Jupiter and Neptune conjunction

Jupiter and Neptune are very close at the moment. I wanted to get a shot of them together. Last night I was doing some testing of my setup, so took the opportunity.

Click the shot below for labelled image:

Latest Astro Photos

Another new moon on the weekend and clear skies, so went to another dark site near Boonah. Met some other astrophotographers and had a great night. Still learning little bits and pieces, but am getting there.

NGC3372 Eta Carinae Nebula:


M20 Trifid Nebula and M8 Lagoon Nebula:

Dark skies

On the weekend we went out to my first "dark site" at Leyburn to do some astrophotography. I have been absolutely jumping out of my skin for an opportunity like that. Since getting my telescope the weather has been cloudy most of the time, or full moon and light pollution from the city ruining the darkness for imaging.

Had been checking the weather reports all week and was supposed to be clear skies. Moon was near new. Everything fell into place. Awesome.

So here are some images I took.

M42 Orion Nebula:


M83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy:


Comet Lulin:

Tribute to Blinky

On the weekend I found out that a friend of mine, Lee "Blinky the Shark" Rizor, passed away last week due to complications from the flu. We had exchanged emails just the day before, and he had mentioned that he'd been ill with the flu but felt he was getting better.

The sudden passing took me quite by surprise and I was more than a little upset at the news. He was a larger than life character with a very strong personality. Hard to believe that something like the flu can take away someone that full of life.
Blinky was very prolific in several newsgroups I frequented, mostly to do with computer and photography related topics. I recall when I first started using linux he helped me on many occasions and on many more since.

In the last year we discovered our mutual interest in photography and exchanged many emails about equipment, macro photography methods, sharing photos and critiquing each other's work. He was a retired TV cameraman who worked and lived near Hollywood.

His USENET alias of Blinky the Shark arose when he read somewhere that some sharks can't/don't blink. Many people on USENET don't use their real name for privacy reasons. I have know him for years as Blinky, and only recently learned his real name.

It sounds strange that you can meet someone through USENET, never know their real name and never meet them face to face, yet still be so affected with news of their passing.

Farewell Blinky. We'll miss you.

Links

This is a list of links that I find useful and hopefully others may too. I'll be building the list up over time.

Photography:
Photography-on-the.net - fantastic resource for photography equipment and photo sharing
Flickr - online photo management and sharing. It's where I host my photos these days. My Flickr page is http://www.flickr.com/photos/troypiggo
Strobist - learn to light with off-camera flash on your DSLR
deviantART - an art, not just photography, community. My dA page is http://troypiggo.deviantart.com/
Shoot-In - a friendly photography exercise started on rec.photo.equipment.35mm

Astronomy:
Ice In Space - Australian-based amateur astronomy resource, knowledge-base, and photo sharing
Cloudy Nights - astronomical community
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA
Astronomy viewing
Vic Menard's Collimation Technique
Useful Formulae for astro-related things, such as critical focus zone, auto-guider rates etc

Astronomy software:
Astroplanner beta

Narrowband imaging:
Richard Crisp's site
Clipping masks screencast by Ken Crawford
Bob Franke's PhotoShop method
Fleming Astrophotography 
Astro Anarchy

Weather:
Weather Underground
SkippySky Astro-weather Forecast
Weather.com.au
WeatherZone

News:
News.com.au

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