Charles, Not Mark

This is the spectacular M13 globular cluster. I converted the image into greyscale to bump up the contrast a little. I will put the original color version at the end of the post. This is one of the objects that I am going to use to work on figuring out how to use this adaptor. It is very tricky to use as the focus is completely different and very difficult to achieve. Not the most spectacular photo, but really cool in my opinion!

Here is the original color version.

The red color comes largely from the light pollution I believe. It can be gotten rid of with some fancy tricks which I intend to learn, but for now, it stays. You can see how some of the stars are hotter and bluer, and how some are redder and cooler.

Not Running Away Again!

As you can probably see, this is a picture of the moon. That in itself is not super interesting. This picture was taken with my own camera. Again not super interesting as all of the photos here fit that description. What is interesting is that my camera had no lens attached to it when this photo was taken, save for the 32 inch telescope at UVic.

My very wonderful prof got an adaptor so that my, or any other camera can be attached to the telescope. This is very very cool. With the moon all it does is give you a close up view, but with faint objects, it opens whole new worlds of photographic possibility.

The next few posts will be from my first night trying out this adaptor, and while they will not be anything spectacular, I think they are very cool.

Airplanes in the Sky

This is once again from my yard in Courtenay where the skys are clear and dark. An airplane bound for Asia cuts across the picture.

Garden Under the Stars

The beautiful night sky over my moms beautiful garden in Merville.

Getting out of the city is so nice. The sky is just so amazingly clear and full of stars.

Lightning!

Victoria does not get a lot of lightning. It is a very rare thing to see in Victoria, and most of the time it is way off on the horizon.

This past Friday night, on the 13th in fact, there was a huge thunderstorm which went on for hours. It was all around for many kilometers in every direction, as well as right overhead.

Like any smart city dweller who sees very little lightning, I, along with many many others flocked to the top of the highest hill in Victoria to get a better view. Unlike many however, I stayed well away from the very top, and made sure not to sit on the gigantic metal railings which surround the parking lots and provide an excellent place to sit when there is not an electrical storm.

At first it was still light out, but after an hour or so, the sun set in a truly spectacular fashion.

Not long after that marvellous spectacle, the conditions got just right for lightning photography. The way you do it is to set up the camera on a tripod, point it in a direction with lots of flashes, compose a nice foreground, and set it to take 30 second or so exposures. Keep pressing the shutter until you get something!

Here are some of the results.

Not exactly astrophotos, but I think they are really neat, and I wanted to share them with you.

The Big Handle

Night over the city.

Most of the big dipper is visible in this shot looking out over the city.

Artsy Fartsy Me

This one is a bit more of an artsy shot than an astrophoto, but I think it is worth sharing with the world.

This was a magnificent sunset last week from the top of Mt Tolmie. It was one of the more spectacular sunsets I have ever seen, not the least because it took place during a rare Victoria thunderstorm.

Stars in the Back Yard

I took this just last night from outside my back door. I lay on my back with my camera set up on the tripod right beside me, put on some nice quiet Beatles tunes and just generally chilled out for 20 or so minutes while the series of 41 photos were shot.

Then I smushed them in the magic smushing program, and here is the final product.

Milky Way Again

Here is another one!

As you can probably guess this is another one of the Milky Way.

This one was taken a bit later, at about one in the morning actually from the top of Gonzales Hill.

I really like these Milky Way shots, so I am going to probably do some more of them. They are a fun new thing to play with.

Rocks and Reflections - Like

Five in a row - woot!

There is nothing extraordinary about this picture, but I kinda like it. I like the wave crashing around the rocks, and the lights on the water.

A Way Growing out of the Olyimpics

Wow, this is almost becoming a pattern again!

Here is another one of the Milky way. This is actually one of the shots from the picture with all the startrails from a few days ago.

I tweaked the colors a little bit to make the Milky Way stand out a bit better.

Two Chairs on a Rock

What is up with this, three posts in a row?!

I have long wanted to take a picture of this locale. I love the blue and red chairs out on the rock there. I have driven by many a time, but have never had my camera, or the weather wasn't good, or all manner of other excuses. In the background are a lighthouse, a big ship, some towers with lights on them all in front of the Olympic Peninsula.