Bluebirds at Pocahontas State Park
October 29th, 2024
Our annual camping trip to Pocahontas State Park resulted in some very lucky Bluebird visits! All p[...]
East Coast Star Party May 2012
Moonrise Party
This weekend was the East Coast Star Party in Coinjock, NC. Marking my third ESCP, I had a list of objects to hunt for, but most notable was M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and also seeing the polar cap of Mars in my 10″ dob.
I prepared for a weekend of dark skies by renting the Sigma 14mm f/2.8 wide angle lens. I was pleased with the results, it is a fast, sharp lens with minimal distortion. On my full frame 5d Mark II a huge swath of sky was visible. I did attempt to stack some shots together of the Milky Way but they just didn’t turn out as well as the single shots. I used Photoshop CS5 to remove all of the power lines. It was easy and effective.
I came away with quite a few good Milky Way shots. Mark Ost and I went bug hunting again around the campground and found quite a few spiders. Great weekend of conversation and photography, as all of the ESCP gatherings tend to be.
Click a photo for higher resolution viewing.
ISO 3200, f/2.8, 30 seconds
Self portrait. I was blocking the moon in the exposure.
ISO 1600, f/2.8, 30 seconds.
On to the spiders. All of these were taken with My 5d Mark II, Canon Mp-e 65 macro lens, and the Canon mt-24 ex twin flash light. The diffusers I built are working wonderfully, I’m getting close to daylight.
Nice photos of the “Spider Nebula”. In your “self-portrait”, what is that wedge to the middle right of the photo? It almost looks like a crescent moon.
The wedge is a lens flare, caused by a street light to camera left.