UPDATE: Results of my First Wedding Shoot – Tanya and Marvin.

I’ve never really done much people photography. The odd family photo here and there but my main interest and passion has been landscape photography and of course astrophotography.

So you can imagine it came as quite a shock to me when a few weeks ago, Tanya (a friend and ex-work colleague at Ericsson Managed Services) asked me to photograph their upcoming wedding! My first reaction was a combination of shock, fright, nervousness, denial, interest and excitement.

Sydney Harbour Wedding Practise

But pictured here you can see a practise shot of the location! You may be saying “You’re crazy man! Leave it to the professionals!”. And you’d be 100% right. So what influenced my decision? 

Continue reading to see how I got myself into this, how I’m preparing for the event, and to see some more of the practise shots.

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In the From the Vault series, I feature an older image which hasn’t been seen here before and I talk about the capture and processing and hopefully highlight why this image is special to me.

The feature image in From the Vault this week is a high-resolution mosaic image of the Clavius crater on the Moon, as well as some other craters captured on the same night. It was the day before New Years Eve in 2007, the weather was hot and the seeing was variable. Fortunately it steadied for a period of about 5 minutes, long enough for me to capture enough data to compile this 4-frame mosaic of Clavius.

It’s my highest-resolution and best image of Clavius, or any crater i’ve imaged so far. The lighting was perfect, giving just enough contrast to help the small craterlets and rilles stand out while still fully illuminating all the features. The resolution is about 200 metres per pixel at the focal length I was working at (approx 10.5 metres).

Click the image to see the full size and remember to expand the image if your browser resizes it.

High Resolution Clavius (click image for full size)

Continue reading to learn more about the capture and processing of this image, as well as to see some other crater images captured on the same night.

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Hi all

Every 14-15 years as Saturn orbits the Sun, we pass through the ring-plane of Saturn and from Earth, Saturn’s rings appear edge-on. In 2009, right now, we’re at that time. When you compare this image from early 2008, compared with this one taken almost exactly one year later (only a week ago), you can see what I mean by the rings being “edge on”.

Only during the ring-plane crossing times, do we get to witness Moon and shadow transits across the face of Saturn, as they usually pass below or above the planet from our vantage point. So on the morning of January 24th, when Saturn’s largest Moon, Titan, was due to transit, you can understand why I was hoping for clear and steady skies to capture this rare event.

Related Article: Find out when the other Titan Transits occur: Upcoming Transits of Titan at Saturn – February + March 2009

I woke at 1:30am to begin my imaging session, but before I placed the camera in the focuser, I had a look with my 5mm TMB Planetary eyepiece and saw Titan just off the disc. Within 30 minutes it would begin its crossing. The conditions weren’t great, but at that stage it was clear so I was happy to be able to capture it no matter how unsteady the skies.

Unfortunately clouds came in from the South West and my night was cut short. But I was able to capture 3 frames, and below is an animation showing Titan just on the edge of the disc, and then crossing the face. 

Saturn and Titan Animation

Continue reading for more information and to see a montage of the 3 frames.

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In the From the Vault series, I feature an older image which hasn’t been seen here before and I talk about the capture and processing and hopefully highlight why this image is special to me.

The feature image in From the Vault this week shows a Dynamic Jupiter in Motion with an image montage and a 21-frame animation bringing Jupiter alive and is something you must see! You can watch Ganymede and Europa transit across the face of Jupiter, the GRS rotate into view, and the volcanic moon Io pop out from behind Jupiter in the last few frames. Albedo features on Ganymede are visible in practically every frame, including while transiting Jupiter, and icey Europa actually reveals its crescent phase while contrasted against the backdrop of the gas giant.

This montage of images was captured on the morning of the 23rd March, 2007 over a period of more than 2 hours in conditions that peaked in the excellent range. Click the image to see the full-size version.

Dynamic Jupiter (click image for full-size)

Continue reading to see the animation and learn more about the capture and processing of this image.

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In late December 2008, my family and I were camping at Birubi Beach Holiday Park when we heard some of the “neighbours” talking about a big storm approaching. I booted up my laptop, connected to the NextG wireless modem and checked the weather radar. Sure enough, a massive cell was heading straight towards our location. We had about an hour before it was going to be upon us.

As the wind started picking up, the campers busied themselves putting away loose materials and tying down their tarps and tents. Once my household duties were complete, Jacob and I went for a walk to the nearby carpark up at the Birubi Beach Surf Club to take some pictures of the approaching storm.

Here’s my best image of the set, the last in chronological order.

Massive Storm Approaching Birubi Beach

Continue reading for more.

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Hi all

This image of Saturn was captured on the morning of the 19th January 2009, in variable but at times quite stable seeing conditions. It’s been so long since I’ve seen excellent seeing conditions that I feel i’m over-estimating the conditions of late, and have done so again with this image but it’s the best seeing I’ve had this year so it’s a start at least.

The improved atmospheric stability has helped to make this image my best Saturn for this apparition so far, and it’s giving me inspiration to continue to sacrifice sleep on clear nights and continue imaging. Now I just need a night of excellent seeing to recalibrate my scale and put things back in perspective

Saturn - 19/01/2009

Continue reading for capture and processing information.

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On the 26th January 2009, there’s an Australia Day Eclipse – a Partial Solar Eclipse visible in large parts of Australia.

In this article, I’ll take you through all you need to know in order to view and photograph the Partial Solar Eclipse, including:

• What is a Solar Eclipse?
• When and Where can I see it?
• Safe Viewing Guide
• Photography Guide
• Upcoming Solar Eclipse
• References and Further Reading


Geometry of a Solar Eclipse

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Hi all

This image of Venus was captured on the evening of the 14th January 2009 as the planet reached maximum elongation (greatest apparent distance) from the Sun. Still, the altitude at capture was only 25° and the atmospheric turbulance was very evident.

It’s my first capture of Venus in over 10 months and I figured I need to get it out of the way while motivation is still high

The image was captured with a Schuler UV filter which reveals clouds in the upper atmophere. Unfortunately due to the bad seeing, the albedo features aren’t well defined but some contrast variations are still visible.

Venus in UV false colour

Continue reading for more information.

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Hi all

In a new idea for my site, once a week i’ll feature an old image and bring it back to life here and give some background and information on capturing and processing the image(s). I’ll mainly concentrate on images taken over the past few years, before my site was created so they won’t have been featured here before.

First cab off the rank is Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1). It’s a perfect subject to be featured this week because it’s exactly 2 years ago that it first made an appearance in our southern skies. It brightened rapidly to become one of the “great” comets, the best in 40 years and visible even during daylight. At its peak on the 20th January 2007, it had a tail that spread across over 40° of sky.

Comet McNaught, captured at IISAC2007 in the Hunter Valley of NSW

Continue reading to see more images of Comet McNaught and details about their capture and processing.

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