Very nice work. I assume LRGB. Would like to know more.

Thanks for sharing.

Jay

Nice work Ballard. It makes me even more jealous of your weather conditions compared to what I have. Thanks for sharing.

Jay

Hi Ballard,

Wow! You've got a lot of "intruders" in that gif for sure. I really like the effect they have on the video. I'm also totally jealous of you because I wasn't able to get one shot of Neowise when it in reasonable position to be photographed. One thing that's almost a constant here in Florida are clouds in the east at sunrise and in the west at sunset. Nice gif...thanks for sharing.

Jay

Hi Alberio,

Yes it is the California Nebula in the last picture in the post. I took those and also the Christmas Tree Cluster/Fox Fur Nebula (first 4 subs) over two nights in the last week and after looking at 94 subs, 20 had satellite trials in them. It was a very busy night for satellites!

Jay

I added an example of a meteor (1 image), satellite (3 images)and an airplane to show the differences between how these objects will look when photographed at night. You'll have do download to be able to see the intruders. The top photo has a meteor just to the right and above center. It starts out as a point that gets wider and brighter as it moves towards the top of the photo and abruptly ends at it brightest because the 2 minute exposure ended before the meteors life ended. If I had caught the full life of the meteor, you would have seen it dim and disappear into a point of light. In the top of the 3 satellite photos, you'll see a faint streak of light to the upper left of center that's pretty constant in width and brightness. You'll see an identical streak of light in the middle of the 3 photos almost in the center that is on the same trajectory as the streak in the photo above it. Then in the bottom of the 3 photos you'll see another identical streak of light, again on the same trajectory as the streaks in the two preceding photos. These subs are 2 minutes long so you can compare the speed of the satellite to that of the meteor. The last photo shows what an airplane looks like flying through an astroimage.

Jay

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I believe they are meteors. Meteors typically appear like a round toothpick, tapered to a point at the ends and wider in the middle. They are very fast and will appear only on one of the subs. A satellite is slow in comparison, appears as a streak of light that is constant in width and brightness, and will follow the same path from one sub to another with the distance between the streaks of light dependent on the time between exposures. Airplanes are easy to distinguish because of their lights as Alberio says.

Hope that helps.

Jay

Well, I'm impressed. A far cry from my Canon 6D and T5i with the f/4, 400 mm lens sometimes with the 1.4 or 2x expander and CEM 40 mount. Unfortunately, I only have the empty lot next to me to set up on that provides a clear enough view. When that sells, I'm either going to have to move or cut down a bunch of palm trees and remove half of a lanai screen to get open sky. I've thought of buying the lot and putting an observatory on it but the Association said absolutely not. My other idea also got nixed by the Association...building up and putting an observatory, albeit a small one on my roof. New Mexico, here I come. Thanks for sharing the info on the covers. That looks like a great setup you've got there. Oh, I also cover the computer with a towel, but was going to bring one out with me...woulda, shoulda, coulda...instead the computer is in a phosphorous pentoxide drying box.

OMG, growing up in Florida without AC...I just don't know how you hardy souls did that. You are so absolutely right about not dirtying a towel to dry off after a shower. You get your clothes wet whether you towel off or not. I grew up in the mountains of PA and also had a window fan for the 2 nights a summer when it was needed.

I went out to image last night because the forecast was favorable until about 5 am where hit and miss showers were expected. I have to set up and tear down each time I image so was all set to polar align as soon as it got dark enough. Once it got dark, I finished the setup alignments and PhD2 calibrations. The weather was fine with some passing clouds. I came in about 10:45 pm to do a short 30 min telecom with China that lasted all of 18 min. When that finished, I happened to glance at the pool and freaked. It was raining. I flew out to grab the computer and cover the camera, lens and mount (I image with an f4 400 mm lens but looking to purchase my first scope). This morning, it looks like the camera, lens and mount are fine but the computer is likely fried. I'm going to desiccate it for a few days and see if I can revive it. Between those spotty pop up showers and forgetting to turn off the sprinkler system one night when I was imaging, it looks like this will be the second computer lost to water on the ground. I say "on the ground" because I lost another on a flight when the guy in the seat behind me bumped the flight attendant pouring a Diet Coke...direct hit on my laptop...fried instantly.

Ah! Thanks for the RawTherapee info. I'll file that away until needed.

My weather here on the west coast of Florida may be even worse than yours this time of year. I had one evening shortly after NEOWISE became visible in the evening to view it and no chance at all to photograph it because it was so low to the horizon. I've had but one clear night since May to do any imaging although I missed one the other night. The forecast wasn't good but went out for a dip in the pool before bed at about 2 am, it was perfectly clear. None of the forecasting apps got that right.

Regardless, thanks so much for sharing your favorite weather apps. There are several new to me so I'm excited to take a look. One that I've been using is called Astrospheric. It's about the most accurate (whatever that means regarding weather) that I've used. Check it out.

Finally, thanks also for the Sky King link! I used to watch it every Saturday at 12:30 pm after the cartoons were pretty much over. I've not thought about that show is about 152 years.

Jay

Love the Pacman images especially the first one. It's easy to see why it's called that. You also gave me something new to check out...Rawtherapee...had never heard of it. Thanks for sharing.

Jay

I love your captures. Truly amazing. Thank you for sharing.

If it's not already been mentioned, the equivalent Ctrl-Alt-Del on a PC to individually force quit application on a Mac is Cmd-Opt-Esc. It brings up a window where you can force quit an individual application.

Hope that helps someone.

One of the best apps to find your way across the night sky is a free program called Stellarium that's available for any operating system. Hope this helps.

Jay

Oh they're around during the day as well.

This little 7 footer took up residence in the pond across the street.

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