Tuesday, August 18, 2026

The Milky Way and colorful night skies

 The clouds were mostly gone near midnight on Saturday and Sunday (15-16 Aug).  Sky brightness on Saturday was 21.38 mpsas and Sunday yielded 21.3.  Dark enough, but not fantastic.  The likely culprit is airglow, which adds some colorful layers to constellations photographed near the horizon.

Saturday

 The picture above was obtained with a 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.  The silhouette of Snowshoe mountain is on the left, Bristol Head is on the right.  The field of view extends beyond the zenith into the northern constellation of Cepheus.

Also Saturday, different lens

 This image was obtained with a Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lens.  This is a rectilinear lens, not a fisheye, and consequently has a smaller field of view even though the focal lengths of the two lenses are nominally the same.

On Sunday night an OM 20mm f/1.4 lens with a Hoya Softon filter was used to obtain some constellation photos.

Cassiopeia (left) and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) right of center.

 
The Andromeda Galaxy (left of center) and the Great Square of Pegasus (right)

The Big Dipper resting on the Bristol Head ridgeline

Corona Borealis over Bristol Head

Sagittarius and the Milky Way core

All of these photos were obtained with the camera mounted on a Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker with exposures of 60 s. 

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