A Fun Evening

Sunset over Westport Harbor

Last evening, my grandson and I first went to Westport to photograph the sunset over the harbor.  After checking where the sun was going to set, I chose the location at the boat ramp, next to the Back Eddy.  We set up our cameras and focused on the sunset.  Suddenly we noticed in front of us on the rocks, a Green Heron.  Since the green heron did not seem afraid of us, we went back to the car and got long lenses.  We photographed the green Heron, and various poses in between photographing the sunset.

Green Heron

Green Heron

I experimented with a long exposure, utilizing a 10 X the neutral density filter.  First, I set up my scene and checked my camera settings without the neutral density filter on the lens.  I consulted a chart did see what time I should use and reading the chart and told me four seconds.  I held the neutral density filter in front of the lens, since I did not have the right step-up ring for the lens to accommodate the filter.  I was able to smooth out the water almost completely, will have to experiment some more.

Sunset

Once we finished with sunset, we traveled down to the Stone Barn Farm, hoping to photograph the Milky Way and fireflies.  As it got darker, the fireflies came out and I set up the camera to photograph the fireflies utilizing the same type settings as I would for star photography.  I then set the camera to take interval time pictures.  On the computer, I checked the pictures and selected those that had lights from the fireflies.  The one thing that I should have done first was either to take one picture and lightpaint the area or take a picture of that the area I was photographing so it would show more detail.  Since I did neither one of these I had adjust one of the sequence photos to lighten up the background.  The only problem was there was more noise that I liked and though I cleaned the noise up, it was not as good as I'd like it to be.  I then selected all the pictures that I wanted and open them in Photoshop as layers.  Then selected all layers that had the firefly lights in them, and chose lighten mode.  So here is the result.

Fireflies

As regards to the Milky Way, the first problem was there were numerous clouds in the sky, which tended to obscure the very white areas of the Milky Way.  Thankfully, the clouds cleared and I was able to get a decent picture of the Milky Way, which also included a small meteor in the left upper corner.

The Milky Way

I then took some pictures of the stars and clouds over the Fernandez house and also did a 20 minute star trail by the stone barn.

Stars and clouds over Fernandez house

Startrails by the stone barn

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Draconid Meteor Shower A Heads Up

On October 7th and 8th join me at the Stone Barn, Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, Dartmouth Massachusetts from 7 PM to 10 PM to observe and/or photograph the first major meteor shower of autumn:  the Draconids.  If you only want to relax and watch the sky and enjoy the shower just bring a chair, dress in warm clothing.  There will be snacks and drinks available.  If you're interested in photographing and trying to capture the meteor shower, as above the same thing applies, along with a steady tripod, a digital camera with a wide-angle lens, an interval timer, unless your camera has it installed, otherwise, a remote release, charged batteries and cards for your camera.  We will be there to help you set up your camera so that you have a chance to capture a meteor.

“Unlike many major showers, the radiant for the Draconids is highest up at nightfall, so it’s best to watch for these meteors as soon as darkness falls, not in the wee hours before dawn. Spend an hour or more under a dark and open sky, lying down and with your feet pointing northward. Oftentimes, this hard-to-predict shower doesn’t offer much more than a handful of languid meteors per hour. But watch out if the Dragon awakes! The Draconid meteor shower produced awesome meteor displays in 1933 and 1946, with thousands of meteors per hour seen in those years. Even two years ago - in October 2011 - people around the globe saw an elevated number of Draconid meteors, despite a bright moon that night. European observers saw over 600 meteors per hour in 2011.

As far as we know, nobody is calling for the Draconid meteor shower to burst into storm in 2013. But you never know for sure with the Draconids, so it’s worth watching out for on the moonless evenings of October 7 and 8. Just keep in mind that meteor showers are notorious for defying predictions, either surpassing or falling shy of expectation. The only way to know for sure is to try to watch the shower.”

Hope to see you at the Stone Barn.

Directions: To Sanctuary Entrance at Stone Barn Farm
From Interstate 195, in Westport, take Exit 10 (Rt 88 South). Follow Route 88 through three lights to intersection with Hixbridge Rd at 4th light. Turn left onto Hixbridge Rd and proceed 1.8 miles to stop sign at Pine Hill Rd and Horseneck Rd. Turn right onto Horseneck Rd. Proceed 3.3 miles to corner with East Horseneck Rd and turn left. Stone Barn Farm entrance will be 0.4 miles further on your right at 786 E. Horseneck Rd.

There is no charge, but registration is required https://www.massaudubon.org/catalog/short_results.php?sanctuary_code=25&selected_page=1

Perseid Meteor Shower Follow-Up

Perseid Meteor Shower

Saturday evening into Sunday morning was a great time viewing the Perseids meteor shower at the Stone Barn, Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, Dartmouth, Massachusetts.  The weather was great, the sky was crystal-clear and as you sat there watching the sky, bats were flying overhead and owls hooting in the distance.  One thing great about the Stone Barn is the fields are open, and there is minimal light pollution.  We saw a great number of meteors and watch then photographed from about 11 PM till about 4:30 AM, when nautical dawn was starting and we were losing visibility of the stars.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Again Sunday evening into Monday morning, we visited the Stone Barn to view the meteor showers.  At this visit, we started at 10 PM, but, finished at 2:30 AM, because clouds came in and and we were unable to view the stars.  There were more meteors in the previous night, but were harder to capture in camera, because the temperature fell more and the lenses fogged up.  I did not put hand warmers around the lenses, as I usually do in the colder weather, since the previous night, we had no problems with fogging of the lenses.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Perseid Meteor Shower

The next big meteor shower will be October 7-8, 2013, the Draconids.  The nicest part of this shower as it occurs after sunset and in the early evening rather than late at night.  Even though this shower peaks on weekday nights, since it is early, it should not make any problems with working the next day.

Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Day Two

For the second early morning in a row we went out to the Stone Barn to view, and hopefully photograph the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower.  It was another beautifully clear night with the temperature in the upper 30s and only a slight wind.  Again, the stars were sparkling and the Milky Way showed its glory.  The meteor shower this morning was even better than yesterday, although there was not a long-lasting fireball, the vast majority of the meteors we saw were extremely bright and were all over the place.  They occurred at the horizon, and at the zenith and all points in between.  We observed the sky from approximately 2:30 AM until around 4:30 AM when the sky really lightened up from the Nautical Dawn.  The moon had less impact than it did yesterday, as it is heading toward a new moon.  The major problem in capturing a meteor in the camera is that you set the camera up to point in a certain direction and hope that meteors occur with the cameras pointing.  I had one camera pointing to encompass Southeast to Southwest and the second camera initially aimed at the East, which I later changed to point at the North star.  If I had utilize my fish-eye lens and named it toward the zenith, I probably would've captured a lot more of the meteors.  Oh well, I did capture some, but it was just worth being out there and watching the show. 

The only problem I had, was in the period Just prior to nautical dawn was that the dew point increased and the lenses fogged up, despite having heating pads on them.  The heating pads that I had did not seem to get very warm, so I must look for ones that will give out more heat and keep the lens from fogging.

Well, the next meteor showers will be in July; Southern Delta Aquari
ds Meteor Shower, and in August; Perseids Meteor Shower.  I will let people know when and where we will be viewing and photographing these showers in the blog.

Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower

Milky Way

What a great morning!  We were at the Stone Barn property of Allens Pond Audubon Sanctuary in Dartmouth, Massachusetts to observe and photograph the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower.  It was a cool, perfectly clear night, the stars were sparkling and there was a bright Milky Way present.  I set up my cameras, one with a 14 mm wide-angle lens and the other with a 24 mm wide-angle lens, and program the cameras to do interval shooting.  I allowed two seconds in between frames.  While I was sitting down and observing the sky, a fireball flew overhead from the Northeast to the Southwest, and persisted for at least 10 to 15 seconds.  It was the brightest and longest lasting meteor that I have seen.  The sight of it showed how wonderful the universe is and how we are may be not as significant as we feel we are.  Anyway, I captured a number of other meteors.  We photographed until the waning gibbous moon lit up the sky and started hiding the stars.

"The Fireball"

Meteor in the Milky Way

Star trail With Meteor

Meteor over the Stone Barn

We're going again tomorrow morning starting at 2 AM to catch not only hopefully, the meteors, but also most beautiful milky way.