communicative and aesthetic roles. Dress is always ‘unspeakably meaningful’.” Wilson goes on to describe how in the twentieth century the integrity of dress has progressed to disassociate itself from the rigid behavioral codes that once sustained it. Fashion has been freed to become both an aesthetic vehicle for experiments in taste and political means of expression for dissidence, rebellion and social reform. In this book Elizabeth has set up an important foundation for further analysis into current fashion advertising. Many of the issues presented in contemporary advertising convey very similar messages about body images; however more distinctions can be made based on the market a particular ad is targeting.

As illustrated through the movie “Happiness Machines”, an important tool in advertising is the ability to create desire. The “desire”/ Consumer society was born after World War I as a response to the fears of the new industrial society that was a product in America from the war. Based on what Bernays had previously learned from his Uncle, Sigmund Freud, about the human mind and subconscious thinking, he realized this would require him to transform the way society thought about products and turn America from a needs based society into a desire culture. He had to create the new types of customers. Bernays began to create many of the techniques of mass consumer persuasion we still use today. He began to glamorize products by placing advertisements linking products with celebrities who used them. He used product placements in movies and dressed the stars for film premiers with the clothes and jewelry from other firms her represented. He told car companies they could sell cars as symbols of male sexuality. He also employed psychologists to claim a product was good for you and pretended they were independent studies. Finally he paid celebrities to repeat the new and essential message; you bought things not just out of need but to express your inner sense of yourself to others. “Wearing certain clothes will make you more attractive”. This caused a change in society called consumerism.

Today desire is still constructed through political, cultural, and economic conditions, but it is also invested with the power to authorize and normalize those conditions (Helstein, That’s Who I Want to be: The Politics and Production of Desire within Nike Advertising to Women). Susan Bordo described how ads play off of the female fear of food and desire to gain control. In Hunger as Ideology Susan Bordo explains the negative effects advertising has on womens’ body image. Throughout history advertising has played off of womens’ fear of food and desire to gain control and while doing so has embedded the idea that men are superior to women and food should be feared by women, as it is a sign of weakness. Marketers try to sell products by showing it as a tool to gain control over some aspect of their lives. Not only do advertisements play off of females’ struggle for control, they also must be considered as gender ideology- that is, as specifically servicing the cultural reproduction of gender differences and gender inequality, quite independent of marketing concerns. Although it is arguable, these desires seems to be an underlying theme in most advertisements. Different markets have unique desires that take precedence in their lives, thus the major distinctions between modern fashion ads lies in the specific market a brand is targeting.

One of the most dominant types of fashion advertising is that of high-end brands. The pages of fashion magazines are filled with ads for brands such as Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Christian Dior, and Prada just to name a few. Although all the brands have unique ads with their distinct trademark on them, there is an eerie similarity between them all. Slender, blonde, Caucasian females seem to dominate the script for high-end fashion advertising. Although in the 21st century advertising seems to becoming more culturally diverse, even the “ethnic” models have very westernized features. The typical ad depicts this female adorned in the latest fashions by the designer and is preposterously posed in a glamorous setting. Often times sex appeal is created either from the way the model is posed or the ‘lack’ of clothing covering her body. Occasionally males are used in these ads as an accessory to the women. Although society in general has become immune to these imagines since they have become so common, the messages they enforce about body images are not acceptable.

According to The Beauty Myth, as found in the Naomi Wolf readings, a thin, white, blonde woman is considered the 'perfect woman' and the most beautiful woman to feature. The typical high-end fashion ad plays to that stereotype. In The Beauty Myth, Wolf argues that it is men that create this idea of what or whom is "beautiful". It is the men in society that deem white, thin, blonde woman as beautiful, not women. Men create these "beauties" so that culture can remain male and male dominated, as argued by Wolf. The idea of male dominance is very clear in the advertising industry. The readings from Fresh Lipstick by Scott support this idea of the male dominated gaze. Scott mentioned that a male point-of-view shot is just another way for men to continue to dominate society.

This first set of ads comes from the Fall/Winter 2007 fashion ad campaigns of some of the top high-end designers in the industry. Many of the models are either well known super models of famous celebrities. Ads like these are extremely common today in the fashion industry. They are neither innovative nor distinct and they only help to reinforce the body image crisis currently plaguing the general public.

The role the fashion industry plays on society is haunting. The westernized ideals and images of beauty are rapidly scattering through humanity. As discussed in Making the Body Beautiful by Gilman, aesthetic surgery is a growing industry. More and more people want to have western features and the age of the patients undergoing these surgeries keeps getting younger. Gilman said, “Patients seeking rhinoplasty…frequently show signs of guilt-tinged, second-generation rejection of their ethnic background masked by excuses, such as not photographing well.” When people are constantly bombarded with images of Caucasian females modeling the latest fashions and depicted as the “ideal beauty” it creates a desire to have those same features. “Happiness in our modern world is in part defined by the desire to vanish into the world beyond ourselves where there is no difference. We want to become happy like everyone else and thus be absolutely unique in our happiness. This contradiction is at the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter in aesthetic surgery is the common human desire to ‘pass’ (Gilman, 330).” By filling the fashion magazines with models that all share similar features it creates the idea that through plastic surgery one can achieve those same features and in doing so fit into society.

Another popular type of high-end fashion advertising is shock value. Certain brands choose to fulfill their consumer’s need for desire by use of shock value. These ads typically depict a fantasy world in which they illustrate deep desires that might not be considered proper to openly discuss. An example of this type of advertising is the Fall/Winter 2007 ad campaign by Dolce and Gabbana. According to Domenico Dolce the image is artistic and was meant to “recall an erotic dream, a sexual game.” Protesters complained that the ad depicted rape and was demeaning to women. Spain’s Labor and Social Affairs Ministry said in a statement, “One could infer from the advertisement that it is acceptable to use force as a way of imposing oneself on a woman, reinforced by the passive and complicit manner of the men looking on.”

This ad continues to be filled with Caucasian individuals all scantily clad and exposing extremely cut bodies. Naomi Wolf, in The Beauty Myth, explains how images such as this can have negative consequences on men as well as women. “So powerful is pornography, and so smoothly does it blend in with the advertising of products…that many women find their own fantasies and self-images distorted too…So rare is it to see sexual explicitness in the context of love and intimacy on screen that it seems our culture treats tender sexuality as if it were deviant or deprived, while embracing violent or degrading sex as right and healthy (Wolf, 140).” Men also face the stereotypic ideal of how they are supposed to look and act; men must be in shape, toned, tall, with good hair, teeth and eyes. Today, men make up one-third of all cosmetic surgeries. Images are damaging and may lead to inferiority and inadequacy, and can lead to cosmetic surgery. Men are finally understanding and feeling the affects that advertising and unrealistic expectations of beauty. However, women have been dealing with these issues throughout history.

Along with enforcing very negative messages about body images through the use of male positioning and facial expressions the ad creates a very negative message about male superiority. The men is this ad are holding the female down and forcing themselves upon her. She looks on with a very blank expression, implying that she is dazed and not enjoying herself. The men in the background are just looking on and not doing anything to help her or interfere with the act. In Fresh Lipstick Scott mentions the arguments Beauvior makes that women have an inbreed fear of being raped and becoming the sexual prey of men. Women learn to see themselves as an object viewed from the outside, thus she begins to dress in a way to attract a lover. This involves imagining how one might appear to the desired male (226). This ad perpetuates this fear and seems to allocate rape.

Although the ad campaigns for high-end fashion brands may seem innocent at first glance, upon further investigation it is obvious that they are enforcing negative messages about body image. If these brands clutter society with so many negative messages surrounding body images, how can they continue to remain so popular? It seems as though the designers of these ads knows that their main audience viewing their actual campaigns are not their actual clients purchasing the products. The majority of the people who wear these clothes have personal shoppers or stylists who buy their clothes for them. Rather, the images in these ads are designed to create a desire among a lower class of society to achieve this rich and luxurious lifestyle; however, the consequences resulting from the message of how to achieve this particular lifestyle is devastating.

In Self-Help, Inc. McGee describes how there is a growing interest in the self-help society. The movement can be traced all the way back to the Bible as the first example of a self-help book. Today there is a book to teach people how to help themselves succeed in just about every aspect of life. Advertising seems to foster self-anxieties and endless imperfections. It is important to acknowledge the growth of this trend in society since it seems to parallel a slow shift toward more conscious advertising. In the early 1990s sales of self help books went up 6% following the trends in society of unemployment and a bad economy. In the past ten years there has been a noticeable amount of ads produced in effort to portray positive messages about the body.

The ad campaign by the French brand Nolita is an attempt to create a more positive message about the body image. The author of the campaign is famous Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani. The campaign is designed toward young women who keep up with fashion and is called to draw public attention to such awful disease as anorexia. The ad billboards feature a 27 years old French woman named Isabella Caro who weighs a mere 68 pounds. She says that she has decided to show her body for people to know and to see how the disease impacts the body. It is common knowledge that there is a major problem with eating disorders in the fashion industry. As previously mentioned the typical model has an abnormally tall slender frame. Maintaining this body image is generally unnatural, but models will go to any length to ensure that they stay at a dangerously low body weight.

Women are continually bombarded with advertisements and commercials for weight-loss products and programs. This type of advertising has been around for a long time and continues to enforce negative views of food for women. The media starts targeting girls from a young age and over time the idea is cemented in girl’s heads that food is bad. Many of the advertisements show the power that food has over women. They illustrate how the female psyche is in a constant state of starvation through their efforts to sell products that can create a “cool” or casual relationship with food for women. The issues surrounding food are a lot deeper and more serious than advertisements are willing to admit. Most often women feel upset and depressed and unhappy when they discuss compulsive eating or over indulgence. Since the Victorian era it has been considered taboo to show women eating, particularly in sensuous surrender to rich, exciting food (Hunger as Ideology, Susan Bordo).

Naomi Wolf made a lot of important points about the gravity of eating disorders. She illustrated how it is a vicious cycle that can often lead to death. When people diet the body often feels as if it is starving and chemicals in the head get messed up. It is really hard to control and basically anyone who diets is at equal risk for becoming anorexic or bulimic. Female fat is a sign of sexuality and reproductive ability. There have never been any studies on females that indicate being over weight can lead to other health concerns or put them at higher risk for death. Every study that has been done on obesity has involved male subjects; yet, females are the ones put under constant pressure from society and the media to be thin. It is acceptable for men to be fat, and men should have hardy appetites. It is age old and universal that if there is ever a shortage of food the women are the first to do without. In reality women really need just about as many calories as men and women suffer more serious problems if they are malnourished. Eating disorders effect a significant population in society. It is really scary because it is such a psychological problem that is seems there is no real way to prevent any one person from getting it unless the entire mind set of basically the world is transformed (The Beauty Myth, 179-116).

This ad from Nolita is defiantly a step in the right direction; however it does not do enough. Rather than say how to help someone with an eating disorder it almost seems to criticize the individual with the problem. People with eating disorders already have very flawed and negative self-images. Although this image is not seen as sexualized at all, it is merely because of the condition the model is in. She is still naked and being shot from a male gaze. It seems like a more effective approach would be to illustrate ways to prevent the problem or find a path to recovery; however, it is nice to see the problem is finally being recognized in the fashion industry.

Although the fashion industry is filled with images that perpetuate negative body images in society there seems to be some hope for improvement in the new century. It is very difficult to find ads that do a really good job of portraying positive body images, but they do exist. Some brands do a really good job of producing campaigns that portray a positive body image. United Colors of Benetton has a really unique campaign. It is interesting to note that the photographer for this campaign is also Oliviero Toscani, who shot the pictures of Isabella Caro for the Nolita campaign. Benetton Group's advertising campaigns are not only a means of communication but an expression of our time. Through their universal impact, they have succeeded in attracting the attention of the public and in standing out amid the current clutter of images.

The latest campaign by the United Colors of Benetton depicts the faces of four different species of apes. The print reads, “If we don’t do anything to save them, in ten to 15 years the great apes could disappear from the majority of the areas where they now live.” There were about two million chimps in Africa one hundred years ago, now there are little more than 150,000. They are dying out as a result of the expanding human population, deforestation, the destruction of their habitat, hunting and traps. The situation of mountain gorillas and orang-utans is even worse. The number of wild apes is falling while the number of orphans in sanctuaries is rising. This campaign does a great job of bringing awareness to important social issues. Some of the other ads depict the problems with starvation, AIDS and heart disease to name a few. Several of the communication projects created by Fabrica, Benetton’s research center have also been developed in cooperation with prestigious associations (including FAO, UNV, WFP) obtaining important acknowledgements at an international level.

Although these ads do not show the clothes, it creates the desire to help fight these problems. Through the campaign people realize that United Colors of Benetton does a lot of work with different organizations and that through buying this brand they are helping to support a very good cause. In that sense it is effective in creating a desire and does not perpetuate the negative body images that the fashion industry has been continually associated with.

Another genre of fashion advertising that seems to do a good job of portraying positive body images is in campaigns for athletic apparel. Currently both Adidas and Nike are attempting to produce campaigns that generate positive body images and messages. Nike’s campaign is a good effort to demonstrate more positive messages about body image, but it has been causing a lot of controversy. Nike’s new ad campaign, “Big Butts, Thunder Thighs, and Tomboy Knees” has been criticized because they highlight the butt, thighs, and knees of women athletes who could hardly by any means be considered out of shape. The campaign seems to have back fired and while those butts, thighs and knees should be praised, the manner that the ad presents the body parts almost condemns them. As explained in The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, in modern society women are expected to have split personalities and lifestyles. Women feel pulled in different directions, such as housewife, working women, athletic social, etc. It seemed that this would have been a great opportunity for Nike to reach the diverse desires of all women, but this campaign does not seem to be there quite yet.

While the campaign seems to have stayed away from the typical genre of fashion advertising, it is not very effective in creating a more positive body image. The images are black and white and shot in a way to eliminate the male gaze or cultural inequalities. However, the depiction of these well-oiled, muscle crunching body parts has sparked some questions. If the message is supposed to be about authenticity, hard work, and in-your-face reality, how about showing a little more sweat and a little less creatine? Furthermore, this ad seems to be appealing to current Nike customers while the whole point of advertising is to try and attract new consumers. Finally, the ad is a copy of the dove campaign which totally strips it of any creative or unique credit the campaign could have been given.

The Adidas campaign launches a new global basketball movement featuring NBA All-Stars Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chauncey Billups and Gilbert Arenas. The movement of the “It Takes 5IVE” campaign is based on the idea of believing in something bigger than the individual-believing in five, believing in team. Adidas wanted to tap into the idea that there is more to the game then just individual achievement and focus on the value of being part of a team. That is the true spirit of the game of basketball. By bringing together five of the game’s most successful athletes and having them deliver the message that real success can only come from being part of a team, and that any individual achievements cannot measure to the success that five players on the court can achieve together shows that teamwork is the most essential aspect to a team sport.

This campaign seems to do a much better job of creating a positive message; however the message creates a desire for team work to help you succeed. While this is a good message, it is not a positive message about body image. Since this campaign stays away from assisting the fashion industry in creating negative body images and more importantly negative overall messages, it is a pretty good campaign.

Finally there are a few campaigns from popular designers that do a rather good job of staying away from continuing the negative body images being produced by the fashion industry. Both Tommy Hilfigure and Old Navy have ads that completely stay away from the body and in that sense they are not effective at creating a positive body image either, rather they are neutral. In the Tommy Hilfigure ad a herd of sheep are standing in front of an American Flag and the tag line reads “follow the flock.” This ad is cute and creates the desire to fit in and then eludes to the idea that through buying Tommy Hilfigure clothing you will be like everyone else; however, as previously stated, people in society today desire control over their destination and the idea of being like everyone else seems to distract from the notion of controlling one’s destiny. The Old Navy ad also uses animals by creating ads depicting images of their icon dog. These ads are effective at getting the name of the brand to the public, but it creates no desire and is therefore not as effective as the Tommy Hilfigure ad.

Overall, fashion advertising is dominated by ads that encourage negative body image through highly sexualized poses, a majority of male gazes, and unrealistic body types. There is not enough cultural diversity in today’s fashion advertising. The ads are effective at creating desire; however, the desire is to achieve unrealistic and unhealthy goals. In the past few years some very significant changes have been made, but it isn’t enough right now. It is a gradual process so it will probably take some time before any major noticeable differences appear on the pages of the top fashion magazines. Hopefully the steps that are taking place now will have a lasting positive impact on the body images created through future fashion advertising.

A young resident of a public cemetery in Metro Manila scales a grid of niche tombs. For the thousands of urban poor families living in these crowded cemeteries, the graves are not just resting places for the deceased but are spaces for daily life—as beds, kitchens, and, for the children, playgrounds. The image captures the resilience and normalization of poverty, as innocence navigates a landscape defined by loss.

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

For this rendition of the 2-panel mosiac, I ran all of the subframes through the same PixInsight WBPP run so that they would all be at the same local normalization, I applied ChannelCombination to the RGB masters for each panel separately before merging the panels, and I produced separate star and nebula images before applying nonlinear stretches. The stars image was stretched delicately while the nebula image was stretched very agressively. I like the stars that resulted from this treatment.

ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro

Tele Vue NP101is (4" f/5.4)

Losmandy G11

NINA for session management

PixInsight for processing

Each panel consisted of qty 8 240s subs each for RGB, and qty 16 subs for L. Total integration time was 2:20 per panel.

Friday night brought a promising sunset to California and I found myself at Davenport main beach, coincidentally along with Jim Patterson and one of our excellent, repeat workshop students, Priscilla. Priscilla had some really intelligent and interesting things to say about portfolios, consistency, and reputation. After taking the whole weekend to think about what we talked about, I decided to remove all my recent strobist work from my flickr stream and dedicate these pages solely to landscape photography.

All my strobist work can now be found in a dedicated set:.

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Tech notes on this photo

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Nikon D7000

Tokina 12-24 f/4 at 12mm on a crop sensor

ISO250 - bumped this a bit to get a fast shutter speed

f/8 - sharpest spot on my lens, allows for sufficient DOF on a crop sensor, plus lets me get a slightly faster shutter

1/2 sec because I wanted the line of the incoming wave not to be a total mushy mess

Cloudy WB

Lee 3-stop soft GND filter

Post-Processing

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In Raw Converter (Nikon Capture NX2)

- Processed single raw file once

- Levels adjustment to normalize histogram

- Global "s-curve" curves adjustment

- Brightened foreground slightly and added contrast to waves to make the whites and the reflection pop

- Contrast added to sand to enrich the colors and help the reflection stand out

- Brightness and contrast increase to the very dark seastack to help bring out details

In Photoshop:

- Selective sharpening of seastack and bluffs

- Color balance to remove slight orange hue

Thanks for your visits!

~Josh

My Portfolio and Photography Services

NGC 2244 also know as the Rosette Nebula is a emission nebula located in the Monoceros constellation.

The nebula is at 5200 light years from earth and is approximately 65 light years wide

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -25°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 76x300s

Total integration time 6,3h

Dark: 34x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : 12 January 2022

26,27,28 Febuary 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing each panels in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

DBE MasterLRGB

___RGB layer___HOO

Split RGB channels to build Ha and Oiii

Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7

EZ_Soft Stretch

HOO combination with Foraxx formula

R=Ha

G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

B=Oiii

Starnet++ for remove stars and build a mask nebula

Color Saturation

Curves Tansformation

Saturate stars for push up stars color

SCNR star mask

Bring back the stars with PixelMath

___L layer___

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Soft Stretch

Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with nebula mask

___LRGB___

Ez_Denoise

Final Curve Transformation

Annotation

Save as JPG

Clear skies !

The afternoon autumn sun filters warmly into the Upper Mill Creek basin and begins to serenade the senses on the last day of September, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Stands of Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) fill in the chords perfectly.

Morning began auspiciously when I found a spot to photograph sunrise on the Divide with decent reflections in the lake on whose shores we had camped. The boys, one of their friends, and I backpacked a brief 2-day loop through the high-country of the Park. Over two days they climbed more than 2,000 feet between 9,000-11,000 ft elevation. They ate a great deal at lunch, and then talked incessantly about cars for hours. It was quite amusing actually, as I was completely distracted by the scenery and they seemed scarcely able to take it in. Maybe they've just normalized this kind of beauty since we see similar scenes every autumn. Or maybe they realize how lucky they are and one really shouldn't gawk at one's Mother, as I tend to... who can say?

I do want to put in a word of solidarity for the U.S. government employees, including Park Service employees, who are either working without pay right now, or are furloughed. These people perform vital functions, and are not being treated fairly by the most powerful government in the world. Bright vistas such as this should be a reminder to us all that the government can occasionally do wonders by truly acting in the public's interest. Private industry would not have managed the landscape of the Park for the enjoyment of all, and with an eye to wildlife. We must hold our elected officials accountable to the greater good.

First try with HDR in pixinsight, hope you like it !

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -25°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 62x300s + 88x120s

Total integration time 8h

Dark: 100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

100s120s

Date : 30 January 2022

07,26,27 Febuary 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

*HRD*

DBE 300s and 120s

StarAlignement -> register 300s and 120s

HRDComposition -> blend 300s and 120s frame

Split L,R,G,B Chanel

__L__

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Soft Streatch

HDRMultiscaleTransform

StarNet++ for build nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with mask

LocalHistogramEqualization with mask

__RGB__

ChanelCombination(RGB)

BackgroundNeutralization

PhotometricColorCalibration

Ez_Soft Streatch

HDRMultiscaleTransform

Starnet++

SCNR star mask

__LRGB__

LRGBCombination

Ez_Denoise

StarNet++

Final CurvesTransformation

Save as jpg

Clear skies !

NGC 6820 is an emission nebula located 6000 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. This nebula is approximately 65 light years wide

Uncropped version : flic.kr/p/2nD9DFa

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -5°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 75x300s

Total integration time 6,3h

Dark: 100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : 7,8 August 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

DBE MasterLRGB

___RGB layer___HOO

Split RGB channels to build Ha and Oiii

Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7

EZ_Soft Stretch

HOO combination with Foraxx formula

R=Ha

G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

B=Oiii

SCNR

___L layer___

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Soft Stretch

Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with nebula mask

___LRGB___

Ez_Denoise

Curve Transformation

Crop + Rotation

Annotation

Save as JPG

Clear skies !

Whitland Station - Sir Gaerfyrddin/ Carmarthenshire

▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️

Mohammed El Madhoun:

"Israel killed two young men just a short while ago, ten yesterday, and seven the day before.

There is a state of mental, psychological, and media normalization with what is happening—as if these seven or ten people have no families, no relatives, no friends. As if they were uprooted from a tree, or created solely to be killed in cold blood.

This scene coincides with a miserable, or deeply wretched, era in which Palestinian blood has reached an unprecedented level of cheapness and insignificance.

What is most painful is that these massacres pass without refusal, condemnation, strikes, sit-ins, or angry protests. It is a highly comfortable scenario for the Israeli, who kills us this time without any noise or clamor..."

It's storage car season on the North Shore Scenic and GN 400 leads DMIR 193 and a dozen or so cars past my only sun spot of the day at Palmers. A thank you as always to Dave Schauer for the timely info.

So...this is kinda normalized for me but what might be the most famous SD45 leading a Missabe SD18 on a freight train that isn't a photo freight. Ridiculous.

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

The historic architecture of Saint-Petersburg's city centre, mostly Baroque and Neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has been largely preserved; although a number of buildings were demolished after the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, during the Siege of Leningrad and in recent years. The oldest of the remaining building is a wooden house built for Peter I in 1703 on the shore of the Neva near Trinity Square. Since 1991 the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Autumn, also known as fall in North American English, is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer to winter.

The word autumn comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year. It was borrowed by the neighbouring Romans, and became the Latin word autumnus. After the Roman era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalized to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth.

Images taken at the end of September 2023.

Full resolution : astrob.in/o8h9n7/0/

Sii= 75x300s

Ha= 76x300s

Oii= 75x300s

Total time : 18h50'

-Equipment-

Scope: Askar107PHQ (740mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM Pro at -5°C gain 101 offset 49

Filter: Optolong SHO 3nm 50.80mm

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM+ZWO OAG-L

All processing was done in Pixinsight exept one step

-Pre Processing-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

-Processing-

Star Alignment

Dynamic Crop

Dynamic Background Extractor

BlurXTerminator

NoiseXTerminator

StarXTerminator

HistogramTransformation

-Stars-

ChanelCombination

ImageSolver

SpectrophotometricColorCalibration

HistogramTransformation

ACDNR (green100%)

ACDNR (green50%)Ctrl+i

ColorSaturation

-L-

Mix max(Ha and Sii)

HDRMultiscaleTransform with mask

Mix (0.75xL+0.25xL_boost)

-SHO-

SHO palette

TSL/color in Lightroom

ColorSaturation

-L-SHO-

LRGBCombination

CuvesTransformation

ColorSaturation

More CurveTransformation

Add Stars

FinalCrop

I was surprised to see this incident during a relentless evening downpour in Bangkok's Sukhumvit neighbourhood on 2 July 2026. As you can see, the drainage system is entirely overwhelmed; the distinction between the street and the pavement has completely vanished, with the rainwater deep enough to engulf the ankles of pedestrians and the tyres of vehicles.

The pedestrian in the foreground is saturated as she pauses mid-stream in the murky water, performing a 'Wai'—a graceful pressing together of the palms—towards the driver of the black vehicle who paused to allow her to cross.

The Cultural Context: Why the Wai Matters Now

In many Western cultures, a quick hand wave might suffice. But in Thailand, the Wai is a profound gesture of respect, gratitude, and humility. Witnessing this pedestrian prioritize this ritual while ankle-deep in floodwater is incredibly moving. This is the definition of Jai Yen (a "cool heart"): the distinct Thai cultural approach of maintaining composure and politeness even when faced with extreme frustration, heat, or, in this case, being totally soaked. It’s a testament to the resilient kindness you encounter everywhere in Bangkok.

Bangkok Rainfall Facts and Climate Reality

Scenes like this are becoming sadly all too common. Here’s why we should be concerned -

A Sinking City: One of the most surprising (and concerning) facts about Bangkok is that the city is actually sinking. Built on soft clay, groundwater extraction has caused areas to subside by nearly 1 to 2 centimeters per year over decades. This means the city is effectively dropping below sea level just as extreme weather is increasing.

The Climate Paradox: In 2026, images like this highlight the impact of climate change. While the total volume of monsoon rain might not always increase, the intensity does. Meteorologists now track "rain bombs"—sudden, catastrophic bursts that dump weeks’ worth of rainfall in just two or three hours, overwhelming drainage capacity instantly. What used to be a 1-in-100-year flood event is now becoming a regular event most summers.

Yet life Goes On: One of the craziest things about seeing these flood events in person is how normalized they are. Just down the street from where I took this, street food vendors were still operating. I saw a vendor stir-frying noodles, standing on a low plastic folding stool to keep their feet out of the rising water, while customers casually sat at a metal table, lifting their feet every time a car drove past to avoid the wake.

This memory, for me, represents that incredible blend of extreme urban challenges and enduring human dignity that defines modern Bangkok.

Difficult conditions for photography: Unfortunately while I used an umbrella while taking this shot and was careful not to get any rain on the camera, after five more days of photography my camera stopped working due to a faulty main board. Although I can't be certain of the actual cause, it seems possible that the heat and/or humidity proved too much for the X-T50.

The great Andromeda Galaxy M31 in messier catalog

This is a 4 panel mosaic capture during two cold nights.

Starless version : flic.kr/p/2mDSYEG

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -5°C

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher NEQ5

Filter: Astronomik L

-Acquisition-

Light :Panel-1 60x300s

Panel-2 60x300s

Panel-3 52x300s

Panel-4 60x300s

Dark-100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : Take on 2 night 05 September2021

and 10 October 2021

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing each panels in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Build the 4 panel mozaic

It's my first 4 panel mosaic so I follow this tutorial from Amy Astro www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0f8Tl_kC0A

-Processing

DBE master Light

Split L,R,G,B layer from Master light

__L__

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Denoise

Ez_Soft Streatch

Ez_HDR

UnsharpedMask with mask

__RGB__

Linear Fit

BackgroundNeutralization

PhotometricColorCalibration

Ez_Soft Streatch

Starnet++

CuvesTransformation with mask

A lot of curves...

Bring back stars with PixelMath

__LRGB__

LRGBCombination

Final CurvesTransformation

Ez_Star Reduction

DarkStructureEnhance script

Save as jpg

Clear Skies !

Despite quite high amount of hits, it is quite difficult to capture Myotis mystacinus while drinking, probably due to parallel midge hunting (midges hatch from the puddle most frequently just after sunset).

Photo 4 contains a lot of natural evening light, most of the photos were taken within first 2 hours after sunset.

Photos 1,2 and 4 were taken using Canon 5D2 + Takumar 300/4 combination, rest using Canon 5DSR + 100-400L2. All photos are "normalized" to same magnification, there are probably some youngsters at the party.

This nebula is located at around 7500 lights years from the Earth and extend over 165 lights years.

On the upper right part you can see the Fish Head Nebula (IC 1795).

On the left it is a part of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) and you can see Melotte 15 in the middle of the Heart Nebula, a little star cluster with a lot of dust

Starless version: flic.kr/p/2mA2B1y

One exposure 300s : flic.kr/p/2mwYXX5

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -15°C

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher NEQ5

Filter: Optrolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light :218x300s ( 18h ) at Gain:101 Offset:49

Dark-100x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : Take on 5 night 29, 30 september 2021

and 7, 8, 9 october 2021

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

I use the ForaxX palette for HOO combination

ForaxX website : thecoldestnights.com

And the Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

Split the master_LRGB into L, R, G, B layer

DynamicBackgroundExtractor each layer

___RGB layer___

Split RGB channels for build Ha and Oiii

Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7

EZ_Soft Stretch

HOO combination with Foraxx formula

R=Ha

G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

B=Oiii

Starnet++ for remove stars and build a mask nebula

Color Saturation

Curves Tansformation (K,saturation,hue)

Saturate stars for push up stars color

SCNR with star Mask for remove green in stars (OSC camera)

Bring back the stars with PixelMath

___L layer___

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Denoise

Ez_Soft Stretch

Ez_HDR

Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with nebula mask

___LRGB___

Final Curve Transformation

DarkStructureEnhance script

EZ_Star Reduction

Save as BMP 32bit file

Clear skies !

A modernization of the Adventurers: Dino Island set 5920 "Island Racer", my very first Lego car set. Adventurers has long been one of my favorite themes for its period setting, and Sam Sinister’s "Island Racer" is one of my favorite sets in the theme. In this design homage, the form has been normalized to be closer to real-world styling of the era, with the inclusion of details such as bumpers, front cycle fenders, and a hood ornament.

More photos available in the build album. Many thanks to the Lego Car Blog for their post about this build!

©2020 Chris Elliott, All Rights Reserved.

Find me also on:

chriselliott.art | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit

Target: IC63 Ghost of Cassiopeia.

About 550 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies IC 63, a fitting nebula for Halloween time.

Also known as the ghost of Cassiopeia, IC 63 is being shaped by radiation from a variable star, Gamma Cassiopeiae, which is slowly eroding away the ghostly cloud of dust and gas.

Gear:

Mount: ZWO AM5

Main Cam: ZWO ASI294MC Pro @ gain 121 and 14F

Guide Cam: ZWO ASI120MM Mini with ZWO 30mm f/4 scope

Lens: Sigma 150-600 @ 575

Filter: Antlia ALP-T 5nm Ha and Oiii

Acquisition:

Light frames: Best 60 of 84 5 minute subs totalling 5 Hr integration

Sessions: 01-Nov-23

Location: Houston Colorado County, Texas

Bortle: 5

Moon: 87%, 60degrees off target

Processing

• PI - Subframe selector, WBPP

• GraXpert background

• PI SPCC

• PI Russel Croman - BXT NXT STX

• PI Starless Edits

○ Bill Blanshan Mike Cranfield Narrowband Normalization Tool

○ GHS Stretch

○ Curves

• PI Stars Edits

○ Arcsinh Stretch

○ SCNR, Invert and SCNR

○ Curve Saturation

• PS ACR Black point, Highlights, Clarity, Dehaze

• PS Selective Colors

• PS Screen stars layer, copy stars layer/brighten it/mask in selective stars

• PS Watermark

IC 443 also known as the Jellyfish Nebula is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini, at 5000 Light years from Earth.

IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago.

-Equipment-

Scope: TS-Optics 94/414 EPDH (414mm focal)

Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -25°C gain 101 offset 49

Guiding: ZWO OAG

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI 120MM

Mount: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

-Acquisition-

Light : 124x300s

Total integration time 10h

Dark: 34x300s Flat-50 Bias-100

Date : 4 March 2022

Location : France-Alsace Bortle 4/5

-Software-

Carte du Ciel, N.I.N.A, Phd2 , PoleMaster and PixInsight

Ez Processing Suite from darkarcon

darkarcon website : darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/

-Pre Processing each panels in PixInsight-

Image Calibration

Cosmetic Correction

Debayer

Subframe Selector

Star Alignement

Local Normalization

Image Integration

Drizzle x2

Dynamic crop

-Processing

DBE MasterLRGB

___RGB layer___HOO

Split RGB channels to build Ha and Oiii

Ha=R Oiii= B*0.3+G*0.7

EZ_Soft Stretch

HOO combination with Foraxx formula

R=Ha

G=((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

B=Oiii

Starnet++ for remove stars and build a mask nebula

Color Saturation

Curves Tansformation

Saturate stars for push up stars color

SCNR star mask

Bring back the stars with PixelMath

___L layer___

Ez_Deconvolution

Ez_Soft Stretch

Local Histogram Equalization with nebula mask

UnsharpedMask with nebula mask

___LRGB___

Ez_Denoise

Final Curve Transformation

Annotation

Save as JPG

Clear skies !