ajamesmccarthy

The Fish Head Nebula

Raw Data now available to astrophotographer patrons!

This morning's shot. See if you can spot the space station :)

Added a straight out of cqamera shot- the ISS just slicing right through!

A deep look at The Triangulum Galaxy

Tadpoles in Space

This is an emission nebula, captured in specific narrowband emission lines designed to simulate true color, versus some of my other nebulas which are false color. Most emission nebulas are predominently red, with hints of blue where there is oxygen burning in addition to the hydrogen. 

My RAW data for this shot is now available for those of you that signed up for that tier!

A Celestial Bubble

One of my favorite images so far. I just can't stop staring at this little planetary nebula nestled in a vast cloud of cosmic gas. 

Data for this has been shared with select patrons. As always, if you create an image from my data I'll share it!

The helix nebula, final image and without edits.

Yes, before editing the image just looked like blackness with a couple stars. The one I attached is a jpg, but from the raw 32 bit stacks you can resolve a nebula by editing the image. Sometimes this hobby feels like magic. 

Celestial Events in November

Hello Patrons, Hope every had a good Halloween!

It will be a relatively quite month for celestial events, but still a couple to look out for!  

November 10th - Mercury at greatest Western Elongation
This is the best time to view Mercury (in the morning) since it will be the furthest from the sun. Look for a small "star" low in the Eastern Sky right before sunrise. 

November 11/12- Taurids Meteor shower peak
This meteor shower...

A spooky Blue Moon in 60 megapixels

Try to look outside tonight, this moon will look incredible as it rises!

A detailed look at the entire sun's chromosphere today.

Some sunspots today- Earth could fit in that top one.

Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars unedited video

Saturn:

https://gfycat.com/misguidedricharmyworm

Mars:

https://gfycat.com/obeseamusedhackee

This is essentially what I use to create the images you see. I collect 10's of thousands of frames this way, and combine them using software to give me more details than otherwise possible. 

Aspiring astrophotogr...

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn to angular scale with the moon.

Our sun 2 days ago, never shared this image

You can see how the prominences have changes even after just 1 day, since the most recent shot was actually taken the day after this. 

15 moon shots combined to show phases in 100 megapixels

Capturing the Impossible- ISS Transit shots

Hey Patrons, 

My ISS transit shots tend to get the most questions, so I thought I would write up exactly how I get them. 

First- I check transit-finder.com.
This is a web resource that allows you to put in your location, a time frame, and how far you're willing to drive, and it will spit out results of nearby transits. I check this every week, and see my transits coming about a month ahead of time. The results can change though based on updated ISS tr...

The Space Station transiting the 4% illuminated moon this morning.

Mars is at opposition tonight. The brightest it will be for years.

Opposition means directly opposite the sun. That means Mars is as close to perfectly "full" as it will be for this approach. The next time this happens is in roughly two years, but it will be a bit further away so not quite as full and bright. 

The Bubble, the Lobster, and the Cave

Melotte 15- this area looks like a whimsical painting to me

This is the heart of the heart- the star forming cluster in the middle of the heart nebula. It's one of my favorite places in the galaxy. 

Here's a lunar composite from 2 weeks ago I never shared anywhere

I thought it was a lot like some of my older work so I held of sharing it on social- but I might end up doing it anyway. Either way, hope you enjoy!

I caught the ISS transiting the face of the sun today

Early look at tomorrow's post: The Elephant Trunk

Smoke has been really cramping my style these last few months, making getting a regular cadence of images practically impossible. Luckily a couple weeks ago I had a streak of clear skies, allowing me to capture this and other images in a relatively short timeframe. 

Last night's Harvest Moon in 81 megapixels

This was shot through the smokefrom the wildfires here in California. The moon itself was a dull red color as it rose, but was bright and clear when directly overhead. There is a hint of a yellow tinge due to the smoke, but otherwise I am happy it came out as good as it did. Since transparency was poor, catching the stars within the frame was essentially impossible, so I composited in the stars from a previous day. 

Full Moon tonight, Mars opposition, and other Celestial events in October.

Hey Patrons, 

Another harvest moon is upon us tonight, so watch for a bright full moon rising in the Eastern sky at sunset. The moon's orbit does not bring it high into the sky (from the Northern Hemisphere) this month, so it is a good time to photograph it against landscape elements such as trees, buildings, and mountains. Shooting details is more difficult due to the additional atmosphere present when shooting at a low angle. Another highlight this month is the martian opposition...

The Moon Transiting Sagittarius, pic and video

On Wednesday night the first quarter moon transited Sagittarius, passing closely to two nebulaes in the core of our milky way. One of the most technically complex shots I've ever done, It incorporated using filters for nebulae to cut out the relatively harsh moonlight to allow details from deep space to show through. 

Behind the scenes: here are the links to 3 videos- from the data collected for this image. The first, the RAW data from my 5 second exposures. The Nebule are little f...

Here's a 200 megapixel shot of the Moon Wednesday night. Enjoy!

Download this one and zoom around all over it :)

A 60 megapixel image of the Cygnus region

This was taken with 15 hours of exposures in SHORGB. Data available for aspiring astrophotographer patrons. 

This area is filled with star-forming regions, and has a gorgeous pinkish red color. This is close to true color, but not quite, since I blended in data from different color palettes to give it the look I wanted. 

An Early look at my next post- A reprocess of NEOWISE

We'll probabably not see another of these for decades, so I was out shooting this comet ever morning for weeks. My sleep schedule suffered, but I captured a once-in a lifetime image. 

The moon setting through the smokey Sacramento sunset

The smokey sunset makes for some gorgeous colors. Some birds added to the peacefulness of the scene. This is a pretty high resolution image- I went deeper into the lunar details than I ever have for this phase before. The birds were in the foreground so not quite as sharp, although I cleaned them up as well as I could in post processing. 

I caught a spaceship flying overhead tonight

This is the ISS, zipping over my house at 17,000 MPH. To capture this, I left a camera running while manually tracking the bright point of light from the station with my telescope, Hoping I caught some in the frame. Out of 25,000 frames captured, around 1500 captured the space station. 

You can see all the frames here: https://gfycat.com/grouchyfarcolt

The image you see is created from some of the sharp...