Friday, July 15, 2016

Honeymoon

Funny story for this one, on the night of the strawberry/honey moon I was excited for the chance to take pictures of it, after all this was a once in a lifetime phenomenon (a full moon this month coinciding with the summer solstice) and I had just gotten an iPhone adapter in the mail that I was eager to try. However with local cloud coverage being what it was there was a chance I might not even get to see it, let alone take pictures. So, figuring we could get a better view  from a different part of the state my father and I drove out to Fisher Meadows in Avon- a large area of soccer fields and ponds-where I hoped to find clearer view of the skies. We set up the mount and the camera in the middle of the soccer field, took a few videos and waited patiently for a break in the clouds, to no avail.  When, without warning, we were ambushed by a rouge sprinkler system which must have been turned on by a timer. My father dove in front of the lens and I, as quickly as I could, grabbed the box of eyepieces and ran to the safety of the parking lot. None of the equipment was broken (and I probably needed to clean the lens anyways) but we decided to call it a night and go home, damp and defeated. However, the moment we pulled into the driveway we looked up and, with utter disbelief, noticed a break in the clouds. We quickly set up the equipment and took a few videos, which became the picture below. 

Overall, it was a good time, and I think the pictures came out decent, though I still have a lot to learn in terms of post processing

Images taken on June 20th with the Celestron Nexstar Evolution 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain, from West Hartford CT. The camera I used was the standard iPhone 5s video function with Gosky adapter. The post processing software used was Pipp, Autostakkert!2 and RegiStax 6.1





Friday, June 17, 2016

Up in northern Vermont for the weekend with my family, I wanted to take advantage of the darker sky's and take some pictures of Saturn. I'm relatively new to photo capturing process, and this my first attempt at using Autostakkert!2. I am always looking for suggestions and ways to improve. However I hope you enjoy my first attempt.  

Images taken on June 16th with the Celestron Nexstar Evolution 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain, from South Hero Vermont. The camera I used was the Skyris 445C and acquired using the iCap 2.3 software. The post processing software used was Autostakkert!2 and RegiStax 6.1