View allAll Photos Tagged RCOS
I can't think of many class 1 units that are as stubborn to die as these 600 class Santa Fe Dash9's. These units have withstood several storage periods, a chunk getting scrapped, rebuilt, converted to RCO units, you name it. They don't really look great 30 years later, but they are still a treat. After camping the morning in Bellevue, IA, I got word that BRCNTW had BNSF 649 leading. I drove north to near Potosi, WI to catch it in morning light.
This pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies is located in the southern constellation of Eridanus (the River). They are outlying members of the Fornax Cluster of galaxies.
They are so close to one another that gravitational forces have distorted one of the spiral arms of the larger galaxy, NGC 1532. These forces have triggered bursts of star formation in both galaxies, but more so in NGC 1532 where a new generation of massive stars have been created.
NGC 1532, also known as Haley's Coronet is a nearly edge-on deformed barred spiral galaxy about 180 thousand light-years across. It is laced with incredible dust lanes, making this a dramatic target to image. It is receding from us at about 1040 kilometres per second. NGC 1531 is a dwarf technically classified as a peculiar lenticular galaxy; the galaxy's structure is better described as amorphous.
Exposure Details:
Red 21X600
Green 30X600
Blue 32X600
Lum 56X900
Total Exposure: 27.83 Hours
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Thanks for looking
WAMX 5900 is posing on the railroad bridge over Crosby Ave in the "West Yard" of the Wisconsin and Southern's Janesville terminal. It's working what I believe is the day's Y301, the yard job that is in the processing of making up the evening's T5 to Madison and T3 to Horicon, and T1 to Chicago, and will soon have an inbound T6 from Madison to break down.
WAMX 5900, a former NS GP59, is one of the newest members to the evolving Wisconsin and Southern Railroad roster. The distinctive wide-dynamic brake unit locomotive units led to much rejoicing amongst the railfan community when they emerged from MEI in St. Louis in the sharp WSOR Red and Grey instead of Watco Black and Yellow.
However since arriving a few months ago it and a sister, 5901 have remained pretty captive to Janesville, apparently planned for RCO and switching service in the yards and undergoing testing. I don't think I've personally seen photos of them running outside a yard on their own, but perhaps such photos do exist and I'm just not aware. Supposedly a few more are planned, and hopefully they at least occasionally find themselves on some of the WSOR's other locals while still this clean and sharp!
This object is best classified as a "Dark Nebula". They are extremely dim, don't give off much signal, and require fairly long exposures to reveal their wonderful complex structures.
This was a challenging data set to process. I underestimated just how dim this target is. It is located near the South Celestial Pole. Its coordinates are RA 12:36:06.40 Dec -80:28:28.6.
I love how the dark dust takes on a three-dimensional look. The strange horizontal stripes throughout the image add to the mysterious field. I haven’t found much written about this field, but it does look very cool.
Exposures Details:
Lum 92 X 600
Red 24 X 450 Binned 2x2
Green 31 X 450 Binned 2x2
Blue 24 X 450 Binned 2x2
Total Exposure 25.2 Hours
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Thanks for looking
After meeting a WLMNTW the Union job is heading out for a day of work. They're using a pair of RCO warbonnet dash 9s.
RCO-equipped KCS SD40-2 No. 686 profiles its "snoot" nose as it sits alone on 902 Pocket near the Kansas Ave crossing at the western end of CPKC's Knoche Yard. For several years, KCS SD40-2's were hard to come by in Kansas City, but now that Knoche has remote jobs, a few now reside here along with a couple MP15DC's. 6/1/25.
The photo presented is a narrowband Bi-Colour image created by combining filtered light Ha, and OIII filters. Narrowband images can often reveal details of objects that we cannot see easily, or not at all in broadband. Ha has been assigned to the Red channel while OIII assigned to the green and blue channels. The result has some similarities to a traditional RGB image. I added RGB Stars in an attempt to emulate a conventional RGB image with narrowband data.
The Prawn Nebula is located in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, in the constellation Scorpius. Other names include both IC 4628, and Gum 56. From our vantage point, it is about 6,000 light-years away. IC 4628 is an extensive stellar nursery containing a large number of very hot, luminous, young stars created from the surrounding gases.
The nebula is about 250 light-years in diameter, with an apparent size of 1.5 degrees. For reference, this would cover an area three to four times the size of the moon. With my instrument, the full moon will fill my sensor. Unfortunately, I can’t fit the entire complex within this image.
Gum 56 is very faint and emits light at wavelengths not visible to our eyes. Two luminous giants and several young stars in this nebula emit an incredible amount of ultraviolet radiation ionising the hydrogen gas. The result, it glows. Material ejected from violent supernova in the past provides new materials that allow for the formation of new stars. The cycle of stellar life and death continues as dust and gases collapse down, forming new stars.
Instruments:
• 10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
• Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
• SBIG STL 11000m
• FLI Filter Wheel
• Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
• Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
• Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
• Ha 22 X 1800 Binned 1X1
• OIII 24 X 1800 Binned 1X1
• Red 22 X 450 Binned 2X2
• Green 18 X 450 Binned 2X2
• Blue 12 X 450 Binned 2X2
• Lum 38 X 900 Binned 1X1
Total Exposure Time: 39.0 Hours
A pair of RCO-equipped Warbonnet Dash 9's are being used by BNSF train L-HLA6921-14I today as they arrive at Spring Hill on Main Track 1 of the BNSF Ft. Scott Sub at CP 292. Here, they're pulling up to make a cut on the main, coming off with head four cars for the glass plant. Once they've completed the work at the glass plant, they'll work the kitty litter plant and then make a run for La Cygne.
Both of these engines were installed with RCO equipment at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, MO a couple of months ago, and they'll spend some time on the R-HLA6911/L-HLA6921 rotation for at least a week before being sent to Albia, IA for more RCO upgrades. Several former ATSF 600 series Dash 9's have been cycled through Mid-America Car over the past couple of years fro RCO installation, and now a few 700 series units are receiving the same treatment. It's already strange seeing big GE's used on locals, but it's even stranger seeing them now used on remote yard jobs. 3/14/24.
BNSF 2984 and 1511 slowly pull an extra Duluth Transfer over No Name Creek in Duluth on the morning of June 26, 2019. Usually, BNSF makes the daily Superior to Rice's Point run in the evening, but things happen and this extra was called.
In the background, you can see the Duluth RCO Job 116 stopped and preparing for the exchange. That 116 Job had BNSF 2821 and 4 cars pointed towards the paper mill, waiting for the Duluth Transfer. The 2984 will set out 3 hi-cubes here at No Name onto the 116 Job, before continuing to Rices Point. The 2821 will take the three boxcars and promptly spot them at the Verso Duluth Mill in the background.
The hi-cubes would usually arrive at Rice's Point the day before and be brought down through No Name by the 116 Job itself. However, the previous evening’s transfer got "bridged" by the Grassy Point Draw and never made Duluth, prompting the extra and exchange here.
There is no third trick bridge tender at Grassy Point so trains don't run across after 23:00 or midnight. Kind of nice as it compacts the limited amount of traffic that BNSF, CP, and UP runs for Duluth into better daylight chances.
Coupled to Ensco's 2001, Wabtec's Pathfinder rail vehicle is on display at the 2025 conference at the TTC site outside of Pueblo. Pathfinder is a vehicle that is going to change railroading as we know it. This will be seen leading and mid consist on shortlines to provide plug and play tech. This includes PTC, instant RCO, and Trip optimizer to start. Once testing is complete at Ensco, the 2025 will be headed to the Nebraska Central to start road trials.
This beautiful large planetary nebula is located in the constellation Aquarius. The Helix Nebula is approximately 695 light years from Earth, and presents a fairly large target, almost one-half the diameter of the moon.
My intent was to merge both traditional RGB and Narrowband into a hybrid image using 6 filters to reveal three things. The first included the amazing cometary knots extending away from the central star in a radial direction. Their scale is simply amazing as most are believed to be about the size of our solar system.
The second stems from my fascination of galaxies. I wanted to reveal the many galaxies located both within the core and throughout the outer halo extending away from the Planetary Nebula.
The final goal was to retain the lovely teal colour of the core and reveal the beautiful colours in the stars surrounding NGC 7293 including the bluish central star. The rare teal colour found in planetary nebula can often be removed during imaging processing.
The total time for this image is around 64 hours.
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha and OIII Narrowband-Filters
Thanks for looking.
This pair of galaxies can be found in the constellation Virgo. There are two spiral galaxies, one edge-on, and the other face-on. From my location on planet Earth, they rise just over 50 degrees above the horizon to the north.
PGC 41578 is the smaller face on galaxy in the frame. It is sometimes referred to as NGC4517A, but it is not a NGC object. It’s a challenging target, both a little on the small side and dim. It presents an angular size of 2.05 X 0.98 arcmin.
NGC 4517 is an edge-on spiral galaxy. You can see several dark lanes along its length. It presents an angular size of 9.02 V 1.42 arcmin. It is around 40-50 million light-years away.
Exposure Details:
Red 16 X 450 Bin 2
Green 21 X 450 Bin 2
Blue 18 X 450 Bin 2
Lum 68 X 600 Bin 1
Total Exposure: 18.2 Hours
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Thanks for looking.
A pair of rebuilt former Santa Fe "snoot" nose SD40-2's, now classified as SD39-2's, are working on a remote hump job at BNSF's Argentine Yard as they shove a big cut of cars down the South Hump Lead just west of the yard. 5/6/23.
A former NS SD60M, originally built for Conrail and currently owned by Progress Rail, sits alongside a pair of KCS RCO-equipped SD40-2's used exclusively for MOW service outside the shops at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, MO. 7/4/22.
3 BNSF SD40-2s go about their duties at the large former Burlington Northern yard in Galesburg, IL.
Interested in purchasing a high-quality digital download of this photo? Let me know and I will add it to my Etsy Shop, MittenRailandMarine! Follow this link to see what images are currently listed for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/MittenRailandMarine
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I initially set out to image IC4633 as a single target. It was a pleasant surprise to see this wonderful mosaic of galaxies behind a vale of Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN). IFN is pretty interesting stuff. A single star does not illuminate it. The dust is illuminated by the energy from the integrated flux of all-stars in the Milky Way. I have seen this in some of my earlier images, but not as intense as this. I think this is pretty cool. The slight pink hue was present no matter how many times I combined the data. Perhaps that is Ha glowing way. It almost looks like IC4633 (The largest galaxy in the frame) is bathed in smoke rising upwards. The two galaxies above it are IC4635 and PGC236037. Near the top is another galaxy with the catchy name PGC60085.
IC4633 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Apus, close to the southern celestial pole, and visible for most of the year from the Southern hemisphere. Its angular size is 1.853 1.149 arcmin (Simbad database), with a surface brightness of 23.98 mag/arcsec2, It is 69 million light-years away.
Exposure Details:
Red 31X600 Binned 2X2
Green 33X450 Binned 2X2
Blue 39X450 Binned 2X2
Lum 96X600 Binned 1X1
Total Exposure: 28.875 Hours
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Thanks for looking
NGC 1097 can be found in the constellation of Fornax, and is classified as a SBbc, barred spiral galaxy. It is about 45 million light years away. It was discovered by William Herschel on the 9th of October 1790.
It’s a fantastic galaxy to look at. It’s a galaxy that has a lot going on. Visually, you can see the distortions and tidal debris that have resulted by the interaction with the companion galaxy NGC 1097A. Personally, the most interesting thing are the optical jets that show up in deep exposures.
Like all nice galaxies, it has a supermassive black hole at its centre. The mass has been calculated to be 140 million times the mass of our sun
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
36 X 900 Bin 1X1 Lum
6 X 1800 Bin 1X1 Lum
12 X 450 Bin 2X2 Red
12 X 450 Bin 2X2 Green
12 X 450 Bin 2X2 Blue
19 X 1200 Bin 1X1 Ha
Location
Australia, Central Victoria
Imaged from May-June 2017
Software:
CCD Stack (Used for calibration / data rejection / registration / stacking )
Photoshop CS 6 (Image processing)
CSX Y19015 pulls a number of empty plywood boxcars from Boise-Cascade on the south side of industrial lead GL6 on the Gardens Lead in Miami, FL. It is essentially cleaning house as it also grabbed a cut of empties from Iberia Foods, and earlier pulled Coronet Paper on GL5. In the background is an elusive customer, Higgins Pet Foods, which regularly receives feed via hopper. Its elevator becomes a focal point for the park. To the left are Perez Trading and United Oil Packers, the former which hasn't appeared to receive cars for a while, and the latter which I'm surprised has been empty.
A couple of remote bowl jobs at BNSF's Argentine Yard go about their business doubling up outbound trains for departure later. A 700-class Warbonnet Dash 9 is in charge of one while a former C&S SD40-2 is charge of another.
Over the last few years, some Dash 9's have been demoted to yard service with RCO equipment installed. Two red and silver Dash 9's have recently been assigned to Argentine, the 706 and the 723, joining SD40-2's and rebuilt SD45-2's Both had the RCO-gear installed at Mid-America Car, Inc. in Kansas City, MO, as did many other Dash 9's. I don't think I'll get used to seeing a big GE used on a lowly RCO bowl job. 8/16/25.
Imaging telescope or lens: RCOS 14.5"
Imaging camera: SBIG STX KAF-16803
Mount: Paramount-ME
Software: Pixinsight 1.8
Filters: Ha 5nm, OIII 5nm, SII 5nm
Resolution: 3852x3756
Dates: Sept. 12, 2017, Sept. 14, 2017, Sept. 19, 2017
Frames:
Ha 5nm: 17x1800" bin 1x1
OIII 5nm: 16x1800" bin 1x1
SII 5nm: 17x1800" bin 1x1
Integration: 25.0 hours
Avg. Moon age: 23.99 days
Avg. Moon phase: 36.01%
Astrometry.net job: 1739203
Locations: Deep Sky West Remote Observatory (DSW), Rowe, New Mexico, United States
It's been a while since I looked at a narrowband image, so this was fun.
The ridge of IC 5067 inside the Pelican, IC 5070, shows some excellent structures including the famous columns with Herbig-Haro 555 and its jets - most likely from an embedded protostar, all topped off with some nice dust features.
Hope you enjoy.
A lovely galaxy with some smaller fuzzies in the same frame (albeit they are 290m+ly further away) small galaxies are scattered all through the background for those with a sharp eye.
To date, this would have to be my longest exposure at 108 hours. The object is located within a darkened region near the popular “Fighting Dragons of Ara”. My field of view doesn’t include the surrounding hydrogen-rich areas often seen in wide-field renditions. Traditional Lum RGB imaging will reveal many colourful stars in the field, but the central nebula can look a little underwhelming in when presented in these wavelengths. In order to get the result I had envisioned, many hours of narrowband data were required to reveal the subtle structures in the outer areas of this dim emission nebula, and hopefully, create an image that wasn’t too noisy.
Three years later, I thought the narrowband component was sufficient to start processing into a final image. As I expected, the RGB data revealed a very nice colourful starfield to work with, but the central nebula was underwhelming. The surrounding outer shell was simply not there. This is where all that narrowband data I had collected could be used to reveal the surrounding emission nebula surrounding the bright star, and the very dim blue, and teal outer-shells.
My goals were to retain a typical RGB appearance with what is effectively a Bi-Colour image. The resulting teal colouring in the lobes is something I wanted to retain as it’s a fairly rare colour in astrophotography. I have to admit; this was certainly a bit more of a challenge than what I expected initially. It was a pleasant surprise to have the reddish flecks appear from the hydrogen in the outer shell as well. The signal in this area is fairly weak.
NGC 6164 has an appearance similar to what you would see in a planetary nebula. It has a gaseous shroud that surrounds the central star. These typically have shockwaves, and often highlight where they brighten showing where they are interacting with the interstellar medium. The extensive outer halo would have to be my favourite part of this image. The outer halo is very dim and certainly proved to be a challenge to reveal it with all the tiny filaments with blue and teal highlights and a bit of red where Ha is present. There is a feature that I initially believed to be a light leak. On the left side of the image, there is what looks like a straight line. After looking through many images, it’s definitely real, and not a light leak.
NGC 6164 is 4,200 light-years away in the constellation of Ara. It is about 21 X 13 arcmins, at magnitude 11. It contains a very bright O-type star about 40 times as massive as our sun. The nebula in the centre spans around 4 light-years and has an interesting bipolar symmetry. And this is all framed nicely in the larger outer-shell, all set within a beautiful starfield.
Equipment Details:
•10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
•Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
•SBIG STL 11000m
•FLI Filter Wheel
•Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
•Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
•Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
•Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposures Details:
•Lum 45X900 Bin 1
•Red 15X900 Bin 1
•Green 14X900 Bin 1
•Blue 12X900 Bin 1
•Ha 61X1800
•OIII 113X1800
Total Time: 108.75 hours
Thanks for looking.
Terry
A pair of KCS EMD's, a GP38-2 and SD40-3, are the power for "Run 12", CPKC train YKK12-01, on the first day of the new year as they ease through Broadway on the UP KC Metro Sub, beginning to cross over from Main Track 3 to Main Track 1. Crossing the Hannibal Bridge over the Missouri River is BNSF train G-EDISWA9-31B.
KCS SD40's have been scarce in Kansas City for several years, and only for the last couple of years have some been based in town, mostly for an RCO job captive within Knoche. This is the first KCS SD40 variant I've seen on foreign rails in a long, long time, and the first I've seen outside the yard in recent time. 1/1/26.
This is just a tiny portion of the incredible Eta Carinae Nebula. It is a large complex area with bright and dark nebulosity, located in the Carina-Sagittarius Arm. This large diffuse nebula is four times larger than the Orion Nebula. The instrument used to create this image can just fit the full disk of the moon in the frame. The moon is about 30 arcmin across. If I could capture the entire nebula, it would span 120 X 120 arc min in size. It is a treat to look up and see this wonderful object from a dark location.
Exposure Details:
Red 18X600 sec
Green 20X600 sec
Blue 20X600 sec
Lum 110X600 sec
Ha 18X600 sec
Total Time: 31 Hours
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Thanks for looking
Hasselblad 503CXi - yoyogi park, tokyo, japan
Get over it !
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Please Donate For Japan Earthquake (from Hideaki Hamada)
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【Flickr Group】
OGS/RCOS 10", Atik 11000M, 16ic, EFW2, Astrodon E-Series Gen 2 HaLRGB, MMOAG, Paramount ME, PixInsight 1.8
Object description at www.billionsandbillions.com
185 601-2 (HSL) with rake of Railco CZ-RCO Zacns (UN 1202) passing through Saarmund with DGS 95570 Pirna Gbf - Hamburg Hohe Schaar (+215).
This is a regular flow, but was diverted via Saarmund due to engineering work on the east side of the Berlin freight ring "Aussenring", meaning a diversion around the west side of the ring, making Saarmund much busier than normal.
BNSF 558 leads a quartet of Ex Santa Fe motors consisting of a pair of B40-8W's and RCO C44-9's. They would make their last couple of moves then head west to Northtown.
A remote hump job with a pair of six-axle EMD's creeps down the South Hump Lead just west of BNSF's Argentine Yard with a big cut of cars that will be shoved over the crest.
This hump set is powered by a former Santa Fe SD45-2 and a former BN SD60M. Though it may be rebuilt as an SD40-2R and assigned to the hump, it's still a treat seeing a former ATSF SD45-2 cabody on home rails. 9/4/23.
A KCS SD40-3 is the lone unit utilized by "Run 1", the west end lead job at CPKC's Knoche Yard, this afternoon as they shove down the North Main at Olive St after doubling up a train. Though this engine is equipped with RCO gear, this is a conventional job with a three man crew. 8/4/24.
A pair of CP GP38's switch hoppers at Canada Malting Co alongside Alyth Yard and the Brooks Subdivision. The latter is an uncommon GP38AC, one of just 21 of CPKC's roster. Its 20-year old paint hasn't held up too well.
CPKC Yard Job
CP GP38-2 / DRS-20e #4428
CP GP38AC / DRS-20a #3003
Calgary, AB
August 26th, 2025
NGC 2207 and IC 2163 are a pair of colliding and merging spiral galaxies discovered by John Herschel in 1835. They can be found the constellation Canis Major, and are about 80 million light-years away in. At this distance, they present a fairly small target which certainly adds to the challenge of creating an image that allows us to appreciate the incredible forces and dynamics of this pair of galaxies. They are in the first steps of colliding and merging, and in time, they will probably end up looking similar to the Mice Galaxies.
As we look at this event now in our instruments, they still appear as two separate spiral galaxies. The wonderful thing about telescopes is that they reveal past events, and we are seeing these galaxies as they were 80 million years ago. What do they look like now? The distances between stars in any given galaxy are vast. I find it amazing that colliding galaxies rarely have stars that physically smash into each other. They pass through one another ripping gas and matter from each other and creating fascinating streams of cosmic wreckage.
Colliding galaxies are well known to contain intense star formation regions. Shockwaves formed from the collision create areas that lend to the collapse of gas and the formation of star clusters. It’s believed that stars of various masses are forming in this galaxy pair at a rate equivalent to form 24 stars the mass of our sun per year. In our galaxy, that rate is about one to three new suns every year.
Depending on the rotation, the bright central nuclei of this pair resemble a striking set of eyes peering out into the cosmos. Whenever I look at this, I see a funky character with two eyes racing across the universe. The tidal debris around the pair adds to an illusion of speed.
I lost count how many times I processed this image, and how to present it. In the end, I went with a tight crop and upscaled the result as it’s small, measuring around 4 arcmins across the combined targets. Hopefully, the result is not to rough from upscaling. I did gather some Ha data but decided not to use it in the final version. There seemed to be enough carnage going on with this comic collision.
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Exposure Details:
Lum 22 X 900
Red 12 X 600
Green 12 X 600
Blue 12 X 600
Location
Australia, Central Victoria
Looking extra correct as a high hood pair, NS 5120 and 1632 tag team on a Sharonville yard job while the RCO crew shuffle some cars around the west end.
@Will Jordan 🤔
A few of the standard cab EMD's left on the BNSF in Kansas City are found here working just to the west of BNSF's Argentine Yard.
On the left, an Ex-ATSF GP39-2 assigned to BNSF train Y-KCK1161-05A is poking out onto Main Track 4 of the BNSF Emporia Sub as it continues working Turner, and on the right, a pair of RCO-equipped SD40-2's wait on the South Hump Lead just before shoving over the hump at Argentine. 7/5/21.
NS C99 is shoving with all eight notches on the rear of NS 72R as they climb the nearly 2% grade out of Ashtabula Harbor. Sisters 5205 and 5204, plus 5132 provide the helper power for the 15,000+ ton loaded stone train. The 5205 and 5204 have been Ashtabula natives since the early 2000s serving as RCO power for the coal dock. However with the complete shut down of the coal docks in Ashtabula, and the only commodity being hauled out of Ashtabula being stone, these old girls are getting to stretch their legs on the grade out of Ashtabula in helper duty. Its quite a show to watch and listen to the trio of geeps give all they have up the hill. Once the train reaches Carson Yard, the helpers will be cut off and the stone train will continue south to Conway while the helpers return to the Harbor.
B&LE 904 led what began as a Minntac loader, but redirected to U-Tac. Sun stayed out for a few nice shots, showing off the RCO antennas as they headed north along the Missabe Sub. Flying into MP 22 at track speed for the old cars, theyre not wasting any time.
With a pair of SD40-2's bracketing a yard slug, this
RCO yard job gets some head room at the west end of NS's Norris Yard in Irondale, east of Birmingham.
NS Yard Job
NS SD40-2 #6191
NS RPU6 Slug #853
NS SD40-2 #3465
Irondale, AL
October 23rd, 2023
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以下は発起人、濱田英明さんのメッセージです。
Flickr有志で協力して全世界からの義援金寄付を呼びかけています。写真にタイトルを入れ（入れなくてもいいので）、本文に寄付先のリンクを掲載して寄付を呼びかけるのです。Flickrユーザーの方、この試みに賛同してもらえませんか。
もちろんこの試みは、FlickrユーザーでなくともそれぞれがブログやTwitter、Facebookというような場ででもできることです。また海外の方だけに頼るのではなく、まずは自分自身が日本人として義援金を寄付することができるでしょう。これはその上での写真を通した試みです。
スピード優先ではじめたことです。もっとこうすればいいという意見があればぜひください。みなさんの写真の力があればきっと世界の人たちも何かを感じ行動を起こしてくれるはずです。
よろしくお願いします。
2011年3月13日 濱田英明（hideaki hamada）
【要旨】
docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1MvIFT9iPuI2gI1lA91xuLkw4...
Lots of EMD's occupying the shop tracks at Tilford Yard in Atlanta, GA including a new ECO #1702. Notice all the RCO equipped locomotives in the line as most of the RCO jobs have been cut along with the hump yard. They went from 5 RCO jobs a shift to just one along with the car and engine shops going to skeleton crew. Hump yard is now a parking lot for trains waiting on crews.
IC4685 can be found in the constellation of Sagittarius. For reference, the Lagoon Nebula is only 1.25 degrees away. The estimated distance is about 4000 light years away. There are many other objects included within the image. There are both emission and reflection nebula. I have focused on the reflection nebula in this image. Some other object include NGC 6559 which is in the lower left part of the image. It kind of looks like an oyster. IC1274 just up and to the right of centre. It's that stripped object with a whitish glow around it. IC4685 is that dark snaky river in the lower part of the image. If a Hydrogen Alpha filter is used to image this same region, the result is an extreamly contrasty image with rivers of dark areas running through it.
Image Details:
Center (RA, Dec):(272.474, -23.836)
Center (RA, hms):18h 09m 53.866s
Center (Dec, dms):-23° 50' 09.751"
Size: 53.7 x 35.8 arcmin
Radius: 0.538 deg
Pixel scale: 0.80 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is -112 degrees E of N
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Exposure Details:
23 X 900 Bin 1X1 Lum
12 X 450 Bin 2X2 Red
12 X 450 Bin 2X2 Green
12 X 450 Bin 2X2 Blue
Location
Australia, Central Victoria
Imaged from May-June 2017
Software:
CCD Stack (Used for calibration / data rejection / registration / stacking )
Photoshop CS 6 (Image processing)
This would have to be an object on many astrophotographers bucket list. I remember looking back at some textbooks from my university days and seeing M104. Sure it was black and white, but it was so very cool. Skip ahead in time, now, very modest instruments allow us to present incredible renditions of this and many other amazing objects.
This is where imagination takes hold and things become skewed. I know this is all wrong, but when I look at this object it almost appears like a very bright light source is held captive, surrounded by large chunks of matter blocking its light and casting shadows into space. Yep, imagination can certainly conger up fascinating stuff. But slowly, reality takes over and you that there is no way that rocks that large are patrolling the outskirts of this wonderful galaxy ;p
The Sombrero Galaxy has an incredible halo extending well beyond the frame of the image. It has to my eye, a slightly brownish tint to it. Several galaxies further away can be seen through the halo, but they are very small and this is where a large instrument with a serious image scale would be a wonderful treat.
The Sombrero Galaxy, Messier 104, NGC 4594 is a lenticular galaxy found in the constellation Virgo. It’s about a third of the size of our galaxy sporting an unusually large central bulge. One of the most striking features is the prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. This feature resembles a sombrero hat. The dust lane is a symmetrical ring that encloses the bulge of the galaxy. Where it crosses in front of the bulge, we can see the brightness of the galaxy extinguish, and the dark belt is revealed. The ring might also contain most of the cold matter in the Sombrero Galaxy.
At the core, it is believed that one of the most massive black holes measured in any nearby galaxies resides.
Some astronomers consider this galaxy to have the highest absolute magnitude within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way. Visually, this allows a simple set of binoculars to be used allowing the observer to just reveal its presence. Moving up in aperture, a 200 mm will allow you to distinguish the bulge from the disk. From there, 250-300 mm will reveal the dark lane.
Of course, photographically every changes. This image was obtained using a modest 250 mm instrument, and monochromatic camera. If you had eyes the size of dinner plates and didn’t blink for a day, your friends might think you look like a freak, but hey, could you see it? There’s that imagination again…. Apologies.
Instruments Used:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Lum 33 X 900 seconds
Ha 22 X 900 seconds
Blue 11 X 900 seconds
Green 10 X 900 seconds
Red 17 X 900 seconds
Total Time: 23.24 Hours
After grabbing its train prepared by the early morning RCO operator, a WNYP crew is leaving Olean yard for a short trip to the BPRR in Salamanca. Consist : WNYP 637, WNYP 630, WNYP 638.
Finger Lakes Railway 2201 is a GE U23B originally blt. Mar. 1974 as Louisville and Nashville 2772. After passing to successors Seaboard System and CSXT it was sold to the Providence and Worcester and spent nearly two decades in New England before being sold to the FGLK in 2006. Dressed in Lehigh Valley Red Cornell Red paint it pays homage to the dominant railroad in the modern day FGLK's home town of Geneva and the small portion of LV main that the railroad operates.
But the trackage here is the ex New York Central 'Auburn Road' a secondary line that dates from 1838. Becoming part of the New York Central System in 1853 it was actually one of three parallel lines the NYC came to own between Syracuse and Rochester. It somehow survived to be passed to successors Penn Central and Conrail before finally being spun off to the newly created Finger Lakes in 1995. Today 76 miles of the Auburn Road from Solvay (just outside Syracuse) to Canandaigua survives under FGLK auspices and here on the east end of that route is where we find 2201. The one man RCO crewmember on the Solvay Switcher job SH2 is making a little smoke for me as he burbles along through a curve near MP 5 heading west light engine to switch out the Westrock warehouse located about three miles east of the yard.
Camillus, New York
Thursday October 28, 2021
BNSF threw another wild card power set at the Staples Sub on a cold Monday morning.
In the age of PTC, an RCO SD40-2 isn't quite what you'd expect in 2019. What's nice, besides the fact it's four standard cab EMDs, is they're all matching in the modern corporate paint.
H-GFDNTW2-27A
BNSF 1900 (SD40-2)
BNSF 1523 (GP28-2)
BNSF 1541 (GP28-2)
BNSF 1730 (SD40-2)
Feels so good to be back trackside again. Even though BNSF works me hard, I'm still a railfan at heart.
Omega Centauri, or NGC 5139, is a large globular cluster located within the constellation of Centaurus. This object was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677. It is the largest globular cluster in our galaxy, and is located roughly 15,800 light years away, with a diameter 150 light-years. It is an incredibly bright object, containing approximately 10 million stars which allow it to be seen visually without optical aid.
With an apparent magnitude of 3.9, it can be imaged from under light polluted skies. This image was taken from the suburbs of Melbourne Australia, under 83-65 percent full moon.
Telescope: 10 inch RCOS fl 9.1 / 2306 mm
Camera: SBIG STL-11000m
Mount: Astro-Physics Mount AP-900
Imaging Dates: 24-29 of May 2016
Calibration Software: CCDStack
Processing Software: Photoshop 6
Filters Used: Astrodon LRGB
Terry Robison