hetch hetchy night and day, yosemite

Here are shots of the hetch hetchy reservoir in the northwestern part of yosemite national park

Hetch Hetchy, night and day, Yosemite National Park

Here's a slightly brighter view of the falls and reservoir with the landscape lit by the setting moon.   the diagonal stripe mid frame is the milky way, slightly obscured by passing clouds on the horizon. 

among other things seen in this northern view are Cassiopeia, mid milky way,  and the andromeda galaxy to its right (see later images with annotations)

Here are a few hours of star trails:

the red leaves in the foreground were not turning in July, but briefly illuminated by my red flashlight while imaging. 

here's a video of the rising milky way, with some passing clouds as the moon set, followed by a reverse version with star trails, ending with the setting moon illuminating the hills. 

The dam kicked up quite a bit of spray.  i spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to capture a moonbow as the moon set.  the next morning the rising sun produced a beautiful rainbow at the same site--letting me know i was shooting from the wrong side of the spray.  DOH! 

Though there were no major meteor showers, we saw at least 4 an hour in the dark yosemite skies.  Only caught one with the camera:

Here's sagittarius and the milky way along with a few wandering planets shot from the dam

A bit to the right, here's scorpius with bright jupiter.

straight up we saw the summer triangle with the cygnus the swan mid milky way

In August, we back packed from Tuolumne Meadows to Grant lake (again in Yosemite). 
Here's a cell phone capture of my favorite constellation, Cassiopeia, the giant W, along with the milky way and the andromeda galaxy (same part of the sky as the earlier images). 

Cassiopeia from Tuolumne Meadows

here are sagittarius, saturn and the milky way rising at grant lake.

a final moon set thru haze at grant lake:

imaging details (for astrophotography nerds only):
many technical problems with these outings
the wide field images were plagued by my laptop switching to power saver mode several times grrr...
I missed focus on basically all of the DSLR images, hence the small scale.  the cell phone images showed some promise, but the phone's exposure time is limited to 10 seconds. on the plus side, it allows captures in raw mode, allowing for dark subtraction.
perhaps i'll try this again with a modern DSLR and dedicated wide field lens.

The Moment cell phone lens attachment gives a wider field of view and is faster.
though there was little chromatic aberration, there were severe star distortions at the edges requiring cropping :(

Hetch Hetchy wide field (night)
ZWO ASI 290MC
stock fisheye lens
Shutter=20.0s
Gain=351 (58%)
20 second exposures continuously from
11:43 PM 7/7/19 to 1 AM 7/8/19 AM PDT
Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite National Park, California

(day)
Samsung Galaxy Note 9
FL 4.3 mm f/2.4

Moon
Nikon D60
stock lens (18-55) @15 mm f/3.5
30 s
ISO 1600

Rainbow

Nikon D60
stock lens (18-55) @18 mm f/8
1/250 s
ISO 100

Meteor, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Cygnus
Nikon D60
stock lens (18-55) @18 mm f/3.5
30 s
cygnus 88x30 sec ISO 400
scorpius 8x30 sec ISO 1600
saggitarius 5x 30s ISO 1600
even with dark subtraction, there was significant amp glow especially on the cygnus shot, hence the desaturation.
sky watcher star adventurer mount (tracking stars)

cell phone Cassiopeia and Sagittarius
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 with moment Wide 18mm Lens (Magnification Ratio - .63X)
FL 4.3 f/ .945 ?
30x10 s
ISO 800

Jupiter at opposition 2019: great red spot unfurling

Jupiter reached opposition (directly opposite the sun) June 10th.  you can see it rising in the east after sunset.  It will get higher and higher in the evening sky over the next few months.

Here's my first Jupiter of the season from June 9th right before opposition:

Jupiter 6/9/2019 08:52 UTC

this infrared image enhances the great red spot and the mid equatorial zone (more about the latter later):

Jupiter IR-GB 6/9/2019 08:52 UTC

Recently, portions of the great red spot were found to be peeling off.

Here's a blink of the GRS at larger scale with and without IR enhancement:

Jupiter 6/9/2019 08:52 UTC

The enhancing red stripe is likely a section of the great red spot that has peeled off. 
Here's a time lapse of the great red spot taken by BQ Octantis, a member of the cloudy nights forum, imaging from the Australian outback:

posted with permission

A section of the great red spot appears to peel off on June 1 and then progress to the right.  

Here's an article at sky and telescope with more details and images.  
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/jupiters-great-red-spot-unfurls-see-it-in-your-scope/

Imaging details:

camera ZWO ASI 290MM with ZWO RGB filters

Baader IR pass 685 nm, Astronomik IR pass 807 nm

6/9/19 08:52 UTC

celestron 11" Edge HD

televue 2x barlow

90 second captures 4 each filter (2 for each of the IR filters)

gain 351, exposure ~3-6ms, 30% histogram, ~150 fps

IR 685 Shutter=4.831ms, FPS (avg.)=145

IR 807 Shutter=23.89ms, FPS (avg.)=41
corrector fogged up despite dew heater, blurring detail
so image is only 50% scale :(
807 nm images as sharp or better than 685 nm despite longer exposure, lower fps

sunspot AR 2738 and a few proms

Despite being at solar minimum, a moderately large sunspot was well positioned mid April:

AR 2738 4/14/19 WL

AR 2738 4/14/19 Ha

AR 2738 4/14/19 Ha and WL

The following weekend as the spot rotated off the face to the edge, i watched very dynamic activity on the limb, including a prominence lifting off and a very bright ball of plasma:

Ha 4/20/19

...which i just missed with the camera :(

but there was a nice prominence on the opposite side:

Ha 4/20/19

Full disk view through light incoming clouds:

Sun Ha 4/20/19 through light clouds causing glare

Image details:
C11 edge on ASA DDM 80, baader film, baader continuum filter, IR/UV block filter
first light with C11 soloar filter, love the cooling fans, unfortunately seeing was poor
Lunt 60 PT on manual alt-azm mount
Eastbluff, CA

4/14/19 poor seeing (image reduced to 50%)
C11
19:45 UTC
ASI 290 MM
FPS (avg.)=147
Shutter=0.918ms
Gain=351 (58%)

Lunt double stacked
20:56 UTC
ASI 290 MM
FPS (avg.)=103
Shutter=9.699ms
Gain=67 (11%)

4/20/19
first prom
ASI 290 MM
22:55 UTC
second 22:58 UTC
20 second video
111 fps
Shutter=1.0 ms
gain 351
best 12%

full disk with light clouds
ASI 174 MM
23:09 UTC
45 fps
Shutter=10.00ms
Gain=225 (56%)