I really wanted to capture a great image of the beautiful Andromeda Galaxy (M31) from IISAC2009, but everything conspired against me and it just didn’t work out the way I’d hoped.

With a host of problems, I only captured 15 minutes of data and no flats calibration. Despite all that, it’s my first image of M31 and even though it was only at 10deg altitude, it gives me some hope that I can capture a better image in future.

Click the image for a larger version and read more below.

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy. Click image for a larger version.

On the first night, I started capturing data but wasn’t happy with my framing so I started to change the composition, and then I had problems with guiding and clouds. On the second night the guiding problems continued to plague me, and once they were sorted out, I had issues with my USB hub which took quite a fall during the day when a big gust of wind blew my laptop hutch off the table. On the third night, clouds low in the North prevented any imaging of M31, so I turned the scope to something else.

So all I ended up with was 3 usable frames from the first night, with no flats calibration and an awkward composition.

The image was captured with my normal Deep Space Imaging equipment –  the unmodded Canon 350D with the ED80, riding on the EQ6 and guided with an 80mm refractor using my DMK21AU04 and PHD guiding.

Exposures were 5 minutes each, with dark frame subtraction in camera. 3 exposures @ ISO800, FL ~ 480mm, F/6.

Thanks for looking.

Hi all

The Open Cluster M7 (or Ptolemy’s Cluster) is situated in the constellation Scorpius, near the centre of the Milky Way.

This image was taken at IISAC2009, early on the Saturday night before it clouded over. The Milky Way was setting in the West, and I captured 50 minutes of data on this object before it set behind the mountain.

Click the image to download the 1200px wide less compressed version.

The M7 Open Star Cluster in Scorpius. Click image for larger version.

This image is my first real deep space (prime focus) image in some time (since January this year!!), so while it’s not in the league of Louie’s beautiful version of M7 that appeared on APOD last week (congrats Louie!), I’m reasonably happy with the image given the lack of data, no flats calibration and the guiding problems I was having at IISAC2009. It really needs to be much deeper and longer to get the golden star field of the Milky Way.

The image was captured with my normal Deep Space Imaging equipment –  the unmodded Canon 350D with the ED80, riding on the EQ6 and guided with an 80mm refractor using my DMK21AU04 and PHD guiding.

Exposures were 5 minutes each, with dark frame subtraction in camera. 10 exposures @ ISO800, FL ~ 480mm, F/6.

Thanks for looking.

On Saturday night, I headed out to the Mangrove Mountain Pony Club for the first time since January, to do some social observing with friends, and some widefield photography away from home.

The image below is the outcome from the night – a widefield Milkyway image taken with my Canon 350D and 28mm f/2.8 lens, piggybacked on my ED80/EQ6.

Click the image for a 1200px wide version (600kb jpeg).

The Milkyway Galaxy at the Pony Club. Click to view 1200px wide version.

Given it was my first image in so long, I’m quite happy with how it turned out. Drift aligning went smoothly and quickly, I didn’t forget to take anything, and generally it all went as well as I could’ve hoped. Continue reading for more details about the capture and processing.

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This morning there was a beautiful conjunction featuring the waning Crescent Moon and Jupiter, less than 2° away. 

Looking through the eyepiece at Jupiter, she appeared to have an extra moon in an odd position – in fact it was a field star, HIP105256. The Galilean Moons were close by – Io was right next to Jupiter, with Europa and Callisto a little further away. Ganymede was in transit but was not observed.

I was able to fit the pairing in the field of view of my Canon 350D when attached at prime focus to my Saxon ED80, so I snapped off a few images before heading to work. Unfortunately I didn’t nail the focus and didn’t notice until I’d finished.

Please click the image to see the full-size.

Moon, Jupiter and Stars Conjunction. Click image for full-size.

While viewing the images on the train, I noticed that the star 29Cap was egressing from being occulted by the Moon. So I combined 8 frames into an animation showing the motion of the Moon through the stars.

Please read on to see the animation and to read more about the image.

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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 titled Long Jetty Sunset and has long been one of my favourite sunset images. You know those days when you’re out to photograph a sunrise or a sunset, and the clouds are just right.. the water is just right.. the reflections are just right, and everything is how you imagined it would be.

Long Jetty Sunset

The old crusty boat filled with seaweed, the family walking along the wharf, the lovely golden reflections off the hand rail and the beautiful sunset colours and clouds reflecting off the water really make this image stand out to me.

Please read on to learn more about this image and to see more photos from the session.

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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 titled Observing the Milky Way and I think it’s easy to see why. The image was taken at the South Pacific Star Party in April 2007, and shows our beautiful Milky Way Galaxy rising over the observing field at the star party.

Jupiter is the bright “star” just above the centre, and Antares is the red star at the top centre of the image.

Observing the Milky Way

It was a beautiful night at the star party though my astrophotography wasn’t going as planned. Taking this photo was a last minute decision that worked out perfectly.

Please continue reading to see how I captured and processed this image.

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Hi all

This image was captured on the 30th January 2009 at my local “dark sky” site at the Mangrove Mountain Pony Club. I say “dark sky” in quotes because while it’s darker than my home, it’s not exactly what you’d call a nice dark sky site as it’s still only 20 minutes from Gosford and 1 hour from Sydney so light pollution is still prevalent – especially to the South.

It was my first imaging road trip in 3 months – the first since IISAC2008 and the lack of practise certainly showed. I forgot to take my USA plug to Australia plug 240v power adapter, so I had to power my Canon 350D off batteries. It also took me far too long to drift align and it was past 10pm before I started capturing any photons.

Anyway it’s far from my best image, but here it is – click the image to see the 1200px wide version in the gallery.

The Rosette Nebula (NGC2237)

Continue reading for more information about the capture and processing.

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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 from a Coffs Harbour Sunrise series. These images were taken on a family holiday up at Coffs Harbour in October 2006. I woke early and headed out to the jetty at Coffs Harbour before dawn and what started as a fairly drab and grey early morning, turned into something special as the clouds started to part and allow the sun to reveal some brilliant colours.

Coffs Harbour Sunrise

Continue reading to see a few other shots from the set and read more about the photos.

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When you’re on a family holiday over christmas, it’s 10pm at night and the skies are clear and you feel the need to do some photography, what better option than to head into the sand dunes at Birubi Beach and take some star trail photos.

So there I was, sitting in the sand dunes while the camera clicked away with 1-minute exposures, feeling like I was in the middle of nowhere but still connected as I browsed my favourite websites on my laptop with the NextG wireless modem until my laptop battery went flat.

I was able to grab about 60 x 1-minute exposures until the camera battery went flat, and resulting star trails photo is below.

Birubi Beach Star Trails

Click the image to see it on RedBubble. Click this link to see the 1200px wide version it at my gallery.

Continue reading to see a video showing the beautiful parts of our southern sky rising over the Birubi Beach Sand Dunes (as well as the cars, and the cargo ship!). You’ll also find more information including capture and processing details and why I took so long to post this image live.

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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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