An eerie view of Woodland Street looking towards five points, without power after the EF-3 tornado that swept through Nashville on March 3 2020. It’s not often you’re able to see the stars so clearly from this area – a rare glimpse of beauty amidst all the heartbreaking destruction.
I decided to create a diary of sorts of my astrophotography toying, since it’s not exactly quality material yet, but might still be interesting reading. If you want to follow along, check it out
Here’s something fun: around 10 years ago, my family went to Cape San Blas, FL for a week. I was just getting into photography – I had a Canon 20D, a wide angle lens, and no idea what I was doing. But the views of the Milky Way from the beach were spectacular. I tried taking some long exposures, but between the noise of my relatively old crop sensor and the heat, the results were riddled with noise and hot pixels. I gave up and never posted any of the shots I got that night.
Skip forward ten years, and here I am playing with astrophotography and learning all about image stacking. It occurred to me I might be able to salvage the original data. I had the 10 original raw images and I gave it a whirl. I was stunned by the results!
On the left is an example of an uncorrected frame I got that night. On the right, the result of stacking & cleaning up. Modern software is pretty cool.
Somewhat a break from the normal fare here: I bought a telescope! I pointed it at the moon and some planets, which is probably about the extent of its capabilities.
Jupiter – and technically all four moons (though at this resolution admittedly they are hard to differentiate from pixel noise).
Blurry Saturn.
From the archives: lightning during a storm downtown – pre-Pinnacle tower and with the Encore under construction. And before I learned how to clean my camera sensor, clearly.
April, 2007.
Lower Broad, taken shortly before our photographer stepped in a pothole and sprained his ankle.
Paradise Park, Opening Night, March 2007
I didn’t realize the extent to which people considered Paradise Park a cultural cornerstone of downtown Nashville – which I suppose it is, at least in the 4AM corn dog territory.
So, rest in peace, Paradise Park – home to cheap pitchers, and, for a long time, this guy:
From this end it’s almost possible to see some of the old printer’s alley left. Though personally I still prefer the old painting over the reproduction.
