Thanks Andrea! Shadow is wagging his tail!!!

Thanks!

Hello Colleen! Do you have cold winters where you are? St. George is close to Las Vegas and shares the same weather patterns.

@@adventuresofshadowdog We do have cold and snowy winters. Last year was a record breaker for snow. Hoping for a milder winter this year. We are about 45 miles from Lake Tahoe near Topaz Lake!

Is there topaz near topaz lake?

@@adventuresofshadowdog I wish but I don’t think so. There is loads of crystal quartz on our property and I found a nice chunk of colorful petrified wood yesterday right next to our barbque ❤️

Thank You @AstroAF! Really appreciate you for watching and leaving such a nice comment. This video was a lot of fun to make. I’m responding to you from another dark site where I’m going after the Tulip Nebula and hopefully the bow of nebulosity formed around Cygnus X-1. Not sure I’ll succeed in getting the bow shock structure with a one shot cmos camera. But I’ll find out soon! Thanks again!!!

Thank You! I am very fortunate to have access to such dark skies. I only wish my astrophotography skills were better. But I am improving as I learn more and try different things. Thanks for watching and commenting!

@@adventuresofshadowdog Your skills are great! It's really fantastic what you got out of only 40 and 100 minutes exposure time. And the most important thing is that you had a good time under the stars!

Hi there! How are things in the motherland? I too really love the Helix Nebula. Thank you for watching and commenting.

Yes it does! Thanks for watching and commenting.

So good to hear from you! You are always welcome to come here and I will take you to some of these beautiful places.

Thanks for the kind comment! On that particular night, I had several glitches and didn't get going on the Blue Horsehead Nebula until about midnight. It was so low on the horizon that I was only able to get about 45 minutes on it before it was too low to continue. The seeing conditions were very good though, combined with high altitude, which resulted in a better image than I expected in that short period of time. Then I switched over to the other scope and got going on the Helix Nebula. Once on it I went to sleep until about 4:30am. When I woke up clouds had rolled in and I only captured about 100 minutes of useable data. Nonetheless, this image in particular turned out pretty darn good by my amateur standards. Again, Bortle 1 skies, good seeing conditions (until the clouds rolled in) and high altitude contributed and helped significantly to offset the minimal exposure time. The altitude was about 5,000 feet, if I remember correctly. I really liked that spot and plan to go back soon. Regarding the energy, believe me, I am wiped out when I get home. Fortunately these dark sites are often within 90 minutes drive away. When I get home I CRASH! But I do love it! I love nature, camping, being out under the stars alone deep into the night. It's truly spectacular. But, as you know, there is a price to pay! Lol! As always, thanks for watching and commenting! Really appreciate it!

Yes that is correct! And I just posted a video yesterday photographing from Coral Dunes! I think you will enjoy seeing it. And lots of people get stuck out there in the sand! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ldOUfpxz2t3IkYU.htmlsi=lHTIwfTO-jdIXd2o

@@adventuresofshadowdog I saw video. Excellent one!

Thank You! When were you in Southern Utah? Will you be coming back?

@@adventuresofshadowdog I have been several time from 2000 to 2015. I know South Utah inside out. I love to hike there again, but don’t know when. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take current astro gears with me. They are heavy duty and entire rig is 150-200 Lb.

If you ever come this way again, please let me know and we can meet up. Perhaps we could do a night of astrophotography with my gear and you could teach me a thing or two!

Thank you for the kind comment. On this particular trip I was only camping for one night. I took my gear down and packed it into the truck in the morning. However, sometimes I camp for 2 or 3 days. On these longer trips I may leave my gear out in the sun, depending upon the location. If I do, I remove the sensitive electronics such as camera and computer and pack them away. Then I cover the scopes and mounts with the silver colored reflecting covers. I do the same when I’m imaging from my light polluted back yard. I often leave the gear out at home, but remove the electronics. I worry about the cameras getting too hot, even though they are covered. At home I have small fans that I place under the gear and they circulate air up through the covers and keep the temperature at ambient. The temperature can get really hot under those covers here in these deserts. Kind of a long answer, but I hope this helps. I too would love to have my own observatory!!!!

@@adventuresofshadowdog thanks for the long answer, much appreciated! So I guess the mount is left out? Good idea the fan, particulaly a solar powered fan! I might get one! Clear skies!

I leave the mount and scope out, and take in the cameras, power source, computer. I cover the scope and mount. Bear in mind that the same equipment is used to do solar astrophotography in the heat of the day. But, under the covers, it can get pretty hot. Thus the small fan under the mount to circulate air under the cover. I’ve never had any problems and I’m in area that gets very hot during the summer days.