Frosty Winter Milky Way.

Unguided photo taken on Fuji Provia 400F film with an exposure of 2 hours with a Hasselblad 500C/M camera with a Carl Zeiss F-Distagon 30mm f/3.5 C T* lens at f/5.6 mounted on a classic 203.2mm f/6.3 Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with Losmandy rail and camera mount at 12:02 AM on November 14, 2004 in Ellenville, NY.

This was intended to be a two hour exposure of the winter Milky Way. Unfortunately the temperature got well below the predicted low (16 deg. F as opposed to 28 deg. F) and the power supply for my dew heaters could not supply the current necessary to keep the fish eye lens clear. As a result the lens was covered with frost when I went back out to the telescope to check on the progress of the exposure. I was pleasantly surprised that I could salvage this image from that exposure. Orion is prominent in the middle of the bottom edge and Capella's light formed a halo through the frost. One can also make out the bowl of the Big Dipper in the upper left corner. The Hyades and Pleiades clusters and the California Nebula are also easily visible just below and to the right of Capella.

Photo © 2004 by Taras R. Hnatyshyn

---

This site was designed and developed by Taras Hnatyshyn.

© 2005, © 2004, © 2003, © 2002, © 2001, © 2000, © 1999 Taras R. Hnatyshyn.

last updated on November-27-2005