Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

Gone Fishing

Again we are taking the boat out, another voyage on the Nordic Quest. This time the destination is Icy Strait, Glacier Bay and other points west of Juneau. It has been a few years since I have been through this area, it should be fun. There are old favorite sights that I can see over gain, there are a few places I have meant to check, hopefully there will be opportunities to do so.

Gone Fishing may be a misleading title, I pack no fishing gear. I do pack plenty of camera gear. If past trips are any indication there will be plenty of photos as a result of this journey.

Never fear, no internet does not mean a lack of posts here on Darker View. I have scheduled plenty of material to post while I am traveling. I admit some of these are old articles, yes, there are reposts. But they are good old articles! I am still moving stuff from the old blog, and this is as good an excuse as any to move over some more Alaska posts and photos. There is also some really old stuff, some things salvaged from my old website that predates the blog. I have put some of this under a new category, Fish Tales.

I hope to return to civilization eventually. Hopefully well supplied with Salmon and Halibut. Until then, enjoy a little visual beauty…

Nordic Quest 2011 from Andrew Cooper on Vimeo.

Postcard from the Universe – Andromeda

So I shot M31… yet again. I admit I enjoy this target, it is just so much fun. I always think I can do a little bit better. It is color balance that has been my bugaboo lately, I have really been playing with my technique to achieve a decent color balance. Something aesthetically pleasing and something that bears at least a little resemblance to reality. I understand how objective these criteria are, but still… I try.

Be sure to click on the image to get the large version…

Andromeda
The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, taken 9Aug2013 at the Oregon Star Party, M32 and M110 are also visible, TV-76 with Canon 60D, 17x480s + 10x60s

Neptune at Opposition

Today the planet Neptune will pass through opposition, directly opposite the Sun in our sky. The planet will be well placed for observation all night long, rising at sunset, transiting at midnight, and setting at sunrise. If you are looking to observe Neptune, it is currently shining at magnitude 7.8 in the center of the constellation Aquarius.

M39 Region

The idea is to take a photo of a bright deep sky object and the surrounding region. The result should be an impressive starfield with something bright to give the image some punctuation. This does not always work.

In the previous image, Mirfak and Mellotte 20, the idea worked pretty well. Bright stars highlight a rich Milky Way starfield in Perseus. In this next image I processed the plan did not quite work as well. The target is the bright open cluster M39. At magnitude 4.6 I thought the cluster would appear brighter against the surrounding starfield. In this case the component stars are somewhat dimmer, thus the effect is not as dramatic.

There is still a lot of material to process from OSP, we shall see what worked and what did not.

M39 Region
M39 and surrounding region, TV-26 and Canon 60D, 10x10s + 10x60s + 10+240s @ ISO800