Rick's Blog

M31 the Andromeda galaxy M31 is our neighbor galaxy. It is only 2.5 million light years away. This picture is the result of  112 three minute pictures for a total exposure time of 5.6 hours. The pictures were aligned and stacked and then processed to create this final image. In the lower left of the picture is another galaxy that is much farther away.

comet Tsuchinsfan This picture was taken with a cell phone on Oct. 14, 2024 from my backyard. Some of the foreground is really bright because of a almost full moon. A little touch up was done with photo app Pixinsight.  

 Since my last post the weather has been terrible and I have not been able to get on my blog site to post. At first I thought it was something I was doing wrong. But we all know that could not be. So then I thought maybe it is my tech support. Maybe I am not paying them enough. Come to think of it, I am not paying them anything. HAY, maybe that is the problem! Well since I am here now, obviously I have solved the problem. It might have been me. So here are 3 new pictures.

I have been experimenting with a new camera control app which has a "seeing monitor" that lets me set a level at which I want all of my video frames to be or better. The ones that do not meet that level are automatically dropped. This picture is the result of the best 500 frames of  2,000 frames that were aligned and stacked. When compared to the other pictures of the moon I have taken this picture clearly has better contrast and definition.

This star cluster is 25,000 light years away and consists of hundreds of thousands of stars.  

M27 The Dumbbell nebula It is 1,360 light years away. This nebula is also one that formed when it's star exploded. At the center you can see the star's core, which is all that remains of the star. It is the light and radiation from the core that makes the nebula glow.