A green frog, not to be confused with a Bullfrog. I snapped a pic of this gal as she was sitting in the middle of the lake on a piece of driftwood. Amazing that shes even alive out on the middle of the lake when the lake is filled with largemouth bass and other animal predators. Note: It was very hot this day with a heat index of 113degF (Blobilogicus croakiticus)

A journal, sometimes a live journal, of my astrophotography adventures in northeast Wisconsin

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This object is known as the Cocoon nebula, or catalog # IC 5146.

This was actually a very easy night, no autoguiding at all. Just polar align and click away. I had never attempted the cocoon, but from other various reviews, people seemed to have like this image.
The truth is, I have NOT captured enough frames for this image. You can really tell when you closely look at the dark nebula. The darker areas appear to be grainy and blotchy due to the camera current noise on longer exposures, especially at 3200 ISO which is what I had it set at.

We are our own worst critics, but I feel if one is going to spend thousands of dollars on his/her setup, one must be a perfectionist according to his/her highest standards.

The sole reason I did not aquire more light frames, is due to switching to an light pollution supression filter when the moon rose, and
completley bumping the scope out of alignment as well as the polar alignment. For me, it takes about 20 mins to get a good alignment and then to do another 3 star alignment so that I can center any given object...for those who do not like tedious time consuming perfection, this hobby is not for you.

Photo Info:
Camera: Canon 40D
ISO: 3200
Exposure: 17 x 275secs
Scope: Stellarvue 90TBV
Location: Beecher Wi

A Delta Aquarid meteor I captured on the 27th of July.

A green frog, not to be confused with a Bullfrog. I snapped a pic of this gal as she was sitting in the middle of the lake on a piece of driftwood. Amazing that shes even alive out on the middle of the lake when the lake is filled with largemouth bass and other animal predators. Note: It was very hot this day with a heat index of 113degF

(Blobilogicus croakiticus)

7/03/11

My favorite bird, the owl, in this case, "The great horned owl".
The Robins were absolutely going bonkers outside so I thought it might mean theres an intruder nearby.
I walked towards the rucus and seen the owl. He took off to the front yard and I went inside to grab the camera and scope for this shot.

(Hooticus horniticus)

Astro-imaging at 0130 am in the morning on July 3rd in my driveway doing some hydrogen-alpha imaging with a 50mm lens and Canon 40D. In case you are wondering, that is a kayak oar holding up the hatch to my SUV.

7/03/11

After a long hiatus of no astrophotography during the whole month of June due to cold and cloudy weather, July ushered in the first clear skies Ive seen since May.
July also brought me peace, as my next door neighbor finally moved taking his five non stop barking dogs with him.
In an area where silence is golden here in the northwoods, I finally feel I can concentrate on something else other then hearing the dogs bark and being afraid to go out my front door instigating more barking. They will not be missed...adios!

Something interesting about this photo is the subtle green air glow close to the horizon of this picture. So now instead of dodging light pollution like Im so used to when I lived in Milwaukee, now Im finding myself dealing with natural airglow, a phenomenon that is very interesting, but that can be a problem for imagers in truly dark areas.
You can read more about "airglow" here: http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2009/02/25/is-there-true-darkness/

This is not a great shot by any means according to my standards. This was shot at 5000ISO for 30secs, so there is alot of noise here, not to mention the Zenitar fisheye was wide open causing bloating of stars etc.
Ive still yet to get a shutter release cable for this camera, so this is why I used such a high ISO setting and a minimum of 30 secs for the exposure.

Skies are clear yet again tonight so of course I will be taking advantage of them.

Clear skies,
Brian

9/18/11 Monarch buttefly about ready to emerge from its chrysalis on my ivy plant.

Dark Nebula Barnard 142 and 143
Not my best, that is for sure.

Camera used was a canon 60D non modified

A green frog, not to be confused with a Bullfrog. I snapped a pic of this gal as she was sitting in the middle of the lake on a piece of driftwood. Amazing that shes even alive out on the middle of the lake when the lake is filled with largemouth bass and other animal predators. Note: It was very hot this day with a heat index of 113degF

(Blobilogicus croakiticus)