This is bonkers, just bonkers! I can remember seeing the first images from the Hubble then the James Webb telescopes of the Pillars of Creation and being awestruck by them. That something so beautiful is just hanging out up there, not getting the proper admiration that such spectacles deserve. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be able to photograph it myself, never. Back then, I simply thought it was too technical or the equipment was unaffordable. Guess I was wrong.  :)

Here you get to see my early stages of shooting the night sky, and YES! The Pillars of Creation (or at least how they looked around 6500 years ago because that's how long it took for that light to reach me)! Albeit nothing like the JWT or Hubble, but I'm thrilled nonetheless. This is an image taken with ny little telescope in a dark sky site Bortle 2 area, with approximately 27 minutes of imaging time, each image being a 10-second exposure for around 155 useable images stacked together. The only processing I did was to remove the stars using RC Astros StarXTerminator program (they were VERY distracting to me), and to do some minor adjustments to light and noise in photoshop. After I play with editing these more, I'll add stars back in to a more tolerable level and share that version with you as well. Ideally, I would take the multiple nights of additional imaging time and stack these all together for a sharper image, but this was so cool to me, I couldn't resist sharing this version right away. 

Bonkers.

The Pillars of Creation are found within the Eagle Nebula (M16), one of many nebulae and clusters and gasses that make up our stunning Milky Way. At the very same moments of imaging the nebula, I also photographed the entire Milky Way so I could pinpoint for you where the nebula is within the Milky Way.  To put it into context, the light from this area took between 5,700 and 7,000 light-years to reach my telescope camera. That's how far away it is.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I am. You know I love to hear from you so sharing and comments are always welcome. Click on the images to see larger version and to see more in my Galleries.

Pillars of Creation Milky Way with Lagoon Nebula Circled

This weekend, we had the pleasure of spending two nights camping up along The Forgotten Coast of Florida, St. George Island. It was an especially wonderful treat for me because it is so much darker up there than what I can find in my area. I live in a class 4 on the Bortle charts, and St George is a class 2, dreamy! Looking up at the night sky, you can see the milky way with the naked eye so very well! I was beside myself. The first night, I spent shooting from the dock at our campsite, facing toward the gulf with St George Island breaking the horizon in the distance. The second night, we camped on St George and I pointed my camera off into the vast darkness over the gulf. The only thing visible on the horizon at that point were distant storms and a smidge of light pollution from what I can only imagine is Tampa (I'll have to verify that later).

As I sat on the beach in the sand and listened to nothing but the waves, I watched the milky way rise over me. I had my camera set to time lapse mode, catching images every 5 seconds so I could demonstrate the movement of it later in a video. I was truly enjoying myself, until I felt something wriggling and tickling my bare feet. I quickly shooed it off and grabbed my flashlight, only to see the innocent and shocked face of a cute little ghost crab. He hung out with me for the duration of my shoot, scuttling onto my blanket from time to time. At least I think it was him, there were dozens emerging from their burrows all around me, so it really could have been several different ones I was carrying on conversations with, but they didn't seem to mind.

I stayed out long enough to capture two meteors, the ISS passing over, and an airplane or two in the frames. Once or twice, the sky behind me lit up with lightning. When the clouds rolled in too thickly to see any further, I packed up and went back to the camper, happy with what I got.

There's more, but this is just a taste for you, the time lapse video for your enjoyment. CLICK TO PLAY, and see if you can spot the meteors or the ISS! If you miss them, there are still images of the meteors at the very end of the video. Visit my GALLERIES to see more photos!

Milky Way Timelapse Video

Forgotten Coast Meteor

Last night was another good round of thunderstorms, this time coming in from the East toward us. It was moving so fast, I wouldn't have had much time to get my camera out to the dock for imaging so I put up the drone to video what was approaching. It was a painstaking process to pull each strike frame out of the video, but this is the end result, blended over a panoramic stitch of Lake Santa Fe from 200 feet above. I quickly brought the drone back in after a 20-minute session as the clouds approached.

Click on the image to see a larger version and to see more of my storm imagery.

Birds Eye View of Melrose StormStorm occurred late July 2024.
Shot with DJI drone facing east.
Viewed from Lake Santa Fe, FL. This is an 8-paned panoramic image.

Another wonderful night of lightning! Over 35 strikes in this image alone (a 45 minute period). Although, that wasn't my intent when I went out with my camera last night just after sunset. My hope was to attempt to shoot the Thunder Moon. Well, I got it, but it wasn't the star of the show. It was blocked by storm clouds that earlier had dumped 3 inches of rain on us. As the storm clouds moved east, the rising Moon made a very brief appearance between them. The lightning was flashing all around, even behind me, so I was torn as to which way to face the camera. I decided to keep my eye on the Moon, since it was after all, appropriately named the Thunder Moon for July. It lived up to its name! What a show last night. I left even before all the strikes stopped, I just had so many already and was eager to get home to process them. This is the culmination of last nights Thunder Moon in all its glory, rising over Melrose/Hawthorne area amidst the storms!

Click on the image to see a larger version and to see more storm pictures!

Thunder MoonStorm occurred late July 2024.
Shot facing east.
Viewed from Lake Santa Fe, FL.

My first lightning attempt of the summer! I drove home from work in quite the downpour, eager to beat the end of the storm so I could attempt to capture some of the lightning it was throwing out. I made it home and grabbed some gear quick and headed out to the dock where I got in 20 minutes of shooting before the rain started again.

LightningStorm occurred late July 2024.
Shot facing east.
Viewed from Lake Santa Fe, FL.

If you've never been to Niagara Falls before, you've got to go! Just don't go on Canada Day, July 1. That's their Independence Day, and with ours just a few days later, everybody decided to take a long vacation and spend it at Niagara with us. And, be sure to plan for at least two days for your visit to get it all in.

You absolutely have to make sure to view the falls from the Canadian side (passport required), you get a much better vantage point of the horseshoe shape of the main falls, and you gaze across the mist to a beautiful park on the US side. Once you get that view, then you can settle for the view on the US side. Standing in the park on the US side, you can see the sprawling Vegas-like attractions Canada has built around the falls. Its really quite a spectacle. You also get a better chance of seeing rainbows in the mist because, well, you are right in the mist! The US side has an exhilarating walk down into the mist of the falls where you get soaked. It is really more like walking into a rainstorm.

Both sides have boats that will take you along with a crowd of other tourists up into the base of the rumbling falls itself to feel the raw power. Don't plan on staying dry if you want the full experience. 

We stayed at a hotel with a room high above overlooking the falls (falls view rooms are worth every penny) and walked to almost everything we wanted to see in Canada. There was an incline that can take you down the side of the steep hill and back up, which we took advantage of. Driving to places would have been a nightmare with how crowded it was, and we didn't want to waste time in a car. We did opt for an all-inclusive tour to several of the Canadian attractions where they drove us and we were able to skip the lines waiting for admission. We got to go into the tunnels behind the falls, see the whirlpool in the Niagara river where it takes a 90-degree turn after the falls, and did a maple syrup tasting tour (I'm now addicted to dark). We didn't make time for the Powerhouse tour, but may re-visit to see it sometime. One thing I was not missing is Skylon Tower, much like the Seattle Space Needle, it has a rotating dining room and a buffet restaurant with the observation deck sitting on top. That view was the best hands down!

The second day we spent investigating the US side, strolling the beautiful park and catching rainbows. I'd recommend a picnic lunch for this place, its serene. They also have a hop-on/hop-off trolly that will take you to the scenic waypoints within the park, great if you've walked too much the day before. After the park visit, we drove up-river to another park where trails would lead you down to the river at the whirlpool. We ended up hiking a round trip total of 6 miles and approximately 750 steps to get down some 350 feet to the basin where we could dip our toes into the raging waters. Niagara river has class 6 rapids and water entry is strictly prohibited. It was pretty relaxing to lay down on the big flat rocks at the bend, listening to the river run all around us. From down here, we could gaze up to the overlook at the whirlpool where we were in Canada just the day before.

Every night we were treated to fireworks at 10pm, and on Canada Day, the crowd was so enormous that they closed off roads. We stood elbow to elbow with other tourists, jostling to get a good view for the fireworks show. 

Here are some fun facts about the falls, courtesy of Niagara Parks:

• More than 168,000 cubic metres (6 million cubic ft.) of water go over the crestline of the falls every minute during peak daytime tourist hours
• The Canadian Horseshoe Falls drops an average of 57 metres (188 ft.) into the Lower Niagara River
• The crest line of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls is approximately 670 metres (2,200 ft.) wide. The plunge pool beneath the falls is 35 metres (100 ft.) deep
• The height of the American Falls ranges between 21 to 34 metres (70-110 ft.). This measurement is taken from the top of the falls to the top of the rock pile at the base, called the talus slope. The height of the falls from the top of the falls to the river is 57 metres (188 ft.). The crest line of the American Falls is approximately 260 metres (850 ft.) wide
• The rapids above the falls reach a maximum speed of 40 km/hr or 25 mph, with the fastest speeds occur at the falls themselves (recorded up to 68 mph.) The water through the Whirlpool Rapids below the falls reaches 48 km/hr or 30 mph, and at Devil’s Hole Rapids 36km/hr.
• The Niagara River is a connecting channel between two Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario.
• Niagara Falls has moved back seven miles in 12,500 years and may be the fastest moving waterfalls in the world.

Take a peek at my photo-journal of our trip, hopefully it will inspire you to visit! Click on the image to see a larger version and to see all in the Niagara gallery.

Well, we didn't get out on the Fourth to watch any fireworks, we brought COVID home from Canada with us so we stayed in. I felt like I missed out on fireworks, so my wonderful husband dug out some from our storage and sent them up on Saturday. This is a compilation of our small batch... a few days late. Maybe next year...

Fireworks 2

Fireworks

I was recently up in Pittsburgh at my brother's wedding. It was a very brief trip, just long enough to watch him marry his beautiful bride and take in some night lights of the beautiful city from one of their iconic overlooks. The Steel City just after sunset, its quite a jewel to behold!

After this, we shot up to Niagara for a few days to celebrate our own wedding anniversary. Of course, I'll share those photos as soon as I get to them.

Click on the image to see a larger version or to see more in my Scenic gallery.

Pittsburgh

You hear Florida and you think hot, tropical, wet, rainy... right?  Well, you've got the hot part right, but its been VERY dry at my house. The last significant rain was June 11 where we got an inch. Its now June 25 and after weeks of temps in the high 90s, things are getting crispy. I've watched storms pass all around us, but somehow it always missed us, like we were in a bubble. A dry parched bubble. Last night left us with relief as this storm dumped 2.5 inches on our arid Cove. I'll take more if we can get it!

Saving Grace StormStorm over Lake Santa Fe, Florida. Shot June 24, 2024 at approximately noon with DJI drone facing north. This is a 3-paned panoramic image.

It was a magical night! The skies pretty much cooperated by staying fairly clear to allow for the creation of this image. With the onslaught of mosquitos as I prepared for shooting, I wasn't sure I'd survive to complete the task. By the end of it all, I was one giant lump of a mosquito bite, and I'm sure I inhaled a healthy serving of them. The air was so calm and still, I had no breeze to provide relief; from the bug swarms or the oppressive heat.

In this image, a Falcon 9 rocket lifts off in a rare Northeastern trajectory from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday, June 7, 2024 at 9:56 pm carrying 22 Starlink Satellites to add to its ever growing constellation. This view is over Lake Santa Fe, Florida with the small town of Melrose creating the glow of light pollution on the horizon.

This image is blended with the rising of the Milky Way which was visible approximately an hour after launch.

It was worth all of the suffering to create this image. 

Click on the image to see a larger version and to see more in the Rocket gallery.

It was a lovely night to stargaze on Santa Fe Lake recently, this night... a breeze to keep the bugs away and provide some relief from the thick heavy summer air. I thought it might be a good night to try a new vantage point from the dock of a wonderful neighbor. It would have been perfect, except for when at 45 minutes into shooting, distant clouds started to take over the frames. I could even see them strike out in a glow from lightning every now and then. Normally I would welcome storms, especially during this dry spell, but in this case, it actually caused a few problems in my photography. With the soft distant rolls of thunder, I thought it best to wrap up early in case any of that approaching rain made it toward me and all of my camera gear (I also had my little telescope set up, imaging a far off galaxy at the same time). 

I got a little glimpse of what my final image would have been if skies stayed clear and I could have imaged for a few more hours. This is just a fraction of trails I aimed to capture, but it will have to do for now.

Light pollution from nearby towns, Waldo and Starke can be seen on the horizon.

Thanks Janet for letting me shoot there, hopefully next time will be more fruitful!!

Click on the image to see a larger version and to see more in the Astrophotography gallery.

Janet's Star Trails

I've been chasing this rocket for some time, made it to two of its previous launch attempts only to be scrubbed... until this day, June 5, 2024. Along with a crowd of other spectators on Playalinda Beach on Canaveral National Seashore, the Starliner lifted off from pad 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. By the time this launch attempt arrived, many of us had seen each other before and shared the anticipation of the countdown. There were so many people on the beach streaming the live feed, it was nearly impossible to maintain a cell signal. We counted on each other to update the collection of photographers all huddled together aiming for the same shot, their chance to record history through their lens. As countdown proceeded and milestones were checked off, one would shout out to the crowd the progress and successes, leading to small sporadic cheers. Near the 5-minute mark, the anticipation was thicker than the salty humid Florida air. The crowd hushed and held a collective breath. The energy was undeniable, as if we all knew today would be the day for a successful launch, but we wouldn't know until we saw the first billows of smoke on the distant pad, and the searing bright glow of the engine ignition. The crowed exploded in turn with screams and cheers. The Atlas V rose off the pad in an awe-inspiring fashion, leaving its unmistakable plume beneath, lifting two humans toward space with magnificent thrust. It was humbling to witness this history so closely, and to be able to hear the deep crackling roar overtake the noise of the crowd.

This launch was important to me for several reasons; its historic, being the first launch of humans from Cape Canaveral (not to be confused with Kennedy Space Center) since 1968, it is Boeing's first launch of humans to space, and it is on an Atlas V rocket (my favorite to photograph). This test mission has been delayed for several years while the team worked out different challenges. One of the most recent being a scrub due to a helium leak detected on the capsule which was later deemed safe to proceed. At the time of writing this post, with the crew orbiting Earth, the team has learned of more helium leaks and are working out possible fixes. Keep in mind, this is a test flight and challenges were expected.

The Boeing Starliner is a class of partially reusable spacecraft designed to transport crew to the International Space Station and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. It is manufactured by Boeing, with the Commercial Crew Program of NASA as the lead customer. It was launched on an Atlas V rocket by United Launch Alliance. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will crew the Starliner capsule on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station, testing Starliner's capabilities to determine if it will be able to fly more crewed missions. It also is bringing an important piece of equipment to ISS to repair their faulty urine processor assembly, which processes urine into drinking water.
 

Click on the images below to see a larger version and to see more rocket photos.

Starliner Starliner

Starliner

Last night, May 31, 2024, the launch of Starlink Group 6-64 on a Falcon 9 rocket was visible from Santa Fe Lake. I love the reflection this time. I was excited to get on with my night to do more photography into the wee hours of the morning, shooting the Milky Way over the Atlantic ocean until 3am then heading to Titusville to shoot another launch (hopefully). The night was going well, a great streak shot, some good Milky Way images which will take time to process, and a GORGEOUS Moon rising over the ocean. But that's where it ends. The rocket I stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG for and then waited another 5 hours for its noon launch... you guessed it. Scrubbed. This damn thing has gotten me twice now. Maybe the third time is a charm? Thats if I can make it. Thats a long drive for me. I'm tired now.

Anyhow, you get to enjoy two out of the four subjects here:

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Starlink Group 6-64 Moonrise