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For some time I have been wanting to produce a tribute to the great Edward Emerson Barnard with a set of B&W photographs captured in very much a similar manner as Barnard himself had completed over 100 years ago. Barnard was a pioneer in the field of astrophotography, indeed often attributed as the Father of Milky Way photography.

In June and July I set out to produce an initial effort to produce such a photograph. Although not the first B&W analog image I have taken on, this image is the first in a series just for this project.

This image, a mosaic of two frames, was taken on one of the shortest nights of the year and with sky conditions deteriorating as night turned to morning.

Featuring the Milky Way of Ophiuchus and Scorpius with many of the dark nebulae recorded and cataloged by the great Barnard himself, this image is markedly wider. This is due in part to being a mosaic, as the two images themselves have been taken with as Barnard did, with a portrait lens.


From the observatory notes:


My observatory notes from that night:

June 18, 2012 Shortest Night of the Year.

"Clear with threat of fog. Transparency average, becoming poor with sky becoming brighter by early morning. Transparency became very poor by end of run. I continued as stars were dimmed, but not condensed. All frames used the SMC Pentax 200mm f/4 @ f/5.6 and B+W 021 light-yellow filter."

Scorpius Frame: 10:30-11:30 SQM 21.14

Ophiuchus Frame: 11:35-12:35 SQM 21.22

Average SQM reading for my astrophotography site are on average, 21.5 mags/sq-arc-sec. So the night was much brighter than average.

Perhaps the filter helped with the low contrast sky, which was muddy in appearance. I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. I might not have if I was using color transparency film.

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Comment by James Cormier on August 6, 2012 at 5:56pm

Thank you Marc. Perhaps my aspirations have been met. Akira Fuji and others paved the way. Alas, can it be?

Comment by Marc Basti on August 6, 2012 at 11:52am

I think these would have even Akira saying wow. They're really a joy to look at. Marc

Comment by James Cormier on August 5, 2012 at 4:42am

Hi Steve. Glad you enjoyed our "vacationland". The weather has been a mixed bag. I'll sure be happy when the drier air kicks in. Glad you got to check out the exhibit. I hope to go down before the end of summer. Thanks for the kind remarks on this image. After a period of no images, it was nice to get back into it.

Comment by Steve Coates on August 4, 2012 at 6:11pm

Incredible work that you do. I am just finishing up my 2 weeks here in Maine. I did not bring any imaging equipment but I did go to Bates to check out the exhibit. Again, nice work.

Comment by James Cormier on August 4, 2012 at 9:29am

Hello Russ. Thank you very much. I will be sure to post the others as they become fully presentable. I have a show in December and hope to have at least 6 prints for display as well as a narrative of Barnard and the project. While I certainly don't have the very large astrograph and large glass plates Barnard used, the use of medium format film with moderately large lenses seems to produce similar results. The use of a roll off roof observatory, manually corrected guiding with a reticle, and exposures of an hour or more is certainly within the spirit of his work. Thanks again.

Comment by Russ Ruggles on August 4, 2012 at 8:48am

James - all I can say is impressive. Very impressive. What a great tribute to a great man. I look forward to seeing this (progressivly) as well as a finish project.

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