First up we have a rare astronomy photograph from reader Don McCrady:
I submit for your consideration the following astrophoto. It is called M13 (M for Messier), and is one of the finest globular clusters visible in the northern hemisphere, located in the constellation Hercules. There are some 300,000 stars packed into sphere some 160 light years across. The image can be downloaded from Flickr in any resolution you wish.
The total exposure time was approximately 3 hours, 1 hour each through red, blue, and green filters. Each subexposure was 4 minutes long, and was all combined using astrophotography stacking software. I used my new-ish 130mm aperture f/5 telescope and a Santa Barbara Instruments Group STL-4020M to take the picture. All this was taken from my heavily light-polluted backyard in Redmond, WA (under the glare of 3 obnoxious street lights).
And some butterflies from reader Mark Sturtevant:
Here is an assortment of butterflies from last summer. These are probably the last pictures that I will take with my ancient manual Canon Fd mount lens that I had adapted to a modern camera body, as I bought myself a Christmas present in the form of a bigger and better long lens.
First up is the great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele). The large pale spots under the hind wings are metallic silver, and I have so far found it difficult to capture that feature in a photo. This is among my best efforts for this species.
Next is an Eastern black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). This perfect specimen, which is a male, was so keen on collecting salt along a sandy beach that I nearly stepped on it. Females have smaller yellow markings, and a larger blue area on the hind wings. The dorsal surface of the female allows it to be a better mimic of the distasteful pipevine swallowtail. Why does the male not take on that mimicry? Actually, they do on their ventral side where both males and females mimic the pipevine model. But the large yellow markings seen in most males improves the chances that they will hold a good spot in a ‘lek’, which is where males gather in an area that is visited by females.
Next is a lovely sight that is restful to my eyes: a couple of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) on one of my favorite plants, Joe-Pye weed (Eupatorium). I have developed some idiosyncrasies for what I want from my butterfly pictures, and you can see one of them here which is to have light casting shadows on the wings to show the topography.
The next picture of a monarch shows another thing that I seek in butterfly pictures when possible. That is, to show light glowing through the wings to reveal the colors of both the dorsal and ventral wing surfaces. In this case, the patterns are nearly identical.
Another thing that I like to capture in pictures of Lepidoptera is when they have damaged wings. It adds a bit of character to that particular insect, as if it is saying ‘sure, I am delicate and all, but I have flown for miles and I escaped dangers. I have been places and life did not cut me any slack’.
The final photo is of the largest of our native butterflies, the awesome giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes). You can see at once that this individual has it all as far as I am concerned. Light is glowing through the wings to reveal the strikingly different color patterns of the dorsal and ventral wing surfaces of this species, and this brave butterfly clearly had some adventures and it bears the battle damage to prove it. The only problem here is that he (she?) would not sit still. It did not stop beating its wings for a moment, but rather kept its engines running for a full 20 minutes as it fed from our butterfly bush in our back yard, with me frantically taking picture after picture. Ah well, summer is coming, my equipment is better, and I will look for a 2nd chance.
Good shot of the Hercules cluster. I am surprised you can get such a good shot in the light-polluted puget sound area.
Holy chrysalis! Those are some great butterfly photos.
How could you get such a great picture in a light-polluted area? Clearly there is something I am not understanding here.
Great butterfly pictures, too!
Thanks for the reply. M13 is actually quite bright; from a true dark site it can be seen with the naked eye. This makes it easier to image through the light pollution too.
I have looked at it with my 5.1″ reflector, where one can see its a rather bright cotton ball. With darker skies I suppose I could pick out some stars in it.
When you say
do you mean broad pass filters, or narrow-pass ones that you can select to work around your local light pollution limits? E.g. (and I’m working from theory here) a H-alpha for the “red” channel and O-II for the “green”?
Never had reliable enough access to an even moderately dark site to make any serious attempt at practical astrophotography. Though on occasions I have considered subscribing for time on a roboticised scope.
The red, green, and blue filters are broadband true colour filters. They are what allows my monochrome camera to take colour images at full resolution. I also do a lot of narrowband stuff to with Hydrogen alpha, Oxygen-III, and Sulfur-II; however, these only work on emission nebula, not star clusters, galaxies, or reflection nebula.
I understand well enough using filters to make a mono-camera seem full colour. but if you can choose a range of colours that exclude (say) the region around the Sodium-D couplet, then you might be able to exclude a lot of the pollution.
We both know this is a standard technique ; I’m speaking mostly for the audience.
Love the pics. On a general note, I think people would engage more with astronomy if these objects had more memorable names (rather like butterflies). I find it difficult to get enthused by something called M13. Sounds more like a British motorway or a character from a Bond movie.
Many Messier objects have popular names. M13 is called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. M44 is known as the Beehive or the Manger. Why don’t they all have names? Because it is messier.
Ha ha! Good one!
Love all the pics! Is it geeky that I knew that was M13 right away? Great shot too!
Stars and Butterflies. If I could play an instrument I’d start a band with that name.
Yes, stars and butterflies — exquisite. And I’m forever railing against anthropomorphization (sp?), but I kinda choked up on Mark Sturtevant’s comment ” ‘sure, I am delicate and all, but I have flown for miles and I escaped dangers. I have been places and life did not cut me any slack’. Right on; I could learn something from that.
The noting of the Giant Swallowtail’s “battle damage” reminded me of the time back in 1996 when I watched a 20-minute battle between a male sparrow and a huge Cecropia moth that occurred up and down the length of a tall chain link fence. I suspect the moth was nearing the end of its life and was “running out of juice” as it never tried to fly away, but just kept moving along the fence. The sparrow pecked and pecked at it, and never could subdue it!
In the M31 picture you can see a distant galaxy at about 11:00.
One of the great pleasures is to look at these celestial objects through a fine telescope. Most people will not have one, but you can still experience wonder and awe by looking up your local Astronomy club. They will have a web site, and all the ones that I have seen will have scheduled ‘star parties’ where they bring out really nice telescopes to let the public see stuff. I live in a very ordinary part of Michigan, and there are about 4 such clubs within driving distance.
M13. M31 is of course a naked eye galaxy in its own right.
And telescopes have gotten very affordable over the years. A good Dobsonian for observation can be had for hundreds, not thousands.
Fantastic photos! Thanks to Mark Sturtevant!
I like the nuances of light in your butterfly photos, Mark!
Absolutely. Going for transmitted light is a winner.
Thanks. I chose that last giant swallowtail pix not for the butterfly (I had several that were similar), but for the background and off-center framing.