My astrophotography 2021

[hhzhang]

2021-Aug-1

Beginning of August.

Just another sunrise.



But the last quarter moon, at just 90 degree angle with earth and sun, shows its aging (rusty) face already. Hah. It is actually nothing but my boosting color saturation during image postprocecessing.

[hhzhang]

2021-Aug-4

The sky turned clear after sunset. Headed for a location deep in LCK and took advantage of the exceptionally nice weather. No clouds even in 14mm full frame!

But the light pollutions were way too strong for super wide angle photography where the unevenly illuminated background sky turned out very difficult to correct.

Anyway, I came back super happy that I managed to capture Milkyway with a landscape foreground. Much better than the result from Changi coast last month.

A series of three photos show the zoom-in from a cropped 14mm image to the Rho Ophiuchu Cloud Complex. I could probably have taken a better picture if I continued to shoot the complex when it moved to a less-affected section of sky around 11PM. But the point is, I have had enjoyed a good time under the stars and liked to call it a day.

[celeron787]

Nice milky way colors in the 2nd pic!
Coincidentally I was also imaging the same area, might post it up soon.

[Dragon Man]

Stunning!
Every night I attempt to image Rho Ophiuchus I get clouded out or fogged out! I think it doesn't want to be photographed.

[hhzhang]

Nice milky way colors in the 2nd pic!
Coincidentally I was also imaging the same area, might post it up soon.

Thanks. Cannot wait to see your work!

For the 2nd photo, I was shooting with a star-soft (softfocus) filter. But I was too lazy to shoot another set without.

[hhzhang]

Stunning!
Every night I attempt to image Rho Ophiuchus I get clouded out or fogged out! I think it doesn't want to be photographed.

Aha. Don't complain about bad weather to Singapore-based astrophotographers.

Coincidentally, the IOTD for today was a truly stunning photo of this milky way section.

[hhzhang]

2021-Aug-6

My favorite moon phases in order:
1. thin crescent moon
2. full moon
3. first/last quarter moon

I am always fascinated by the earthshine -- the darker side of the thin crescent moon.

Today it was one. Despite the cloudy predawn skies, I took chance and went out to the observation site.

No I did not capture the crescent moon rise, neither did I capture a clean earthshine photo. But alas, some narrow gaps between low clouds allow me the take a look at this marvelous beauty through high-thin clouds.





One more try for tomorrow morning!

[Airconvent]

Thanks HH Zhang. You have alot of interesting objects. Hope to see your planets soon.

[hhzhang]

Thanks HH Zhang. You have alot of interesting objects. Hope to see your planets soon.

My high-res planetary photography has to wait until I have regained the lost interests in there and perhaps determination to purchase a looong FL SCT.

Haha

[hhzhang]

2021-Aug-7

So my fascination drove me to shoot the earthshine in the early morning. Better weather than yesterday's, but still too cloudy to have any hope for moon+constellations/asterisms.







The next chance of shooting earthshine will be after the new moon. Especially on the day of Aug 11, there will be fantastic conjunction of Venus and Moon. Will I have better luck then?