Well, big changes are finally here! My roommates Molly and Christina moved out this weekend, and Angela and I started repainting the house! It will take us at least a week to repaint, and then another week to get the new furniture delivered, and then Angela will completely move in at the end of the month.

In the meantime, my internet is disconnected and my computer is in storage until we finish paiting and setting up the new office and solarium. So, for my Picture Of The Week this week I had to dig around my computer at work. I've decided to try something a little different this week, as you may have noticed.

This is a photo I took at the end of last summer. It is actually a "stack" of six photographs I took with my Rebel XT mounted on my AstroTracker Mark 1. Basically, I took six digital pictures, and when I got home I used some special software to combine them together into one image. When done properly, stacking can yield amazing results. This was the first time I ever tried it. I'm hoping that I can do better this summer.

I actually love this image... I could stare at it for ages. I love the sheer number of stars, and the little clusters here and there, and of course the Andromeda Galaxy just hovering there off to the side. The version I have as my desktop wallpaper at work is a bit larger than this, and looks great on my huge LCD monitor. It's a bit distracting sometimes. The reason it is so big this week is that making it any smaller would kill all the little details that make this picture so great. Hopefully everyone can find a high resolution monitor to view this week's picture.

Oh, in case you are wondering what the black lines are, I will explain. I found a great place to go stargazing, but the only downfall is that there is a single hydro or phone line stretched across the view to the north east. The six black lines in the lower right corner are all the same line, photographed six different times. My camera was tracking the sky, so the line appears to have shifted, while the stars have stayed still. When I combined the six photographs into one, the line showed up in six different locations.

All six images were taken with my Digital Rebel XT & 50mm 1.8 Mark II at ISO 800, f/4 for 30 seconds, adding up to a combined exposure of 3 minutes.

Comments

Wicked Mike, I'm sure it would look even better on any monitor but mine. It's
cool that Andromeda came out so nicely. The sky really is a gorgeous subject
matter for photography and art. If you have any nice sky pics you should send
them to my yahoo account and maybe I can incorporate them into a painting. I
like the effect of the moon reflecting off the clouds to create the circular
rainbow. The sky is awesome.