I’d post a wingtip selfie but….. heading to DC for the DC Video Shoot Off. we will be streaming live for free, but in-person attendance is free too! I think there might still be seats available so register today!

It’s been a while since I last posted an astro image. It’s been a very busy summer. Target: Pelican Nebula Constellation: Cygnus Location: Monte Cristo, Antelope Island, and Roy, Utah – Bortle 3, 4, and 7 respectively Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Air Mount: ZWO AM3 Scope: Askar 120APO w/ Flattener Filter: Askar ColourMagic D1 and D2 filters Lights: D1: 40 x 300 sec, D2: 49 x 300 sec Gain: 100, Cooling: -15°C to -5°C 60x Flats, Flat-Darks, Darks Total Integration Time: 7 hrs, 25 minutes Stacked in Pixinsight with BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, and DBXtract Finished in Photoshop

Man, four years flew by. Such a fun shoot with some of my favorite people, even if it ended with me getting COVID. Franklin Scott Harris Jr., Eva Frazier, Brooke Rogers, miss y’all.

Finally getting a good night of imaging on Pelican

Being on set by 4am sucks, but any day on set is a good day. I teamed with Justin J Fairley as his DP to film a national level recruiting commercial for the Air Force. The crew killed it today and we managed to bring “sunlight” to a large pre-dawn shot on the flightline. I can’t wait to show y’all what we made.

A couple more shots from last week, courtesy of Jason’s friend Dave who works at the Air Force Academy. The device I’m using in the photos is called a Tilta Float. The harness is hidden under the vest, and it probably weighs about 30-40lbs. It adds positional stability in the form of passive inertia, similar to a Steadicam, but with a gimbal attached for attitude stability and leveling (so more like the ARRI Trinity). I’m at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas this week in *much* hotter temperatures, filming for another commercial, this one for the CSAF (top uniform officer in the Air Force). It’s going to be a fun, albeit hot, week out here, and we pulled out *all* the toys to really do this right. Stay tuned for more BTS from the 2AVS!

It’s been an awesome shoot this week filming at the US Air Force Academy during Basic Cadet Training. Heading home today to get prepped for another adventure next week! I can’t wait to show y’all the footage from this project. We’re at over 12TB of 8K raw footage for a 60-second commercial, but it’s looking amazing. We should be releasing this fall after the main controlled action shoot in September. (📸 by TSgt Rob Harnden and me)

I’ve been wanting to image this dark nebula for a while now. This is LDN 43, the Cosmic Bat Nebula, and it does kind of look like a giant demonic bat in the sky. It’s a dense molecular cloud about 12 light years wide and 120 light years away. I shot this up at Monte Cristo Campground over two nights this past weekend. It’s amazing how modern cameras can see a dark cloud against dark sky like this. It’s low on the horizon too so I only got about two hours of good data each night. I might add to it next month but we’ll see. May would have been a better month to shoot it. I also have a pretty awesome image of the Pelican nebula in the works, but it needs a lot more data. It’s annoying that the summer nights are so short when there’s so much cool stuff in the sky. Target: LDN 43 “The Cosmic Bat Nebula” Constellation: Ophiuchus Location: Monte Cristo Campground, Utah, Bortle 3 Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Air Mount: ZWO AM3 Scope: Askar 120APO w/ Flattener Filter: Apertura Luminance Filter Lights: 49 x 300 sec Gain: 100, Cooling: -15°C 60x Flats, Flat-Darks, Darks Total Integration Time: 4 hrs 5 min Stacked in Pixinsight with BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, and NoiseXTerminator Finished in Photoshop