Sunday Six: April 26th

                                Arabian Lights Dance Company

Another shot of the belly dancers and their very colorful costumes.

                                       Dance Fan

Julie in the comments on my Skin theme image asked for an image of the "enthusiastic fans". Alas, this is the only one I have. This young man was very enthusiastic, and he actually joined in on two of the dances.

                                       Sunset

A much more serene view of the horizon and the tree line that the next night would be the stage for my lightning images. But this would be a good night and I would be up imaging until 5:00 AM.

                                       Leo Triplet

The three fuzzy patches in this image are the three galaxies that make up the Leo Triplet, namely M65, M66, and NGC 3628. This is one of 80 frames I took of these galaxies, the idea being that I can stack them and increase the signal to noise ratio. Each individual image was between 60 and 120 seconds and stacking them will give me a much greater effective exposure time.


                                           M13

M13, the great globular cluster in Hercules. Another not so great astrophoto. But still not awful for my first time out. As with the Leo Triplet I've got a number of frames I can stack to hopefully bring out some additional detail. But to get truly better I'm going to need to guide. And practice, practice, practice.


                                   Summer Milky Way

This shot was taken at 3:56 AM. We are looking south and the light dome is whatever town is in that direction. Our home galaxy, the milky way aches overhead. The ghostly red image of a person is my friend and fellow club member Jerry Lodriguss. If you want to see some truly superb astrophotos visit Jerry's site, Catching the Light. You'll be glad you did.