Steve Paxton's photos

This is a pictorial look at how wine is made in the time honored simple process, apart from the sit in the Barrel for two months for it to change from gape juice to Wine. Friday last week the 900 Kg of grapes where crushed and left to ferment. 6 days later there is nothing left but skins and seeds. days later the the tap was opened to the juice and begin pressing. some good old fashion foot work was needed and clean up to put in the pressing fence. the start of the pressing of all the skins and seeds inside the wooden cage.

This is first look at a coloured nebula this side of Town As these two are so close this is a two shot Panorama in this case sitting vertically. This shot went straight together in PTGui even though it was only stars as the join. This is a part of the Carina Nebula the Hand cluster is to the left and carina to Right. This is two nights per panel or 105 shots each as the nights get longer. QHY183C -10c 105 shot 10 min over two nights each. Prima Luce Essato Focus, Focus on the hour , Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Rotated 76 degrees Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps.

I am normally in the pit but because of the accident on my heel I can only stand outside and help with the boxes of grapes. My bother in law (in the pit) and I are making Shiraz this year 900 kg of grapes. We used the moving truck I was using to bring all the grapes from midland as I managed to finish early.

A view from the back of the truck as we waited for the grapes to be bought out to us to put in the truck. All grapes have been picked there is nothing on those vines at all.

This is a hand with the fingers pointing down (Follow the bigger stars) and a good imagination or the drawing. May have come just a little tooo close. I thought I would see just where I could set up But in this case its in a sand pit So I have to repave the whole area So it is more use able. I have to be able to see over a very large tree to polar align then my sky is fairly good. the key to good tracking is a very solid base what I have now is very Ify but I have a lot of bricks that at part of this house so they will be used to make a solid floor. The light pollution is so much more on the Southern Older side of town(older style of street lights) so I still have to see what the net result is once I try a nebula. As a first night look see this came out ok and gave me a very good idea that it is still workable this side of town. QHY183C -10c 92 shot 7 1/2 min over two nights. Prima Luce Essato Focus, Focus on the hour , Optolong LeNhance filter, Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps.

Who can find the moving truck now its clean the house... after 600 Km of driving between houses, we are all moved. still living out of boxes.

Sorry I will be very missing I am moving house for the next week and a bit. I am only on phone tether all internet has been cut off this house and the new one has yet to be put on. I hope I remember next week to open.

The very first photo I tool Fe6 2019 when I first went into the bush with the star adventurer 30 shots 30 sec each D600 70-200 F4 @ 150mm. A shot I wanted to Do for Ko as he will never see this other than move South of the Equator. The Very LAST Photo from Merriwa as we move back on the South side of town. So you will not see a post for a while but the back yard is a good one for setting up the mount. I see a huge improvement to the first this one Shot with a Nikon lens same as the first but so much better with Guiding, polar Alignment and longer time not to mention the editing that has been learnt over the last three years. Gear is all packed away so I can get into the shed to pack it all up. ZWOASI071 -7 100 shots 450 sec rotated 7 Degrees Nikon 105mm F2.8 Lens Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps Lr.

This was the other project that I was going to work on with the 105mm lens. The Vela Super nova and the Gums. Also in an area not far from the Carina Area, This show you more the relation ship of the parts to each other. This has been worth while using just a Nikon lens to capture there and i quite good detail. The Racoon is showing quite well. This was shot over two nights Nikon 105mm F2.8 Macro lens in total 100 odd shots. Its good to see most of the target I have taken over the last few years with the ED80 in reality to each other. I make no apology for the number of stars in the shot. ZWOASI071 -7 100 shots 450 sec rotated 7 Degrees Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps Lr.

This was the promised clear night sky to do some tests in. By 8:30pm there was not one bit of evidence of any of this heavy Clouds. we have been ringed by heavy rain inland and out to sea with heavy rain Perth nothing at all.

This was a target I have been waiting to get, I know I took this with my Old star adventurer... But nothing like this. The shot in 2019 is a good measure how far have I come. My first nights worth of shots I had to delete as the framing was not what I was after so had to take another two nights. As its very hot I have to be careful to start the camera @25c or less so took the precaution to run the camera not at -10 but -7 so as not to burn the camera out. This was shot over two nights Nikon 105mm F2.8 Macro lens in total 100 odd shots. Its good to see most of the target I have taken over the last few years with the ED80 in reality to each other. I make no apology for the number of stars in the shot. There is still a few targets that I have yet to take in this area with the current set up. when you look at this shot you see there is much more to this part of the sky that we think. Hope you follow all the notes. ZWOASI071 -7 100 shots 450 sec rotated 7 Degrees Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps Lr.

Over the last three night I chose this target not knowing how it would come out. The processing in Pix and Ps I get this, as we are about to get clouded in I have gone with the 100shots. Camera rotated to get this view. QHY183C -10c 100 shots 10 min each over 3 nights, Rotated 103 degrees. Prima Luce Essato Focus , Focus every hour. Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps Lr.

I rotated this so I could get the long bone middle left in but the shot now looks like a tropical fish. tilt you head to the right you can see the skull and cross bones better, one white eye and one red eye. this one of those very small target most would over look as not being interesting Its one I like a lot. this coincided with new moon so the detail in the shot is better even with the filter in line. This is also a much better editing method from when I first started to use PixInsight the last five photos have followed the same process and look a whole lot better. some part of the process you have to just walk away and come back some a very long. The stacking process for this photo is close to an hour. QHY183C -10c 120 shots 10 min each over 3 nights, Rotated 38 degrees. Prima Luce Essato Focus , Focus every hour. Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps Lr.

This was my next target but the forecast was clouds for the next few days after I finished the wide field. The good news is have not seen any clouds that worried the mount . The tree next to the mount gets in the way of photos at 3am so getting less and less each day as the star seem to move across the sky( its us moving.) I wanted to do this target as it is a very interesting shape and it is no a big one as you can see by the wide field photo of the Seagull the small white dot middle of frame. I had to rotate to get this orientation or it would have been along the length of the shot. QHY183C -10c 98 shots 10 min each over 3 nights, Rotated 94.4 degrees. Prima Luce Essato Focus , Focus every hour. Skywatcher Black DiamondED80 OTA Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps Lr.

I knew that the was a lot of red wisps around the Seagull nebula. this is my 105mm Nikon prime lens with the very same camera as the shot next to this, there is just so many stars out there you almost loose the faint red wisps. This is a reedit of the old data and replaced the shot in both cases. I had to call it quits as I am now clouded in but the idea of the wisps show very well. the very small white nebula that is in view just below the seagull is Thors Helmet the target that I wanted to do next but as its only 30 shots a night till the tree gets in the way I will leave for next year. the next week or so is clouded in so no point even starting. ZWOASI071MC -7c 39 shots 600 secs, over 2 night camera rotated 104 degrees. ZWOEAF disconnected , Optolong LeNhance filter In filter draw, Nikon 105MM F2.8 Lens, Skywatcher NEQ 6 Pro Hypertuned Guided PHD2, SGP Pixinsight, Ps & Lr.

One of the things I have never understood enjoy the landscape why ruin it. I took the shot as they posed for the phone. A phone with 10,000 photos of them over the landscape.