First cluster! 10/05
Also see: Planning ahead Desert camping 10/05/25
10th May 2025 - 11th May 2025
🌔 Moon: Waxing Gibbous 96% illumination
Although easily one of most prepared for sessions to date, the astrophotography did not go to plan! But that’s okay - I was blown away by seeing the Hercules cluster for the first time - and whilst the nearly full moon hid the milky-way and weakened the DSOs, it was amazing to see through a 400mm lens.
When we arrived, it was a little windier than usual, so I set up in a small basin between a few dunes to reduce the potential wind wobble. I had some issues with the tracker at first, but now I have the iOptron Commander Lite app was quickly able to deduce it was because the date had reset to the unix epoch(Jan, 1970). Once corrected it was working well, though I definitely didn’t have the alignment quite right.
Alignment in sand is proving a bit tricky tbh, I probably need to push the tripod in deeper than I’ve been doing. In theory if I get it perfectly balanced and broadly aligned before the stars come up, I can just make micro-tweaks once I can do proper polar alignment.
As it was due to set earlier, I started with the Beehive cluster (M44). Unfortunately, between the GoTo being a bit off due to my patchy alignment, a relatively high zoom, and not really being sure what I was looking for, the Beehive Cluster was mostly out of frame. The last few shots started to capture it in the top (right) of the frame - but all in all not a great success. That said, now I’ve had a chance to read up a bit on the Beehive cluster, really keen to photo and learn more about clusters. There are thousands of stars in the cluster, which is incredible; imagine what the night skies must look like standing on a planet in the cluster!
Next up, I turned my attention to the moon. I was almost full, and one of the things that I was super keen to try the first time I was out in the desert with my camera, was to turn my 400mm lens onto it (I only had the kit lens with me on that trip). I took quite a few pics of the moon that I was happy with - the issue really is how do you decide which is best / which to process? Unlike with DSO, it felt like you could take one good shot, and you’re done. I’m sure there is a whole world of detail to how get the perfect shot though, so something else to look into!
Moving on from the moon, I tracked around to the Hercules cluster. This is apparently visible to the naked eye, though I suspect only if you have perfect vision and are in a dark-sky site…
There is no way to describe the Hercules cluster short of amazing. At first it looks like a blurry patch on the camera, like you’ve had too much wobble on a distant star. But as you zoom in and get in focus, the individual stars around the edge start to stand out and you realise you’re looking at a huge cluster of over 100,000 stars.
Hercules is 25,000 light years away from Earth, and said to be one of the oldest objects in the Milky way at some 11 billion years old. It’s also one of the brightest clusters, and quite popular with astronomers and astrophotographers, no doubt because of it’s awe inspiring nature!.
Lastly, as there was a full moon, I tried setting up a timelapse with the skyhunter, so it would track the earth moving whilst the moon stayed still (relative to the earth). Unfortunately, using the 16mm lens this did not come out at all well. All the frames were way too dark, and the moon a pixelated light in the centre. At some point the tracker battery died, and the moon dropped out of the centre, and then as the day started to break the images showed the lens covered in dew… So all in all, much to learn there!
Looking back at it… a mixed bag of shots, but some great experiences. Also keen to get hold of my binoculars again - and get a raspberry pi timelapse camera set up so I can try more time lapses of the stars, sunrise, and the camp generally… And now with the stack of out of frame beehive cluster shots and useless timelapse shots, I finally feel comfortable breaking my duck and getting rid of some photos!