Orion's Sword 20131227
Playing around with astrophotography. This is a stack of about 580 dark-subtracted exposures from a stationary mount, 0.3 seconds each, ISO 1600, Pentax DA* 300mm f/4 wide open. Trailing of stars is still apparent. I'm impressed by how much detail even a single exposure contains. It would be nice to get the O-GPS1 accessory to extend the individual exposure time to several seconds without star trails.
Delphinus 20140826
First night using the Astrotracer functionality of the Pentax O-GPS1. 4x120 seconds on a fixed tripod. Stacked with DeepSkyStacker.
Andromeda 20140826
First night using the Astrotracer functionality of the Pentax O-GPS1. 11 exposures totalling 319 seconds on a fixed tripod. Stacked with DeepSkyStacker.
Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 near Pleaides
Pentax K-5 II, Pentax O-GPS1 Astrotracer, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 12 x 120s, 70mm, f/3.5, ISO 80.
ISS transiting the sun
Composite of 4 exposures showing a solar transit of the International Space Station. Photographed from Gallitzin State Forest, Pennsylvania, USA at 2015-08-29 14:12:42 UT. The duration of the transit was 0.8 seconds. The distance to the ISS was approximately 616 km and its angular size was about 45 arcsec. Planning for the transit was done using CalSky.com. Pentax K-5 II, Pentax DA* 300mm f/4, Tamron 1.4x teleconverter, ND 1000x filter. Exposures were 1/6000 second with the lens set to f/8 (for an f/11 effective aperture with the teleconverter).
Extreme corona
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA This is from my longest single exposure. I pushed this one as far as I could, to the point of excessive noise and artifacts, to reveal the extended coronal structure and earthshine on the moon.
Detail of solar prominence
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA
Corona, prominences, and Regulus
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA With this version of my second-longest exposure, I've tried to balance the structure in the corona with good detail in the large prominence.
Sudden Brilliance
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA Profound overexposure as the limb of the sun reemerges from behind the moon.
Munch, Munch
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA Partial phase, just before the sunspots get eaten.
Passing Cloud
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA
Diamond Ring
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA
Last Sliver
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA
Eclipse composite
August 2017 total solar eclipse Lake Keowee, South Carolina, USA
Comet 46P/Wirtanen & Pleiades
Pentax K-3 II with Astrotracer, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/4, Hoya red intensifier filter to reduce light pollution, 25 x 10 seconds. I was not able to see the comet by eye with binoculars. The moon was near the field of view, to the right.
Partially eclipsed moonrise over Kawelikoa Point, Kauai
Total lunar eclipse over Kawelikoa Point, Kauai
Eclipse setup
Camera position for photographing the lunar eclipse over Kawelikoa Point, Kauai. Planning for the eclipse was done using The Photographer's Ephemeris on my iPad, with on-site confirmation using the augmented reality mode of PhotoPills. The eclipse was on the first full day of my first visit to Kauai, so I wasn't sure how it would work out, nor was I sure how to get to the location I selected. My wife and I did some advance scouting the afternoon before, but only had time to go partway. The full hike from the end of the dirt road where I parked ended up being a little over a mile, over a combination of beach and trails. I benefitted tremendously from OpenStreetMaps maps that I downloaded to my GPS app, MotionX-GPS. The maps had excellent coverage of the trails, and allowed very efficient route-finding. I recorded my track to the shooting location so I could retrace my steps back to the car in the darkness of the total eclipse.
Total lunar eclipse, January 2019
Mahaulepu beach, Kauai
Comet NEOWISE by drone
DJI Mavic Air 2. Single 8 s exposure, ISO 400,, f/2.8. Cropped and heavy noise reduction applied in Lightroom.