Mike's Astro Photos

I was on vacation last week at Atlantis in the Bahamas. Here are some pictures I took of a lightning storm over the Caribbean.

Lightning, Atlantis Bahamas - July 25th, 2011

The constellation in the background is the big dipper.

Lightning, Atlantis Bahamas - July 25th, 2011

Lightning, Atlantis Bahamas - July 25th, 2011

Lightning, Atlantis Bahamas - July 25th, 2011

I caught a faint meteor during the session.

Meteor - Atlantis Bahamas - July 2011

This is the third year in a row we’ve been to Atlantis Bahamas for vacation and it was the best one yet.

I recently went on vacation to Atlantis in the Bahamas and took some astro photos while I was there.

The full moon in July was called the hay moon because farmers cut their hay in July around this time. I can confirm this happens in Lancaster as I’ve seen more cut hay fields in the last two weeks than I have all year. Here’s a picture of the Hay Moon rising over Atlantis.

Hay Moon Atlantis - July 25th, 2010

I really wanted to catch a meteor photo over the ocean, so I setup my camera and tripod on the balcony and waited. I caught one within 15 minutes, my first night trying, but not a single one after.

Atlantis Meteor

Here’s the full picture:

Meteor Over Ocean

Here’s a picture of the moon just over the main towers the last night I was there.

Moon Rising Over Atlantis

A time lapse video of the moon rising:

And the sun rise the morning I went home.

Atlantis Sun Rise

Good times…

I took this picture on my last night in the Bahamas. I understand why they call it Paradise Island.

Bahamian Moon July 23, 2009

Quick update on the meteorite search. I have located 2 new security tapes that could be useful in the hunt. The tapes are not direct captures of the event, but they caught a bright light on the ground. I’m picking up the DVD tomorrow. I’m hoping I can determine the speed of the meteor at this location based on the number of seconds the light appears for. I should be able to determine relative direction as well. If there are shadows in the videos that could tell me even more. The most interesting thing about these videos is the location is very close to my estimated trajectory line. There are lots of hiking trails and public areas here so I will bring the metal detector and do a little hunting after I’ve reviewed the video and surveyed the site.

Lightning Over Atlantis

We had two nights of thunderstorms while we were in the Bahamas. This was the first time I ever tried to photograph lightning and I got lucky. It was actually pretty easy to do. I setup the camera on the tripod and programmed it to do continuous shooting at ISO800. Each shot was an 8 second exposure so this gave me a continous stream of pictures. The lightning was happening every minute for a few hours. I took over 200-300 pictures and these two were the best. The night before I took this, I got a great picture of a huge lightning bolt, but the camera was way out of focus, I was so sad.. I hate it when that happens, but it was still a good learning experience. Atlantis Bahamas is an incredible place to go for vacation, its very expensive, but well worth it if you have cash you can afford to burn. Stay away from Nobu though, it was a let down and ridiculously priced.

Lightning Over Atlantis

I got this one over the water the same night. Pretty nifty. Shooting a lightning storm is definately a thrill. Its one of those split second things that happens and to be able to capture it permenatly is really cool. I will definately try and do this again the next time a good electric storm comes around. It helps to have a pretty background like the Caribian Sea or a billion dollar resort.

Jupiter Over Atlantis July 17, 2009 11:50 PM

I was in the Bahamas this week at a resort called Atlantis. It was a great vacation but its nice to be home. The first night I got there I took the camera and tripod out to the beach to try and get some shots (couldn’t take the scope on the plane.) I took a few pictures of Jupiter on July 17, 2009 around 11:50 AM. This would have been two days before Anthony Wesley’s amazing discovery. Obviously there’s not enough magnification or detail to see anything important, but its kind of cool to know there was a giant asteroid or comet that was getting ready to slam into Jupiter. I took about 5-10 shots. If there is anyone out there that wants to examine the high-res RAW images to try to look for something leave me a comment and I will email you the pictures. I highly doubt anything would be visible as I was just using a basic lens but you never know. I’m not experienced enough to know what to look for, but maybe someone out there is.