Prescott AZ – Page 6 – Astro La Vista Observatory

Moon 04/04/2016 – Illumination 13%

This is a single image taken a Nikon D200 and a Nikkor 80-400 telephoto lens at 400 mm. No mount was used.

Solar 03/29/2016

This was taken through the Astro-Physics 130mm refractor using a Lunt Herschel wedge and an Imaging Source video camera. The Lunt wedge produces a white light image which was converted to something resembling an H-Alpha reddish tone. I have never tried this configuration before and was a little surprised at the amount of detail inContinue reading “Solar 03/29/2016”

Moon 03/29/2016

Taken with a Nikon D200 and a Nikon AF VR-Nikkor 80-400mm lens.

Sunspots 03/25/2016

As in the other solar photo taken today, this was taken through the Lunt 80mm solar scope in “double stack” mode for enhanced definition. In this case 2000 images were stacked to form the final image.

Solar 03/25/2016

This was taken with the Lunt 80mm solar telescope in its “double stack” mode. In this mode you are able to obtain images with a bit more definition. A thousand images were stacked to form the final image. The line in the photo is most likely a solar filament of cooler material on the surface.Continue reading “Solar 03/25/2016”

Seagull Nebula – Three Panel Mosaic -Version 2

This nebula is now setting much earlier. I still need a little more imaging in the upper portion. Hopefully the next few days will offer an opportunity to complete the H-Alpha portion of this project. So far the total imaging time is about 15.5 hours. It looks like a color version will have to waitContinue reading “Seagull Nebula – Three Panel Mosaic -Version 2”

David Earl and his loader

Almost three years ago 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died in a horrific fire in our area. Since then, the county has been making sure that local housing areas are protected from wildfires. Today David Earl was clearing the State Land behind our home and observatory. Thanks David!

Moon Set in Prescott AZ via IPAD Camera

Seagull Nebula – Work in Progress

This is a three panel mosaic that needs a little more imaging time to complete.

Messier 81 & 82

From Wikipedia: “Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus (which harbors a supermassive black hole), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers. The galaxy’sContinue reading “Messier 81 & 82”