This blog is for tracking my Deep Sky Astrophotography efforts, problems and solutions I encounter, equipment and DIY topics. Hopefully it will help others starting in this hobby to avoid some of the obstacles I've had to work through. -Josh Knutson-
While on vacation in southern California I decided to attempt to capture something off the beaten path. I set up my camera just before sunset each evening, trying to catch a green flash. I had no real expectations, and only took advantage of the timing each night because it just so happened to line up with beachfront activities and dinners with friends. Three evenings in a row I attempted with no success. On the fourth evening I shot video and still shots of sunset and caught something I would have never anticipated. As chance would have it I captured TWO green flashes in one sunset, within a fraction of an instant of each other. They lasted maybe a second or two, each. Below shows the sunset sequence out of the still shots, followed by a video clip of the sunset. The full frame shots can be blown up to 2048x1365 by clicking the images, or accessing them on my flickr site.
The video clip on Youtube can be blown up to 1080P for full screen HD viewing. (You may note a couple of hesitations in the video at the green flashes - 25 sec, 40-41 sec - they are from using my Canon T3i while capturing in video mode, then using the frame capture ability to snap still shots while running a video sequence. Because the shutter actuates and the camera has to buffer and store the still shot during this action it causes the minor hesitation. However, on the plus side, the hesitation gives you an extra moment to see the flashes in the video.
No post processing has been applied to any of the images or video (with the exception of the two cropped shots for scaling purposes only).
Manual Daytime Mosaic, hand tracked and imaged at 1200mm FL with an XT6i dob, and a NexImage5 CCD @ 7FPS - 30 sec per panel. 50 frames per panel stacked. 32 panels manually combined and derotated in Photoshop CS6 64bit. Curves, Contrast adjustments only. Scaled down to about 25% of original size for upload purposes.
