Star Parties – Page 3 – Nathan Brandt Astrophotography

Pickett State Park and Pogue Creek Canyon State Natural Area – Silver-tier International Dark Sky Park

Astronomical, Canon 6D, Star Parties 1 Response »

Sep 132015

Earlier this year (2015) Pickett / Pogue State Park was named a Silver Tier IDA dark site. I haven’t made it up for a night of astrophotography yet but have been wanting to visit the area and scope it out before lugging all the equipment up there for the first time. On Sunday my wife, the dogs, and I made a visit up to hike the short trail to the Pogue Canyon Overlook. The trail head is connected to the parking lot that adjoins the astronomy field at the Pogue SNA. First off, finding the place wasn’t difficult BUT google maps does not have current satellite imagery from there so I couldn’t pinpoint it easily. The address given didn’t seem to match up with anything in the imagery. So, to make it a little easier, here is an image of the location:

Pogue Creek Canyon – State Natural Area ; 36°31’19.35″N, 84°49’5.31″W

I’ve been interested in Pickett / Pogue for a while since it appears to be one of the darkest places in Tennessee and is located only 1:40 from my home. Here are a few light pollution maps showing where it is in relationship to sources of light pollution:

Pickett / Pogue East TN Light Pollution with some notable astronomy observing locations highlighted.

Pickett – Pogue local light pollution from Jamestown & Oneida

Pickett – Pogue Light Pollution – Globe at Night

I also wanted to share a few photos from the site to show you all what to expect when you arrive at the site:

Pogue Creek Canyon State Natural Area Parking Lot

Astronomy Field South – Facing Pickett Park Hwy (154)

Astronomy Field West

Astronomy Field North

Pickett’s Dark Sky Project

A little bit of side information that might be of interest as it contains SQM measurements, photos, and upcoming event information:

Pickett – Pogue Dark Sky Press Release

Pickett – Pogue Internation Dark Sky Assoc. Application

Picket – Pogue Lighting Plan – Dark Sky Friendly Lighting

Don’t forget, the Fall Star Gaze is happening 9/19/2015 at this location! I’d love to see you there but I’m tied up and can’t make it. Hope to make it out under the stars there another time.

2015 Tennessee Fall Star Gaze @ Fall Creek Falls (9/4/2015 – 9/5/2015)

AP130EDT, AP900GTO, Apogee A694, Astronomical, Canon 6D, Dark Nebula, Emission Nebula, Nebula, Star Parties, Widefield No Responses »

Sep 072015

This was my first visit to Fall Creek Falls for the 2015 Tennessee Fall Star Gaze. It’s a casual get together held at a clearing within walking distance from the Inn. The site is reasonably dark measuring 21.42+ on Friday and 21.31 on Saturday after some thundershowers upped the humidity level. Both nights were good so long as you were prepared for dew.

I spent both nights gathering data on SH2-155; the Cave Nebula. It’s a fairly dark object and I’d like more than the 4.5 hours of exposure time I got on it but a couple technical issues coupled with the early moon rise limited my time….

SH2-155
AP130EDT f/8 reduced to f/6
AP900GTO3 Mount
Apogee Ascent A694 CCD
9x10min Lum
7x10min Red
6x10min Green
5x10min Blue

SH2-155 Annotated

S 155, also known as the Cave Nebula, Sh2-155 or Caldwell 9, is a dim and very diffuse bright nebula within a larger nebula complex containing emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity. It is located in the constellation Cepheus.

Visually it is a difficult object, but with adequate exposure, makes a striking image. The nebula gets its name Cave Nebula from the dark lane at the eastern side abutting the brightest curve of emission nebulosity which gives the appearance of a deep cave when seen through a telescope visually.

Information Courtesy of Wikipedia

Fall Creek Falls Milky Way Pano
Canon 6D, 17-40mm @ 17mm f/4, 20sec

This was my first time to Fall Creek Falls and I was not sure what to expect in terms of amenities. For those of you considering going: Restrooms are a 1000+ ft walk from the site. There are no restrooms at the field, nor is there any power, water, etc. The only things available at the site are trashcans. The Inn, as I mentioned before, offers restrooms, along with buffet meals, vending machines, and accommodations on the lake.

Norris Star Party – 8/8/2015

Apogee A694, Astronomical, Canon 24-70 f/2.8L, Canon 6D, Emission Nebula, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Star Parties, SVQ100, Widefield 1 Response »

Aug 112015

It ended up being a gorgeous night at Norris. The MW was clearly visible and seeing looked reasonably good just based on the naked eye twinkle criteria.

I was able to gather a paltry 3x20min of O[III] and 2x20min of S[II] data on M8 (The Lagoon Nebula) to complete a tricolor Hubble Pallet image before it moved behind a tree….

M8 – The Lagoon Nebula SVQ100, Apogee A694, Atlas EQG. Resolution: 1.61 arcsec/pixel FWHM of Raw Frames: 2.6 arcsec Exposure: Ha 8x20min, O[III] 3x20min, S[II] 2x20min

Norris Lake Star Party – 7/25/2015

Apogee A694, Astronomical, Emission Nebula, Lunar, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Star Parties, SVQ100 No Responses »

Jul 262015

The night started off hazy with a big halo around the 68.5% illuminated waxing moon. I wasn’t that optimistic about the high thin stuff clearing out so I threw the Lumenera monochrome high frame rate planetary camera on the scope instead of the usual deep sky camera and trained the scope on the moon for the public. I added a wireless game-pad so they could drive the mount around and check out different parts of the moon on their own and hopefully add to their enjoyment. After most of the guests had left I took a few videos and stacked them. Unfortunately, the laptop is not setup for planetary imaging; hard drive space is very limited on the small SSD and I had to move each AVI to a flash drive as I took them…

Stellarvue SVQ100 & TV 5X Powermate with Lumenera Lu070 ccd. 30 seconds at 60 fps

AS_f100_Multi_Drizzle15_Moon_224106_g3_b3_ap62_wavelet

Stellarvue SVQ100 & TV 5X Powermate with Lumenera Lu070 ccd. 30 seconds at 60 fps

Luckily, it cleared up and the high thin stuff dissipated. I grabbed the deep sky camera and got to work on M16, The Eagle Nebuka, in Sagittarius.

M16 – The Eagle Nebula
Taken with a Stellarvue SVQ100, Apogee Ascent A694, Atlas EQ-G Mount, Baader 7nm Ha Filter. Exposure time 8x20min.

Norris Dam Star Party 1/24/2015 – Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2

Astronomical, Canon 24-70 f/2.8L, Canon 6D, Comets, Star Parties, Widefield No Responses »

Jan 252015

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 Annotated 1/24/2015 from Norris Lake, TN. Canon 6D, 70mm f/2.8, 6 seconds @ ISO 3200

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2, 1/24/2015 from Norris Lake, TN Canon 6D, 70mm f/2.8, 6 seconds @ ISO 3200

Star Party with Knox Observers, ORION, and SMAS members. 1/24/2015, from Norris Lake, TN. Looking towards Orion rising in the East.

Cherry Springs 8/25/2014

Apogee A694, Astronomical, Nebula, Orion Atlas EQ-G, Star Parties, SVQ100, Widefield No Responses »

Aug 272014

Cherry Springs panorama from the northern side of the overnight astronomy field

Cherry Springs

Monday night was my first visit to a dark site; or at least my first visit since catching the astronomy bug. Upon arriving at Cherry Springs after the 4 hour drive I noticed there were quite a few people still hanging around after the Black Forest Star Party which was held over the weekend. According to some of the other amateur astronomers, the weekend star party was a bust.

We found a vacant spot to setup our tents right next to one of the RV style power outlet posts scattered throughout the observing fields. I can’t stress how wonderful it is to have power provided on the field for the astrophotographically inclined!

The grounds were well kept and the main bathrooms much nicer than expected. The surrounding area is gorgeous for anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

Frank’s Tent

My Astronomy Tent

Power Stations

Untracked 30 Second Exposure

As nice as the park was, the show obviously didn’t start until the sun went down. The Milky Way was more prominent before astronomical twilight than I’m used to seeing here in the PGH region after astronomical twilight; even at the Greene County site. By 10:00pm it was gorgeous and I snapped a quick 3o second shot on a tripod and marveled that the dark lanes extending out from the Rho Ophiuchi / Antares region were clearly visible in a short exposure so close to the horizon.

Seeing the sky like this puts everything in a different perspective.

Yes, it’s depressing being back in light polluted Pittsburgh but I’m really glad I finally made it out to Cherry Springs after all this time.

I had plans to shoot some other objects but due to poor planning and setup of my tent I couldn’t take some of the deep southern objects I was hoping for. I settled for 5.5 hours of exposure time on NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula. I have shot the Iris before but was never totally happy. I’m still not quite satisfied but it’s certainly better than what I’ve gotten around here.

4 minute Exposure
Canon 6D
200mm f/2.8
Tracking, Unguided

NGC 7023 Atlas EQ-G Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 – 100mm f/5.8 Quadruplet Apogee Ascent A694 CCD 5.5 Hours Total LRGB Exposure

The Iris Nebula, also NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4, is a bright reflection nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cepheus. NGC 7023 is actually the cluster within the nebula, LBN 487, and the nebula is lit by a magnitude +7 star, SAO 19158.^[1] It shines at magnitude +6.8. It is located near the Mira-type variable star T Cephei, and near the bright magnitude +3.23 variable star Beta Cephei (Alphirk). It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across.^[2]