When the nights start getting a little cooler, and the days a little shorter, you know it's Andromeda time! M31 (NGC224) the famous Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest galaxy to the earth at 2.5 million light years. It is easily seen with the naked eye in the northern part of Andromeda, first recognized and cataloged in 9th century AD. Below is an image that I did two years ago. … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2008
Jupiter – Aligned and Stacked
Here's and example of how stacking frames can improve your astro picture. The example I am using is one that I shot last week of Jupiter. These are stacked images off of a several minute video I took at the Bethany Observatory. The first image is just a single frame grab. The second is a stacked image of 300 frames. The final is an image of 1559 frames. Quite a difference don't … [Read more...]
Interesting High Rise fire escape
In my younger years I was a volunteer firefighter. For more than two decades I fought the red devil in structures, cars, and on boats. Back in the mid 1990's I spent a lot of time photographing the New York City Fire Department's training sessions. Where did they do a lot of their training? The World Trade Center towers. Many an hour was spent practicing fighting a high rise … [Read more...]
Realtime video of Jupiter
I finally had some time this afternoon to take a look at the video I took of Jupiter Friday Night at the Open House at the Bethany observatory. With a little tweaking I managed to get a nice segment of about 12 seconds. You can plainly see the bands around the planet, the famous Red Spot in the lower center, and just below that is a smaller dark spot. It is one of Jupiters … [Read more...]
Great viewing all week!
WOW! That's all I can say after an unbelieveable five nights in a row out doing astronomy! That, is unheard of in August. Criscrossing the state, I managed to do three public outreach sessions with the Astronomical Society Of New Haven showing the heavens to over 125 people interested people. I even managed to have two more quiet sessions at home trying to hone my … [Read more...]
Great viewing at Bethany open house
It was a great night for the public to do some astronomy with the members of the Astronomical Society of New Haven. Last night at the Bethany observatory, about twenty enthusiastic stargazers looked through two of Bethany's telescopes. Spectacular images of Jupiter (which were caught on video). Several of It's moons were visable, along with a special treat of the "great red … [Read more...]
Beautiful observing night for kids of all ages
Last night the Astronomical Society of New Haven held a observing session at Camp Meechiemuk in Marlborough, Ct. Meechiemuk is the only state wide sleep away summer camp for HIV/AIDS affected children in Connecticut. Organized by Hispanos Unidos, Inc., the purpose of the camp is to provide respite care to parents and/or guardians. Over 60 children spent the better part of two … [Read more...]
Stargazing with night vision video
Last month the Astronomical Society of New Haven (Connecticut), held a public outreach program sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Enviromental Protection at the Osborndale State Park. Many telescopes were set up, and approximately 50 people showed to do some stargazing. For the first time I used my night vision mode on my video camera to capture reactions to what they … [Read more...]
Princess Pocotopaug Pageant
Many people driving down Rt. 66 in East Hampton, Connecticut did a doubletake Saturday. They might have caught a glimpse of a 6 foot pink flamingo, Noah's ark, or the "East Hampton Hillbillies" car floating by as they participated in The Friends of Lake Pocotopaug fourth annual Princess Pocotopaug Pageant. The parade which drew hundreds of spectators in and around the lake is … [Read more...]
X-marks the spot
With all the strange weather we have been having around here lately, I have been keeping an extra close eye (the Ctcameraeye) on the sky. When I got home from work I remembered that I had taken this unique image a year or so ago while I was taking pictures of cloud formations. I thought you might enjoy it. Keep looking up, you never know what you might see. … [Read more...]