Starry Nights

We had a couple clear cloudless nights this past week.  Really good nights are somewhat rare and I try to get out somewhere dark if at all possible.

Here are a couple shots with the Rokinon 14mm lens, looking southeast from the Trans World Radio antenna field.

 

 

This is a 58 second exposure at ISO 800 and f2.8.  (I shot a few at ISO1600 too, but haven't really messed with them yet.  The tower lights tend to get blown out at the higher ISOs.)  This picture is lightly processed, and then downsized a lot, but not cropped at all.
You can see quite a broad section of the Milky Way; from alpha and beta Centaurus on the right edge of the frame, past Scorpius (above and to the left of the second tower from the right), Sagittarius (pretty much in the middle), Scutum (sitting between the top of the second tower from the left and the left most tower), and on to Aquila (half way between the left most tower and the left edge of the frame.)  And if you look in the top left corner, you'll see the coat-hanger asterism (Brocchi's Cluster.)

The photo below is the same shot with some perspective correction to make the towers stand up straighter.  This makes the stars a little fuzzy, but I like the overall effect.

Moon and Venus

The Moon was near Venus before sunrise this morning.  Venus is to the lower left of the Moon.  You'll probably need to click on the picture to make it bigger in order to see Venus.

Planets on Parade

We've been watching each night as Mars has been moving towards the bright star, Spica.  They will be at their closest Sunday night.
The moon was right in there with them a few nights ago, but it was too hazy here to see much.  I could see the moon and just barely make out Mars.
Mars will continue to head East towards Saturn in the coming weeks.

TWR Transmitter Building

Here is a recent shot of the TWR Bonaire transmitter building, looking good, after a recent group of volunteers from Texas finished with it.

Note the guys on one of the towers in the background.  Note the graded area towards the foreground where the 2 Alco diesels used to be.

Awesome Aerial Views of Bonaire

Did you see the new video of the 4th of July fireworks on YouTube?  I really liked seeing the bursts whizzing right by the point of view of the quad copter mounted camera.


It reminded me that I have never mentioned some truly beautiful views of Bonaire shot with a DJI Phantom and a Go Pro Hero 3.  I shot some aerial views of Bonaire from a small plane back in the day, so when I first saw this new drone camera platform, I really wanted one.  But now I don't need one after all, 'cause I can just sit back and enjoy this amazing video on YouTube.

TWR is on Instagram

I just heard that TWR has begun posting pictures and video clips on Instagram.  There isn't much there yet, but that will change soon I bet.
Speaking of posting, I can't believe that I didn't post anything in June, arrrrg.