Raining under a clear dark sky

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OzEclipse Australia
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Raining under a clear dark sky

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Post by OzEclipse »


Since returning from Argentina and Chile 2 weeks ago I haven't managed any observing. I brought back a slight cold and bad jet lag and decided to take it easy until recovered. A few of my friends and colleagues "pushed through" this winters cold and flu and as a result, have been sick for the past two months.

But last night, over my cold and the jet lag, the forecast was clear, seeing predicted to be excellent so I packed the car and headed out to my dark site. As I was unlocking the front gate, I noticed that the galvanised iron fence and the gate and lock were all dripping with water. I drove the 400 metres ( 1/4 mile ) to the observatory and as I pulled up, I saw the walls of the observatory glistening with water. At this location, this means dew so heavy it might as well be raining and later, heavy fog will rise. So I abandoned any idea of setting up scopes and considered heading straight home.

At my latitude 35 S, July August is a truly magic time of year. I wish those of you living in the north could see it. By mid evening, the Milky way stretches from Carina on the SSW horizon, through Crux, Centaurus, & Norma. The Scorpius, Sagittarius core of the Milky Way sits directly overhead at zenith and then the Milky Way cascades down the northern sky through Scutum, Aquila, Delphinus, Lyra and Cygnus. After 40+ years of observing, I still can just stand under this sea of stars, and stare up in wonder.

But hang on I can hear you saying, "Weren't you just in the Atacama desert, world dark sky mecca?" Yes I was, but the skies here are so much better. Frankly I don't know what all the fuss is about. The Atacama has the altitude but during my stay, the air was full of dust and cirrus cloud and smoke in some places. The skies here are darker, clearer and have more transparency and hence better contrast.

So I decided to spend some time and try to share it with you. I set up a tripod, put a fisheye lens on my camera and decided to enjoy the Milky Way while I could before the fog rose and try to capture a few pictures to illustrate what it's like to have this river of stars stretching from horizon to horizon. This lens is a full frame fisheye designed for APS. FOV 180 degree diagonal across an APS frame. But I can mount it on my full frame camera and get a very wide horizontal providing I accept and then crop out the vignetting that comes from the flower petal lens hood. Maybe one day I'll get brave and cut the lens hood off. |lol| When used this way, I capture about 160 degrees across the horizontal axis of the sensor. I have left the wide field at the expense of some wooly soft vignetted edges.

Starting this sky tour in familiar territory for my northern hemisphere friends, Lyra and Cygnus are on my northern horizon. Cygnus is behind the trees and still rising.
Image
All photos - Pentax K1, 10-17mm(13mm) f4 fisheye, ISO6400, 60s

Notice how dark the landscape is even though the sky is almost overexposed. I had to use the shadows slider in Lightroom to get the landscape to show up at all. In the original image, the property is black. Being of Italian descent, I have olive skin, my whiter palms of my hands are visible in front of my face in the dark but the darker pigmented backs of my hands are very faint ghostly glows in the dark.

Now lay down on your back and look straight up. The ground is damp and it's mid-winter, temperature is 1 degree above freezing so throw down a ground sheet or yoga mat before you lay down. Look straight up at the zenith, feet pointing south west...........
Image
That's Eta Carina on the south horizon (lower left) and the Large Magellanic Cloud upper left. If you were seeing this yourself, the Small Magellanic cloud would be visible just above the Large but in this photo, it is lost to the vignetting. Let your eye wander up from Eta Carina past Crux , the coal sack and Centaurus through the bright bar that is Norma's highly underrated star clouds to the galactic core sitting at the zenith. Ok now fix your gaze upon this and explore your peripheral scotopic vision. Enjoy the river of stars that extends back south to Eta Carina and north through Scutum, Aquila and Lyra to Cygnus which is still hiding in the trees.

Oh darn, the fog is coming in...... Look, you can see comet Cali on the horizon ;-)
Image
Turn off that torch Joe...you idiot, people are trying to preserve their night vision!
Ah that's better..

Image
Yes, that blurry blob next to the car is me. Well time to head home.

Cup of coffee & a croissant before you hit the road?
Image

Drive safely

regards
Joe

:observer: :galleleo: :observatory:

:text-thankyouyellow:
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Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
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Re: Raining under a clear dark sky

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Post by Lady Fraktor »


Wonderful images Joe!
some fine skies and the "comet" appeared so close too! :lol:
See Far Sticks: Antares Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser BV 127/1200, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
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Re: Raining under a clear dark sky

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Post by Juno16 »


Great report and photos Joe!

Man, the MW is awesome! I’ll bet it is bright naked eye! What a beautiful place to observe a wonderful sky!

Thanks,
Jim
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Re: Raining under a clear dark sky

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Post by bladekeeper »


Awesome write-up and beautiful photographs, Joe! Thanks for taking us there. :)
Bryan
Scopes: Apertura AD12 f/5; Celestron C6-R f/8; ES AR127 f/6.4; Stellarvue SV102T f/7; iOptron MC90 f/13.3; Orion ST80A f/5; ES ED80 f/6; Celestron Premium 80 f/11.4; Celestron C80 f/11.4; Unitron Model 142 f/16; Meade NG60 f/10
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Re: Raining under a clear dark sky

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Post by Thefatkitty »


That's really something Joe, those are quite the skies! Thanks for the share :D

All the best,
Mark

"The Hankmeister" Celestron 8SE, orange tube Vixen made C80, CG4 & AZ-EQ5 mounts.
Too much Towa glass/mirrors.

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Oh yeah, and Solar Cycle 25 :D
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Re: Raining under a clear dark sky

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Post by OzEclipse »


Thanks for all the comments. Glad you all enjoyed it. It turned out to be a good move. I threw out the tripod and camera, took these shots at high ISO with this write up in mind. I enjoyed my hour out under the Milky Way. By the time I finished, the fog was forming fast as you can see in the comet Cali image.

I left Phil's property at about 1130pm, locked up then I drove down to the Taemas Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River about 40km south of the property. I was scouting it as a potential location for some night scape imaging for me and as a location for a nightscape course field trip location in the future. Man is that river valley dark. I looked out down river and it was just black. I did some test exposures - ISO 25600, 51200 and 102400 15s f4. There is no detail at all in the landscape. If we do a trip here, we'll have to do it with a magic moon to illuminate the landscape.

As I drove home, the fog really came in thick. Worst I've seen in several years. With limited visibility and many kangaroos and wombats on the side and crossing the road, I had to drive at 40-50km/hr to give myself time to react and stop. My 1 hr drive home turned into a 2.5hr drive and I got home at 3am.

Cheers

Joe
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Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's.
Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12
Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec.
Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari
Memberships Astronomical Association of Queensland; RASNZ Occultations Section; Single Exposure Milky Way Facebook Group (Moderator) (12k members)
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Re: Raining under a clear dark sky

#7

Post by Don Quixote »


Oh My !
Heck...
I know where I am taking my next Honeymoon trip !
My wife and I have always wanted to visit "Down Under" !

Beautiful sky Joe.
Thank you for the gift of seeing !!!
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