Login

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Not available on worldkey.io.
worldkey.io is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Discussion of Disney history, theme parks, music, movies, and related topics.

Administered by:

Server stats:

102
active users

worldkey.io: AboutProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.6

#telephoto

0 posts0 participants0 posts today
Public
TomKrajci 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

Comet C/2024 G3 very low in bright evening twilight as seen from the mountains of southern New Mexico at 9,000 feet. (Thursday, 16 January)

First photo is the comet as first seen in very bright twilight. 200mm lens, fixed tripod.

Second photo is about seven minutes later, just before it set behind cirrus and trees. 400mm lens.

Third photo is another three minutes later. The comet is gone.

Or is it?

Fourth photo is the third photo, but processed to flatten the sky gradient, converted to grayscale, and a very aggressive contrast boost. Traces of the tail can be seen below the band of cirrus clouds. Perhaps even some faint traces above the band of cirrus?

The comet, surprisingly visible in such bright twilight, is a small streak with its short tail extending up and to the left of the nucleus. The sky is a very bright orange just above the trees, and gradually shades to a rich dark blue along the top of the frame. I am trying to convey in this photo how bright twilight was at this time.
Twilight is darker and the comet is much lower in the sky. This is also a longer telephoto lens compared to the first image, so the comet and distant trees are twice as large. A few slight traces of cirrus are above the comet and to its right. Thicker cirrus are down lower and to the right.
The comet has set, leaving some cirrus in the evening twilight sky. But what if we boost the image contrast? (See the next image....)
This is the third image, but the sky gradient has been flattened, converted to grayscale, and a very aggressive contrast boost has been applied. Below the band of cirrus clouds (now a very dark band because of the contrast boost) traces of the outer tail are obvious. Are there faint traces of the tail above the band of cirrus?
#NewMexico#Comet#Astrophotography
Public
TomKrajci 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

Full moon, shown in high contrast in near infrared.

A full moon lacks a terminator...that portion of the moon where the sun angle is very low and shadows are very long. (That's a wonderful way to see the moon's vertical terrain, even gentle rolling hills.) The region of the terminator is much darker than the rest of the moon's surface, so when the moon is not full I can't boost contrast much or I'll push the faint terminator terrain into invisible black.

But tonight I can boost contrast so that the new/fresh impact ejecta is white, and the darkest parts of the maria are dark gray.

The disk of the moon is littered with impact ejecta, large and small. To my eye tonight it looks like a cracked and fractured crystal globe.

The second photo is a zoom/crop showing part of the moon's limb where shadow detail is present.

Full moon in high contrast against a jet black sky.
A zoom/crop showing part of the moon's limb where shadow detail is present.
#NewMexico#Moon#Infrared
Public
TomKrajci 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

Four views of Venus and Spica in evening twilight.

First photo is a telephoto lens view. Brilliant Venus is at the top of the frame and the blue-white star Spica is a bit below center. The twilight sky gradient goes from blue to orange and I framed the shot to capture more of the orange sky below Spica.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spica

The three other shots are wider and wider views that capture more and more stars as the sky gets darker. (The sky can't get very dark because of the full moon.)

A telephoto lens view. Brilliant Venus is at the top of the frame and the blue-white star Spica is a bit below center. The twilight sky gradient goes from blue to orange and I framed the shot to capture more of the orange sky below Spica.
A wider angle view of the evening twilight sky that also captures orange Arcturus near the top of the frame. Not too many stars are yet visible, and the orange band of twilight is still quite bright along the horizon.
An even wider view now adds the half of Scorpio to the scene.
The widest view captures all of Scorpio, the teapot asterism, and faint hints of the Milky Way...but the full moon keeps the sky too bright for more faint details.
#Astronomy#Astrophotography#Photography
ExploreLive feeds
About