Another Look to the Sky

Although we haven’t moved to Japan, we have decided to use this delay in a positive way. It’s hard though. I’m developing skills that I can share with my future students and guests. Just think of the possibilities to practice English while learning about the cosmos. I know…it sounds like an excuse to play with the telescope. That’s where the positive part comes in.

Here’s my second attempt at astrophotography. These photos were taken from my front yard in Seattle. I included before and after images to give you an idea of what can be seen from a telescope compared to the same image after digital processing.  

The reddish sky is mostly caused by light pollution. In the second photo, the sky background has been darkened and the galaxy has been “pulled” into the picture. I tried to explain the imaging process to Erika and she quickly tuned me out and returned to whatever she was doing. I’m not going to give up! I found that if I make my hobbies seem like fun, she eventually comes around. Take stained glass for an example. She wasn’t interested in it at the beginning, but now she does all the glasswork. Who knows…maybe one day she’ll set the telescope up and all I have to do is take pretty pictures. George