I absolutely love this photo from the lookout over Mundaring Weir (looking over Helena Valley. I just love the layer of fog, with the soft glow of pre-dawn light on the trunks of the trees, with the crescent moon and the beautiful soft blue tones. Buy astrophotography such as this here.
The Comet 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann; 2013-06-28T10:51:45.613; which had an outburst on approximately the 13th June 2013 continues to evolve and now, after a 5 day break of cloud, is appearing quite different from the 22nd when I last photographed it. The image below shows how broad and diffuse the “tail” has become, and how point-like the nucleus is now as opposed to the broader and brighter nucleus it was on the 15th shortly after outburst.
Photograph of Comet 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann; 2013-06-28T10:51:45.613; 0.86”/pixel (12” SCT @ 2200mm, ST8-XME @ bin 1×1) 5 x 180 seconds summed
I was in Pickering Brook for lunch on the weekend and with nice weather took a bit of a detour on the way home to see what photo opportunities there were. This struck me as an almost perfect jigsaw picture.
Pickering BrookA photograph of orchards in Pickering Brook, Western Australia
Yesterday evening I had some fun wandering along the Swan River with my camera. I haven’t been to this spot before, but first impressions are that I’ll be back soon. A nice peaceful spot not too far from home with reasonably nice scenery.
Silhouettes and sunset colours along the banks of the Swan River in Western Australia.
Reaching Out To The Moon. Silhouettes of gumtrees along the banks of the Swan River, with the Moon showing through as though the trees are reaching out to it.
Last night I was inspired to take a photo of comet 117P after seeing some recent messages on the ASV comet list regarding it. Days earlier I had looked for available comets to photograph and missed this one.
I was surprised by the length of 117P’s tail. The comet is relatively faint (around magnitude 14 I believe) yet the tail is quite elongated. While it’s not something probably worth “writing home about” it’s also not a sure bet to get a visible tail on a magnitude 14 comet. Not from my experience anyhow.
Future images of the comet will be posted on the 117P comet page.
Photograph of Comet 117P/Helin-Roman-Alu at 2013-06-03T13:41:55.686 UTC using 12″ SCT telescope at 2200mm focal length, with ST8-XME camera at bin 1×1 equating to approximately 0.86 arc seconds per pixel. 5 x 180 second exposures averaged. Image inverted.
I had good intentions tonight, even with the full moon, of (1) doing some supernova searching and (2) working on footage for a video idea I have. I spent an hour or so in the afternoon hobbling around setting the gear up. The clouds had other plans!
The clouds are illuminated by the full moon which is rising to the east (left) of frame.
Observatory under cloudy stars … makes for a nice pic.