Starry Nights Astrophotography Gallery

	Clamshell and Tower - Here is a typically cloudy morning view from the SkyCam which uses a fisheye lens. South is at the bottom of the image, North to the top, East to the left and West to the right. You can see the clamshell observatory, "Great Clam", on the left and my ham radio tower to the right. We live on Jonas Mountain (a mere 1800 ft) in the Poconos of Eastern Pennsylvania which gets more than its fair share of clouds, wind, snow, ice and rain. While these are not so great for astronomy, they bring their own kind of beauty to the area and I have come to enjoy photographing the changing conditions here. When it's clear, I have mag 5.5 dark skies at my disposal. And since I can't do anything about the weather, I might as well enjoy it!
	Big Moon and Clouds - A 600 frame integration taken on the night of full Moon with plenty of high clouds. Even so, Jupiter is burning a hole in them (lower right)! Our house is just below the clamshell and you can see the lights through a few windows with open curtains. The "ghostly" smears to the right side are reflections of the Moon from the fisheye lens to the acrylic dome that covers the SkyCam.
	Clear Winter Night - This is a 600 frame integration during a clear dark Moonless night. You can just make out the clamshell outline on the left and the house at the bottom left. The glow over the house comes from Blue Mountain ski resort which is about 15 miles away across the valley on the mountain opposite Jonas. The sky glow to the upper left corner above the clamshell comes from Stroudsburg, PA. Jupiter is to the lower right.
	Cloudy at 7 pm - An all too common occurrance here on Jonas Mountain. The Jet Stream is not our friend, it brings us plenty of bad weather and lousy astronomical seeing. This is the main reason I built the SkyCam, I wanted to be able to see what the weather was like before opening Great Clam for an imaging session. The SkyCam is connected to the observatory's computer so I can connect to it from anywhere there is Internet access.
	Cloudy Day - This is a 600 frame integration during the daytime. The clouds look soft because of their gradual motion. If you look closely, you can see a bit of snow clinging to the clamshell.
	Great Clam Guardian - This little guy spent several hours sunning himself on top of the SkyCam last summer. The ever present clouds in the distance and overhead reminds us of where we are, the Cloud Capital of the Universe. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant day and I was as relaxed as our little grasshopper.
	Lazy Day Clouds - This is a single frame of some lazy looking clouds. It makes me want to go lay down outside and take a nap in the warm Sun. The vertical line is due to blooming in the camera due to the bright Sun.
	Milky Way by Day - This is a single frame of a cloud formation that reminded me (a little) of the Great Rift in the Milky Way, our home galaxy. I did a little screen stretching in Photoshop to emphasize the dark regions. Could those dark knots be Barnard objects?
	Snow Capped SkyCam - Ah yes, our lovely Pocono winter snow covers the SkyCam on a cold January day.
	Foggy Day - Sometimes after a good snow, it warms up and we have lots of fog. I can provide all of these shots you'd care to see. This was taken a couple of days after the one above when the snow had started to melt. You can see the snow accumulation on the clamshell. The SkyCam has a few heaters to make this stuff go away but I need to increase their power level. I'll wait for Spring to arrive for that job thank you!
	The Iceman Cometh - Besides snow, we get occasional ice storms here in the Poconos. There was about 1" of ice on everything when this was taken. Our entire yard was slick as glass, the trees were drooping terribly due to the weight of the ice, some were snapped by it. It was beautiful to see but not so nice for the trees or observatories. I'm sure glad I didn't have to go out there to photograph this!
	Wind and Clouds - This is a 600 frame integration of winds driving clouds rapidly across the field of view, hence their streaky appearance. In summer, I can see ravens flying around the trees to the right side. I plan to snap a photo of them next year. Watch for it in the future! Thanks for viewing my images!