Crescent Moons

Here's a couple of photos showing a crescent Moon during two consecutive mornings. In the first photo the Moon is 4% lit and since the sky is quite dark it's possible to see the unlit part of the Moon due to so called Earthshine. Earthshine occurs when sunlight reflects off the Earth's surface and illuminates the unlit portion of the Moon’s surface.

Nikon D850 and Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED VR

This morning, the moon was 28.6 days old of its 29.5-day lunar phase and only 1% illuminated. Such thin crescent moon is hard to see with the naked eye, but with a pair of binoculars or a camera with a little higher magnification, it's much easier to see.

Nikon D850 and Nikon AF-S 300mm f/2.8 D IF-ED
 with a TC-20E III teleconverter.

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The Full Moon and Frösö Church Photo

Last week during the full Moon of November I had planned to take a photo of the full Moon rising behind the 800 year old Frösö church. I got this idea in May this year when I was wandering about on Andersön, a nature reserve located on an island 5 km Southwest of Frösön. Back in May I did notice that Frösö church was clearly visible and that it would make a nice foreground against a full Moon.

Frösö Church as seen from Andersön in May 2018.

When I returned home I started planning my shot and look through different software to see when the Moon should rise behind the church. The first date that popped up was November 22nd 2018.

So after waiting for 6 months, the time had finally come, now it was all down to the weather, and this time I was lucky to see clear skies with pretty good atmospheric conditions. This is the final photo.

Final photo of the full Moon behind Frösö church.

The still photo was taken using my Nikon D850 on my Nikon AF-S 600mm f/4 D IF-ED II lens. The real time footage of the Moon rising was shot using my Nikon D500 and Nikon AF-S 300mm f/2.8 D IF-ED with a Nikon AF-S TC-20E III teleconverter.

Here's a film from the 22nd of  November showing how I took the photo.



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Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA

Today I'm featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) at NASA with my photo of a lunar flyby.

The photo of a Gibbous Moon flyby was taken on the 29th of October in 2018 and was taken in the mountain area of Jämtland, Sweden

Just as I had set the camera for the correct exposure of the Moon and the mountain, this plane passed by. I quickly snapped a couple of shots and this is one of them. The photo was taken using my Nikon D850 with the Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED VR lens.

This is APOD number 17 for me and it's always such an honor to be featured by NASA.

You can buy this photo as a print here - https://shop.astrofotografen.se/p661802438/ebc175045

Lunar flyby over the mountains in Jämtland, Sweden

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Solar activity

Here's a couple of  photos of today's beautiful Sun. Lots of nice activities going on despite the fact that the Sun is heading for a activity minimum in the solar cycle. Including a closeup shot of today's big beautiful prominence.  Taken using a Lunt LS80THa telescope with a PointGrey Grasshopper 3 camera.

Iridescent Clouds

Yesterday I saw some really colorful Iridescent clouds, one of my favorite cloud phenomena. These clouds are visible when parts of clouds are thin and have similar size droplets, diffraction can make them shine with colours like a corona. I like how the Sun was covered enough to be visible through and not totally overexposed.

Nikon D850 with Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E
Exposure: 1/8000 sec. ISO 64 @ 112mm f/8

The Milky Way and the Northern Lights

During this time of the year, the Milky Way stretches from North East to North West in the sky, perfect position to combine our galaxy with a faint Aurora. If the Aurora is to bright and active, it will block the light from the Milky Way. This panoramic photo I took last week is a perfect example of what a faint Aurora and the Milky Way looks like together.

Nikon D850 with Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8
Exposure: 20 sec. ISO 1600 @ f/2.8

Heart and Soul nebulae

The astronomical nights is soon coming to an end. Last night we only had 2 hours of astronomical darkness so despite the Northern Lights (Photo of that is coming later) my main focus was to do some deep sky photography. My plan was to take photos of the Heart and Soul nebula since I haven't done them for quite some time and not with the Nikon D810A. All in all I'm quite happy with the result.

Photo was taken with a Nikon D810A, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E @ 135mm f/4. Exposure 45 x 60 seconds for a total exposure of 45 minutes at ISO 1600. Stacking and calibration (Darks, flats and bias frames) was done in PixInsight, final processing in Photoshop.

Colors of the Moon

In this photo taken on the 24th of March 2018, I've exaggerated the colors on the lunar surface. The different colors correspond to real differences in the chemical makeup of the lunar surface - blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron.

This is a single exposure and no tracking was used. This night we had exceptional good air conditions with very good seeing.

Nikon D850, Nikkor AF-S 600mm f/4 + TC-17E II
1/80 sec. ISO 64 @ 1000mm f/8

Rare colorful clouds

Yesterday, one hour before sunset, I did see some colorful clouds in the opposite direction of the Sun (At the Anti solar point). I never seen colored clouds there before so I had a hard time figuring out if they were polar stratospheric clouds or iridescent clouds. The colored clouds slowly faded away as the sun set so I thought it might be iridescent clouds, but I never seen them opposite of the Sun before.

When I returned home I contacted Les Cowley at OPOD (http://www.atoptics.co.uk) to get his opinion of these clouds and he guessed that it's tropospheric iridescent clouds. He's never seen them opposite the sun before so this is probably very rare.

Always exciting to see a new phenomena, perfect ending for 2017.

Happy new year everyone!

Standing on the edge to the universe

Here's a mosaic image I've made from six shots taken on the 26th of September this year. With this projection of the sky I like the depth in the image and how the Milky Way with its reflections forms a complete circle in the image. The autumn is high season for shooting the Milky Way here in the northern hemisphere, so hopefully we'll get som more clear dark night ahead for more shots of the Milky Way.

Nikon D850 with Nikon AF-S 14-24mm
NiSi Natural Night Filter

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The emotions and drama of a total solar eclipse

This video shows the minutes around the total solar eclipse on the 21th of August 2017. It was shot in Brasstown Valley Resort in Georgia, USA.

It was quite a drama with the clouds moving in but we got to see most of the totality and just a few minutes after the totality ended, the clouds moved in and covered the Sun.

Big thanks to Bonnier Expeditions for a superb expedition and it was great working with you guys!



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Getting ready for the total solar eclipse

Tomorrow I'm leaving for USA and the total solar eclipse on Monday. This will be my second total solar eclipse and the last few days I've been planing my trip and what gear to bring with me. The plan now is to have four cameras running throughout the eclipse, most of them will do the work by themselves. This is what my plan looks like at the moment:

Camera 1: Nikon D800E taking a wide field time lapse of the entire eclipse including both partial phases.

Camera 2: Nikon D500 filming in 4K with a fisheye lens from minutes before the eclipse to minutes after.

Camera 3: Nikon D810A, this camera is the one I will control manually taking closeups of the totality.

Camera 4: GoPro camera used as a behind the scenes camera filming the opposite direction of the eclipse showing us watching the eclipse.

With this plan I should be able to take a moment to just watch the totality. This is by far the most beautiful sky phenomena there is so you should not forget to just enjoy the view, it truly is a memory for life.

Total solar eclipse from Faroe Islands in 2015

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Autumn dreams

My favorite season of the year is autumn with all the beautiful colors. We're just a couple a month's away here in the northern hemisphere but for those of you who can't wait, here's a photo I took a couple of days ago where I transformed summer into autumn.

Nikon D800E with a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
NiSi polarizer + NiSi ND64 (6 Stop)

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Happy Asteroid Day

Today is the international asteroid day. To celebrate that I'm posting a photo I took on the 15th of February 2013. It shows asteroid 2012DA14 as it passed just 27.700 km from Earth's surface. 2012DA14 is a small near-Earth object – approximately 45 meters in diameter and has an estimated mass of about 130,000 metric tons. This distance is well outside Earth's atmosphere, but it is inside the belt of satellites in geostationary orbit. The flyby of asteroid 2012DA14 is the closest ever predicted Earth approach for an object this large.

In this 5 minute exposure you can see the asteroid as the bright streak going diagonal to all the star trails.

Nikon D3S with a Nikon 300m f/2.8 lens
5 minute exposure @ f/4 and ISO 1600

Path of 2012DA14. Time in UTC.

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Reflected rainbow at sunset

Rainbows are always opposite the Sun and their centres are below the horizon at the the so called antisolar point. Early morning and late afternoon it the best time to see a rainbow because the sun must not be too high. The lower the sun the higher is the rainbow.

In this photo I took in Vansbro, Sweden, taken just before sunset, the rainbow is as high as it gets and with the reflection in the water, acting as the lower half of a circle, it's easy to see that the rainbow was at its highest position. Had the Sun been any higher in the sky, this circle had been more ellipse shaped.

Rainbows are rarer than might be thought, halos are much more common.

Panorama made with a Nikon D800E with a Nikon AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8 lens

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Summer solstice

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. Also today marks the beginning of the astronomical summer and the Sun is at its highest position in the sky throughout the year.

In this photo I show the difference between the solar height at noon during winter and summer solstice. In winter it barley gets over the treetops at 3.5° above the horizon and 6 months later, the Sun reaches an height of 50° above the horizon.

Solar height difference between winter and summer solstice

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Nikon Fisheye 8-15mm F3.5-4.5E ED Review

A couple of weeks ago I received my review sample of the new Nikon Fisheye 8-15mm F3.5-4.5E ED. Since I'm a huge fan and user of fisheye lenses, this type lens has been high on my wish list ever since Canon released their Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L lens back in 2010. A friend of mine has been using the Canon lens for years and he is very happy with it.

When taking pictures of the night sky, my two most used lenses is the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 and the Sigma 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens. Since the sky is so big you need a wide lens to cover as much as possible.

In this review, I will compare my Nikon review sample with my Sigma 8mm F3.5 EX DG Circular Fisheye lens and my Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. I will also test the Nikon 8-15mm on both FX and DX cameras.

Here are the primary features of the new Nikon lens listed by Nikon:

• Enables shooting at an angle of view of 180° vertical and horizontal (circular fisheye) when zoomed all the way out, and 180° diagonal (full-frame fisheye) when zoomed close to all the way in with shooting in FX format
• A full-frame fisheye effect with a diagonal angle of view of up to 180° can be achieved in the range that begins at the DX mark* on the lens and ends at the maximum telephoto position with shooting in DX format
• Realizes very sharp and clear rendering from maximum aperture throughout the zoom range
• A minimum focus distance of 0.16 m (0.5 ft.) and a maximum reproduction ratio of 0.34x enable sharp and clear rendering, even with shooting at close distances
• Adoption of three ED glass elements provides effective compensation for lateral chromatic aberration, minimizing color bleed at the edges of the frame
• Nano Crystal Coat adopted to effectively reduce ghost and flare for sharp, clear images
• Adopted a dust- and drip-resistant structure with all moving parts of the lens barrel
• Highly durable fluorine coat that effectively repels dust, water, grease, and dirt applied to the outer surfaces of the two lens elements at either end (front and rear) of the lens

*The mark on the focal length scale that enables diagonal fisheye shooting in DX format is approximate.

Before I begin my review it’s important to note that the lens I’m reviewing is a sample and not a final product, so things can change.

Astronomy Picture Of the Day at NASA

Today I'm featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) at NASA with my 360° panorama showing both sunset and Earth shadow in a remote mountain area of Jämtland, Sweden.

This panorama is made from 120 still photos taken at a height of 200 meters above the ground. The panorama is a 3 x 8 mosaic where each photo consists of 5 exposure bracketed shots to cover the big dynamic range of both the sunset and Earth shadow.

To the right you can see that the Sun has just set and a small sun pillar is visible just above the horizon giving away the Sun's position. To the left above the horizon is the dark blue Earth shadow with its belt of Venus above. In the middle of the sky the the First Quarter Moon is visible above the mountains, separating these two beautiful sky phenomenon.

The big peak to the right is Storsnasen, some 1400 meters above sea level.

Earth shadow and sunset panorama.

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The force of nature

Spring is here and in the lower mountain area that means lots of water due to melting snow. This is Handölsforsen in Jämtlad, Sweden, and right now it so awesome to see and hear the force of all this water rushing down.

Panorama taken with Nikon D800E and Nikon AF-S 14-24 mm

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Full moon photography workshop

Part of my work is lecturing and holding workshops for different groups of people. One such reoccurring workshop is for high schools media students. Usually I do one inspiring lecture telling them about different phenomena and how to take photos of them. The next part is being out in the field with the students so they can ask me questions and practice taking photos of the sky and objects in the sky. Then as a follow up, I meet the students once more where they can show me their photos so I can give feedback on their work.

Last night it was time for some field work for a group of high schools students. My plan was to teach them how to take photos of the full moon and how to use the moon for composing interesting photos. As always, it's a blast hanging around with these young students since they are so full of inspiration and creativity and last night was no exception.

Here are a couple of photos I took during our night out.

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