La Silla - Noche

Night time at La Silla Observatory, Chile. A view of southern skies - marvelous things we can't see from the north hemisphere - the southern Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Coulds . . . spectacular!




The two images above are 3 minute exposures through an Canon EOS 5D MKII and Sigma 8mm lens at f/3.5 ISO 2000. Below is a sum of 80 three minute exposures through the same system then rectilinearized.



I didn't have a tracking mount to do any deep space photography so I tried my hand at seeing what the new Canon EOS 5D MKII can do at high ISO's and short exposures. Here are the results.


The Large Magellanic Cloud - Canon EOS 5D MKII | 85mm F/1.2 @ F/1.4 | 30 seconds | ISO 3200.


The NTT (left) and 3.6 Meter Telescopes. Canon EOS 5D | 85mm | F/1.4 | 30 seconds | ISO 3200.


Crux and the Coal Sack area of the southern Milky Way. Canon EOS 5D MKII | 85mm | F/1.4 | 30 seconds | ISO 3200.

La Silla - Dia Dos

Morning - the view from my Hotel balcony.



A couple of pics of the site from the 3.6 meter. Yes - the sky really is that blue!


Greg's driving the car - I am afraid - I am very afraid.


Our Home for the next week - the 1.2 Meter Schmidt. Let's look inside . . .


Yikes! 1970's computer tech. We have a lot of work to do.


Twilight falls on the NTT and 3.6 meter.

Top of the Sky, Bottom of the World

Well - I finally arrived at La Silla Observatory, Chile. 25 hours in airplanes and cars, jet lagged, no sleep, I feel displaced. This has got to be one of the most desolate but beautiful places I've visited. The sky is shockingly blue, the desert is strangely colorful despite the lack of vegitation. I only had time (and energy) to shoot a few quick shot of the immediate environs - more to come later. Gotta get some sleep.

Greetings from IMAGING USA

Back from 6 days hanging out with the top photographers from around the US - and around the world! Some amazing work being put out by such artists as Larry Peters, Brain Killian, Fong, Woods, Puc . . . my mind is spinning with the such access to so many masters.

Finding myself humbled by the talent around me, I spent a couple hours doing something completely arcane - a few 360 panoramas of the event and its environs, something that mimics the broad scope and wonder of the Imaging USA event. Enjoy.