Observers at the Edge

Here's an image of my posse at the recent trip to Lassen Natl. Park.  Beset by smoke and clouds for days we were treated to an exceptional sky on our last night.  From this vantage point in the parking lot it looked like we were perched at the edge of the earth - looking out into the vastness of space.  The Milky Way had that sugary texture one sees in very dark skies.  Inky dark lanes run throughout.  So remarkable to us and yet only a few generations past were skies like this commonplace for most peoples on earth.

The "teapot" pouring star clouds right down the barrel of that Schmidt-Cassegrain

Two observers using the large Schmidt-Cass (one at scope, the other hidden at right using charts).  One imager huddled over laptop with his refractor illuminated by the glow of red LEDs.  My gear is hidden in the background but you can see my laptop silhouetted against the horizon.

We often have to remind each other to take our eyes off our equipment and just - look.  All too rare and never enough time to let the experience soak in.  That's why we have to go out and do it again.  And again.

Observers at the Edge

Taken at Bumpass Hell parking lot, Lassen Natl. Park,   August 18, 2012
Canon T2i (stock), Canon EF-L 24 mm @f2.0
Manfroto Tripod (stationary), set inches off the ground
Composite of two frames, one focused on stars, one on foreground

Each exposure 10s @ ISO 3200

vignetting and lens correction in Lightroom 4
Composited in Photoshop

final adjustments and noise reduction in Pixinsight

Star Fire

A dark sky outing with friends to Lassen National Park in Northern California was hampered by two large forest fires in the area.  For multiple nights we dodged smoke and clouds for a glimpse through to some of the darkest skies California has to offer.  Finally on Saturday night, August 18, the smoke and clouds had abated and we drove up to the Bumpass Hell parking lot full of anticipation for a night of imaging and observing.

As we entered the Park an ominous white cloud billowed high in the West.  A new fire had started from a lightning strike only a few hours earlier.  As darkness fell the eerie glow would presage the dangerous fire that it would become over the next 48hrs.

The conjunction of Mars, Saturn and Spica (lower left) in the fiery glow of the Ponderosa Fire.  

Click on either image for a larger version where you can toggle the annotation.

The Ponderosa fire is still burning - nearing 25,000 acres with up to 50 homes and structures burned.  Evacuation warnings have gone out to the little town of Mineral where we stayed.

The fire glow over the ridge died down with the coming of night and we enjoyed a nearly perfect night of observing.  It was a very narrow window as I am sure the smoke from this fire has darkened the skies over Lassen again.

Star Fire

Taken at Bumpass Hell parking lot, Lassen Natl. Park,   August 18, 2012
Canon T2i (stock), Canon EF24 mm f1.8
Manfroto Tripod (stationary)
Mosaic of 4 frames, each 8 sec exposures @ ISO1600

no dark or flat subtraction
vignetting and lens correction in Lightroom 4
frame stitching in PTGui Pro

final adjustments and noise reduction in Pixinsight

Pleiades Rising

Trying to make the best of a trip to New Mexico during the full moon and monsoon season.  Don't get me wrong - the skies are spectacular.  I'm just haven't learned how to best capture what I'm seeing and feeling.  I have plenty more day shots that I like but haven't decided if I want to "cross the streams" on what would otherwise be a astronomy centric blog.  If I did it would increase the rate of images I post given the glacial pace of astro-imaging this year.

Here come the Pleiades again.  click to enlarge

The moon is two days shy of full and is swinging low on the horizon about 30 degrees outside of the right side frame.  The full width is about 170 degrees but the above image is a little less than that since I cropped out my shadow which was on the left side of the frame.  Only the brightest stars are visible because of the short exposure and moonlight.  You can see the Pleiades rising just above Kitchen Mesa, the large rock face in the left hand frame.

I experimented with a number of ways to capture/process this.  It is a two frame mosaic with each frame processed with 4 different exposures using Photoshop's HDR function.  I certainly do wish for more tools in the PS HDR module but at this point I don't do enough HDR to justify a specialty package.  I stitched the two frames using PTGui Pro since PS couldn't figure out how to stitch this correctly.  After that I did some final tone/exposure/noise reduction in Lightroom.

Pleiades Rising

Taken at Ghost Ranch, NM   July 31, 2012
Canon T2i (stock), Canon EF-S 10-22mm @ 10mm  f3.5
Manfroto Tripod (stationary)
two frames, each frame with 1, 2, 4, 15 sec exposures @ ISO1600

no dark or flat subtraction
vignetting and lens correction in Lightroom 4
HDR combine in Photoshop
frame stitching in PTGui Pro

final adjustments and noise reduction in Lightroom 4