Photography

Composite of the Moon. I stitched together three images with the Astro Tech 80EDT. Excellent view of the crater Plato near the top. As you move down, you can see the Apennines, Arie’s Hoofprint (dark area just below the Apennines), the three dark areas in the crater Alphonsus, the Straight Wall and the rays emanating from the crater Tycho. I added an image with captions for reference.

Sunspots, Feb. 29, 2024.

Hummingbird and trumpet vine.

Cooper’s Hawk, I believe.

Four-point buck near Gunnison, CO.

The Fall colors near Gunnison, CO were extraordinary this year.

Crested Butte, CO.

Castle Rock from Ohio Creek.

The wildlife near Gunnison was varied and beautiful. This Moose was just outside the city limits of Crested Butte, CO.

Red-tailedHawk along Carbon Creek.

Elk along Ohio Creek.

New images with my new camera. I now have a Canon 90D DSLR. These four images were taken April 29th, 2021 through a Celestron 10 inch Newtonian reflector.

The Whirlpool Galaxy is about 23 million light years away in Canes Venatici. This is a stack of 7 images, each 25 seconds long at ISO 2000.

M81 is a spiral galaxy 12 million light years away in Ursa Major. It is about 90% the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy at 90,000 light years across. M82 is smaller at about 37,000 light years across and is about 12 million light years away. It is about five times brighter than the Milky Way would be at the same distance because of massive star birth in progress. Stack of 11 images, 25 sec. ISO 2000.

M101 is a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. It is much larger than our galaxy at about 170.000 light years across (MW = 153,000 ly). It is about 21 million light years away (I see two distances listed online as either 21 or 25 mly. The 25 maybe an older measurement). Stack of 13, 25 second exposures at ISO 2000.

M3 is a globular cluster of about 500,000 stars 34,000 light years away in Canes Venatici. It is estimated to be 11.4 billion years old and globular’s are some of the oldest structures in a galaxy. Stack of 12 images, 25 seconds lond at ISO 1600.