Bradford Woods Views of the Milky Way with Canon T5i

This weekend I was co-hosting a Peer Educator retreat for our health and wellness peer educators at Bradford Woods in Martinsville, IN. Bradford Woods is close to the Link Observatory, and I knew it would have better skies than my house in Noblesville, so I brought my camera along.

We had a campfire at night and I could see through the trees that the stars were crystal clear and that it was going to be a great night for stargazing.

When I put the fire out and stepped out into a clearing, I could immediately see the faint veil of the Milky Way. You know it's a great sky when you don't even recognize constellations because there are too many stars!

Canon T5i on fixed tripod, stack of 29 light frames at ISO 6400, f/4.5, 18mm, 10 sec
Total exposure time 4 min 8 sec

Same image as above with the Summer Triangle and Cygnus

The clearing I was standing in was amazing, it blocked out all of the parking lot lights, and all of the lights from the cabins in the park were blocked by the tall trees. One drawback to the trees, however, is that I had no view of the horizon - and missed out on the brightest areas of the Milky Way. The region within the Summer Triangle is nice, and recognizable, but not the brightest bit by far.

Canon T5i on fixed tripod, stack of 95 light frames at ISO 3200, f/4.5, 18mm, 10 sec
Total exposure time 14 min 41 sec

Facing the other direction, and at ISO 3200, I didn't get much nebulosity in the Milky Way, but I did catch our neighbor galaxy Andromeda - which at 18mm looks like a large blurry star.

Cassiopeia and Andromeda rising over the treetops
Canon T5i on fixed tripod, single frame ISO 3200, 18mm, f/4.5, 10 sec

I'll end by saying it's a good sign when the trees in the foreground are actually black at night. I'm so used to seeing houses and orange trees in the neighborhood. Even at ISO 3200, these trees make true silhouettes against the night sky. Very cool!

Epsilon Lyrae, “The Double Double” Quadruple Star in Lyra

You can clearly see separation between the double stars, but unfortunately you can't see the quadruple star under this magnification. I did, however, catch another double star (Zeta Lyrae) in the same frame. Lyra is jam-packed with double stars!

Single frame at ISO 1600, 1 sec, 300mm, f/5.6

Milky Way Over Slippery Elm Trail, Don't Take Mediocre Dark Skies for Granted

I got a job at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) so I'll be moving to the Indianapolis area in just a few weeks. Because of this, I decided to try my hand at some Milky Way shots to take advantage of my rather rural location here in Bowling Green. I'd hate to get to Indy only to realize I was sitting under halfway decent skies all these years and wasted them. 

I've been waiting for the bright part of the Milky Way to return to the late evening sky later this summer, but I decided not to wait any longer and had to go out at 3:30am to catch the Milky Way high enough above the horizon. By the time the Milky Way is high around 11pm, I'll already be in Indy!

I took the dog out at 3:00am on May 16 and saw a fairly clear sky with some storms about 10-20 miles to the South. I figured there's no time like the present, grabbed my camera, and headed to the Slippery Elm Trail. I know the trail is closed at dark, but I figured I'd risk it since I've never seen anyone patrolling the path.

Stack of 10 subs, 5 darks, each at 15 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600, 18mm

Single frame at 15 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600, 18mm, processed in Photoshop CS5

The above image, before and after image processing

A fun piece of summer sky! Single frame color corrected in Photoshop

Stack of 7 subs, 5 darks, each at 15 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600, 18mm

I got some pretty good results even with just a few subs stacked in Deep Sky Stacker (DSS). I only took 29 shots (15 seconds each) during my entire session because it was so late, I forgot a head lamp, and because I heard a creepy noise in the bushes next to me. Here is the story I told to my friends on our e-mail chain about my experience:

Last night, at 3:30am, I woke up to take the dog out. The night sky was clear overhead, with some very low clouds to the south producing flashes of lightning but no audible thunder. I looked at several weather apps and decided to seize the moment to take some night sky photos. Since I'll be moving to Indy, I don't want to take for granted the fact that I currently live about 5 minutes drive from some decently dark skies.

I slowly drove through the trailer park behind Walmart and parked as far down as I could along the Slippery Elm Trail. I quietly removed my camera bag and tripod from the back seat and shuffled down the trail beyond the reach of trailer park street lights. Under the highway overpass, I heard my footsteps echo as my pace quickened. I reached a suitable area and looked up to see what looked like a pale swath of clouds arching from the south horizon through the Summer Triangle - it was the Milky Way!

After shooting a few dozen photos, and struggling to find focus with no moon as a point of reference, I heard an unexpected noise about 100 yards in the brush to the southeast of my location. It was a short loud "WOO!" almost identical to the high pitched "woo!" sample in the 1988 smash hit "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock (http://youtu.be/vsxsyZqmmlQ)

It was loud enough to echo off the mound of the elevated highway overpass, but I didn't think much of it. It could have been a whistle or a wild turkey or a meth-head yelling "woo!" - so I continued shooting. 5 minutes later I heard it again much closer... "WOO!" At 4:00am in the middle of a field surrounded by young pine trees and honeysuckle, what could be making that noise? I froze to listen, and heard interval twigs snapping through tall grass under what could have been footsteps. I pictured an elk charging out of the brush, or a meth zombie eating my face and stealing my camera. Then I realized, it could also be the Ohio grassman sneaking up to see what I was doing out there in the darkness all alone. My eyes watered. I grabbed my camera bag without closing it and didn't wait to fold up my tripod before making an awkward speedwalk getaway toward my car. It was the kind of speedwalk you make after a 3 hour breakfast at Harris, except carrying an open camera bag and looking over your shoulder.

Did I have an encounter with the Ohio grassman? Ooooh probably not. But even though I had a camera on a tripod ready to go, I wasn't going to wait around to find out.

The end.

My first point and shoot Milky Way photos inside the Summer Triangle

I was visiting with friends this weekend at Lake Roaming Rock, and we ended up having clear skies last night. I did some of my usual star trail photos, and I was amazed by the view to the east above the trees. The Summer Triangle was huge in the sky, and I realized I was in the darkest area I've been all summer. I knew the Milky Way should be visible just inside the triangle, and I could just barely make out a slight wispy white glow.

I was hopeful that this could be my chance to capture Milky Way light on my point and shoot camera for the first time ever. I maxed out my settings at 1600 ISO and 15 sec exposure, hoping to gather as much light as I could.

On my camera's LCD screen, I could barely make out a darker smudge going across the frame. When I got the image home, I played around in Photoshop for about 15 minutes trying to tease the contrast out of the picture. Using the HDR Toning tool under Image > Adjustments, I was able to bring the highlights forward.

Here are the results:

Milky Way in the Summer Triangle using Canon Powershot A3100 IS

Incomplete Summer Triangle (pan slightly left) using same equipment

The Photoshop HDR Toning settings I used for above photos

Ok, so the first two images were of Milky Way features after some very significant processing. Here is a comparison for both images before (straight out of the camera) and after (adjacent to the final product)...

I labeled Vega as an anchor so you can compare the features of the Milky Way through the summer triangle for the before and after images. Both 'before' shots were taken at ISO 1600 for 15 sec with a Canon Powershot A3100 IS. 

For my FINAL comparison, I wanted to see if the mirky over-processed clouds in my pictures were actually from the Milky Way and not just an artifact of all the post production manipulations. Here is a direct comparison with an image by Joe Plocki in 2007. I searched Flickr for a Milky Way image inside the Summer Triangle with a creative commons license. 

Is the noise in my image actually the Milky Way? 

Several of the features look similar, except for the obvious difference that Joe has a much prettier photo than I do. I am able to conclude that I was indeed successful at capturing a very faint image of the Milky Way that became more apparent after messing around in Photoshop for a bit. It is definitely a baby step in my night sky photography career, but a milestone nonetheless. I'm very happy!

International Space Station (ISS) and Dragon C2+ (?) flyover viewed from Ohio

One of these things is not like the others! ISS over Ohio: 5-25-12, 4:07am

In my previous post, I mentioned being frustrated with the deteriorating weather as I sat around my apartment waiting for the time to pass. I watched the entire two hour National Geographic Bee, had some coffee, and played with my phone. Although it was still cloudy (about 60% coverage) when I went out to the Intramural Fields at 3:30am, there was a hole in the clouds directly overhead. It was my lucky break, and I set up my tripod facing northeast at about 60 degrees elevation.

Using two stars of the Summer Triangle as guides, I knew the SpaceX Dragon C2+ capsule would "thread the needle" between Deneb and Vega (according to the StarWalk app).

Anticipated path for Dragon C2+ flyover. "Threading the needle" between Vega and Deneb.

Unfortunately, at ISO 400 and 15 sec exposure, Dragon was not visible in any of my frames. However, when I saw the ISS rise above the clouds at about 30 degrees elevation, I forgot all about Dragon. This was my first ISS observation, and it blew me away. It instantly became the brightest object in the sky, and shot almost directly overhead. It was like an unblinking aircraft flying impossibly high and impossibly fast.

What really blew my mind was that my Satellite Tracker app had perfectly predicted the flyover. I can imagine being out at night with friends and pretending to produce a shooting star on demand with careful timing. "If there is a god, send us a sign!!" - queue ISS flyover.

Here are a few more shots of the ISS streaking across the sky and into the distance...

Update: Based on the C2+ mission updates, it looks like I didn't "miss" Dragon on my camera because Dragon wasn't there! I was expecting the capsule to be about 2 minutes in front of the ISS, and I figured Dragon would do another lap around the planet and catch up to the ISS again. 

Well, I must have misunderstood the rendezvous maneuvers, because it looks like at around 4am EST there is no way Dragon could have been flying 2 minutes in front of the ISS because it was easily within 10 kilometers of the station. It might be a false memory, but I might recall seeing a small amber light trailing immediately behind the ISS. Who knows - either way there is no way to discern between the ISS and Dragon in my 15 sec exposures because they're all blurred together. 

Although I don't have proof in my photos, I'll probably still tell people I saw Dragon flying with the ISS ;P

Vega, Deneb, & Altair: Playing with the Summer Triangle in Photoshop

The summer triangle is comprised of Vega, Deneb, and Altair - the brightest stars in the constellations Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila respectively. The triangle makes an excellent signpost for the nebular clouds of the Milky Way which supposedly streak through the center of the triangle. I wouldn't know, I've never seen the Milky Way in the night sky. 

I tried my best to clean up the image I got out of my camera, and I was fairly pleased after messing with the exposure tool for a couple minutes. Although I don't like the idea of distorting the "natural" image I get out of my camera, I think it helps to appreciate the background stars. 

Here is the final result. A much blacker sky, and distinct stars. I wish my night sky really looked like this!

Point and shoot star trails at BGSU intramural fields

Check out my latest star trail image, this time with more interesting foreground. I made this using a stack of 81 photos from May 5, 2012 between midnight at 1am at the intramural fields overlooking the stadium at Bowling Green State University. 15 sec exposure each at ISO 400.

Facing northeast, the brightest star leaving the top of the frame is Vega.