Dark Sky Observing: 2004

[nevers]

Hey Everybody,<br /><br />I thought I'd start out our "new" forum with a postcard from the Grand Canyon Star Party.<br /><br />Occasionally I get the opportunity to travel to dark skies with my 'scopes and am hoping others will share their pictures/stories of their Dark Sky adventures.<br /><br />To read about the Grand Canyon Star Party or any of my other dark sky observing sessions, please click on my "N.A.R.S." link below. It will take you to my website.<br /><br />Hope to hear from more people as time goes on.

 

[Saiph]

Glad to see this is gonna be up and going again. It was a beast before reset. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[nevers]

I'm too tired to guess right now, but "yes", I'm glad it's up and running also! I've been out all night at Lovell Canyon. It's about 30 miles from downtown Las Vegas but on the other side of the mountains. I still get a lot of light pollution there but I took some pictures anyway.<br /><br />This is my first attempt (in dark skies?) with my new 'scope. I had some troubles with it but found (online) what I was doing wrong. The pictures below have been stack using Registax 2. Each single frame, about 15 frames per object, was stacked together. I only adjusted the contrast and brightness and then lightly sharpened the image. I hope you like them, I can hardly wait to get to true dark skies!<br /><br />Oh yeah, each frame was a 15 second exposure at f/2.

 

[sloracer]

Brad, what the heck are you standing upside down on that ladder for? <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[nevers]

Hi Slo - <br /><br />That's not me...it's Dennis. He's doing acrobatics, I donno why though... I'm in the top left corner.

 

[nevers]

I went out to Valley of Fire State Park. It was not a very good night to be taking pictures but I did anyway. Conditions were awful: high thin clouds, dust, 25 mph wind gusts plus the "Cigar" is not as high in the sky as it gets. Still...I think it's a pretty fair representation of what M82 looks like in a 5" 'scope @ 48x.

 

[nevers]

I got back yesterday from the White Mountains in California. It was not much of an astronomical event for me but regardless, I took some nice nature photos. Out of 3 nights I only had part of 1 night of observing under clear skies.<br /><br />If you would like to see the rest of the pictures you can go here: White Mountains: 2004<br /><br />Still hoping to hear of others dark sky observing sessions...

 

[nevers]

Hey Alex,<br /><br />Sounds like your having a great time! Except for the "d" word. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> That's a thing I've only run into one time. If you get a chance, take a look at some of the brighter Planetary Nebula, especially M57. Also, there is a galaxy in Sculptor called NGC 253: you should take a look at that too very early in the morning.

 

[nevers]

The Sun is up, the clouds seem far away. Hopefully the wind will die down altogether: I'm off for the first time in approximately 6 months to observe in (what I call) dark skies. When I get back I hope to have some good pictures to share with ya'll.<br /><br />My old "angelfire" website is up and sort of running if anybody would like to visit. It has some pictures and reports from other places I've observed from in dark skies. Most of the links are working, it still needs a little work. I never realized before (when I had a cable modem) how painfully slow my site must have been (and still is) for dial-up modems. I'm going to work on that in the future too.<br /><br />In the meantime, it sure would be nice to hear what everybody else is doing telescopically. Opps, I just realized this thread is titled "2004". I'll have to change that to unless somebody else wants to start a new one...<br /><br />EDIT: Don't click on the link below. Apparently, I forgot how to spell the word "angel". I've corrected the problem but too late for below. Here's the real link: My Astronomy Website: N.A.R.S.