Uploads from Fort Photo, tagged orion, with geodata

Lunar Eclipse Landscape

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:05:22 -0800

Fort Photo posted a photo:

Attention: Incoming Lunar Eclipse!

We will have a total lunar eclipse this week on December 10, 2011 at around 5:45am MST (12:45 GMT), reaching totality at 7:05 am MST (14:00 GMT). Here in the mountain west, totality will occur right at sunrise and moonset... this is going to be an epic trio if you are in the right place (say looking at the moon in totality or near-totality setting over the mountains in sunrise twilight with a few stars around). I hope everyone gets a chance to see some of it!

For something a bit different, here's a lunar eclipse image without a moon from last year's event on Winter Solstice. The unique light of the eclipsed moon combined with city light pollution to create quite the surreal color palette, almost as if this image wasn't take on Earth. ;-)

Martian Lunar Eclipse Landscape

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:21:42 -0800

Fort Photo posted a photo:

***Please View Large on Black for best star details (click on the picture or press L for lightbox)***

Edit: It turns out this image was a finalist in the NASA contest, you can see it and the other finalists here. Yay! ;-)

I do have some traditional telephoto shots of the moon I am going to post later, but I wanted to share a slightly different take on the eclipse first. This was taken at full totality, and likely would not be possible to reproduce without the full eclipse. The dimmed moon balanced its light perfectly with the stars, so all in one exposure I am able to pull foreground, stars and moon... just try that on any other night! The unique light of the eclipse also set a crazy Martian mood.

It was so cool how once the moon went into totality and dimmed we started seeing quite a few leftover Geminid meteors. My favorite Christmas lights this season will certainly be astro in nature!

Shot Notes: as mentioned this is a single exposure. The orange glow is from the light pollution of Fort Collins, CO.

A Christmas Meteor Light Show: The 2010 Geminids

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:58:24 -0800

Fort Photo posted a photo:

***Please View Large on Black for best star and meteor details (click on the picture or press L for lightbox)***

The Geminid Meteor Shower may well have been 2010's very best! How many meteors do you see? And notice the meteor radiant around the constellation Gemini?

It took until around 3 am, but the clouds finally parted and we did indeed get to enjoy a beautiful Christmas meteor light show as it were. My preferred dark skies location with a nice foreground got completely clouded out and we ended up near Tie Siding Wyoming. I stayed out taking pictures until the morning twilight was killing off too many stars and we got home around 6 am. What a kick!

Shot Notes: This is a composite image of all the meteors I captured between 2:56 a.m. and 3:34 a.m. Each streak is added by lightness blending mode in CS5 much like star trails stacking is done. The camera was locked down on the tripod the entire time weighted by a bag of rocks to protect against the crazy wind. Each exposure was for 24 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 2500. 13 exposures were used in the composite (this time series was a total of 73 exposures). The camera was aimed at the meteor shower radiant to get the most Geminids possible in order to show off how aligned meteors of the same shower really are.

Narcissistic Orion

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:27:31 -0700

Fort Photo posted a photo:

View Large on Black (really improves this one)

Oh I don't know, maybe Orion was just "pond-ering" his existence in quiet reflection. ;-)))

This image also clearly shows the Sirius star and the Pleiades Star Cluster rising above Greeley's light pollution.

Notes: Single 30 second exposure at 1600 ISO, f/3.2. It's interesting to me that the star streaks are more apparent/longer in the reflection than the sky.

Orion Goes Hiking in the Rockies

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:21:42 -0700

Fort Photo posted a photo:

View Large on Black for Best Star Viewing

The Hunter appears to be hiking the mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park as the constellation Orion hangs just over the horizon center-right.

Here on Earth

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:04:05 -0800

Fort Photo posted a photo:

View Large On Black

Currently listening to Love and Rockets - Here on Earth

A light pollution glow from the city lights of Pueblo, CO competes for attention with the stars of Orion and others (46 min exposure). Speaking of which, this month's National Geographic has a fantastic light pollution article entitled, Our Vanishing Night. Check it out!

Night-gration

nobody@flickr.com (Fort Photo) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:05:09 -0800

Fort Photo posted a photo:

Much is lost in this small view, try Viewing Large on Black

I was feeling adventurous and decided to construct this composite of the night sky above my sister's place in the Wet Mountains of Colorado combined with a flock of migrating Canada Geese I spotted this past weekend in Fort Collins. I hope you enjoy! ;-)

Note: Orion is the prominent constellation viewable in the center right. The orange glow in the sky is from light pollution of Pueblo, CO. PS brushes were used to give the starburst effect.