Saturday, October 30, 2010

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

My wife and I went to Pigeon Forge, TN in mid-September 2010.  We stayed in a cabin in the hills about 5 miles out of town.  The air was clear, the daily walks were invigorating and just as important to an amateur astronomer, the skies were moderately dark.

I battled a waxing half-Moon, but in clear, unpolluted skies, the sky glow was bearable. 

Taking astro photos in Pigeon Forge gave me an opportunity to image several deep space Milky Way objects that I cannot see at home because of light pollution. Without further ado, here are some of the pictures that I took.




Lagoon Nebula (Messier Object - M8)






Eagle Nebula (Messier Object - M16)
 



Swan Nebula (Messier Object - M17)




Trifid Nebula (Messier Object - M20)
 



Andromeda Galaxy (Messier Object - M31)

 



The Pleiades (The Seven Sisters Star Cluster) (Messier Object - M45)
 



North America Nebula (NGC-7000)



 
Harvest Moon (September 21st, 2010 )
 

That's all for now.  I hope to capture images of other deep space objects on a clear weekend night very soon.  Check back often for updates.


Starpilot.


2 comments:

United Studies said...

My favorite is the Andromeda Galaxy...that is awesome!

Mike Farid said...

wow, nice picture,,,i'm stunned dude,,,very sharp res....please refer to my article and blog about low budget astrophotography:
http://astromic.blogspot.com/2010/05/low-budget-astrophotography.html