Gary Phillips- astrophotography

(click image to view & discuss)	M31 Andromedia, 14Nov14, Northboro, MA MY FIRST PUBLISHABLE DEEP SKY IMAGE!!  Shot using my photography gear, Canon 5D mark ii, internal CLS filter, 7000K in camera white balance, 70-200mm f.2.8 lens + 1.4 extender, shot at 280mm focal length, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 50 seconds each x 114 images (95 minute total exposure).  Celestron Advanced GT equatorial mount with poor alignment b/c I was rushed and don't know what I am doing yet.  The only notable post processing was that I added 100% clarity to the stacked Nebulosity tiff image before doing my thing in Photoshop.  :)  I get excessive aberration when I shoot wide open, so I stopped down from f/4.0 to f/5.6 in these initial attempts. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 19:28:52
(click image to view & discuss)	M45 Pleiades, 14Nov14, Northboro, MA Canon 5D mark ii, internal CLS filter, 7000K in camera WB, 70-200mm f.2.8 lens + 1.4 extender, shot at 280mm focal length, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 50 seconds each x 119 images (99 minute total exposure).  Celestron Advanced GT equatorial mount with poor alignment b/c I was rushed.  Post processing- 100% clarity added in Lightroom to stacked Nebulosity tiff image, added mask and text in Photoshop. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 19:33:59
(click image to view & discuss)	my moon vs the club's moon :) I was doing a study in lens focal lengths.  I had a 1.4 extender on my 70-200mm (essentially an expensive barlow lens), but the Tele Vue image was taken before I knew what a barlow was.   My moon was taken 10Apr14, and the club's was on 05Nov14.  :) Tele Vue-85 Refractor Telescope, 600mm, f/7 Canon @280mm, f/4 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 19:53:13
(click image to view & discuss)	Newbies! Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:17:04
(click image to view & discuss)	new member tour, 05Aug14 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:18:20
(click image to view & discuss)	member cookout tour, 13Sep14 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:21:26
(click image to view & discuss)	Star Party at Tanner-Hiller Airport, New Braintree, Mass, 27Sep14 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:23:48
(click image to view & discuss)	Star Party at Tanner-Hiller Airport, my daughter's version, 27Sep14 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:24:54
(click image to view & discuss)	Star Party at Tanner-Hiller Airport, New Braintree, Mass, 27Sep14 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:25:56
(click image to view & discuss)	Star Party at Tanner-Hiller Airport, New Braintree, Mass, 27Sep14 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:26:38
(click image to view & discuss)	Star Party at Tanner-Hiller Airport, New Braintree, Mass, 27Sep14 Selfie Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/17/2014 20:27:49
(click image to view & discuss)	M81 Bodes’ and M82 Cigar Galaxies, 14Nov14, Northboro, MA Canon 5D mark ii, internal CLS filter, 70-200mm f.2.8 lens + 1.4 extender, shot at 280mm focal length, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 50 seconds each x 107 images for 89 minute total exposure.  Celestron Advanced GT equatorial mount with poor alignment b/c I was rushed.  Post processing- 100% clarity added in Lightroom to stacked Nebulosity tiff image, added mask and text in Photoshop. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/30/2014 09:59:24
(click image to view & discuss)	M42 Orion Nebula, 22Nov14, Northboro, MA Canon 5D mark ii, internal CLS filter, 70-200mm f.2.8 lens + 1.4 extender, shot at 280mm focal length, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 50 seconds each x 38 images for 32 minute total exposure.  Celestron Advanced GT equatorial mount with poor alignment b/c I was rushed.  Post processing- 100% clarity added in Lightroom to stacked Nebulosity tiff image, added mask and text in Photoshop. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/30/2014 17:46:24
(click image to view & discuss)	back yard fun Getting to know my new friend (CELESTRON CG-5 COMPUTERIZED MOUNT)! Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/30/2014 18:26:03
(click image to view & discuss)	constellations I expose my 4yr old to astronomy as often as I can.  We play a game where I show her a constellations on the computer and she sees how many she can name (about 6 so far).  She surprised me this weekend by drawing a few, and then asked me if I could name them.  If you have not noticed, Jupiter rises just before Leo these days, so we have fun finding Leo eating Jupiter in the morning sky.  :) Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/30/2014 18:54:55
(click image to view & discuss)	Geminids 13Dec14 (not quite peak) After about 7 straight days of cloudy nights, they broke early this morning and I was able to capture these 6 meteors over a 1 hour and 20 minute period. The Geminids Meteor Shower is the best one of the year, and the peak show is TONIGHT. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 12/13/2014 09:41:30
(click image to view & discuss)	Geminids 13Dec14 (peak night, 2 of 2) I have not spent much time on post yet.  This composite includes 14 meteors AFTER the meridian flip, Western sky.  14 images combined, each were 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 400,14mm lens, crop sensor Canon Rebel, on equatorial mount (with poor alignment), Northboro, Mass.  11:45PM to 3:12AM, then the clouds came in.  Image 1 of 2 will be looking East, and I may try to merge the two to include all ~30 meteors in one image).   My main camera is in the shop, so I had to use this first generation Rebel, made about 10 years ago. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 12/14/2014 21:08:52
(click image to view & discuss)	Geminids 13Dec14- cloudy meteor I like this meteor image b/c it went parallel with the clouds. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 12/14/2014 21:12:49
(click image to view & discuss)	Geminids 13Dec14 (peak night, 1 of 2) looking East, Northboro, Mass, with no light pollution filter.  :( Submitted by Gary Phillips on 12/15/2014 21:35:51
(click image to view & discuss)	Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), 09Jan15 Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), 09Jan15, 8:40PM EST, Northboro, MA, f/5.6, 13 sec, ISO 3200, Canon 5D mii at 120mm. Yes, I broke rule # 1, I shot through the window inside my house.  :) Submitted by Gary Phillips on 01/10/2015 07:45:22
(click image to view & discuss)	Jupiter's triple moon transit, 23Jan15 Jupiter (9:04PM): ISO 1600, 4x1/250 sec, aligned and averaged in Photoshop moons (9:05PM): ISO 1600, 0.3 sec, composite in Photoshop Club’s 10” newtonian, Westford, MA.   Canon 5D Mark ii with CLS filter for light pollution, with barlow adapter. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 01/24/2015 10:21:22
(click image to view & discuss)	Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), 19Jan15 19Jan15, 7:12 to 9:18PM EST, Northboro, MA Canon 5D mii 70-200mm + 1.4x ext at 280mm and CLS filter.  Celestron Advanced GT equatorial mount All frames were @ ISO 1000, f/5.0, 119 sec, each frame is about 5x7 degrees. I couldn’t get Nebulosity to work, so I averaged stacked the 8 frames of M45 in Photoshop, then dropped that into the pano.  The comet was 14 images manually aligned in Photoshop, lighten blend mode, then dropped into the pano.  Curves adjustment layers used.  Total time between the pano frames, stacking, and putting daughter to bed break etc was about 1 hour.  If I wasn’t so rushed I would have changed to a wide lens in lieu of the pano (the file is huge!), but it was nice to get to know the EQ mount and hand controller more, and nice that the clouds held off and gave me a solid hour to work.  Had to auto blend the frames b/c some were more cloudy than others.  That didn’t go too well, so I plan to reprocess this once I learn more about Nebulosity and will re-work the pano. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 01/24/2015 15:25:35
(click image to view & discuss)	backyard self2 Using my DSLR, longest lens, filter heater, and a bit of insulation+handwarmer pack to keep the camera from getting too cold. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 02/02/2015 14:34:06
(click image to view & discuss)	wonky star trail I honored the 2015 Eta Aquariids meter shower with a multi-goal project.  14mm lens on my Canon DSLR, attached to a tracking equatorial mount, imaged from astronomical twilight to astronomical twilight.  There were three goals to the project.   1) capture a few meteors (@60 sec exp, ISO 1000, f/2.8, with CLS filter) 2) create a time-lapse video 3) create a star trail. Here is the special thing with the project, I did not align with the NCP.  My backyard zenith view with my 14 mm lens clips trees all the way around, basically there is an opening in the trees when looking up.  Aligning with the NCP would be a waste since the view would be blocked by trees most of the night, and just using a standard tripod for a time-lapse is just not that interesting.  So, I adjusted the tripod legs to align the mount closer to the zenith.  I knew going into it that the moon would rise part way though, so I processed in reverse comet mode to make the moon light effect go away. The trail is not what I was expecting... Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/07/2015 21:21:46
(click image to view & discuss)	06May15 star trail I honored the 2015 Eta Aquariids meter shower with a multi-goal project.  I imaged with a 14mm lens on my Canon DSLR, attached to a tracking equatorial mount.  Civil dusk (8:22PM) to civil dawn (5:03AM), so nearly 9 hours.  Here is the special thing- I aligned the mount to near the zenith (fictitious pole), not the North Celestial Pole.  My backyard zenith view with my 14 mm lens clips trees all the way around, so I aligned the mount to rotate around the unobstructed view, so the trees would spin around the perimeter of the image. I didn’t imagine the star trail would look like this.  Other than polaris (circle relative to my fictitious pole) stars, I think other stars would track on their own elliptical path, location would be a function of it’s declination relative to NCP and the fictitious pole. Each star has it’s own arc, which explains why some crossed over each other during the night.   Here is the time lapse video, published to my Flickr account.   https://www.flickr.com/photos/garyaphillip Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/09/2015 21:15:06
(click image to view & discuss)	08May15 star trail, take 2! This time I focused the camera (LOL) and made a few other adjustments.  StarStax. Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/09/2015 21:16:07
(click image to view & discuss)	Observing in the yard (1 of 3) 11Apr15 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/12/2015 21:21:55
(click image to view & discuss)	Observing in the yard (2 of 3) 11Apr15 Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/12/2015 21:22:21
(click image to view & discuss)	Observing in the yard (3 of 3) light painting/portraits Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/12/2015 21:23:40
(click image to view & discuss)	M51 whirlpool galaxy, 23May15 M51 whirlpool galaxy, ATMoB club house, 23May15.   Canon 5D mii, CLS filter 70-200mm lens + 1.4 ext @280mm, f/5, ISO 800, (5x7 deg FOV) 4 min x 8 = 32 min total exposure Curves and clarity adjusted in Lightroom Stacked using Nebulosity (demo) Submitted by Gary Phillips on 05/24/2015 21:12:54
(click image to view & discuss)	Perigee Eclipse 2015_Blood Moon 27Sep15.  2 sec, f/4.0, /SO 6400, 280mm lens, Canon 5D mark II Submitted by Gary Phillips on 11/11/2015 20:17:23