A composite showing the 2017 Geminid meteors streaking from the radiant point in Gemini at upper left, above the blue-white star Castor. 2 or 3 meteors are not Geminids as their paths do not project back to the radiant, but I have left them in regardless, as an illustration. This also illustrates how the meteor paths are shorter closer to the radiant and lengthen away from the radiant. This is a stack of 43 exposures, each 1-minute with the 24mm Canon lens at f/2.5 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII camera at ISO 6400, set fast to pick up the fainter meteors. These were 43 exposures with meteors (some with 2 or 3 per frame) out of 455 taken over 5 hours. Orion and its red nebulas are at right. The Beehive star cluster, M44, is at lower left. Sirius is the bright star at lower right. The camera was on a Star Adventurer Mini tracking unit, so all the frames more or less aligned when stacked with the meteors in the correct relative position. The background sky comes from just one of the exposures. All the other frames are masked to show just the meteor. Taken December 13/14, 2017 during the very active 2017 Geminid meteor shower, and shot from Quailway Cottage in southeast Arizona, near Portal.
A composite of the August 21, 2017 total eclipse of the Sun, showing the second and third contact diamond rings and Baily’s Beads at the start (left) and end (right) of totality, flanking a composite image of totality itself. The diamond ring and Baily’s Beads images are single images. The totality images is a blend of 12 exposures from 1/1600 sec to 1 second, stacked as a smart object and combined using the Mean stack mode to blend the images. Several High Pass filter layers were added to sharpen and increase the contrast in the coronal structures. Regulus is the star at lower left. Placement of the images only roughly matches the actual position and path of the Sun across the sky. However, the time sequence runs from left to right. All taken through the 106mm Astro-Physics Traveler refractor with a 0.85x reducer/flattener, yielding f/5 at 500mm focal length, wide enough to capture Regulus at left. All with the Canon 6D MkII camera at ISO 100. Shot from a site in the Teton Valley, Idaho, north of Driggs.
The August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse over the Grand Tetons as seen from the Teton Valley in Idaho, near Driggs. This is from a 700-frame time-lapse and is of third contact just as the second diamond ring is starting and the dark shadow of the Moon is receding to the east at left. The sky is darker to the left but the foregound is beginning to light up as the sky to the west off camera to the right brightens and lights the scene. Jupiter is just above the Tetons at bottom. With the Canon 6D and 14mm SP Rokinon lens at f/2.5 for 1/5 second at ISO 100.
