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Aurora Borealis “The Piano Keys” on 03-25-2023

By |April 12th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , |

The Aurora Borealis “The Piano Keys” often seen up here in Alaska, it reminds me of Piano Keys playing, as the magnetic field lines shift & pulse colors and shapes across the Aurora wall from one end of the sky to the other.
The constellation Leo is visible in the upper left, and Open Star Cluster M44 (Praesepe) The Beehive Cluster is at the top Center,
and between the two tall trees on the right is Orion’s Belt, above that is the Red Giant star Betelgeuse & the Red planet Mars is also above the trees. Finally in the lower center is city light pollution glow from Fairbanks, 60 miles away, and the lower far right is the orange glow from the waxing Crescent Moon setting behind clouds.(Sorry not a Sunset)
Canon 6D DSLR Camera, 16mm F2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 10 seconds exp. on 03-25-2023
Location : Chena River State Recreation Area/White Mountains of Alaska.

Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

Solar Activity on 04-09-2023

By |April 11th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Here is the reason we have been getting great Aurora’s – I Shot these images Easter Sunday.
The Sun is getting much more active as we get closer to Solar Maximum(11 year cycle) in July 2025
Here is my shot of Active Sunspots /AR3272 in Hydrogen Alpha Light.
NASA’s Space-weather & NOAA stated that there is a 30% chance of M-class solar flares today, April 9th – 10th.
Almost certainly, the source would be sunspot group/ AR3272, which has an unstable ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field. Any explosions will be Geo-effective as the sunspot is turning to face Earth.
Meaning any release of this energy is going to head toward Earth and could spark northern lights up north again.
Attached you can see my shot of the Sunspot group/AR3272 Region as it just came around the South Eastern Limb of the Sun. I capture these images yesterday from my backyard observatory in Dayton, Ohio with my Lunt 60mm/50F Hydrogen Alpha Solar telescope & QHY290 Cmos Camera, Software Bisque MyT Robotic Mount.
Close-up Shot:
QHY290 Cmos camera, Fire-Capture software, SER video File, 1200 frames stacked in Registax6. Adobe Raw 2023.
Capture Date & Time 04-09-2023 at 16:50 U.T.
Full Solar Disk Shot:
I used a QHY5IIL Cmos Camera , Fire-Capture software, SER video File, stacked 700 frames in Registax6, Adobe Raw 2023.
Capture Date and Time 04-09-2023 at 16:38 U.T.

best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

Wonderful Green all sky Aurora on St. Patrick’s Day…03-17-2023

By |March 31st, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Nothing wrong with getting a little Green color in the Wee hours of the Morn on St. Patti’s Day!

We got up to the top of the Dome with the Snow Caterpillar, and our 2023 Aurora Crew enjoyed a nice Aurora display covering the entire sky that night,

although the slight  breeze was making it much feel much colder, that we had to occasionally hit the heated Yurts for some hot beverages.

The constellations Perseus & Cassiopeia are both visible on the left side of the image.

I captured this image just outside the Chena River State Recreational Area, at 3,000 ft. Elevation in the White Mountains of Alaska on 03-17-2023

Canon 6D DSLR Camera, 16mm F2.8 Lens, ISO 5000, 5 second exposure.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

 

A Fish-eye view of the Aurora on 03-25-2023

By |March 26th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Here is a nearly all sky perspective, of what we all have been seeing here in Alaska. The G4 class Storm continued, more crazy all sky Aurora again last night…. some of the most spectacular displays I’ve seen in 35 years of shooting the sky.
I literally took 1000’s of shots, with several cameras running all night. more to come later, running on fumes, no sleep, Internet spotty, and of course braving the cold and wind on top of the mountains all night so can’t post as many as I would like, but more to come guys when I get back to civilization.
A Fish-eye view of the Aurora Image 6752 taken on 03-25-2023 Canon 6D DSLR, 8mm Fish-eye Lens F3.5, 10 second exp., ISO 3200 03-25-2023 White Mountains, Alaska.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

Pastel Aurora above John on 03-11-2023

By |March 12th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Just waiting for our next 2023 Aurora Hunting Crew to Arrive on Tuesday.
and John S. and I set out to Checkout & prep our sites for their arrival.
temps were not bad, only hovering around -1F last night. Was a balmy 28F during the day.

The area received a lot of deep snow again this year…but at least its manageable…
and this means we should be able to see and photograph some Moose again this year as well as Aurora.
We saw a large moose on our way out to one of our sites last night.
The Aurora kicked up nicely around 10:00pm last night and we enjoyed a decent display(kp3)

Now that those high level cirrus clouds passed through it started to clear off enough to see the Aurora Borealis well.
In this self-portrait image I captured the Pastel Aurora covering the constellation of Auriga & Cassiopeia, Hyades, Pleiades, Mars, and even the faint glow of the great Andromeda galaxy.

Canon 6D DSLR, Tokina 16mm F2.8 Lens,
ISO 5000 for 8 second exposure.
Camera on a Tripod.

The Leo Galaxy Triplet on 02-14-2023

By |March 10th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Welcome to Galaxy Season once again…
The Leo Triplet
Three interacting Spiral Galaxies in one FOV, also called the M66 group.
A favorite amongst both visual observers and Astro-Imagers.
The Leo Triplet is a small bright group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.
This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65(top), M66, and the edge on NGC 3628 (aka The Hamburger Galaxy).
Although I have imaged these galaxies many times in the past with various sized telescopes, it always fun to see and image them each year.
I captured this image on 2-14-2023 at my observatories at JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio with a 5.5 Newtonian reflector telescope,
Celestron AVX Mount, controlled with an ASI Air Plus,
ZWO 294MC cooled Cmos Camera, L-Pro Filter, Wi-Fi to IPAD, Processed in DSS, Pixinsight, and Adobe Raw CC 2023.
(30 x 2 minute subs) 60 minutes total integration time.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

The Sun In Hydrogen Alpha Light on 02-26-2023

By |February 26th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

The Sun In Hydrogen Alpha Light on 02-26-2023 at 1859 UT
I waited two hour for the fast moving high cirrus clouds to leave a hole long enough for me to image the Sun, finally got a clearing hole that lasted about 15 minute.
My latest image shows the Sun’s full disk with 6 active Active Regions, AR3234, AR3235, AR3229, AR3237, AR3236, AR3230,

visible are Sunspots, Plagues, Filaments, and Prominences galore!

Captured from my backyard Observatory in Dayton, Ohio with my Lunt 60mm/50 HA filtered Scope, QHY5IIL Cmos Camera, 700 frames stacked in Registax 6,

Post processed in Adobe Raw CC 2023.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

 

 

Sh2-240 (Simeis 147) The Spaghetti Nebula (SNR) in Taurus

By |February 16th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Sh2-240 (Simeis 147) The Spaghetti Nebula (SNR) in Taurus
This is an extremely faint object to capture in my Bortle 7-8 skies, but we had a very nice transparent night, so I went for it to see what I could capture with my one shot color Cmos Camera.
Simeis 147 is a very large supernova remnant (about 3 degrees across in apparent diameter) about 6 full moons across the sky.
A massive star exploded about 40,000 years ago, and left this expanding shell of gas, it’s faint glowing nebulous tendrils resemble that of Spaghetti, hence the name. It is located 3,000 light years from Earth.
I captured this challenging object on 02/13/2023 with my Samyang 135mm lens at F4 lens and ZWO 294MC Pro Cooled Cmos Camera,
(120 x 2 minute subs),a 4 hour exposure total, using my AM5 Harmonic Mount, ASI Air Plus, Via Wi-Fi to my I-Pad.
Processed In DSS, Pixinsight, Adobe Raw CC 2023.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF is now moving away from Mars 02/12/2023 UT

By |February 12th, 2023|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF is now moving away from Mars & Dark Nebulae LDN 1538. A little better conditions, before the clouds rolled in again.
The Planet Mars & Comet c/2022 E3 ZTF on 021/12/2023 at 021223 UT.
(09:47 to 09:55pm LT 02/11/2023) this is only an 8 minute exposure showing Mars at top with Dark dusty nebulae LDN1538 in Taurus and the Green Coma and long dust tail of the Comet reaches all the way back to Mars in this image.
Samyang 135mm @ F4 Lens, AM5 Mount, ZWO294MC Cooled Cmos Camera, ASI Air Plus, Wi-Fi to I-Pad,
4 x 2 minute subs, 8 minute total exposure.
Captured from my observatories at JBSPO in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

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