Awhhh!!!

Yeah, I know you all have been waiting for some more of these, and no they are not pictures of me with the Misses...
Another late night and I was amazed at all that I could see in the non-dark sky behind my house. Jupiter was out real early and joined shortly there after by Cassiopeia. I was able to get a snap shot of Jupiter and three of its moon, but the camera/telescope mount was not real steady and I don't have any tracking equipment on the scope. Yes, donations will be excepted for telescope upgrades that will enable much better pictures of distant objects; send them to Thrasher's Observatory Fund...

No new pictures of any constellations, but I am actively trying to capture a couple more to share, but did get a few of the full moon rising. The answer to the previous constellation question is Pegasus, look for the giant square of Pegasus and the rest of the constellation just materializes... Well, maybe only if you are on the right medications.
Here is a picture of the full moon, for those who have been waiting patiently to see the moon in all it's glory. And yes it appears to be blue, but it is not really a blue moon; just a little blue from the filter used.I was even able to zoom in a little more on th surface of the moon...makes me wonder what it was like to fly past in a Lunar orbit during the Apollo missions...

More bad pictures...

The best thing about bad pictures is that sometimes things can be salvaged. Got another roll of film back and the pictures were not that great, but a few were salvagable.
This is the image as captured on film and developed. Not that great but you can still see Cassiopea.

A little digital processing and some magic and we can arrive at this image, even the noise in the picture can be amplified to look like a star.


More digital processing and negating all the hot spots on the film give this, notice how some of the fainter stars disappear.


Just a couple of other night pictures that show the NE horizonline.

You did what to my film?

So, the lovely photo developer ( I will refrain from calling them other names that come to mind) at Target ruined my film from the other night, which I find highly irritating especially after warning the person working at the developing center that the film was night-time pictures and would need to be developed accordingly. Yes, ruined was the one picture that actually contained a meteor, ruined was the picture centered around Polaris, ruined was almost an entire roll of pictures. Now for those who are doubting my photography skills, it wasn't me... ; P
But alas, with a little luck and skill, I was able to extract one good picture of a familiar constellation (well at least in the northern hemisphere).
And just so people don't think I am just uploading black pictures to my blog...
Yes, you really should click on the black squares, there really are visible entities in the pictures.

I still have no takers on the constellation in the previous post...

Waxing Gibbous

Once again another evening of Astro-photography and no sleep, and boy do I feel like I am getting old. I remember the nights when I would stay out late enjoying the night sky and still be rarin' to go the next morning. Maybe some of my blog readers recall those nights of searching for the 'perfect' spot to admire the astrological beauty of the evening. And yes, swoppin' bats still bring back the heebi-jeebies. Tonight is most definitely going to be an early to be night, unless of course I can't sleep around three in the morning than maybe I will get a few more photos to share.
Once again, no photos of Perseids but I did manage to see some really good ones. Hopefully I was able to capture some on the ol' film camera. There is nothing quite like having three cameras setup taking pictures of the night sky, but I have found that is the only way I am capable of capturing some of the events. Keep your fingers crossed when I get the CD back that I will have some good images to share.

I managed to get the telescope adjusting and re-calibrated, so I set that up early in the evening and was able to see Jupiter (along with a few moons) and of course the Waxing Gibbous Moon that overshadows us some of the time. I was not able to get any good pictures of Jupiter and once again I am kicking myself for selling my digital camera that worked so well with the telescope. At the time, I didn't realize that getting a camera setup that worked that well with the telescope was such a chore, but now I miss the camera and constantly peruse e-bay looking for another one.
This photo was taken without a polarizing filter, with an image flipping mirror and some minor digital processing was done. F/3.4 Exposure 2/17 Sec. (can only guess at the focal length)
This photo was taken with a polarizing moon filter and some minor digital processing (image flip). F/4.7 Exposure 1/12 sec.
This image is a collection of images that have been digitally 'remastered' to produce an image that amplifies the surface of the moon. One thing that I found to be interesting was there was an 8.4° rotation of the moon across the spread of images. Of course I am not a professional astrologer, so I am sure there are plenty of things "not right" with my procedures, but I thought it was an interesting Frankin-photo of an ol' friend.

Trying Something New

Well, last night I decided to go setup a few cameras and see if I could possibly catch any of the action in the night sky. After taking what looked to be hundreds of pictures that were completely black, digitally processing them on the computer, scratching my head as to which direction the picture had been taken and realizing I caught nothing (well at least in consideration of meteor activity) on camera, I decided I should at least share a few of them here for y'all to enjoy, criticize, critique or what ever else you might find the urge to do...This one is a digital compilation of many images that had an exposure time of 4" (4 Seconds). Anyone know the constellation?
This is a multi-exposure of 4" (five to be exact) and if you look REALLY closely you will see three aircraft (obvious bright white and two more subdued red trails).
4" exposure of the close airplane in the previous photograph. Notice the orange glow in the lower right, that would be the City of Great Falls polluting the night sky.
Another compilation, I think these ones were a combination of 3" and 4" exposures...