Big Dipper from Timber Canyon, Utah

Just as you leave the Pinnacles area, you can travel through Timber Canyon, which is a winding dirt road through some beautiful areas. I enjoy the stars at night. This picture shows the Big Dipper just peeking over one of the huge canyon walls. The crescent moon is out of the field, and over to the left.
Taken with a Canon 550D, 30 sec exposure, ISO 800, f 2.8, Tonika 11-16 mm wide angle lens.

The Big Dipper from the Pinnacles

The Pinnacles are near the Strawberry River in Duchesne County, Utah. At about 6,000 feet, the stars are very nice, so many and so bright. This picture was taken looking north, with the bowl of the Big Dipper directly above the Pinnacle (upside down with the handle pointing towards the right). Taken with a Canon 550D, Tonika 11-16 mm Wide-Angle lens at 16mm. 30 sec exposure, f 2.8, ISO 800.

Venus from the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah

Venus, looking west from the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. The lights from Wendover, Nevada cause the the increase in brightness to the left. Taken with a Canon 550D with a Tonika 11-16 mm wide-angle lens. 30 sec exposure.

Sunspot AR1476 moving across the Sun's face

I will leave the sun alone after this post, at least until the Eclipse next week, (fingers crossed for no blocking cloud cover). My Baader AstroSolar Safety Film does an excellent job of filtering the sun, but I wanted the sun to be "Yellow". So, I used the free download, "The GIMP" to alter the color.

It turned out quite nice.

Sunspot AR1476

Shown here is what is being called Sunspot AR1476. The diameter is 12 times the diameter of the earth.

The images were taken two days apart, on 7 and 9 May. Clouds provide an interesting effect on the second picture. Taken with a Canon 550D, Baader Film filter cover for my Tamron 18-270mm Zoom. Heavily cropped in IrfanView.

Current Sunspot Picture - Backyard Special

I am practicing for the Solar Eclipse, occuring on 20 May, so I was very happy for this image with the sunspot.. This picture was taken from my backyard today, using a Canon 550D with a Tamron 18-270mm lens zoomed to 270mm. Image was heavily cropped using IrfanView. Shutter 1/1000 second, f 6.3, ISO 100. The most important thing was a home-made protective lens cover using Baader AstroSolar Safety Film, Optical Density 5.0. My thanks to Bob and team at Alpine Astronomical, LLC, www.alpineastro.com, for being such a reliable provider of this film.