Monthly Archives: July 2016


Portland PhotoFair

One more post before I leave for the Oregon Star Party:  On Saturday, August 13, the first ever Portland PhotoFair will be held, and I will be a guest speaker (see https://4photofair.wordpress.com/special-guests-and-dealers/).  PhotoFair began in California’s Bay Area in 1975 and continues to do annual shows there, as well as satellite shows in other cities. My presentation is titled “Astro-Photography for the Terrestrial Photographer” and is an introduction to AP aimed specifically at experienced photographers.  It will have a brief introduction covering astronomy equipment and concepts, then jump into specific techniques for photographing several types of night sky images. I […]


The 2016 Oregon Star Party

I haven’t posted anything for quite a while here – and it may be another while before the next post – because I’ve been consumed with preparations for the Oregon Star Party (OSP), which will run from Aug. 2nd to the 7th (see http://oregonstarparty.org/ for details).  This year I will have more images, and more prints of all kinds, than I have ever had before.  In fact, I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to display everything in my “mobile gallery”/motorhome, Gamma Pictoris. First among all the things taking up my time is the new 2017 Calendar: This calendar […]


Saturn Visits the Edge of the Milky Way

Another photo from last weekend’s star party: You might recognize the area in the lower right corner from earlier photos I’ve posted.  The large yellow/red blob is the star Antares (bloated by its extreme brightness), to its right is the globular cluster M4, and above that, surrounded by blue dust, is the Rho Ophiuchi complex.  But this very wide field image (more than 25 degrees across) shows how this area resides at the edge of the Milky Way.  The dense stars and dust of the Milky Way appear as glowing red and black on the left edge, gradually fading to […]


Lagoon, Trifid, and Cat’s Paw

Last weekend’s star party was relatively relaxing, largely because the target I was after could be photographed for only a few hours each night, so I got to bed by 2 or 2:30 each night.  The target was 3 nebulae in the constellation Sagittarius, the Lagoon (M8), Trifid (M20), and Cat’s Paw (NGC6334).  All of these are primarily emission nebulae, but are often photographed in broadband color (RGB) to include some reflection components, especially the blue region on the north side of M20.  North is down in this photo, and this blue region shows only very faintly as a light […]


Night Hike

For several years now I have been wanting to take a “night sky” photo from my favorite local hike, Silver Star Mountain.  I recently got the chance, and got a few interesting photos, although the main lesson from this experience is that you really have to make your plans around light pollution: This is more or less the image I had planned.  It would have been a bit better if I had waited a couple of hours so that the Milky Way came up to the right of the peak, but it was probably going to get cloudy by then.  […]