Purple Sunbird of Nashik

Hi Friends here are shots of Friendly Sunbird. Taken from friends place in Nashik.

All except last one are Full-Frame (No Crop).
Taken with Canon 7D + Canon 70-200 F/4 + Canon 1.4x











Comments and Critiques are welcome.

Cheers
Sameer

Birding at Chena Bridge

Sunday Morning me and Rajesh decided to go to Chena Village area for birding. After looking at wikimapia we thought this area can be good for birding.

We meet at 6:30 AM at Chena Bridge and then moved into chena village crossed the village and entered some privately owned land where there is lot of mango trees, we can listen to birds from everywhere but sighting was difficult.

The road was clinging to small river which joins creek next to China Bridge. We saw one White Breasted Kingfisher flying away not to return. after moving little more leaving caretakers hut we saw few birds chasing each other on one tree. Slowly we stand hidden near that tree and within some time we can see birds are comfortable and moving around that tree and returning regularly within few mins.

The first one to be seen nicely is "Blue-winged-Leafbird" male on left with black throat and female on right.

(Click on Photos for bigger views)











There were Sunbirds flying around just able to see female though..

Purple-rumped Sunbird (Female)


Then tree adjoining this tree is visited by "Coppersmith Barbet"


We also saw on bird which appeared to me (after checking reference from 'The Pocket Guide to the Birds of the INDIAN Subcontinent') "Chestnut-Shouldered Petronia" but i am not 100% sure of this. It was juvenile sitting calmly on one branch as its mother feeding it regularly by catching something


While looking for more birds we saw Two Green Bee-eaters restless and chasing something on ground, looking carefully we saw Bee-Eaters were chasing snake - One Big Snake, The snake ran into hiding before we can reach near enough to catch on camera.

We moved ahead and saw one "White Browed Wagtail" (I thinks so), while returning we saw again the Kingfisher which fly away while we were entering returned to his original place on river. Also saw one "Spotter Dove" and "Erasian Golden Oriole" also there were lot of "White Cheeked Bulbuls" around.

Around 9:00 AM we decided to move to Airoli Mud-Flats. While leaving saw some "Cattle Egrets"


Once we reached to Airoli we try to reach to creek by walking next to bridge but it was inaccessible. We reached on the bridge and saw hundreds of Flamingos in low tide creek. They were scattered almost to the point where we can see.




There were some waders which I could not identify as they were too far from bridge and due to their small sizes.


However we got some nice shots for "Greater Flamingos"




Returning back we stopped at Sector 15 in Airoli and again went to small creek area and saw some "Egrets", "Cormorants" and "Marsh Sandpiper" (I think so).



Also saw one "Little Heron" who was approaching to one rock near us and as soon as it landed, it spotted us and then took off to settle on opposite bank.




We also saw pair of "Bank Myna" (I guess so again) just fleeting glance as pair took off from our back.

One "Common Myna"


Also saw on "White Cheeked Bulbul" I thought it juvenile.


We returned by 11:00 AM for relaxed lunch at the comfort of home.

Overall its Good Sunday morning.

Happy Biridng
Sameer

Leonid 2009 from Lonavala - Nov 17-18

The Most awaited Meteor SHOWer of the year "Leonids" was here !!!

We decided to avoid Suburban light pollution and go somewhere dark sky location. Our Old-Time friends Girish & Swapnil invited us to join them at Lonavala at their place; which we readily accepted.

Me along with my wife & our friend Ganesh Kale left from Thane by 17th evening. And were joined by Nilesh Desai & his wife at lonavala ST stand. From there we moved to our observing place. we reached there by 11:00 PM.

The Sky condition were not good at that time its was clouded with lot of moving clouds. The Sky as we can see from open patches was very good though.

We spend some time inside waiting for clouds to clear. around 1 AM its started to clear out. We started setting up our photography setups. By the time we were ready the Sky was completely clear & we were already seeing some meteors here and there.

I had Canon XTi with 18-55 lens setup at 18mm to cover max possible field. I decided not to guide but keep camera stationary on Tripod. Took many photos of 2min & 3min exposure times.

As usual Meteors always fall in the portion of the Sky where my Camera is not pointing !!!

Some 4-5 Meteors fall just outside of my Camera Frame Area !!!

And one actaully passed through exactly center of my Camera Framed Sky !!!

But ahhh !!!!

That was the time my Camera taking break of 7 secs between two consecutive shots !!!!

And finally I caught One, Not a Big one, but I have something to show at least !!!

But my happiness did not last even for a minute !!! within next 1 min another Dazzling Fireball passed from my Frame !!!

it was almost -6 or -7 magnitude. Blazing with green / orange color, trailed almost 15-20 degrees across sky & its Smoke-Trail lasted for 15-20 secs !!!

But...

but it started from the point in my Frame portion of Sky and moved OUT !!!! :(

I captured just initial 1/4th trail and the blazzing show was outside of my Frame Area !!!

Here is the Pics... [Click on Image to open Large Size in order to meteors clearly.]



here is the link to tagged photo where I marked meteors on Photo...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thakursam/4116156019/

Hope next time I get better images (With Meteors :P )

Have a Clear Sky Always
Sameer

Moon and Pleiades on 27 April 2009

This came to me as surprise !!!

On 27th Evening I was taking a walk in park with my wife, when we spotted thin Lunar Crescent. It was quite thin than normally we saw after new moon. So we rushed back home to pick up camera.

I shot few photos and didn't do anything even not dowloaded to pc !!!

After few days I saw Moon and Pleiades occultation photo in My Friend Mandar Potdar's Orkut Album !!!

I downloaded photos and found M45 (Pleiades) Faintly visible in photos. It was quite bright sky by that time as Day is quite big here (in US) now.

Here are the pics ... Click photo to see big version.
Canon XTi , ISO 100, Canon 70-200mm L @ 200mm - F/4 : Expo - 2 sec


Canon XTi , ISO 100, Canon 70-200mm L @ 126mm - F/4: Expo - 2 sec

Comet Lunin and Behive Cluster

Hi All,

Here is Today's conjunction of Lunin and M44.

Clouds spoiled the game and i got just 2 frames of 60sec each, But decided to use those.

Taken using 135mm JCPenny lens @ f/4 @ ISO 800
Canon 400D unmodified, Astronomic CLS, manually guided on EQ-2.

Cropped to central 60%.

Click on image to open



Thanks for looking...

Comet Lunin meets Saturn

On 23rd Feb 2009, just one day before its closest approach to Earth, Comet Lunin visually passed by near Saturn. Its fun to observe both most attractive celestial objects so close by.

I tried to capture this occasion, though sky was quite cloudy here y'day but I managed to shoot through 20 min open window. Though I did not get enough data to produce attractive image, but enough to show Comet and Saturn together...

Thin layer of cloud gave soft look to starts and Saturn :)


- Canon 75-300mm UMS III zoom @ 75mm F/5.
- Canon XTi - unModified
- Astronomic CLS - EOS Clip Filter
- Tracked on Orion EQ-2 mount
- 5x60sec and 2x30sec @ ISO 800 - captured using DSLR Shutter

Comments and suggestions welcome !!!

Have a Clear Sky
Sameer

Comet Lunin on Feb 21, 2009

Here is the photo of Comet Lunin !!!



:: Image Details ::
- 11 x 30 sec = 5.5 min total
- Canon XTi with Canon 70-300mm UMS III lens @ 140mm - f/5.6
- Astronomic CLS - EOS Clip Filter
- Tracked on EQ-2 mount

Have a Nice Day
Sameer

Orion Wide Field

This is my test with tripod mounted Shot

Following Photo combined from 44 X 10sec exposures with Canon Xti, 18-55mm zoom @18mm F3.5.

Vignetting corrected in PS, Combined in registar, Light Pollution corrected in PS and Black Point & Curves adjusted in PS.

Though I did not get any nebulosity in it but overall nice stars in light polluted sky of Woodbridge, NJ, US...

Moon Mosaic on 18 Oct 2008

4 Pan mosaic of Moon taken with Meade 12" F/10 and Canon 400D DSRL
V1.0


V1.1

Moon Venus Conjunction of November 1, 2008

Hi All,

here are the pics of Moon Venus Conjunction.

All Images taken with Canon 400D DSLR, Canon 75-300 Zoom.

Processed in Photoshop :
- Dark Frame Subtracted.
- Black point adjusted.
- Resized to 50%

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGE IMAGE
-------------------------------------------------------
2.5sec @ ISO 400 @ F/5 @ 75mm


-------------------------------------------------------
2sec @ ISO 800 @ F/5 @ 75mm


-------------------------------------------------------
3.2sec @ ISO 800 @ F/4.5 @ 130mm


-------------------------------------------------------
1sec @ ISO 1600 @ F/5 @ 190mm




Cheers
Sameer

Surviors of Bad Seeing...

Hi All,

Saturday 24th May once again Nilesh and me tried some photography..

The seeing was very bad from Nilesh's place but we dont have any option !!!

We setup C9.25" + 2x Barlow + Meade DSI Color and took some Jupiter and Moon shots..

though not as good as it can be, We have over processed to bring out details..

Color Image : Stack or 101
B&H Images : Stack of 85

Click on image view to large size

I will upload more images of Moon soon.

Cheers
Sameer

Mars Occultation on May 10

Hi All,

We have planned observing and photography of Mars Occultation of May 10 from Pune. I reached to Nilesh's place on Friday Night and we did some photography at night.

Next evening we setup Nilesh's 12" Meade on his building terrace for capturing Occultation.

But Bad seeing and extreamly windy conditions spoiled the show. The Mars was dancing in Camera Field even in exposures as short as .0020 sec. !!!!

The output of cource is not what one should expect... its very bad indeed....

We also captured some other objects...

But I did not get enough time to process images after i come back from Pune... I will post images of Mars and Moon soon....

The seeing was too bad it was like looking at object at the bottom of swiming pool... Both images are stack of around 200 images @ 0.0024 sec and Over processed in Registack....

Saturn

with Meade 12" SCT + 2x Meade Barlow + Meade DSI Color Camera + Sameer

Jupiter

with Celestron 9.25" SCT + 2x Meade Barlow + Meade DSI Color Camera... + Sameer

M4

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + SBIG ST7 + Nilesh

M5

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + SBIG ST7 + Nilesh

M51 - Wirlpool Galaxy

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + HX9 + Nilesh

M64 - Black Eye Galaxy

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + HX9 + Nilesh

M104 - Sombrero Hat Galaxy

Celestron 9.25 + Lumicon .6x Reducer + HX9 + Nilesh

M5

with AstroTech 66mm Refractor + Meade DSI Color Camera + Sameer

M104

with AstroTech 66mm Refractor + Meade DSI Color Camera + Sameer