Category: Photos

[…]
No, I don’t know
the way to get there.
Two empty suitcases sit in the corner,
if that’s any kind of clue.

— Jim Moore

I’ve been dabbling some astrophotography over the past year, after being introduced to it by a bunch of friends. Most of my experiments have been using the equipment I already have, with some bits borrowed from here and there. I wish I could say I want to do it more, but I can’t. It is a _very_ expensive hobby; I really dislike taking the images themselves although I like processing them, partly because I can exercise my inner maths and physics nerdiness.

Anyway, here are two I shot earlier in the year and processed in the past couple of weeks.

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This is M42, the Orion Nebula. I made a mistake when stacking the frames, so the colours haven’t quite come out as I wanted (they need to be a lot more redder).

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This is the M31, Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest neighbour big galaxy. It is about 2.5 million light years away and is on a collision course with our Milky Way, some 4.5 billion years in the future.

Today is India’s 74th Independence Day. There’s not much to celebrate these days, what between a rubbish, intolerant govt and a raging pandemic. I take some comfort in reflecting and looking back on a long walk I did 2 years ago in the mountains of Spiti this very day.

Black-and-white.

Day 9 of the photoblogging challenge.

A view of a 6,700 metre high peak from across the valley. We had to climb to around 5,000 metres to get this angle.

Location: Spangting Range, Ladakh. Day 8 of the photoblogging challenge. 📷

Daytripping in the Himalayas.

Location: Somewhere along the upper reaches of Hindustan-Tibet Road. Day 7 of the photoblogging challenge. 📷

As usual, I am late! Day 6 of the photoblogging challenge. 📷

When clouds flow like water.

Location: On the road to Kargil. Day 5 of the photoblogging challenge. 📷

Finding meditative peace in the cold of a Spitian winter. 📷

Location: Key Monastery. Day 4 of the photoblogging challenge.