It was a reasonably clear night sky yesterday evening, and in spite of the cold conditions, and the howling gale whistling through the trees at the bottom of the garden, I thought I’d seize the opportunity to do a spot of astro-photography,
The constellation of Orion is prominent in the night sky at this time of year, and so I decided to focus on the Sword of Orion just below the Belt.
The fuzzy looking star in the middle of the three prominent stars that make up the sword is the Orion Nebula, and is always a point of fascination for me.
The Orion Nebula, or M42 is approximatly1,500 light years away making it the closest known large star forming region from Earth, and is estimated to be 24 light years across.
Although my camera couldn’t hope to compete with more high end equipment, I was still pleased to see some of the red and purple hues of the star forming gas clouds.
Ad astra per aspera
Lovely stellar photography, Scoop. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThanks Arto, and the merriest of Christmases to you, and many thanks for the card too.
DeleteWow, that is amazing imagery! Stellar, in fact! SFZ
ReplyDeleteCheers Zigg. I was pleased to catch some of the colour. The downside is it's usually freezing cold when I'm taking the pictures
DeleteYou're a braver man than I. It was 10 degrees F last night in Connecticut when I was loading the car, the last thing I was prepared to do was set up a tripod and camera with snow blowing off the trees around me. Have a warm, healthy holiday Scoop.
ReplyDeleteThat's @#£%^ freezin', Terra! It was tropical here compared to to where you are. Whatever, here's hoping you have the merriest of Christmases, and all the best for the New Year!
DeleteWOW! Out of this world photos Scoop! Nicely done indeed.
ReplyDeleteCheers Ed, I imagine at Nellis there's a few opportunities to take a good night sky photo- and it'll be a bit warmer!
DeleteOne would still have to travel a bit north, passing by Nellis and leaving the Valley to get away from light pollution Scoop. Air bases are like miniature cities and they have a lot of light coming from them. I would need to go straight north out of the city, or due west into the Lake Mead Recreation Area to get decent shots. It still gets a bit chilly out here being in the upper 30's lower '40s(F) at night
DeleteSo not so good for stars then, Ed. I suppose the sight of high-tech jets flying over head is some compensation.
DeleteLovely work Scoop, do you have a telescope mount? Best I can manage is the Moon, as the light pollution near me is too harsh for stellar shots. Bill
ReplyDeleteHi Bill, All the best to you and the family.
DeleteI use a mirrorless camera with a 600mm telephoto lens fixed to a tripod. I originally used my astronomical telescope which had a camera adaptor attached to it but I was never totally happy with the results. The light pollution is always a problem, though.
Thanks Scoop, best wishes to you too! I've got a massive 800mm Russian mirror lens, but it's such a limited apeture, it's impossible to see anything at night! Great for the moon, but no chance of seeing stars!
DeleteI know what you mean, Bill. Telephoto lenses aren't the best thing for star gazing. I'm hoping to add a Nikon 14-24mm f/2 lens to my collection soon which, light pollution permitting should get me some reasonable shots of the Milky Way.
DeleteBeautiful photography Scoop. Can't believe you've snapped a gas cloud!
ReplyDelete