As prime Milky Way season comes to a close, cooler temps over the Space Coast of FL = pretty #MilkyWay viewing tonight.
Much of the action is below the horizon, but a fair portion of the cloud (along with Saturn, Vega & Altair) was quite visible from Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area.
That is, of course, me in the foreground. On the way in I passed a couple of dudes shooting, and I thought I had stopped a sufficient distance from them. But, after processing this, I can see their car in the distance so I can only assume that my flashlight might have been messing with their shots. Sorry.
Details: ISO3200, 25-seconds, f2.8 with a Canon 5D4 and a Rokinon 12-mm full-frame fish-eye.
(Pic: me)
Tags: Altair Astrophotography Bull Creek Florida Mike Seeley Milky Way Night Sky NightPhotography Osceola Saturn Vega
In what will probably be my last Milky Way image for the 2018 season, I present the results from a family trip to Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area located in Osceola County, Florida. This time of year, the Milky Way wraps nearly directly overhead.
This is from Wednesday, October 3, 2018 at 8:55pm, and it's a merge of 8 images, spanning roughly 180 degrees of horizon. I was (obviously) shooting with a fish-eye lens, something I chose to embrace in this panorama, leaving the horizon wrapped around two sides of the image.
It was cloudier and hazier than I would have liked, but it was an amazing view, and the first time ever stargazing with my 3-year-old daughter.
Details:
Each image was shot at ISO2500, f2.8 and 15-seconds with a Canon 5D4 and a Rokinon 12mm fish-eye lens. I would have preferred a longer exposure time, but I wasn't confident in my daughter's ability to stand still, and to mitigate some of this, I mounted a speedlight on the camera to illuminate (and freeze) us in the foreground. I did minimal edits in Lightroom and used Photoshop to remove an airplane that was flying through the frame.
Tags: Astrophotography Bull Creek Florida Jupiter Mars Mike Seeley Milky Way Night Sky NightPhotography Osceola Saturn Venus
© All Rights Reserved
This image is the functional equivalent of me throwing my hands up in the air and walking away because I can't settle on an edit that I like.
Wednesday night, the skies cleared and I made a quick run out to Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area to stalk the Milky Way. I took 23 shots over the course of maybe 30 minutes and headed home, feeling pretty satisfied with what I got, at least based on what I saw on the camera LCD screen. At home, the stacks and panoramas weren't coming out well, and even the single frame edits weren't working, so I let the images sit, thinking I'd try to make sense of them tonight, Thursday. But, tonight I'm not feeling any better about them. The more I fuss with them, the ickier it gets.
I think there was more haziness in the air than I realized, and going earlier in the night (10 pm or so) meant there were a zillion more planes and more horizon light than I'm accustomed. (I bet it didn't help that low on the horizon to the southwest were occasional lightning flashes from distant lightning).
So, in quasi- defeat, I offer a frame directly from the memory card, a test image taken with the 12mm fish-eye lens as I waved a flashlight around. No edits, no adjustments in Lightroom, just a direct export to jpeg.
Details:
ISO2500, f2.8 and 25-seconds with a Canon 5D4 and a Rokinon 12mm full-frame fish-eye lens.
Tags: Astrophotography Bull Creek Florida Mike Seeley Milky Way Night Sky NightPhotography Osceola
"Two arcs," or, "Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and the Milky Way" (literal, working title)
The "August guide to the bright planets" (Earthsky.org; Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd) states that "[i]n August 2018, four planets arc across the evening sky. From west to east as night falls, these bright worlds are Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars." Earlier this week, friend Mark Poole posted a cool photo showing the planets, and that was what I set out to capture Friday night after sunset. The forecast called for some clouds, but as dusk progressed, it became clear (literally) that I would be able to get more than just the arc of the planets. The arc of the Milky Way was entirely possible.
So, this was the scene from 9:45 to 9:49 pm at the Bull Creek Wildlife Management area, approximately 45-minutes southwest of where I live.
This post also comes with a confession: this is my first Milky Way panorama built from multiple shots, nine of them, to be exact. I'm not sure why nine was what I ended up with, but it was necessary, as this frame encompasses a horizontal field of view of over 180-degrees. The leftmost tail of the Milky Way is roughly pointing ENE, while Venus (the bright object to the far right, hiding in the light on the horizon and shining through some trees) is nearly due West of my location.
Mars is, of course, front-and-center, just above the road and below the Milky Way. Saturn is in the cloud, and then to the right of the cloud (but up and to the left of Venus) is Jupiter.
Also, you can see faint green streaks of light in the foreground (mainly to the left). Those are fireflies, who were all very active (along with the mosquitos).
Details: 9 frames all shot at ISO2500, 25seconds and f2.8 shot with a Canon 5D4 and a 16-35mm L-series lens. The images were compiled into a photomerge/panorama in Photoshop, and the final edits were done in Adobe's Lightroom.
(Photo: Michael Seeley aka me)
Tags: Astrophotography Bull Creek Florida Jupiter Mars Mike Seeley Milky Way Night Sky NightPhotography Osceola Saturn Venus
© All Rights Reserved
The clouds stayed away last (Friday) night for a quick trip to Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area. This frame was actually in my reject pile.
This was a test shot to check the framing for a shot with me standing in the road, looking up, my next frame. For that shot (not shown), I caught an Iridium flare, and at first glance, I thought the streak in the top left of this test frame was an airplane. (I went out to get the arc of the four planets in a wide panorama; that shot is taking a moment or two to assemble; stay tuned.)
When I returned home, I saw Val Phillips's post about watching the Hubble Space Telescope fly over the Space Coast. After consulting heavens-above.com I confirmed that this is, in fact, the Hubble, photobombing my Milky Way shoot.
That's, of course, Mars in the center of the sky, bright as ever, and Saturn in visible in the cloud.
I sort of wish I could say I planned it (I would have gone out just for a Hubble + Milky Way shot), but it was purely accidental.
Details: ISO2500, 25-seconds and f2.8 with a Canon 5D4 and a 16-35mm lens, with quick edits in Lightroom.
Tags: Astrophotography Bull Creek Florida Mars Mike Seeley Milky Way Night Sky NightPhotography Osceola Saturn