Narrowly Escaping Cancer (Unfortunately)

I was out last night to try to get the Constellation Cancer. It’s a bugger to aim blind and the sky was not great so I missed high. The closest I got was what’s below. The circled stars are Zubanah(Mag 4) and Asellus Borealis(mag 5) in Cancer. The green marks on the right are Castor and Pollux in Gemini and on the left are Regulus and Algieba in Leo. Probably one of the stars between Zubanah and Gemini is 18-Cnc but I’m not sure. Kind of pathetic but it’s all an education. The lower image is my reference from Stellarium. 19-04-18 Just Missed Cancer 1009

19-04-18 Cancer

Pleiades Closeup – Magnitude Limits

These were shot at ISO 6400 1/2 sec f5.6 at a zoom equivalent of 950mm. In the second image i went through and picked out in green the six bright stars and underlined some of the faintest. The highest of the underlined stars is the Sterope pair, magnitude 6.4, next lower is magnitude 8, and at the bottom left the singleton is magnitude 8.8. This gives me some hope of imaging a deep sky object in the magnitude 8 range.

19-04-15 bright pleiades 860

19-04-15 green pleiades 860

Gemini

I’m systematically capturing the constellations as I can – at least the zodiac. Gemini is high in the sky above Orion but washed out by light pollution.

The images below are from the cameras night sky video setting so they’re ISO 100, 25 second, f/2.8 exposures brightened with the windows photo tool. In the second Image I went through and put green tags on the stars – the notable ones are Castor and Pollux at the top and Alhena at the bottom left – those are all I can usually see with my naked eye.

Leo

I’m going to systematically capture the constellations – at least the Zodiac as I go through the year. I started with Leo because that’s my “sun sign”. It always seems odd to me that the zodiac constellations are assigned to the months when you can’t possibly see them – Leo is hidden behind the sun in August. But, for now, it’s high in the sky. The images below are taken at ISO 6400 1/2 sec f/2.8 no zoom so 35mm equivalent focal length 24.

Leo is one of the few constellations that I find evocative – i looks like a crouching quadruped to me. The brightest star is Regulus at the bottom right – the heart of the lion.

19-04-05 Leo 831

19-04-05 green leo 831

Concerning Light Pollution and Lasers

I live in a typical suburban neighborhood on the east side of Ottawa. My street is particularly bad with street lights everywhere. Fortunately it’s easy to drive just a few km east to get out of the worst of it. I found a hydro substation down a back road that’s just on the edge of a green zone in this map. 19-04-06 light pollution

I was thinking of getting a laser pointer to help aim the camera and i find that i am in an area where that won’t be dangerous. The red zone in this map is where transport canada prohibits them. 19-04-06 lasers

ISS Three-peat

19-04-05 ISS 840 Although it was 150km south of me over Kingston Ont the space station was very high in the sky and moving correspondingly fast. I got a couple of quick shots one of which was not awful. This was 1/2000 sec ISO 400 f/6.5 at full zoom(2000mm). I brightened it with the windows photos tool. I don’t know why we only see one set of solar panels but i’m prepared to believe it’s some sort of lighting effect.

More ISS-ing Around

No wolves last night but I caught the ISS twice just after sunset. First near Cassiopeia then near the big dipper. The space station shows up as a streak because these are long exposures. The Cassiopeia one shows more sky colour because it was nearer the setting sun.

casspass2

19-04-02 dipper pass 2

These are both extracted from timelapse/night-sky videos taken by the camera’s scene mode which means they are 25 second exposures at ISO 100 – I’m guessing f2.8 but not completely sure.

Disappearing Dippers

I remember clearly as a kid seeing the little dipper pouring into the big dipper in the night sky. Now the little dipper is just lost in the light pollution. Even in my chosen, out-of-town spot, with a long exposure it’s hard to pick out. The first image below shows pretty much what I can see – Ursa Major is clear but Ursa Minor is MIA. The second one has been brightened considerably so you can start to see the stars of the smaller dipper. In the third one i went through and painfully picked out all the classic “dipper” stars in green.

19-04-02 real dippers

19-04-02 dim dippers

DS19-04-02 green dippers

In Which I Dance With Wolves (OK Coyotes

I drove about 10KM east out of Ottawa onto an unlit rural road to try for a shot of the space station against a starscape. The neatest thing was that I could hear a pack of wolves or coyotes in the distance howling and yipping to keep me company.

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DSCN0755__RGB_Max (4)

I didn’t have my act together and i just caught a couple of frames using the cameras night sky time-lapse setting which shoots at ISO 100 f8 and turns the images into a short video. I used PIPP to split out the individual frames then rot’n’stack to combine the brightest pixels. I used the windows photos app to brighten the whole thing. The streak at the bottom of the first image is the space station clipping the bottom of Cassiopeia. The one on the left in the second one I’m calling a meteor because hey, who knows, maybe it was a meteor! I didn’t notice it at the time – only after i lightened the photo considerably.

Below is an isolated Cassiopeia that I shot at ISO 6400 1/2 sec f3.5. The camera does a much better job with the lower ISO longer exposure. 19-3-30 casseopeia 751

Imaging the Space Station!

19-3-28 ISS 19 Ok it’s not that impressive but this is, i swear to god, the ISS photographed wednesday night from a schoolyard down the street. It would have been 500 or so km away travelling 28,000 kph. the shot was taken hand-held at a bit less than full zoom, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400, f 6.3. I was following settings taken from this site which has some better samples. There are a bunch more bright passes over the next couple of weeks so i’ll keep trying.

Tonight there’s a less bright pass so i’m going to try a timelapse movie to get some sort of streak effect. I’m going to go a bit east to the edge of ottawa/cumberland to get out of the worst of the local light pollution.