A few clear nights

We've actually been getting a few clear nights along with some hot days over the past week.However,this week may not offer that so much:

So,having said that,one has to take advantage of the clear night skies.Here's a couple of meteors in the Milky Way from a few days ago :

And here's a sped up time lapse video from last night:

The above were taken with an old Canon A-610 w/CHDK software.They're actually not too bad for a 5 megapixel camera.

All for now.

- Al

Still a little unsettled

The weather is still a little unsettled here.....get a nice day or two and then it's back to clouds and cool temps.
We did manage to get two clear nights over the past week and some of us took advantage of them with our cameras and telescopes.I had the A-610 set up and shooting continuously on both nights.Caught a rather bright meteor in the east late Thursday night however it was not the really bright one that was reported in the media.That one was earlier according to what was reported and also from speaking with an eyewitness.

My meteor shot

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Newspaper article concerning a bright meteor that was spotted earlier in the same evening.

© The Chronicle Herald.

Anyways,I put together this time lapse video shot on Friday into Saturday,June 24th to 25th,2016.

See if you can spot Polaris aka the North Star......it's the stationary one that the other stars revolve around.

                                        
Better quality video is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08WK44CUS90OVd4a216SUJueU0/view

So,it looks like we will be back in the murk this week....cloudy skies and cool temps are forecast.

Anyway,just in case the sky clears,here's a few things to look for:

Have a great week.

- Al

Still a little unsettled

The weather is still a little unsettled here.....get a nice day or two and then it's back to clouds and cool temps.
We did manage to get two clear nights over the past week and some of us took advantage of them with our cameras and telescopes.I had the A-610 set up and shooting continuously on both nights.Caught a rather bright meteor in the east late Thursday night however it was not the really bright one that was reported in the media.That one was earlier according to what was reported and also from speaking with an eyewitness.

My meteor shot

----------------------------------

Newspaper article concerning a bright meteor that was spotted earlier in the same evening.

© The Chronicle Herald.

Anyways,I put together this time lapse video shot on Friday into Saturday,June 24th to 25th,2016.

See if you can spot Polaris aka the North Star......it's the stationary one that the other stars revolve around.

                                        

So,it looks like we will be back in the murk this week....cloudy skies and cool temps are forecast.

Anyway,just in case the sky clears,here's a few things to look for:

Have a great week.

- Al

Eliminating Light Pollution

'Light pollution'.....the downside to astrophography unless you're in a really remote location.However,with a few 'tricks' you can make it basically disappear.I use PixInsight LE and Photoscape to get rid of most of it,if not all.
Run the photo through PixInsight to bring out the 'hidden' stars and then darken it with Photoscape as in the example below:

Try it out.....both programs are freeware.

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Finally we're getting some decent weather with temps in the 20Cs for highs.A few 'bumps' coming up this week but it's still better than what we've had lately.

That's all for now.

- Al

Another week of mostly clouds and rain comimg up

Just put a week of mostly clouds and wet weather behind us and it looks like we have another one coming up.We may be seeing an improvement by the weekend according to the long range forecast,however,long range forecasts are notoriously inaccurate so we shall see.

The only night in the past week that was semi-good for astrophotography was Thursday into Friday.
The Canon A-610 was pointed west and shooting away all night but it did not capture anything worth sharing.....just stars.
I did catch the ISS on the early pass Thursday night with the Rebel XS.I ran the shot through PixInsight LE and was impressed with the results as shown below.The program is now obsolete but can still be found online using a Google search.It is freeware.
More info is found here: https://pixinsight.com/doc/legacy/LE/index.html

Anyways,if it clears,here's a few things to look for in the night sky this week
(from stardate.org )  :

Have a great week
Al
AL_in_NS

Hurricane Track - Environment Canada

Hurricane Track - Environment Canada

Terrible weather

We can hardly catch a break here lately.There was one clear night in the past week and this week is not looking any better,
Anyways,here's what to look for if....BIG if......the skies clear:

                                                      ( The above is from stardate,org )

This week's forecast for our area:

Have a great week.

-Al
AL_in_NS