Running man and Orion nebulae
This must be my best effort at capturing the running man and Orion nebulae so far. This nebula is a region of massive star formation and is closest of such kind to Earth at ~1300 light years.
Taken with WO ZS61; ZWO ASI533MC-Pro. Only 40 one minute subs without any narrowband filter. Processed with Siril and Photoshop.
This must be my best effort at capturing the running man and Orion nebulae so far. This nebula is a region of massive star formation and is closest of such kind to Earth at ~1300 light years.
Only 40 one minute subs taken without any narrowband filter.
As I look at this picture again, it feels like I see an old friend there, whom I haven’t seen in a long time, is raising his arms for an embrace.
The results came out this morning and my son was selected to play viola in Connecticut All-State music festival. Now, that is 3 for 3. He made it in all the music festivals he auditioned for. Very happy to see how nicely this caps off his high school music journey.
When my kids were younger I tried to get them interested in Astronomy but, it seemed like it didn’t catch on. They’d quickly look through the telescope to observe the Moon or Jupiter and go back to what they were doing. Last year, I was totally surprised when my daughter decided to take “Intro to Astronomy” class in college. Now, in the second half of high school senior year, my son has a self-study class where he had to select a topic to study on his own and he chose astrophotography. He made a proposal to learn different photography techniques and make a portfolio of images by the end of school year. It is convenient that he has access to all my photography equipment and knowledge which will make this easier for him. Still, it makes me happy that when he could have chosen anything else under the Sun, he decided on astrophotography. I guess it was a good idea to pull them away from their TV watching to show them the constellations and those views through the telescope.
There was a time when our lives revolved around swimming. When kids were younger, they’d go for swim meets almost every other week in Fall and Winter. Then during high school swim season, there used to be 2 swim meets per week (one at home and one away) before Covid. Couldn’t imagine life without swim meets. Now, with my son’s last high school swim season, it almost feels like we have checked out already. Last Friday and Saturday, he went for 2 swim meets and we decided not to drive for these “away” meets. Now, there are only 3 or 4 more swim meets left for him depending on if he qualifies for the state championships or not. Thankfully, these meets are going to be closer so, I’ll make every effort to attend in person and root for him.
Green Comet and Capella
The green comet is so close to a bright star, Capella right now. I’d be out taking pictures if there were no clouds covering it all up. ☹️☹️
The green comet is so close to a bright star, Capella right now. I’d be out taking pictures if there were no clouds covering it all up. ☹️☹️
I am so grateful to have these beautiful resources, land conservation trusts and town open spaces, around me for these quiet and peaceful hikes.
All through my working life, we have had employer-sponsored gold-plated cadillac healthcare plan. Over so many years, everything worked perfectly with no problems. But, recently they modified some things and now our out-of-pocket expenses are higher which is OK. What makes me mad is that some of the issues are caused by sheer incompetence of people who work at the health insurance company and how they mess things up.
Veil nebula print
Got my Veil nebula photo printed. This is the first time for me to get an acrylic print. It was expensive but I see why that was so. It seems like the print is mounted under a clear ~4mm thick piece of plastic (acrylic?!). It looks great. Can’t wait to put it on a wall.
Green comet
Comet C2022/E3 (ZTF) or the green comet as mentioned in the news was captured on the night of Friday (1/27) from my front yard. The relative movement of the comet over that time can be seen as the background stars made startrails.
In the second image, the processing was done a little differently to suppress the stars and that makes the comet's dust tail more prominent.
Last week, our work on branched chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase inhibitors was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Check it out…
Comet C2022/E3 (ZTF) or the green comet as mentioned in the news was captured on the night of Friday (1/27) from my front yard. The relative movement of the comet over that time can be seen as the background stars made startrails. In the second image, the processing was done a little differently to suppress the stars and that makes the comet’s dust tail more prominent.
Different processing to dim the startrails and bring out the dust tail of comet ZTF more clearly. Here is the photo with first round of processing.
Comet C/2022 E3(ZTF) This is a stack of 30 sec exposures over 24 minutes. It moves quite a bit with respect to the stars around it. The green colored halo is quite nice but you can’t make out the color with naked eyes. I didn’t think I’d be able capture the long wispy ion tail I had seen in other photos but it showed up.
#astro
