Friday, December 11, 2020

Al Ernst and Ron Gattie Combined Talents in Capturing The Saturn Nebula

This image of the Saturn Nebula was taken by friends and amateur astroimagers Al and Ron, using two C-14's. One scope is located at the St Joseph High School's observatory, where Ron used a Canon 50D to take 10x30 second subs, then Al combined them with 20 Oiii and Ha subs with his QSI583 that he took from his home observatory about ten miles apart. This shows what amateurs can achieve, even within the confines of a Bortle 6 sky.... using good equipment,skill and practice.

Thank Al and Ron

Keith





Thursday, December 10, 2020

Prepping for the rare conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

I took this shot of Jupiter and Saturn on 10 Dec 2020 to prepare for the conjunction at my imaging site at a local town park. Mount set and marked.... cameras loaded and ready... astronomy equipment set aside... Township Parks and Recreation officials notified and attending...  local astrophotographers confirmed... batteries charged... Laptop set to go...!

This part of Hillsborough Township in central New Jersey is out in the country about five to ten miles from any small villages and boasts a wonderful  Bortle 4 to 5 sky! 

Here in this shot, the two planets are moving closer each night and hopefully, I will have everything set up and ready to go before the sun sets on the 21st. Otherwise, I may need to wait for the next time that these two planets will be this extremely close together again! 

Praying ~ No Clouds, No Clouds... NO CLOUDS!!!