Per aspera ad astra - Full moon is coming

Moon will soon be in full. It's not the best time for astro photographers. Simply because it's facing sun and there aren't many shadows on its surface and it looks a bit flat. You can get nicer results if you wait until the moon is in its first or third quarter. But let's face it, with Irish weather you do astrophotography when you can and not when you want.

Below another two pictures, I took recently. As you can see on the second picture finally I managed to get magnification and we can see some features on the satellite surface.

Next step for me will be to get it all sharp. Hopefully you we'll see it on the next set of Moon's pictures.

     

 

 

What I really like about photographing moon, is that it changes colours. I guess it has something to do with moon reflecting sunlight. So when you start blocking the light (by using astronomy equipment), the moon shows it's real colours.

Per aspera ad astra - Jupiter

Finally I've got a chance to photograph Jupiter. It's that big flashy spot in the middle, the biggest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter is a gas giant with it's 317 Earth masses. Around planet orbits 64 confirmed moons.
On a picture four of them, so called Galilean moons discovered sometime between 1609 and 1610 by Galileo (2 on the right and 2 on the left). They are easy to spot even with binoculars.

I know picture isn't the best and as it happens, I discovered I need more and more equipment. Apparently my telescope is too fast (f10) for planetary imaging, optimal speed would be f30 which is easy to achieve but it costs. Then there is a problem with magnification, there's non in the above. To make long story short, I need to invest a little bit more in hardware:)

Photography wise, Sylwia's just started 2nd year of college so we are busy enough. She spent half a day on Saturday chasing somebody famous for paparazzi type shot for an assignment, thanks to pouring rain it wasn't an easy task. In the end she got a presenter from Today fm, we'll find out soon if he is enough of celebrity.

Per asper ad astra - in pursuit of Jupiter.

Apparently I don't have any luck. Yesterday evening sky was clear, stars shone bright and I was getting ready to photograph Jupiter. Due to condition in my garden I could've done it just around midnight and only for 40 minutes. On the east side I have two tall trees and they block the view of the Jupiter completely (it rises on the east sky around 20.30 now) but there is a gap between them. And that gives me these approx. forty minutes of shooting opportunities. Of course around midnight sky wasn't clear anymore, and the same as for the past two weeks I've done nothing.  Ehh ... next time ... maybe.

But night wasn't wasted completely. If you look up at east sky you can see Pleiades also called Seven Sisters.  The Pleiades are a prominent sight in winter in the Northern Hemisphere and in summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and have been known since antiquity to cultures all around the world, including the Māori, Aboriginal Australians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Maya, the Aztec, and the Sioux and Cherokee [1]. What's also important you don't need any astronomical instruments to see them. Of course from the city centre, with all that light pollution view is not so impressive. But it's one of few Deep Sky Object you can see from your garden.

The bellow picture I found on NASA website. It shows you beauty of Seven Sisters and what you can achieve with long time exposures and photographs stacking. Happy hunting!

Back in the saddle

It's been a while since my last post here. Firstly because I've been quite busy lately and secondly weather was bad and I haven't got a chance to go outside with my telescope to do more astrophotography.

We've started to work on another photo story which at the moment is half way through. Basically it is about a brief meeting of two complete strangers and the possible outcome of that.  Anyway it's nice to work on another project especially since Sylwia is back in college and she’s going to be busy with other stuff soon.

At the moment heave a quick pick on the gif below, a “side product” of last Sunday work. It's more of joke then real work but for all of you who don't live in Dublin it's a glimpse of our neighbourhood .   

  

Great journey of a small jelly fish

Another great news from the big world. Our picture of jelly fish (see my entry Busy time) got to second round in the competition “Colour, Colour, Colour Photo Awards” by WPGA. Of course it's not a finish line yet but let say we are half way through.  Anyway fingers crossed I'll keep you updated.

Per aspera ad astra – Part II

I've decided that all my entries about astronomy and astrophotography will be called “Per aspera ad astra” just to keep them separate from other stuff (I'm too lazy to start a separate blog).

So since my last observation (nice picture of the Moon) weather hasn't been great.  To be honest with you it's been terrible; rain, wind, overcast sky. And I didn't have any chance to go outside with my telescope. But I wasn't completely unproductive, I bought a book about astrophotography and  actually I've learned some tricks I'm going to use when the weather  gets better.  I've managed to connect tube, DSLR and laptop so now I can see on the screen live image from the telescope. It should let me get much sharper images of the moon (at least I hope so) but again weather needs to improve. 

And for interested, there is another public lecture from Astronomy  Ireland  titled: “ Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe“ all information under that link.

Artur Kozlowski – diver

When I heard first time the news I didn't know that I actually met Artur few times when I was diving with Ocean Diver in Dun Laoghaire. But today's e-mail from them confirms the sad news.  For Artur I was probably one of many divers but he was a person hard to forget. Easy going, friendly, always ready to give advice. It's a strange feeling when somebody like him is gone …

Below e-mail from Ocean Divers:

“I am sitting facing the blank screen of a computer and trying to get my mind focused on what to say for this weeks Oceandivers email newsletter. Normally this task is one of the more enjoyable regular duties that need to be completed each week but today it's very different. The Tuesday breaking news reported that a Polish diver was missing in an underwater cave in the Gort area of Co Galway. Later that day, it was confirmed that the diver was Artur Kozlowski and although we all hoped and prayed that he would be found alive, search teams located his body by Tuesday evening deep in the cave network.

Brian and I have known Artur since he first came to Ireland in 2006 when he began diving with us and quickly became a regular on many of our boat trips and weekends away. Right from the beginning, it was obvious that Artur was not going to be an average diver, highly intelligent with a wicked sense of humour he was super fit and had a natural grace in the water. From the earliest days, he was fascinated with cave diving and it wasn’t long before he had made the transition from recreational scuba into Tec and Advanced cave diving with extensive training in the UK and Red Sea. In the intervening years, Artur carried out a systematic exploration of the labyrinth of underwater cave systems to be found in Mayo, Galway and Clare and in 2008 he recorded the deepest cave dive anywhere in Ireland or Britain by diving to 103 meters in the Pollatomary cave in Co Mayo.

In addition to his many expeditions, Artur was always willing to help with our training courses and as a PADI Instructor, he was a highly respected member of the Oceandivers Crew. Living in Shankill, I would frequently give him a lift home following our pool training sessions in Glenalbyn pool on a Wednesday evening. With my self confessed cave phobia, these journeys became a series of “Bedtime Horror Stories” as he would describe many of the nightmare style passageways that he was currently exploring. Despite my own reservations, Artur was like nobody I have ever known, he possessed that unique fire for exploration that burned within him and spurred him on when any normal mortal would have shrunk away whimpering. I can’t believe that he is gone yet at the same time I could never have imagined him as an old man. Artur, you will be sorely missed by all your numerous friends at Oceandivers!

Willie Siddall

“Exploration is an obsession, once you taste it nothing else will taste remotely as good. It will give you all you ever wanted: self-fulfillment, the wildest childhood's dreams come true, people's respect, illusion of grandeur and the equally illusive promise of eternal life but it's a jealous and possessive bitch and if you don't keep it on a tight rein it will destroy everyone around you...”

Artur Kozlowski June 2011