Yes, that's really mine. Here are a couple more. This one also near Cabezon Peak.
This one was taken about 40 miles south of Mountainair, NM at 1:30AM right at moonrise.
Yes, that's really mine. Here are a couple more. This one also near Cabezon Peak.
This one was taken about 40 miles south of Mountainair, NM at 1:30AM right at moonrise.
Mind sharing your settings?
I’ve tried a few night time shots, never have quite hit on the right combination of ISO/Aperture/Shutter Speed for star shots. Looking at your shots, I’m guessing you’re using a really wide aperture. Can’t be long exposure, anything over about 5 seconds and I get star trails. Short, but obviously oblong stars instead of dots. I’ve gotten a number of nice moon pictures, but not so good on the star shots.
I might try and take the camera out for awhile, maybe even the telescope, but mosquitoes will carry me away this time of year, so I probably won’t stay out long...
First time I spotted Saturn it was by accident, using a small 2 1/4 inch refractor scope. After changing eyelenses I pointed it at a bright “star”, told a friend “I think I’ll look at that one”, and wondered what the hell...as I started to re focus it started to look like an oval, not the round dot I expected. Turned out it was Saturn, and that year it was closer to earth than it will ever get for something like 75 years. A 6 year old kid today might live long enough to see it that close again...
Now I have an Orion 6 inch I can use, much better scope. Might get together with a friend, he has an Orion 12 inch (both Dobson mounts) and set up in his yard. No respite from mosquitoes though, his place is same as here. I got the Orion that same year, so I got to see both at closest approach, and a total lunar eclipse.
Saturn does have a “closest approach” every year, but that’s a relative term. In about 2003, it was at the closest it will be for many years. In its oval orbit, every year it has a...oops, every orbit it has a period during which it is closer to earth than any other time. Due to a long cycle of orbital changes, that year it was closer than it gets for many years. Tonight earth will be between the Sun and Saturn.
The same year, 2003, Mars was also as close as it ever gets. I got to watch a major dust storm. That wasn’t very impressive, it just meant you could see no detail for a few weeks, but interesting still...my 6 inch scope gets little enough detail anyway. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I think it will be around 75 years before Saturn is that close again, and I think it said a lot longer for Mars. A lot less orbital changes I guess, I’m not good at the technical explanations of astronomical objects...I know what it’s doing, I’m just not good at explaining it. In 2003, Mars was the closest it had ever been in 60,000 years, that happened to be the year I got a good telescope and was able to see it. Saturn was also as close as it ever gets for many years, but I don’t remember the time frame.
Wow, Incredible pictures. How do you do it?
Beautiful photos.
I was just telling someone the other day that one of the coolest things was seeing Saturn’s rings “in person” through a small telescope. The local astronomy club came to the grade school one night for all the kids.
It really was something to see them for real, rather than from a photograph.
From the web:
In 1610, the year after Galileo Galilei turned a telescope to the sky, Galileo became the first person to observe Saturn’s rings, though he could not see them well enough to discern their true nature.
In 1655, Christiaan Huygens was the first person to describe them as a disk surrounding Saturn.