My astrophotography 2023

[hhzhang]

I had a long break away from work and home and enjoyed mostly cloudless nights in China. Yet only one night was spent under truly dark skies (Bortle 2). But what a great time in the freezing cold nights.

On Jan 24, I managed to capture the Jupiter+Crescent moon+Venus (+Saturn) alignment. Oh the Saturn was so dim and hardly visible.





I discovered some nice woods for background.

[hhzhang]

The dark sky night of Jan 28-29 saw my brother helped me doing the nightscape shots.







Including this picture from my mobile phone camera.




Thanks to the latitude (~31degree north) and the dark site, it was easy to capture the comet C/2022 E3.



I enjoyed the night sky observation until the day break. Just before that, the Milky Way core started to climb over the mountain ridge line.



My first shot of the Milky Way core for 2023!



[img]

[hhzhang]

I made mistakes. The biggest one might be the exhausted battery of my star tracker before I ever started the session-- I was hoping for some long tracked shots but ...and I did not carry the micro USB A/B cable which is nearly obsolete.

[hhzhang]

A nearly fruitless trip to Mersing. It was not because of the clouds. It was simply that I forgot to put the spare batteries in my pack -- leaving my camera with only a below-half battery level to start with.

With the small amount of battery, I managed to learn and practice Polar Alignment with the new (Beta version) firmware of my AsiAir Pro box for Sony Camera! Hassle-free and the result was spot on -- as far as my 135mm 60s exposures attested.

Then I managed to capture 20 frames of 60s of the Hyades with the passing-by comet C/2022 E3 @ 135mm. Two frames got spoilt by airplanes and two frames were dropped from stacking -- because they are nearly free of high clouds and DSS could not align them with others. Speaking about the presence of high clouds, the exposures show halos around stars! I still remember that upon viewing the first shot, I had to check if there was a starglow filter on -- and check if my lens got foggy somehow. Nope.

No battery for dark frames.

The end result.

[hhzhang]

Shooting the great Carina nebula is like a ritual. This year I tried it with the remote telescope service. Quality not up to expectation, though. Perhaps next occasion I need to invest in O3 filter exposures.

[hhzhang]

Feb 21-22, 2023. A night under the stars.

The clear night skies! I went up to Jemaluang to shoot one image that I dreamed of. This is about the Chinese poem words "参商不相见“， meaning one does not see both the Antares and the Betelgeuse in the sky at the same time. This is true for mid to high latitude observers. But in the very low latitude regions, both stars do occasionally show up simultaneously -- albeit at rather low altitudes. You need clear skies and better still a new moon.

Given the two are opposite, I chose to shoot panorama using a 35mmF1.4 lens sitting on a tracker.

So this is it.

[hhzhang]

Also shot the great Carina nebula region.



And this is how I admire the night sky.

[Airconvent]

Nice captures !

[leslie128]

Feb 21-22, 2023. A night under the stars.

The clear night skies! I went up to Jemaluang to shoot one image that I dreamed of. This is about the Chinese poem words "参商不相见“， meaning one does not see both the Antares and the Betelgeuse in the sky at the same time. This is true for mid to high latitude observers. But in the very low latitude regions, both stars do occasionally show up simultaneously -- albeit at rather low altitudes. You need clear skies and better still a new moon.

Given the two are opposite, I chose to shoot panorama using a 35mmF1.4 lens sitting on a tracker.

So this is it.

Nice shot! I will try this composition.

[byang]

Beautiful, thanks for sharing!