Testing for Solar Eclipse 2017, August 21 - Tellico Plains, Tennessee

"Whenever we want to watch an eclipse of the Sun 

we set out basins filled with oil or pitch, 

because the heavy liquid is not easily disturbed 

and so preserves the images it receives."

-- Seneca (Roman, 1st century AD)

There are some some photos which I did before solar eclipse, just for testing,  Canon 60Da,  Celestron Nexstar 4SE, Coronado SolarMax II 60.

Waiting Total Solar Eclipse 2017 - Celestron Nexstar 4SE Canon 60Da

Cloudy Sun - Celestron Nexstar 4SE Canon 60Da - Testing for Solar Eclipse 2017

H Alpha Sun - Coronado SolarMax II 60 Canon 60Da - Testing for Solar Eclipse 2017

Single Sunspot Astrophotography - Celestron 4SE Canon 60Da - Testing for Solar Eclipse 2017

Perfect Sun without Sunspots - Coronado SolarMax II 60 Canon 60Da - Testing for Solar Eclipse 2017 

Balanced Rock Arches National Park Utah Night Landscape Astrophotography

Balanced Rock is one of example of erosion. Absolutely not understandable how it still keeping balance! Even you see it during day it is amazing, but at night it looks fantastic! These photos were done during my trip to Arches National Park.

Balanced Rock, Milky Way and drama of clouds on the sky. Canon 60Da, EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 25.0 sec; f/2.8; ISO 6400

Balanced Rock and Milky Way Arches National Park Utah Night Landscape Astrophotography

Airglow and Balanced Rock.The natural moonless night sky is dark but not black; it is not even blue (no scattering light from sun and moon). Earth atmosphere generates green, red, orange, yellow light- Airglow! All these doing Arches national park is one of the best place for astroscape photography. Canon 60Da, EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 25.0 sec; f/2.8; ISO 6400

Airglow and Balanced Rock - Arches National Park Utah Night Landscape Astrophotography

Peru Astrophotography

Finally, my dream happens and I was able to see south sky – Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri, Large Magellanic Cloud etc. These photos were done during my trip to Peru, Central Andes, near Inca sacred valley and Cusco city - Chinchero village. I had limited time for astrophotography during shopping time of our women. Altitude is about 3,762 m or 12,339 ft. At such altitude the sky absolutely amazing! You really feel that stars are much closer.  

Canon EOS 60Da,  EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens, ISO-4000, f/2.8, 30 seconds. on this photo you can see Alpha Centauri which is the closest star to the Sun, just 4.37 light-years. Thinking about next vacation :)

Peru Astrophotography - Milky Way and Alpha Centauri

  

Canon EOS 60Da,  EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens, ISO-4000, f/2.8, 30 seconds. Peru is on South hemisphere and on the photo you can find the south pole (3 1/2 times the distance between Gacrux and Acrux).

Southern Cross (Crux constellation), Milky Way and and Alpha Centauri - Peru Astrophotography

Canon EOS 60Da,  EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens, ISO-4000, f/2.8, 6 seconds.

Orion under Central Andes Mountains - Chinchero city - Peru Astrophotography

Canon EOS 60Da,  EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens, ISO-4000, f/2.8, 30 seconds.

Jupiter - Peru Astrophotography

Large Magellanic Cloud Southern Cross - Peru Annotated Astrophotography

There is one more photo which I did in Cusco Planetarium

Peru Cusco Planetarium - Night Sky View

Green Sky Utah Airglow Astrophotography Canon 60Da

The sky is green, the night is dark - as simple as possible. This photo was done at Bryce Canyon, Utah. Canon 60Da, EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 30.0 sec; f/3.5; ISO 6400

Green Sky Utah Airglow Astrophotography Canon 60Da

The natural moonless night sky is dark but not black; it is not even blue (no scattering light from sun and moon). Earth atmosphere  emits green, red, orange, yellow light- Airglow!

About 60% of the natural brightness of the night sky at zenith is made up of Airglow. Maximum brightest usually appears at about 10-15 degrees above the horizon, because of the greater the depth of atmosphere at this angle. Airglow is not always uniform. Gravity waves may create considerable variation of Airglow brightness.

You can see Airglow only in real dark sky, but naked eye could not recognize colors. Photos with long exposure able get the colors of Airglow.

The usually dominant color of airglow is green originated from molecular oxygen at 90 to 100 km high. Orange and reddish hue caused by atomic oxygen in 150-300 km above the ground, Yellow light comes from sodium atoms in a layer at about 90 km.

Top 10 amateur astrophotography targets

There is my list of top 10 objects for beginners in astrophotography

1.    Milky Way
2.    Northern Lights and airglow and bioluminescence
3.    Star trails and/or photography of meteor shower
4.    Zodiacal Light
5.    Moon
6.    Sun
7.    Saturn
8.    Jupiter
9.    Solar Eclipse
10.   Lunar Eclipse

Milky Way View From Earth - Yellowstone

Night Scape Astrophotography Award Astronomyforum.net 3rd Quarter 2014

StarTalk radio chose my photo - Grand Teton Milky Way

Universe Today posted my image Yellowstone Astrophotography

Yellowstone Astrophotography photo was couple of days in Google News

NYC Solar eclipse photo was chosen by Yahoo news as Best-of Flickr week photo

Canon 60Da Star Trail Astrophotography

Star Trails - Canon 60Da, Canon Lens EF 16 35mm f2.8L II U, Fixed Tripod, Dew Heater, 37 images - Exposure time 2 min , ISO 400, Aperture F4.0. Post-processing: StarStax and Photoshop, Star Spikes filter

Canon 60Da Star Trail Astrophotography - Upstate New York

For last image I used the Star Spikes filter.

StarSpikes Pro for Startrails

StarStax - Startrails

 From image easy to see that stars have counterclockwise direction of rotation. Our watch hands do not follow the star rotation direction; its follow the rotation direction of shadow of Sun. The shadow has the opposite direction to sky rotation. Even simple astro photo has a lot staff behind the scenes. This is why I like astrophotography.

Removing Light pollution Astrophotography Urban Astronomy

The moon and the stars no longer come to the farm. The farmer has exchanged his birthright in them for the wattage of his all-night sun. His children will never know the blessed dark of night.

 — Leslie Peltier in his autobiography

Comparison of original image and final one after removing of the light pollution – night photo of Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California.

Light pollution Astrophotography Urban Astronomy

Photoshop instruction:

Step1: Select the Layers panel and then  duplicate the layer
Step 2: Filter -> Noise -> Median… (about 50 px)
Step 3: Filter-> Blue -> Gaussian Blue… (about 30px)
Step 4: Select original layer
Step 5: Image -> Apply image (Blending: Subtract; Offset: 40)
Step 6: Delete the duplicate layer

See for example video in my other post Comet 103P/Hartley 2 from New York City

Note, that Astronomy Tools has more sophisticated methods to remove light pollution, or you can do some variations of such methods (it depends from size of you original image). You also can apply it only for part of original image.

The other way to remove light pollution is using multiple images, see for example my other post M42 Orion Nebula using iOptron SkyTracker in NYC

Coronado SolarMax II 60 NexImage5

Sun 2013-10-26
Coronado SolarMax II 60,
NexImage 5 ccd,
Nexstar 4SE mount,
Two Barlows 2x each (Total x4),
Registax, Photoshop
Two Colors

NexImage 5, Coronado SolarMax II 60, Nexstar 4SE

NexImage 5 Coronado SolarMax II 60

Sun 2013-10-26
Coronado SolarMax II 60,
NexImage 5 ccd,
Nexstar 4SE mount,
Barlow 2x,
Registax, Photoshop - false color

Coronado SolarMax II 60 NexImage 5

Telescope Coronado SolarMax II 60, Celestron NexStar 4SE Computerized Mount and NexImage5

Coronado SolarMax II 60 Telescope Sun Photo

Why didn't the sun go to college?
(Because it already had a thousand degrees!)

First attempt of Sun photo using Coronado SolarMax II 60 Telescope

Coronado SolarMax II 60 Sun Photo NexImage

Coronado SolarMax Photo

Coronado SolarMax II 60 telescope; NexImage: about 1min and 600 frames; Registax; Photoshop: Filter-Sharpen-SmartSharpen and Color; 6/15/2013

Coronado SolarMax

Coronado SolarMax

Backyard Astronomy - Astrophotography Celestron NexStar 4se

Backyard Astronomy - Astrophotography Celestron
NexStar 4se telescope
Canon EOS 40D and T-Adapter-C90 and Barlow T-Adapter 1 1/4 inches and T-ring for Canon EOS
Celestron 4se telescope with T-Adapter-C90 (93635-A) and Canon EOS 40D
Celestron 4se telescope with Barlow t-Adapter 1 1/4 inches (93640) and Canon EOS 40D
Celestron 4se with Barlow t-Adapter 1 1/4 inches (93640), Erect Image Diagonal (94116) and Canon EOS 40D
Photos of the Moon and the Sun
Celestron NexStar 4se telescope NexImage CCD
Jupiter photos
Piggy-Back Camera Mount for Celestron NexStar 4 telescope (Item# BRKTPIG4)
The Green Comet 103P/Hartley 2 (2010)

 

Moon Celestron 4SE Canon 40D Astronomy Brooklyn Astrophotography

Celestron NexStar 4SE Canon 40D Live View Sun astrophotography

Video shows how Live View on Canon EOS 40D's works.
Celestron NexStar 4SE, Canon 40D Live view and astro-photography of the Sun October 2, 2010
Sunspot 1109 is big but quiet. It poses little threat for strong solar flares.

Celestron Solar Filter for NexStar 4 SE and Celestron 4SE, Brooklyn NYC Astronomy

Astrophotography NYC - Celestron 4SE and Canon 40D

Sunspot - Solar Activity - Celestron 4SE -Brooklyn Astrophotography