Solar Eclipse from Prince Albert in May 2012

On May 20 2012 a partial Solar Eclipse was visible and these images were seen from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.

View From the Chalet Roof

This Canada Day weekend was spent up at the cottage. It was one of the first night's for a long while that I have been up there and it has been clear enough to merit bringing the camera out for some night photography. The interesting thing about taking pictures is how different a scene looks from different angles. You end up trying so many different points of view of essentially the same subject, that when you finally get the "right one", you know. That is what happened with this image. The pictures I was getting from down by the dock were decent, but it just wasn't working for me. I've already taken hundreds of pictures at the cottage and I needed something different. The image below is my favourite of the evening AND it is a completely different angle from any other image I have made at the cottage. Where did I get a shot like this from? Yes of course, I scrambled with my camera, tripod and all up on the roof of the cottage to get a star trail image of the lake, boat, dock and even the group around the fire.

View of Lac Ste-Rose from the Chalet Roof

Transit of Venus

It has been way too long. I have been quite busy and actually have photo editing still to do and post from back in January! But, although I am over 6 months behind, I'll still do another couple of posts from the last few weeks. These three images are ones that I just had to take. The transit of Venus (exactly what it sounds like, an "eclipse" of the Sun by Venus) has only happened (now) eight times since the invention of the telescope! The next one will be in 2117 and who knows if I'll be around to see it. The following images were taken with a 250mm lens, through one sheet of welders glass. Not excellent, but it got the job done. If you look close you can even see some sun spots.
Venus

Transit of Venus

Transit of Venus Behind Clouds

Aligning of the Stars (I mean planets)

Here is a quick shot from last week in the backyard. It isn't a very technically proficient photo but It needed to be taken. It was a nice alignment of The moon (highest and brightest), Jupiter (down and to the right of the moon), and Venus ("closest" bright object to the shed). Also making guest appearances were the Pleiades (slightly up and to the right of the moon) and Orion (far left of the image). Click on the image and see the annotated positions of all on the Flickr page.

Alignment

Nightscapes of the Chalet

As promised here are the remaining nightscapes that I have from a few weeks ago at the chalet. I really need th bring/make something (barn door tracker, etc) to get a longer exposure on the milky way. I figure that option is more likely right now than getting a camera with higher ISO levels or buying faster glass! The first image below is the "standard" starscape over the lake shot. I enjoy the second image since it takes you a second to realize there is something funny going on with the "smudge" on the eight hand side. It is not in fact another smeared cloud like the one on the right but the "smudging" of the milky way from the long exposure. Finally, the third image is similar to one ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/scerakor/3789100448) taken approximately one year ago. This one instead has more emphasis on foreground elements.

Milky Way Over the Chalet


Clouds, Stars, and Milky Way Streaking over the Night Sky


Star Trailing Over a Busy Campfire

Milky Way Over the Lake

The Milky Way arches over top of Lac Ste-Rose, Qc in this 5 image panorama from one end of the beach to the other. Stay tuned for a couple more images of the stars over Lac Ste-Rose in the next couple of days.

Milky Way, Andromeda, and a Sunrise

Having stayed up all night taking pictures of fire, stars, the lake, etc. at an overnight 'observing/camping' night at one of our professors' cottage, I was rewarded with this shot. This seems to be one of the favourites among this batch. In this shot you can see the glow from the approaching sunrise, a little bit of the milky way, and on the middle right side of the image, Andromeda. Afterwards the water got ridiculously clear and produced the next shot. All in all, despite the lack of sleep, a good batch of images (I think). To see the rest of the images from this evening/morning click here. To see the rest of my photography click here.

LARGE

LARGE

Astrophotography

Here is an up to date sampling of my Astrophotography, all of which can be viewed at different sizes here.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Martello Tower Star Trails

Although not a compiled 45+ minute startrails picture (as I intended on getting), it is still my favourite picture of the night. This was a compilation of a 12 minute exposure at f/5.6, ISO 100, and one shorter (30ish) second exposures at ISO 100 to get the "dot" at the end of the startrail. To see this large (recommended) click here. To see the rest of my flickr photostream (including the rest of the shots from this 'outing') click here.