Bloomingstars.com - Emmanuele Sordini 's astronomy and computing homepage - astro-photography tag

Total Solar Eclipse of July 22, 2009: a sneak preview

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:30:00 GMT

Digital composite of solar eclipse at totality (from 28 frames with different exposure times; 600-mm refractor). Pictures by Emmanuele Sordini, processing by Lorenzo Comolli

Knowing how to anticipate and outsmart the weather and its vagaries. That's what chasing solar eclipses is often all about. The Total Solar Eclipse (TSE) of July 22, 2009, will probably be long remembered more for the views of clouds and thunderstorms than of a dazzling corona eclipses can often treat us with.

Nevertheless, I managed to pull off some rather decent shots, of which this post is just a very short preview. So, click on the "Read more" link below for some more pictures, but check back often because I will soon be posting a complete report of my adventure!

Chasing Comet Lulin

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:54:00 GMT

Nel febbraio del 2009, la cometa C/2007 N3 Lulin e' passata vicino alla Terra, offrendoci un bello spettacolo con un'anticoda mutevole ed appariscente. >>> Cliccare qui per il resoconto completo in italiano! <<<

In February 2009, comet C/2007 N3 Lulin zipped past our planet Earth, putting on quite a bit of a show and sporting a bright and ever-changing anti-tail. >>> Click here for a complete report in English! <<<

The Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:38:00 GMT

The last weekend of September, I took part in the first edition of the Caprauna Star Party, which took place in the Ligurian Alps, the initial stretch of the Alpine range which is also the lowest and closest to the seaside.

The nice venue and the top-notch organization of the star party more than made up for the not so exceptional weather. As for my “imaging loot”, since I had joined in at the very last moment, I hadn’t had enough time to better plan my session, so I improvised and went with two deep-sky classics: M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) and M45 (the Pleiades Cluster). Click on the link below for more details and high-resolution pictures!

Noisy Showdown: Magzero MZ-5m vs. modified Philips Vesta Pro

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:19:00 GMT

Alcuni mesi fa avevo scritto un dettagliato articolo in cui si esaminavano le prestazioni della MagZero MZ-5m, in particolare per quanto riguarda la sua usabilità come camera per autoguida. Ora presento il seguito di tale articolo, che mette sotto i riflettori la qualità dell'immagine di questa camera, confrontandola con una vecchia gloria delle riprese ad alta risoluzione nel mondo amatoriale: la Philips Vesta Pro (modificata con sensore B/N e firmware per la modalità raw). Le sorprese non mancano: cliccate qui per la versione in Italiano!

A few months ago, I wrote a detailed article with an in-depth review of the MagZero MZ-5m camera and its suitability for long exposure autoguiding. Now comes its sequel, where we take a closer look at the MagZero's image quality, in a side-by-side comparison with a veteran of hi-res exposure in the amateur astronomer community: the Philips Vesta Pro camera (with B/W sensor and raw-mode firmware). For sure, the outcome is really surprising: click here for the English version!

Total Lunar Eclipse of February 21st, 2008

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:15:00 GMT

On February 21, 2008, the Americas and the westernmost part of Africa and Europe were treated with a total lunar eclipse. The lucky ones who managed to glimpse it had better keep the memory, as next one will take place almost three years from now, on December 21, 2010. >>> Click here for the full report in English <<<.

Il 21 febbraio 2008 le Americhe e la parte più occidentale di Africa ed Europa sono state interessate da un'eclisse totale di Luna. I fortunati che sono riusciti a vederla ne conservino bene il ricordo, dato che la prossima si verificherà soltanto fra quasi tre anni, il 21 dicembre 2010. >>> Cliccate qui per il resoconto completo in italiano <<<.

Moon setting over Mottarone

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:19:00 GMT

On Jan.24, 2008, another crystal-clear day had just started, when I spotted a waxing, almost-full Moon setting over the snow-covered slopes of the Mottarone, a well-known mountain (and ski resort) overhanging Stresa, renowned touristic resort on the western banks of Lago Maggiore.

In no time, I was out on my balcony shooting a sequence of exposures which I later put together into this animated GIF "movie":

2008's First Full Moon

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:36:00 GMT

On Jan. 22/2008, it was a crystal-clear night on the Po river flatland (Northern Italy), as the dry foehn wind was blowing steadily from the Alps' leeward slopes, thus draining every single bit of humidity from the air. A full Moon disk was also shining bright high up in the sky. By no means, would I ever miss this terrific opportunity of shooting it...

Two new images...

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:42:00 GMT

It's been quite a while since my last post, let alone an astronomy-related one. However, this does not mean I don't have anything to share! As a matter of fact, I do have a fair backlog of images to process and to post, but it'll take a while as I've been very busy lately. Here's a sample of my october 2007 deep-sky imaging session:

which is actually the best image... Click on the link below for the full story!

Finalmente...

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:50:00 GMT

Eccolo. Il mio primo articolo di astronomia è stato pubblicato nel numero di marzo 2007 della rivista Coelum . Questa per me è davvero una fantastica notizia!

Volete sapere perché? Allora leggete l'intero post...

I made it!

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:15:00 GMT

Here it comes. My first astronomy article ever will be published in the upcoming March 2007 of the Italian Coelum magazine. This is really good news to me.

Want to know why? Then check out the whole post!

Bloomingstars.com - Emmanuele Sordini 's astronomy and computing homepage - astro-photography tag

Total Solar Eclipse of July 22, 2009: a sneak preview

Chasing Comet Lulin

The Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy

Noisy Showdown: Magzero MZ-5m vs. modified Philips Vesta Pro

Total Lunar Eclipse of February 21st, 2008

Moon setting over Mottarone

2008's First Full Moon

Two new images...

Finalmente...

I made it!

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