Sky Challenge
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Who Tore The Sky In Two?
On our recent adventure in the Kalahari, South Africa we embraced all opportunities for star gazing. En-route to the Kalahari we’d stopped off at SALT – the Southern Africa Large Telescope and had enrolled on a stargazing tour with them – this turned out to be an incredible introduction to the stars and constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. I put into practice what I’d learned and I was soon spotting the Scorpion and Orion, Leo and the Jewel Box (an incredible and intense selection of stars that twinkle an array of colours).
Each night we never failed to be impressed by the sheer volume and variety of stars and planets that could be viewed with the naked eye. The immediate darkness of the night was quickly consumed by the brightness and volume of the stars, planets, milky way and magellenic clouds overhead. Many a happy evening would be spent stargazing in the company of jackals whilst the braai roared in the background.
What amazed me was the milky way – it appeared as if the sky had been torn in two. Without the aid of any binoculars, telescopes or camera lenses you could see this incredible division in the sky and make out individual stars, planets and spot what looked like black holes in the centre of the milky way. I was immediately hooked.
I cannot take credit for these amazing images, they are solely a result of the hard work and dedication of my very talented hubby, Alistair Knock. Any questions on lens, composition, gear, “how on earth’s” etc please direct to him… I would be useless answering them.
For more of Ali’s work see the Sky Challenge Blog and his ‘Space’ gallery.
View Post Posted at 7pm on 01/10/13 by Marie Knock | no comments | In: Africa, Kalahari, News, Sky Challenge, South Africa, Travels -
Sky: Challenge, #1
I’ve set myself a non-committed, loosely monitored, non-binding frequency photography project. Objective is 5 photographs per week, not necessarily posted on the same day they were taken, and the subject will be: Sky.
I just missed the most recent full moon by a day (the Moon Phase Pro app on Android Market is excellent for reminders, but doesn’t help the weather) but this is close enough. This is taken through a telescope pointing at the southern hemisphere of the moon, which I’ve rotated 90 degrees clockwise so that the bottom is pointing to the left.
Unusually, I can’t fit the moon fully into the frame with my telescope – it turns out I bought the wrong one for astrophotography, though it’s great for viewing, and so I can only focus with an SLR when I’ve got a 2x Barlow lens in the eyepiece holder. With crop factor from an APS-C camera I think this means it’s effectively a 2080mm lens, and the vibrations you get from the slightest movement testify to this. This image shows rays of ejecta from the Tycho impact crater are clearly visible on this rotated image of the near full moon taken on 14 August 2011. This is a slight crop of an image taken using a Canon 7D and 650mm reflecting telescope with a 2x Barlow. Shutter speed was 1/30 second though I’ve decreased this by nearly 1 stop.
