Leonid 2009 from Lonavala - Nov 17-18

The Most awaited Meteor SHOWer of the year "Leonids" was here !!!

We decided to avoid Suburban light pollution and go somewhere dark sky location. Our Old-Time friends Girish & Swapnil invited us to join them at Lonavala at their place; which we readily accepted.

Me along with my wife & our friend Ganesh Kale left from Thane by 17th evening. And were joined by Nilesh Desai & his wife at lonavala ST stand. From there we moved to our observing place. we reached there by 11:00 PM.

The Sky condition were not good at that time its was clouded with lot of moving clouds. The Sky as we can see from open patches was very good though.

We spend some time inside waiting for clouds to clear. around 1 AM its started to clear out. We started setting up our photography setups. By the time we were ready the Sky was completely clear & we were already seeing some meteors here and there.

I had Canon XTi with 18-55 lens setup at 18mm to cover max possible field. I decided not to guide but keep camera stationary on Tripod. Took many photos of 2min & 3min exposure times.

As usual Meteors always fall in the portion of the Sky where my Camera is not pointing !!!

Some 4-5 Meteors fall just outside of my Camera Frame Area !!!

And one actaully passed through exactly center of my Camera Framed Sky !!!

But ahhh !!!!

That was the time my Camera taking break of 7 secs between two consecutive shots !!!!

And finally I caught One, Not a Big one, but I have something to show at least !!!

But my happiness did not last even for a minute !!! within next 1 min another Dazzling Fireball passed from my Frame !!!

it was almost -6 or -7 magnitude. Blazing with green / orange color, trailed almost 15-20 degrees across sky & its Smoke-Trail lasted for 15-20 secs !!!

But...

but it started from the point in my Frame portion of Sky and moved OUT !!!! :(

I captured just initial 1/4th trail and the blazzing show was outside of my Frame Area !!!

Here is the Pics... [Click on Image to open Large Size in order to meteors clearly.]



here is the link to tagged photo where I marked meteors on Photo...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thakursam/4116156019/

Hope next time I get better images (With Meteors :P )

Have a Clear Sky Always
Sameer

Moon and Pleiades on 27 April 2009

This came to me as surprise !!!

On 27th Evening I was taking a walk in park with my wife, when we spotted thin Lunar Crescent. It was quite thin than normally we saw after new moon. So we rushed back home to pick up camera.

I shot few photos and didn't do anything even not dowloaded to pc !!!

After few days I saw Moon and Pleiades occultation photo in My Friend Mandar Potdar's Orkut Album !!!

I downloaded photos and found M45 (Pleiades) Faintly visible in photos. It was quite bright sky by that time as Day is quite big here (in US) now.

Here are the pics ... Click photo to see big version.
Canon XTi , ISO 100, Canon 70-200mm L @ 200mm - F/4 : Expo - 2 sec


Canon XTi , ISO 100, Canon 70-200mm L @ 126mm - F/4: Expo - 2 sec

Moon Venus Conjunction of November 1, 2008

Hi All,

here are the pics of Moon Venus Conjunction.

All Images taken with Canon 400D DSLR, Canon 75-300 Zoom.

Processed in Photoshop :
- Dark Frame Subtracted.
- Black point adjusted.
- Resized to 50%

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGE IMAGE
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2.5sec @ ISO 400 @ F/5 @ 75mm


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2sec @ ISO 800 @ F/5 @ 75mm


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3.2sec @ ISO 800 @ F/4.5 @ 130mm


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1sec @ ISO 1600 @ F/5 @ 190mm




Cheers
Sameer

Washed out Lyrids...

Hi All,

Today early morning one of the famous Meteor shower "Lyrid" was peaked, I planned yesterday to wake-up early in the morning by 3:00 AM and try to get some photos, but was bit lazy & woke up at 4:45 AM and ran to terrace with DSLR and Tripod, And what a sky !!! with little clouds and all washed out with bright moon light, i was expecting it but moon was already near the west horizon still 30 degree above it and i thought i might get East bit darker but all sky was very bright, Mixed with light pollution from City the pics look all red-gray.

So i switched to Mono Chrome mode which at least gives some natural look to photos, with lens set at 18mm, ISO 1600 & Aperture F4.5 i started taking series of photos at 30 sec exposures hoping to catch at least one meteor.

Mean while I was staring in bright sky in hope of catching meteors visually. I had a better experience of catching meteors visually in other part of the sky than where my camera is pointing :D But my efforts was in vain I could not spot a single meteor till East Sky started glowing as sunrise nearing. may be i was late....

I took some 37 snaps till 6:00 AM and returned to continue remaining sleep. After I woke up again at 8:00 I downloaded photos on computer, started analyzing each photo carefully by converting them in negative, and Suddenly I saw one steak on one of the photo which i took of Moon in clouds, Wow a small meteor in Bright Sky !!!

I took this photo to capture beautiful Moon Rays from clouds and turn out to be one with Meteor too.. And that to in just 6 sec exposure !!! - May be that what they call "at Wrong Time at Wrong Place" :D

I am bit suspecius about its origin is Lyrid, but nevertheless I caught one !!!

The beautiful moon-rays and Scorpius... the meteor is about one o'clock position to the pipe... Click on photo to view large size in new window...


This is cropped close up of Meteor part of above photo, it is just to the left of Antares of Scorpio...



Cheers
Sameer

Lunar Eclipse of Feb 20 2008

Hi All,

here are my photos of Lunar Eclipse of February 20, 2008. This eclipse was not visible from INDIA, but i was lucky as i am currently in New Jersey, US.

The conditions were very cloudy initially but as eclipse progressed the sky was also cleared and almost clear around moon during totality.

I used my AT66 ED refractor at prime focus (@400mm) and Canon Digital Rebel XTi camera.

1. Patial Phase @ 9:26 PM EST | 1/60sec | f/6 | ISO-100


2. Partial Phase overexposed to show shadowed moon @ 9:45 PM EST | 2.5sec | f/6 | ISO-100



3. Totality just began @ 10:03 PM EST | 5sec | f/6 | ISO-100


5. Mid Totality @ 10:26 PM EST | 5sec | f/6 | ISO-100


6. Saturn - Regulus & Eclipsed Moon @ 10:40 PM EST | Canon 75-300mm lens @ 75mm | 3.2sec | f/7.1 | ISO-100 | Tripod mounted


I will post details of photos including exposure and equipment by tomorrow on my Astrophotography Blog

Cheers
Sameer