Cosgrove’s Cosmos Update #5
November 3, 2021
Time for another Cosgrove's Cosmos update!
Hi Folks,
It’s been two months since my last update so I figured it was time to share what has been going on with the website since the last update.
1. Imaging Projects. Since the last update, I have been able to complete four imaging projects. I had hoped to do more but the weather has not been cooperating. This has been a disappointing number of projects done but the unfortunate weather has held me back from doing more I am not surprised that the weather is a little iffy this time of year, but I just got back from a trip to North Carolina where I expected much better weather! I took the Askar FRA400 Platform traveling for the first time. Alas, the clouds of Rochester followed me down to North Carolina and I ended up with only one single clear night that was good for imaging. The preparation I took to travel with the FRA400 platform can be seen HERE.
I do hope I will get a break in the weather so that I can add to my 2021 portfolio. Last year I was able to capture images in mid-November before the clouds of winter shut me down, so we will how this year will wrap up soon! Stay tuned!
In the meantime, so the new imaging projects below…
2. New Articles Published in the Tips and Techniques Section. Since the last update, I have posted 5 new articles for the Tips & Techniques section, and I expect to be adding to this area substantially as we enter the cloudy winter months. If I can’t do imaging, at least I can write about it! See the new articles below.
3. Site Visits. Traffic has been steadily growing. We have now had visits from 70 different countries and 45 states in the US. For some reason, North and South Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maine had not stopped by. I would love to get all of the states represented!
4. The Email List. Even though we have had thousands of visitors come through the website, I have had only 24 or so people sign up for the email list. I had thought that I could use the email list to let folks know when there was new content added to the site, Squarespace charges for this service, and it doesn't make sense to take on the cost for such a small number of users. If this list grows in the future, I will revisit this issue, but in the meantime, I will be using various social media services to announce new content. So for those that want to follow what is going on, watch for my posts on Cosgrove’s Cosmos Facebook page, LinkedIn, and Twitter postings.
5. Twitter Update. I have not been a Twitter user in the past, but I decided to jump into the Twitterverse and see if I could use this to help promote the website and to announce when new content had been posted. I created a new Twitter account (https://twitter.com/CosgrovesCosmos) and began tweeting using the hashtag #Astrophtography. For the first few weeks, I was completely unsuccessful! This was the state I reported in my last update. Then I finally saw that I had my first follower! I was feeling pretty good about that until I saw his Twitter handle was “Fart Fart Fart”. That was a little deflating, to say the least. But I stuck with it and after about 6 weeks I now have a following of 636 hardy souls. This may not seem like a lot but since each follower can retweet and their responses are seen by their followers this creates a network effect that produced significant exposure. At this point, my tweets have had over 200K impressions and have brought traffic to the website. Right now about 30% of my traffic is brought in by Twitter, so my efforts there are helping. I have also discovered a very active #Astrophotography community on Twitter and have really enjoyed my interactions there. In fact, one of my recent articles was based on a Tweet series that received a very positive response - so much so that decided to expand upon the themes there and expand it into a post on the website (You can see it HERE).
Finally, I have added an experimental section to the website (under Home->Twitter Feed) that shows my most recent Tweets. It sometimes messes up this sequence of images when more than one is posted at a time, but in general, seems to work. Feel free to check it out HERE.
6. My Images are being used in a Theater Production! Our local Blackfriar Theater Group is putting on a production of “Silent Sky”, This is the story of Henrietta Leavitt, who began working at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, at a time when women were not allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers”.
Blackfriars saw the images on my website and asked for permission to use some of those images for their production. I was honored! You can learn more about it HERE. The production is underway right now, and I understand they have been getting standing ovations. Congratulations Blackfriars!
Theater Production Flyer
Credits in the Flyer
7. High Res Images. Up until now, the images shown on the website were lowered resolution images - scaled down to keep the webpage updates reasonably fast. Squarespace does not seem to support a way to click on a lower resolution image and allow the full resolution image to be shown. However, I also post my images on Astrobin.com, and they do have a nice system for doing this. So I am taking advantage of that. Now, when you click on the main image for an Imaging Project post, you will be taken to Astrobin.com and the full resolution version of that image. This should help those folks that are pixel-peepers! I have converted the most recent 50 images to work this way and will be converting the older images to do this over the next week or so.
Thinking about building my first Observatory. This looks like a nice starting place….
8. Future Projects. As most of you know, I have been doing my astrophotography by setting up my scopes in the driveway each night of shooting. You have also no doubt heard me complaining about the limited chunk of sky I can see based on the tree lines on my property.
Both of these limitations have held me back to an extent. But that may change over the next year!
My wife recently retired and we are now ready to move to our next home. This means an opportunity to buy some new land that has open and skies and room to build my own observatory!
As we move ahead on this project, I will track my efforts to build my observatory. I am currently thinking of a 15’x15’ Roll-Off Roof Observatory with four piers and full automation. This is a longer-term effort, but as it rolls out, I will share details on the project here. In the meantime, if anybody has a lead on a nice piece of land (3-15 acres) with clear skies and a great southern view located south of Rochester, New York - please give me a heads up!
Thanks again for your interest and support! If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me!
May your skies be clear,
Pat
This imaging project is not a recapture of data for M27 - the Dumbell Nebula. Rather it is an effort to reprocess old data using new tools and new processing methods to address some concerns I had about the original image - where I thought that the stars were bloated and unsharp, and that I thought I should be able to bring out more detail in the amazing outer gas shells that narrowband imaging shows for this target.