Posts from the ‘astrophotography’ Category
NASA, shooting stars and I
Tonight, at least in Italy, is Saint Lawrence’s night (notte di San Lorenzo).That means, eyes up to the starry sky looking for shooting stars. Although the Perseids’ peak is announced to be in the nights of 11th and 12th of August. As beautifully described in this video made in NASA, with one credited picture from Lorenzo Borghi (that’s me). Nomen omen?
Enjoy it and follow its suggestion to find your Perseids in the next few nights. Here you can see the original picture I shot to the night sky of August above the Gotthard pass (Switzerland). Thanks to Jane Houston (NASA) for choosing it.
Astronomical calculations with Nikon D800: Mercury over the Sun and Jupiter moons
Today Mercury slid over the sun and I shot it with an additional infrared 850 nm filter. Mercury is at the bottom, a sunspot is visible on the Sun upper hemisphere.
Mercury passage over the Sun May 2016
A 70-200 VRII mounted on the 36 Mpx D800 gave a resolution of 2 pixels for Mercury passing over the Sun and 370 pixel for the Sun. Knowing the Sun is 1.64 times more distant than Mercury from Earth, the size ratio Sun / Mercury is 370*1.64/2 = 303.4 . Known the Sun diameter is 1.3914 million km, Mercury measures 4,586 km in diameter (the real value is 4,800 km).
Jupiter and the four Galilean moons
The same camera setting gives a resolution of 12 pixels for Jupiter, which is 6.8 times more distant from Earth than Mercury. Therefore the size ratio Jupiter / Mercury is 12*6.8/2 = 40.8 . Calculated that Mercury is 4586 km in diameter, Jupiter is 187,108 km (its real size is 143,000 km). More or less …
Red is the new white: supermoon lunar eclipse 2015
Click to enlarge each picture of this moon total eclipse: next super+blood moon in 2033.
Full white moon, shot in the clouds with ISO 100, 1/200 s, f/5.6
Full red “blood” moon, shot with ISO 1600, 1/40 s, f/.28
Exit from the eclipse, “half blood” moon, shot with ISO 1000, 1/20 s, f/4.5
Picture series shot from Zurich with D800 + 16-355 mm f/4 and 70-200 mm VRII f/2.8. Click to enlarge.
Flying and falling objects in August night sky
Around 300 pictures were shot tonight for a total of 120 minutes. Falling stars (Perseids), airplanes (dotted lines) and satellites (thin white segmented lines) fly across the sky. Can you distinguish them? Click to enlarge
Below, at least 10 falling stars are present in this hi-res composite image of only 10 shots (airplanes almost excluded): can you find them? Click the picture to enlarge it (takes some time to download it, it is big), then click on the magnifying lens to zoom in!
Finally, a single shot of the brightest falling star tonight. On its left, the galaxy of Andromeda the Pleiades, click to enlarge
Pictures shot with D800 on a tripod mounting a 16-35 mm f/4 – ISO 1200-2000, exposure time 25 secs.
ARTBorghi Solar eclipse 20.3.2015 : a 2 hour-long time-lapse shot from Zürich Botanical Garden
Click each picture to enlarge.
With an infrared filter mounted on my Nikon 50 mm f/1.4G on D800, here is a time lapse in a single merged picture (one shot every 15 seconds, selected). Notice the tree branches on the upper right corner.
The tropical greenhouses of Zürich Botanical Garden shot during the initial phase of the solar eclipse on 20.3.2015. Picture merging shot with D800 mounting the Nikon 16-35 mm f/4 (background) plus the 70-200 mm f/2.8 (sun) – camera settings: 1/8000 secs, f/22, ISO 25
Time lapse movie of the solar eclipse of 20.3.2015 in Zürich. Pictures shot with D800 + 50 mm f/1.4G + infrared filter
Astronomy and space photography on the Aeolian islands
Aeolian islands are a good spots for astrophotography. From the top of volcanic peaks, dark skies reveal all the details of constellations, Milky Way and far away objects. Click each picture to enlarge
Scorpion constellation at dusk on Pollara, Salina
Raising Milky Way, Vulcano
Night lights between Lipari and Salina
Deep space objects from 1000 m above the sea level, Salina
“Moontan” at Fossa delle Felci, Salina
Milky way above Sicily night shores
North (Polar) Star, Vulcano
All pictures shot with Nikon D800 on tripod, ISO 100, f/5.6 and exposure times from 30 secs to 30 minutes on Nikkor 50 mm / Nikkor 16-35 mm
Macro pictures in space with D800 plus 16-35 mm f/4: a very close view to the International Space Station
Close to the shores of the North Sea, the European Space Agency develops the future research projects aboard the International Space Station.
The ISS high-definition model at the ESTEC
Inside the Esa Columbus module, ISS astronauts run scientific experiments and investigate how (absence of) gravity affects life development.
The ISS Columbus module
Together with the 1:1 Columbus module replica , additional ISS modules are present:
Detail on the shared environments on the ISS
The x-y-z communication doors between the ISS modules
One of the ISS passive connecting modules
Inside the ISS “cupola”, the space observatory where astronauts shoot pictures also to Earth
All macro pictures shot with hand-held D800 and 16-35 mm f/4. Although the 16-35 mm is a wide-angle, it can be used to shoot close-up details thanks to the minimal focusing distance of 29 cm, with a max. magnification ratio 1:4
