[APML] New TMB152, Perseid, Star Trails Images Posted

["Jon Kolb" <jkolb@datawest.net>]

This has been a difficult summer for astrophotography for me.  June had
horrible seeing, and then all the huge fires started, closing several
dark sites in the Pike National Forest that I use.  July was a bust for
several reasons, but mostly because of the conflicts of daily life and
the lack of access to close-in dark sites.  Pike is reopened, but now
Steamboat's on fire and we had a NW wind that brought the smoke smell
all the way down here in CoS a couple nights ago.  I'd take three feet
of snow tomorrow if we could get it. Come on, El Nino.

Finally in August I got out with the new TMB152 refractor, and on Tony
Hallas' old MI-250 mount, since the G-11 couldn't handle the moment arm.
My wife and I also managed a camping trip to watch the Perseids, and
thus we had a chance to do some star trails.

So, here's a couple using the TMB 152, both are only single 60-minute,
unpushed exposures to see what it could do.  I'm pretty darn happy with
the image quality, although the real sharpness doesn't come through at
web resolution. I'm especially happy since these were taken on the first
night out with the MI-250 - I hadn't even set it all up at home with the
152 before.  M16 is probably still a bit too red-saturated now that I
look at it again.
http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/m24.htm

http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/m16.htm

And here's some new star trails from the Cimarron River near Owl Creek
Pass.  I wasn't trying to capture Perseids - just wanted to get the
mountains with some help from the four day old moon.  Nevertheless, by
sheer luck a really bright one went through the frame on a couple of
these.  
http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/precipice_perseid.htm

http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/dunsinane_trails.htm

http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/chimney_trails.htm

Comments are always welcome, on or off list. And, if you're thinking of
camping out here this summer, remember that they just changed the law
and an illegal campfire is now a felony in Colorado. 

Sincerely,
Jon Kolb
Adventures in Astrophotography
http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/
jkolb@datawest.net



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