Michael Krypel does both astrophotography through telescopes and wide field night sky photography. His images span the globe from Manhattan to Costa Rica and Israel. Check out his Milky Way timelapse videos from Ramon Crater in Israel.
Orion Nebula from Manhattan. Nov. 4, 2015 between 12:00 am and 1:00 am. Takahashi FSQ85-ED refractor telescope, Celestron AVX mount, Canon 60Da camera.
More details on the Orion Nebula: I have wanted to photograph the Orion Nebula since I first saw pictures of it as a child,òÀÝ Michael said. òÀÜI am a beginner astrophotographer, and this was my first attempt at stacking images to photograph a deep sky object. I have seen the Orion Nebula many times through a telescope so I knew that it was bright and visible from New York City. It seemed like a good object with which to start. It was a clear night for here, so I set up just after sunset on my roof. While I was waiting for Orion to rise, I practiced taking pictures of the Andromeda galaxy, the Pleiades star cluster, the Double Cluster and the M15 globular cluster. Once Orion rose, I focused on it. The images of the Orion Nebula became clearer as it rose further from the horizon. As this was my first time, I wasn’t sure whether any of the images would come out well or be good enough to stack. I think I lucked out.ˆàˆà Out of the 80 frames [I shot during the night] only 34 seemed good enough to stack; in the others the stars were somewhat oblong instead of round. So the total exposure time for this image is 17 minutes. I ended up aligning these manually in Photoshop, stacking them using a median filter and then applying the Levels and Curves adjustment layers.
Conjunction of Mars, Venus, and the Moon.
Feb. 2, 2015. New York, NY.
Canon 60Da @ ISO 1250 for 1 second; Canon 34mm @ f/4.5.
The Moon.
Mar. 2, 2015.
New York, NY.
This is a composite of 20 photos using a Takahashi FSQ85-ED and Canon 60Da.
Jupiter and three of its moons. From left to right, the moons are: Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
Apr. 4, 2015.
New York, NY.
More details for Jupiter photo: This image was created by combining two separate images: one of Jupiter, and one of its moons, as each required a different exposure. The image of Jupiter was created by recording a little over three minutes of video; using software called “AutoStakkert!2” to sift through over 11,000 video frames, combine the clearest frames into a composite image, and sharpen that image; using software called òÀÜRegiStaxòÀÝ to adjust the color balance; and using Photoshop to apply a curves adjustment. RegiStax was also used to color balance the image of the moons, and then Photoshop was used to combine the image of Jupiter with its moons. Takahashi FSQ85-ED, Televue 5x Powermate, and Canon 60Da.
Milky Way galaxy.
July 10, 2015.
Tamarindo, Costa Rica.
Canon 60Da @ ISO 6400 for 15 seconds; Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2.
Star trails.
Oct. 10, 2015.
Ramon Crater, Israel.
More details for Star Trails: This image combines 270 15-second exposures taken one night from the same spot in a crater in the desert.ˆàCanon 60Da @ ISO 6400 for 15 seconds; Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2; Adobe Lightroom.
From top to bottom: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the moon. A possible meteor to the right of the moon.
Oct. 10, 2015.
Ramon Crater, Israel.
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Milky Way galaxy time-lapse.ˆà https://youtu.be/EU6p_sFrbzc
Oct. 9, 2015, Ramon Crater, Israel.
More details: Canon 60Da @ ISO 6400 for 15 seconds; Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2; Adobe Lightroom; Adobe After Effects; 498 frames at 24 frames/second; music: Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn.
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Milky Way galaxy time-lapse with Orion, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Moon.ˆà https://youtu.be/VFsjEcT7-Mc
Oct. 10, 2015, Ramon Crater, Israel.
More details: Orion, the Orion Nebula, Barnard’s Loop, the Milky Way, the Rosette Nebula, the Beehive Cluster, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Moon are all visible, along with several other deep space objects. Canon 60Da @ ISO 6400 for 15 seconds; Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2; Adobe Lightroom; Adobe After Effects; 258 frames at 24 frames/second; music: Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky.