It was a dark and starry night- time exposure with a 24mm Kiron

[Mike Gammill]

<p>A few weeks ago the power company had to cut power for maintainence for a few hours during the early hours of the morning. With the whole town in blackout except for a few feeble emergency lights the stars were unbelievably bright. While I spent a lot of time with the telescope, I also snapped a few time exposures. I used my Kiron 24mm f2 at f2.8 for these photos. I happened to have a few frames of Tri-X left in my Minolta XE-5 so I removed the battery since the B setting is mechanical. <br>

First a quick shot of camera and lens.</p><div></div>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>While the skies were very dark there was some skyglow from a couple of nearby towns, but not enough to affect my skygazing. I used a 5" Maksutov for most of my viewing. Both photos include trees for reference. I didn't try any photos through the telescope as its mount is not motorized.</p><div></div>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>The above view comes close to approximating what I could see. Anyone with some observing experience may notice the Andromeda galaxy just a bit left of center.</p><div></div>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>The above view shows just how dark my neighborhood was. This exposure was a couple of minutes which caused the stars to trail. The light near the center was the emergency lights of a church at the end of the street. You can also see a streetlamp about one third from center. </p>

[marc_bergman1]

<p>Mike,</p>

<p>Nicely done. I haven't done this for quite a while. I remember building a device, I think they call it a barn door, that would allow you to rotate the camera to eliminate star trails. You could operate it manually and just turn a screw to cause the rotation. It worked better than I thought it would. I think the reason was that I had done so much counting in the darkroom. </p>

<p>It brings back memories. Thanks for the post.</p>

[rick_drawbridge]

<p>"Starry starry night..."; images such as these always make me think of Van Gogh. Down here in New Zealand our night skies are reknowned for their clarity, and many a night I've wakened in the wee small hours to comfort a restless child, carrying him outside to see the stars... Nice images, <strong>Mike</strong>, from a fine rig.</p>

[peter_daalder]

<p>Your post brought back fond memories of my formative years under the northern hemisphere stars.<br>

Great to see that apart from the Andromeda Galaxy, you've also picked up the Double Cluster in Perseus, as well as, the whole of Cassiopeia.<br>

Thanks a lot, Mike!</p>

[Mike Gammill]

Thanks. I do have a battery operated tabletop equatorial mount for those times.

[JDMvW]

<p>Nice.<br>

But I won't wish for a power outage - we get enough of those from storms. </p>

<p>The tornados missed my town, but did hit right in my research area across from Paducah, KY</p>

[James G. Dainis]

<I>"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!</I>" - Emerson<P>

 

As a small boy back on the farm in Massachusetts in the 1950s, if it was a moonless night, darkness was total. Without a flashlight I could not see a fence gate three feet in front of me. I could lie on my back and see the Milky Way in the black sky. Major constellations were hard to pick out because there were so many lower magnitude stars amongst them that were easily seen. I once built a 6 inch Newtonian reflector but living on Long Island, New York, there was still too much light pollution. Long film exposures would give me a light gray sky with white dots on it. <P>

 

I once searched in vain for a star cluster in Aquarius. Then later when out at sea, I saw a glowing in the sky around Aquarius with the naked eye. 7X binoculars showed me the magnificent cluster. Back home on Long Island it was again invisible in the gray sky.<P>

 

I sometime have a desire to shoot the stars but here in Savannah all I can see in the light gray night time sky are the major magnitude stars. I would settle for one night in a thousand years.

[tony_lockerbie]

<p>Thanks Mike, nice one. We often don't just look up at night as much as we should, and like Rick, our skies are often crystal clear..and we have different stars than you as well!<br>

The XE5 is a classy camera too, love the advance on those.</p>

[johnkenthill]

<p>So many people don't stop to think, in the southern hemisphere there's a whole nother set of stars they never see in a lifetime. I think about looking up in the night sky and not recognizing any constellations. I hope I can make a trip to the southern hemisphere before my days end. Thanks for the post Mike. </p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Thanks. If I get to visit the southern hemisphere I will have to look at Alpha Centauri. I often think about what I'm missing because the Astronomy Magazine that I subscribe to shows a map of the southern sky.</p>

[daniel_johnson6]

<p>Sounds like you had fun! It's hard to beat a quiet night of star photography.</p>

[SCL]

<p>Not an astronomer, but on a few occasions, seeing a starry sky without light and haze or atmospheric pollution is truly a wonderous thing. Last time that happened for me was in a remote village in Peru at 8800 feet in 2005. Thanks Mike, for reminding me!</p>

[maciek_stankiewicz]

<p>Very nice results from XE-5 :) My favorite camera :)<br />And Tony is right about advance mechanism... Got to love XE...</p>

[peter_daalder]

<p>After spending 20 years under the northern hemisphere, I have happily embraced the southern hemisphere - it is such a delight!<br>

Alpha Centauri features in the upper right corner, with Crux Australis and the prominent Eta Carinae nebula visible in this 10-minute exposure on Fujichrome 400D</p><div></div>

[chuck_foreman1]

<p>Thanks for sharing. I have star gazed most of my life an especially enjoy getting out away from the cities and towns to enjoy the stars. We had a hobby telescope and as I entered high school some other more "serious" hobby telescopes allowed a deeper view of space. I did attach my camera later in my early 20 to a colleague's semi pro model which plugged in and compensated for the rotation of the earth. I only had the 50mm lens but the pictures were great. The last time I felt privileged was in Norway for business I had to visit some distant antenna sites and felt privileged to enjoy the Nothern skies I did somehow feel closer to the heavens so far north .. it was probably my imagination! Thanks for a provocative post! </p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Beautiful shot, Peter. Alpha Centauri A and B are similar to the sun. It's a shame that no planets have been detected around them yet. Maybe someday. When I used to shoot slide film I liked the Fujichromes for long exposures. </p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>And for those of you who have dark skies there is a comet that might be visible in the morning skies after the end of the month. Not sure if will survive close approach to the sun, though. But there is potential.</p>