View allAll Photos Tagged skyglow
Pentax K-30 O-GPS1. 135 mm 1:2.8 at f/4.0 ISO 1600. 10 20 s shots stacked with DeepSky Stacker. Skyglow removed with Iris. My first attempt at deep sky with o-gps1. Taken 50 km west of Montreal, Canada. Fairly light polluted.
Imaged Dec 3d, 2012 with Borg 60ED w/.70 reducer. Nikon D5100 on iEQ45 guided with Borg 50 and SSAG. 90 minutes of subs, 300 seconds @ ISO 400. Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5, no crop. Still some coma on right side of image, still playing with reducer spacing and alignment, but happy with the field of view and colors. Only Baader Moon/Skyglow filter used this session.
There has been chatter around astrophotography message boards for some time now that a photographer can partially eliminate "sky glow" from the night images with a relatively cheap Hoya filter called a red intensifier. It is touted as the "poor man's astrophotography filter" because it is a good deal cheaper than most purpose made astrophotography filters and it comes in the standard sizes to fit most camera lenses.
Briefly, sky glow is the ambient light given off by street lights, safety lights and other forms of illumination that obscure our view of the stars. The less sky glow, the easier it is to see star. This is why the view of the Milky Way is always better in the country, for example.
Without getting to pedantic, I'll just say that the majority of sky glow falls into to distinct wave lengths of light that are both roughly in the red area of the visible spectrum. This is why many night shots have a rusty, muddy look. The color is due to the elements used to generate the light (mercury and sodium, I think... I'm no scientist) which each fluoresce at a different wavelength or color. The Hoya Intensifier (also called a didymium filter) is a filter that is designed to photograph autumn foliage and what it does is cut out the rusty orange found in some turning leaves and just let the red come through. This is great for astrophotography because that same wavelength of light also happens to be the one emitted by mercury lights (which make up many street lights). However, it doesn't cut out the sodium lights so you still have some sky glow to contend with, just less of it. By playing with your image in your favorite post-processing software you can somewhat notch this now dominant red light out as well. It is an imperfect solution but it gets you a little better than half way there.
Last week I went up to my favorite spot for photographing lightning while a storm was rolling in around 2 AM to try to get some lighting shots. There was too much fog to get good photos of the lightning but I had brought along my Intensifier filters so I decided to give them a whirl and see how much sky glow they eliminated in what amounts to a tricky lighting situation. See, the thing about fog is that it refracts light around all over the place, which is why its hard to see when you are driving at night in the fog. The light from your headlights ends up creating a big bright cloud in front of you. Much the same thing happens with city lights on a foggy night.
Below are two exposures taken back to back (each at f/10 ISO 100 for 30 seconds). The first is without the filter the second is with it. You can see that the filter cleans up a lot of the haze in the image but it does make everything look pretty red. The top image in this post was further toyed with in Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and Nik Dfine 2 to try to bring out some contrast and detail. The image was also processed with Aperture to tone down the saturation of the red tones that the Intensifier left behind. I also bushed out some of the more obvious blue shades that show up when you start taking the red spectrum out of the image.
Anyway, I didn't get any lightning photos but the clouds ended up looking pretty interested and foreboding and the whole scene was generally improved by the addition of the Hoya Intensifier (didymium) filter.
So, if any of you astrophotography folks out there were wondering what this filter did in pretty much the worst possible shooting conditions, you can now see for yourself.
And just for fun, here is a version I edited further in Nik's Snapseed on my iPad.
Check out more at my blog, Lemons and Beans, for lots of photos, recipes, travel writing and other ramblings. I appreciate any feedback but, please do not post graphic awards or invitations in the comments, I'm just not crazy about them. Also, if you want to use any of my Commercial Commons licensed photos please link the attribution back to my blog (listed above) and use my full name, Frank McMains. Thanks! Sorry, but you have to pay to use fully copyright protected photos.
Austin skyglow to the SE limited exposure time. The nova was still visible with averted eyesight in the skyglow. It shows up nicely in binoculars or camera.
A rework of the stack taken on June 13-14, 2012. I created more temperature matched darks with the cooled camera. Only set left from the old library is the 14C. If I ever get enough of those to try again, I may revisit this data. At this point, because of the flaws in the lights, I think I'm finished with this target for the season.
Restacked in DSS 3.3.3 beta 47 with best 85% filter applied. This gives 24 lights that are "better" even with the light leaks. Focus is not perfect on several of the lights so that's what I hoped to remove with the 85% setting.
As before, this is a stack of images of the M57 region as taken through an Orion 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain telescope with a full-spectrum modified Pentax K10D camera. The camera is further modified with a peltier device to cool hot spots on the body to help keep thermal noise to a minimum. Baader Moon and Skyglow filter used to control some LP. Lights are 10 minutes at 400 ISO. Guiding done via SSAG on Orion ST80 on Losmandy GM8 mount. Off center position because of slop in the DEC axis.
After stacked, I brought the FIT into PI where I ran deconvolution, then DBE, then 200x iterations of masked stretches, then a few rounds of curves, then ACDNR. Final step of solving and annotating before exporting to LR 3.
Image Plate Solver script version 1.51
==================================================
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+0.000024753523 +0.000225118281 -0.276562916275
-0.000225158051 +0.000024794168 +0.373793262939
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 0.815 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -96.275 deg
Focal ............. 1366.01 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 48' 13.0" x 28' 5.4"
Image center ...... RA: 18 53 23.321 Dec: +32 56 18.56
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 18 52 03.895 Dec: +33 18 42.66
top-right ...... RA: 18 52 29.604 Dec: +32 30 47.68
bottom-left .... RA: 18 54 17.557 Dec: +33 21 47.99
bottom-right ... RA: 18 54 42.078 Dec: +32 33 51.34
Light time: 60 x 300 sec.
Telescope: Orion EON 130 mm ED
Field flattener: Orion 3"
Guide scope: William Optics UniGuide 50 mm
Camera: ZWO ASI071Pro
Filter: Orion SkyGlow
Guide camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini
Mount: iOptron CEM60
ASIAIR PRO
Software: PixInsight; Adobe Lightroom
Location: inner city backyard
The Moon and Venus in this mornings sky 03/28/22. Mars and Saturn were also present but I got up a little late and the dawn sky had already brightened enough that they were lost in skyglow.
Imaging telescope or lens:Explore Scientific 102mm ED CF APO triplet ED 102 CF
Imaging camera:Altair Hypercam 183C
Mount:iOptron iEQ30 Pro iOptron
Guiding telescope or lens:Starwave 50mm guidscope Starwave
Guiding camera:Altair Astro GP Cam 130 mono Altair
Focal reducer:Altair Lightwave 0.8 Reducer/Flattener Altair Lightwave
Software:Stellarium, StellaiumScope Stellarium, FITS Liberator 3.0, PHD2 2.6.4, APT - Astro Photography Tool APT 2.43, DeepSkyStacker (DSS) Deepskystacker 3.3.2, Photoshop CC 2017 Photoshop
Filter:Badaar Moon and SkyGlow Badaar
Resolution: 3163x2678
Date: Sept. 27, 2018
Time: 06:18
Frames: 60
Locations: Home Observatory, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Data source: Backyard
Light time: 78 min
Telescope: Orion EON 130 mm ED
Field flattener: Orion 3"
Guide scope: William Optics UniGuide 50 mm
Camera: ZWO ASI071Pro
Filter: Orion SkyGlow
Guide camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini
Mount: iOptron CEM60
ASIAIR PRO
Software: PixInsight; Adobe Lightroom
Location: inner city backyard
12/2/2010
First real attempt at this galaxy...have to revisit!
55x180 Sec
Modded Canon 450D
AT72ED
Orion Skyglow LPF
Much better opportunity to photograph the comet after last night's practice round. This time I had the GPS unit that rotates the camera's sensor such that it follows the subject at the same angular velocity as the earth's rotation. This allowed a much longer exposure of 30 seconds at base ISO. The comet is still spewing vast amounts of dust from its nucleus even though it is now exiting the asteroid belt on its way toward Mars. The star to the left of the comet is visual magnitude 8.0 so it is still much brighter than that. The faintest stars in this frame are about visual magnitude 12. The comet was low enough in the sky to be buried in the skyglow over Prince George. As well, there was thin high cloud drifting over from the northwest. I had to adjust the black point and kill the awful purple shade of the skyglow to get this image even half decent. As the comet continues on its trajectory, it will be moving into darker skies so even though it will continue to fade, there should be better opportunites to have it set against much blacker skies. March 23, 2013.
M27 with data from about 4 more nights of testing in June.
Again, 10 minute subs at 400 ISO. Taken in Menlo Park, CA - deep in a red zone.
Total stack was: 51 lights (best 80% out of 64), 144 Darks, 58 Flat Frames, 22 Dark Flats ,199 Offset/bias, 6 groups based on temperatures from 12C to 17C.
Stacked with DSS 3.3.3 beta 47 with 2x drizzle on a custom frame. Processed with PI using DBE, Masked Stretch, and Histograpm stretch. Couldn't get the plate solve to work.
Camera used: Full spectrum modified Pentax K10D cooled with external peltier device, Baader Moon and Skyglow filter used.
Telescope: Orion 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain (f12)
Mount: Losmandy GM8
Given that I was having a lot of challenges with tracking on this set of data, I'm surprised that I got anything good from them. There are still oblong stars, but it's good for now.
This is a companion image to one I posted a while back (www.flickr.com/photos/jwvraets/15396148899/ ) of a derelict tractor sitting along old Highway 8 at the West end of the town of Grimsby, Ontario. I took this after locating it in the dark, surprisingly not an easy task it turned out, in spite of the easy to get to location. Aside from the obvious time of day difference, you may notice that an orange snow-fence has been installed to help minimize the effects of drifting snow on the road immediately behind the camera. The orange sky-glow is compliments of the extensive sodium vapour lighting used in the adjacent amalgamated City of Hamilton (Grimsby has changed over to LED street lights and now produces very minimal sky-glow, at least in the orange colour range). The gnarled trees behind the snow-fence are fruit trees which have been shaped to ease picking, although it appears years of neglect seem to be taking there toll. The ridge in the background is the Niagara Escarpment. A first attempt at light painting. More to come. - JW
Date Taken: 2014-11-11
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D7100 fitted with a Nikkor 18-105mm VR lense set to 18mm, ISO100, Manual mode, f/5.6, 30 seconds, IR shutter release, high-intensity LED flashlight for light source. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee: open up shadows slightly, apply highlight recovery, boost black level, slight increase to vibrance, apply noise reduction, sharpen. PP in free Open Source GIMP: tame the blue area between the tractor seat and the rear wheel by selecting the area and reducing saturation in the blue channel, reduce red channel saturation slightly overall, adjust overall colour balance to reduce slight blue cast from the flashlight, sharpen, ad fine black and white frame, add bar and text on left, scale to 1800 wide for posting.
M27 as seen overnight on June 18, 2012. I continued my efforts to improve my technique for guiding while the telescope is set up in the back yard.
For this evening's experiments, I added an additional counterweight to the system - giving 5 lbs on the string. This has the effect of giving a stronger east bias. I was hoping that this would eliminate the RA drift problems I've seen. It seems to work well - the only real drift is in DEC.
Also, what I did prior to this shot was tighten up the DEC axis. I inserted a single belleville washer on the axis of the worm gear to assist in taking up lateral play. The effect is that DEC is now much tighter without having to bind on the ring gear. The washer will provide a small amount of spring to the system to act as a pre-load for system as well.
What I did not do was limit Maxim to only guiding in one direction in DEC. I've done this with PHD quite a bit but in this case, I was trying to figure out if the Maxim stiction and backlash settings were enough to fix the problem.
This is a stack of 31 lights on this target. Individual lights are 10 minutes at 400 ISO. Captured with a full spectrum mod Pentax K10D camera with the Baader Moon and Skyglow filter. Scope used was the Orion 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain. Guided with Maxim with the SSAG on a ST80 all on a Losmandy GM8. These are all from one night. Meridian flip was at about 2 am time and I let it keep running until I got up in the morning.
Stacked in DSS from a collection of 39 total lights with 85% kept. I did a 2x custom frame. I thought it might show some of the local detail better. Not sure if it worked well. Maybe a drizzle would have been good since there are so many lights.
In PI: DBE, Masked Stretch, a run of curves, and ACDNR used to try to improve the image. There's a lot of brown in the background - mostly because of being in the city. I may have pushed this processing a little bit too far given the heavy local light pollution.
Image Plate Solver script version 1.51
============================
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
-0.000022742430 +0.000210832794 -0.115733286451
-0.000210969707 -0.000022616320 +0.220275140133
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 0.764 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -83.842 deg
Focal ............. 1458.61 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 24' 47.5" x 16' 38.8"
Image center ...... RA: 19 59 39.826 Dec: +22 43 07.21
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 19 59 09.665 Dec: +22 56 20.02
top-right ...... RA: 19 58 58.245 Dec: +22 31 40.38
bottom-left .... RA: 20 00 21.523 Dec: +22 54 33.36
bottom-right ... RA: 20 00 09.890 Dec: +22 29 54.04
A nice area in Cepheus with lots of object to discover
IC1393 July 31, 2024
Askar FMA180mm f4.5 Canon 6Da 85x75s ISO800 Baader Moon & Skyglow filter Star Adventurer GTi (tracking) darks flats
good transparency medium seeing SQM 19.01 20°C
Friday, 10 July 2009
Toronto
[From the only completed roll of Kodachrome shot with my Asahi Pentax H2 and 50mm Super-Takumar f/1.4 lens before it, along with my F-801s, were ripped off by the person (or people) in Montréal who wouldn't know what to do with them.]
Kodachrome Toronto registry: KT2011001
[image #16–20]
Have your own ‘‘Forever Kodachrome: 1935-2010’’ button pin
This is an image of Messier object 1, the Crab Nebula. Taken as a part of a test done in the back yard to check the way the PEC was working on the mount. I was also testing to see how well double stacking the Baader UV/IR filter with the Moon and Skyglow filter would work to give tighter stars.
I was pleased with the results of the double stack when using it on the SV4 refractor. On the Mak, it gave better results than expected. I was able to get better looking diffraction spikes for focus so it helped ensure good stars.
The stack is the result of 10 subs of 10 minutes each at 400 ISO using the full spectrum modified Pentax K10D camera on the 127mm Orion Maksutov Cassegrain operating at F13.1.
Only after taking these pictures and then looking at them a day or so later did I realize that there was something moving in the frames. It required a bit of work, but I believe that the object is identified in this list from the Minor Planet Checker:
Object (33078) 1997 WN35 RA 05 34 23.2 DEC +22 20 36 Magnitude 19.9 Motion in Arcsecs/Hr: RA 76+ DEC 0-
The finding of this object in the data meant that I had to get something out of the stack, which meant that I would work it over via trial and error.
Data was calibrated in Maxim using 77 darks, 15 flats, 256 bias. I had some flawed darks so I spent a long time chasing the errors. Stacking was done in DSS. Processing in PixInsight for DBE, background calibration, masked stretch, A Trous wavelets for de noise and sharpening, and a few more curve/histogram stretches before annotation. TIF files exported and then passed through LR3 for publish.
Here's the platesolve results:
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+0.000009000243 +0.000208674202 -0.283327255590
-0.000208561976 +0.000008951188 +0.388714444083
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 0.752 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -92.479 deg
Focal ............. 1665.55 mm
Pixel size ........ 6.07 um
Field of view ..... 48' 4.3" x 31' 56.9"
Image center ...... RA: 05 34 32.519 Dec: +21 59 10.01
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 05 33 18.987 Dec: +22 22 28.32
top-right ...... RA: 05 33 28.313 Dec: +21 34 27.73
bottom-left .... RA: 05 35 37.099 Dec: +22 23 50.72
bottom-right ... RA: 05 35 45.650 Dec: +21 35 49.67
Acquisition details:
OTA: Celestron 10" f/4.7 newtonian reflector, C10N
Filter: Orion Skyglow Imaging Filter
Corrector: MPCC
Mount: Celestron CGEM DX
Camera: Canon 450d mod BCF, 68°F
Exposure: 50x2min ISO 800
Guided with PHD, SSAG, Orion 50mm guide scope
Captured with BackyardEOS
Registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker
Photographed from Round Rock TX (Orange zone)
Well the Astronomik CLS clip filter works :-) This was in the skyglow above central Manchester. 14x2min subs. ISO1600. 200mm Super Takumar f4. Modified Canon 1100d. Vixen Polarie tracking mount.
10 shoot canon 1000D , 100 iso , 0,001 sec , filter baader skyglow
iris , photoshop cc
1 st planetary image
Acquisition details:
OTA: Celestron 10" f/4.7 newtonian reflector, C10N
Filter: Orion Skyglow Imaging filter
Corrector: MPCC
Mount: Celestron CGEM DX
Camera: Canon 450d mod BCF, 70°F
Exposure: 40x2min ISO 800
Guided with PHD, SSAG, Orion 50mm guide scope
Captured with BackyardEOS
Registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker
Photographed from Round Rock TX (Orange zone)
That's a lot of galaxies...
Constellation: Perseus (Per) · Contains: IC 312 · NGC 1259 · NGC 1260 · NGC 1264 · NGC 1267 · NGC 1268 · NGC 1270 · NGC 1271 · NGC 1272 · NGC 1273 · NGC 1274 · NGC 1275 · NGC 1277 · NGC 1278 · NGC 1281 · NGC 1282 · NGC 1283 · NGC 1293 · NGC 1294 · Perseus A
Equipment
Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses
Meade Starfinder 8 f/6 Newtonian OTA
Imaging Cameras
ZWO ASI1600MM
Mounts
Losmandy GM8 / GM8G
Filters
Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglow 2" · Meade Blue 2" · Meade Green 2" · Meade Red 2"
Accessories
Baader 2" MPCC Mark III Newton Coma Corrector (2458400A) · OnStep Telescope Mount Goto Controller
Software
Adobe Photoshop · Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP) · Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)
Acquisition details
Frames:
Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglow 2": 141×180″(7h 3′)
Meade Blue 2": 60×60″(1h)
Meade Green 2": 60×60″(1h)
Meade Red 2": 60×60″(1h)
Integration:
10h 3′
RA center: 03h19m17s.0
DEC center: +41°30′18″
Pixel scale: 0.641 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 109.550 degrees
Field radius: 0.511 degrees
Find images in the same area
Resolution: 3489x4562
File size: 9.2 MB
Data source: Backyard
Jamie Eke, 23
"We are losing touch with the night sky thanks to poorly directed artificial light sources creating 'skyglow' over urban areas. A recent star count revealed that 53% of Brits failed to see more than 10 stars in the Orion constellation.
This interactive poster comprises a series of tabs cut from an A2 sheet of gloss coated black card - the image visible depends upon the angle at which light is reflected. With a light fixture aimed from above the poster at the correct beam angle of 70°, the Orion constellation as seen from dark skies is revealed; with the light aimed upward at the opposite angle (the cause of skyglow saturating our night skies), a map of UK light pollution can be seen. This piece therefore aims to instil a sense of the impact of this form of pollution, what could be and the power we have to bring about change."
- www.kevin-palmer.com - in the southeast corner of Banner Marsh there is a short levee. After hiking out here and discovering a lighthouse, I took this picture just beyond it. There are a lot of industrial plants around here and they each give off light pollution that is highlighted by the clouds.
Used a cooled, full spectrum modified Pentax K10D camera with Baader Moon and Skyglow filter. Scope used was the Orion 127 Maksutov Cassegrain 1540mm fl F12.1.
Stacked using DSS 3.3.3 beta 45 with 29 temperature matched darks (although the darks used were not from the cooled camera - they were from previous work with the camera in the fridge). 12 extremely cold (-5c) darks used as bias to help control non-linear amp glow.
Processed with PI with DBE, masked stretch, and ACDNR. Used the annotation script as well. Exported to TIFF and then to LR3 to white balance and upload.
Taken in the backyard so the light pollution adds a lot of brown to the background.
Still, I'm rather happy with how this has turned out. Focus was not as good as it could be, also, I could see drift in DEC in the original source files.
Image Plate Solver script version 1.51
Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):
+0.000024478698 +0.000225114142 -0.221295011923
-0.000225153907 +0.000024424294 +0.311314360456
+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000
Resolution ........ 0.815 arcsec/pix
Rotation .......... -96.193 deg
Focal ............. 1366.25 mm
Pixel size ........ 5.40 um
Field of view ..... 40' 0.1" x 22' 21.9"
Image center ...... RA: 18 53 38.842 Dec: +32 52 32.44
Image bounds:
top-left ....... RA: 18 52 35.379 Dec: +33 11 12.19
top-right ...... RA: 18 52 56.364 Dec: +32 31 26.51
bottom-left .... RA: 18 54 21.658 Dec: +33 13 37.46
bottom-right ... RA: 18 54 41.860 Dec: +32 33 50.70
Hello. I am submitting the picture of Eros taken today, and calibrated with
Astrometry.net, from which I have just submitted the position of Eros from
the on-line form.
The image is a crop of the original, which failed to be calibrated either
in the Easy and Advanced forms. This crop calibrated well, as checked. I
also darkened the skyglow, but I don't know if it was necessary for
Astrometry. I took 2 pictures, 20 minutes apart, and the movement of Eros
is easily discernible.
I had a problem when following your instructions with Astrometry. The
Dashboard didn't provide me with the fits image you mention. Just the WCS
fits file and the Google Sky kmz. The wcs fits didn't load in DS9, but I
could read the coordinates in Google Sky, which loaded my image correctly
registered. I hope that's OK.
Camera: Canon T1i, tripod mounted
Lens: Canon 100 mm telephoto
Exposure: 5 sec @f/2 (ISO 3200)
Visibility: Good, urban
Thanks, it was thrilling. Isn't it incredible that I could take this photo
with a consumer camera, tripod mounted, 5 seconds exposure? And calibrate
it in minutes with such precision, half a world away? What would the
astronomer of 1931 think of our technology? I will repeat it tonight.
Regards,
Guillermo
Milky Way (our galaxy) taken from far outside the city of Tucson, AZ. 180 seconds at ISO800, f/3.5. Redid the levels to add a little more brightness.
The bright orange light in the lower left is light pollution coming from Tucson.
Equipment
Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses
Apertura 6" f/5 Imaging Newtonian
Imaging Cameras
ZWO ASI1600MM
Mounts
Vixen GPDX
Filters
Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglow 2" · Meade Blue 2" · Meade Red 2"
Accessories
GSO 2" Photo-Visual Coma Corrector · OnStep Telescope Mount Goto Controller
Software
Adobe Photoshop · Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP) · Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)
Acquisition details
Dates:
Feb. 24, 2021 · March 28, 2023
Frames:
296×120″(9h 52′)
Integration:
9h 52′
Avg. Moon age:
9.31 days
Avg. Moon phase:
67.22%
Basic astrometry details
Astrometry.net job: 7445293
RA center: 14h02m50s.4
DEC center: +54°19′58″
Pixel scale: 0.925 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 292.620 degrees
Field radius: 0.733 degrees
Find images in the same area
Resolution: 3433x4564
File size: 10.5 MB
Data source: Backyard
This shot composed of 20-two minute exposures, ISO 250, f5.6, stacked, Nikon D70. I am getting closer to the results that I am looking for and having a lot of fun in the process.
I took this in the pasture behind my house. The skyglow in the lower right is Mabank. I did catch a plane in the shot, going to DFW I would assume. The cows didn't come up and investigate, which is almost unheard of.
The invisible man emerges from the monument... Light painting at the Tatton Sykes monument in Yorkshire (UK). Another fun joint effort with Mark (@mkratty), Paul (@Moose Malloy), and Tom Mumby. Illumination by two gelled flash units, torches, and a "toy" LED-powered umbrella shaft! All done in a single 3-minute exposure, with low cloud and drizzle to provide the skyglow!
Sunset over Los Angeles. Taken from Mount Wilson Observatory 2015. Photo by Harun Mehmedinovic / Gavin Heffernan - www.SkyglowProject.com
This image is copyrighted and all rights reserved. It may not be used in any form without my permission. This image may be used in flickr galleries. This image is available for licensing. It may not be used for free.
This is an image from a single exposure processed in Photoshop CS5. Compare the differences in the HDR image.
The orange band is an afterglow or sky-glow opposite the setting sun that is caused by the scattering of light by very small particles in the atmosphere. The blue band is Earth's shadow (also sometimes known as the dark segment) and is caused by the shadow that the Earth casts on its atmosphere.
The winter constellation of Orion rises behind a tree at The Narth, Monmouthshire, Wales. Sky-glow from Coleford, across the border in Gloucestershire, England, helps to silhouette a foreground tree. Without the glow we would see many more stars but maybe not the tree.
For non astronomers the bright star top left of Orion is the orange-coloured supergiant, Betelgeuse and the bright white star, bottom right, is Rigel. The three stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, form Orion's belt.
There's nothing special about my images, especially when compared to the amazing stuff other people create, except for a couple of things; I use a bog-standard 135mm lens and single exposures. No stacking, no expensive CCDs, no expensive filters, no big telescopes, no long journeys to remote dark places. So, anyone with a limited budget and limited time (the biggest factor I find) can do what I do.
Picked up a Bahtinov mask to help with focusing. It's fantastically better at helping to determine when things are properly focused.
This is the same star (Betelgeuse), left to right is underfocus, correct, overfocus. Or what you'd see by turning the focus knob 5-10 degrees clockwise.
(The colorful dashing of the diffraction spikes here is partially the result of having a skyglow / light-pollution filter in the stack.)
Taken on September 12-13, 2010 at Henry Coe State Park.
Pentax K10D camera - 800 ISO, Noise Reduction turned off.
Stellarvue SV4 telescope with flattener at prime focus
Baader Moon and Skyglow filter
Guiding with Stellarvue ED70 with Orion Starshoot Autoguider.
A stack of 12 light frames at 10 minutes 800 ISO done by DSS as a 2002 pixel square crop via a custom frame to remove the annoying amp glow at the edges of the frame. The only PP was done via an auto stretch in AIP4WIN. I'm sure that I could do more processing, but I'm happy enough with this result. I will need to do some more reading on what I can do with the software before going back to it.
Something to note: Using PhotoMe software, I can see that the camera temperature ranged from 18C to 25C over the course of the session. I'm still not sure what to do about darks, as it seems the amp glow is always present, even after DSS is finished.
I have made a different image from this data with a custom rectangle on the nebula. See it here.
Despite appearances, this is neither a sunset nor a sunrise. It's a long exposure taken in near darkness at 10:15pm. What looks like the sun is actually a security light by the Jodrell Bank visitor centre. The orange glow in the sky is down to that and good old light pollution - I just didn't correct the white balance as I like this one just the way it is. :)
The round structure peeking out from behind the trees is the magnificent Lovell Telescope, built in 1955 at which time it was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world (now the third largest).
This galaxy in Coma Berenices was positioned well in the past few weeks for imaging from my yard. NGC 4725 is about 40 million light years away, and is considered unusual for its single spiral arm, which shows well in dark sky images but is a bit too faint to fully emerge from the NY skyglow. A supermassive black hole is believed to be at the center of the yellowish core making this a "Seyfert" galaxy. My small telescope did pick up the brighter detail in the first ring of the spiral which forms an interesting eye-shaped image. The small galaxy toward the right-hand (west) edge of the image is NGC 4712, and various websites place this galaxy's distance at over 200 million light years!
Tech Stuff: 3.5" Questar scope guided by SBIG ST-i Guider using PHD 2. Image captured in Nebulosity 4.0 with Starlight Xpress Trius SX-9C cooled cam behind a Questar .5X focal reducer, at approximately f/9. 48X5 minute exposures from 4 nights stacked and processed in PixInsight; lightly finished with GIMP. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.