Mike McNerney
LightNews LightNews
banner
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Mike McNerney
@mikemcnerney.bsky.social
140 followers 38 following 100 posts
Actor/Assistant Director who loves astrophotography, terrestrial photography, writing, guitar playing, and Chicago dogs.
Posts Replies Media Videos
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Milky Way at zenith between Vega and Andromeda. Single untracked 18.5 second frame, 18mm f/2.8 taken with a full-spectrum modified Canon T4i from Wildcat Mountain State Park in Wisconsin.
#milkyway #nightphotography #darksky #astro #photography #canon #astronomy #night #wisconsin
Milky Way diagonally from lower left to upper right is a greyish brushstroke of stars and pink nebula. Above the Milky Way is the bright star Vega and below the Milky Way is the galaxy Andromeda, which appear as a bright spot with light fading from the center to both the left and right.
August 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Haven't posted in a while, so here's the Western Veil Nebula. 68 stacked images at 180 seconds each taken with ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, Optolong L-Ultimate filter, Orion 6" Ritchey-Chretien telescope on Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount, captured in ASIAIR Plus, processed in Pixinsight and GIMP.
July 1, 2025 at 6:31 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
I loaded your coordinates and time/date into SkySafari Pro and pointed at zenith to get this screenshot. It may not be the correct orientation or focal length, but looking straight up, this is what would have been there.
May 19, 2025 at 9:52 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
#pictureoftheday IC443 - The Jellyfish Nebula is a supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini, about 5,000 lightyears from Earth. 36 frames x 180 seconds plus calibration frames. Processed in Pixinsight. #photography #photo #astrophotography #night #sky #stars #pink #nebula #outerspace #space
On the black background of outer space, a modeled pink nebulous cloud fills much of the center of the frame. Beginning about a quarter of the way from the left edge, a globular nebula with streamers of gaseous clouds is centered on the lower left "third" mark of the frame. To the right of that, expanding and extending upward to near the top of the frame and to the right to about a third of the way from the edge of frame, a more whispy, lighter nebulous cloud with darker pink edges and areas of very dark, making it look like a person with a headlamp on looking at the globular "jellyfish" nebula. The entire image is covered in white, yellow, red, and blue stars ranging in size from very small to medium. One larger medium star makes the "light" of the headlamp, and another larger medium star is just off the lower right of the jellyfish.
April 15, 2025 at 1:18 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
#pictureoftheday NGC4565 - The Needle Galaxy (no, not the same as The Silver Needle Galaxy that I posted last week). #photography #photo #astrophotography #night #sky #nightsky #stars #galaxy #space #outerspace
On the black background of outer space, medium and small white, yellow, and orange stars cover the entire canvas, with a galaxy viewed on edge running diagonally from upper left to lower right in the middle 1/3 of the frame. The galaxy is dimmer on both ends, brightening to the core in the middle, making the visible flat side of the galaxy appear to look like a needle. The galaxy is mostly light gold tone, with an orange and brown mottled band of dust and nebulosity running the entire length. The center core appears as a bright fuzzy near-circular ball.
April 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Silver Needle Galaxy, about 13 mil ly away. Taken earlier this week from my backyard in California, this image stacks 116 subs x 180 seconds through a 6" Ritchey-Chretien telescope. #photography #photo #astrophotography, #astronomy #galaxy #space #nightsky #night #sky #stars
On the black background of outer space, medium and small white, yellow, and orange stars cover the entire canvas, with a galaxy viewed on edge running diagonally from lower left to upper right in the middle 1/3 of the frame. The galaxy is dimmer on both ends, brightening to the core in the middle, making the visible flat side of the galaxy appear to look like a needle. The galaxy is mostly silver, with some yellow and light orange tones at the center core. Within the haze of the galaxy structure, blue and darker orange nebula clouds intermix.
March 29, 2025 at 3:29 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
#pictureoftheday. Everyone needed to see a #frog today. Mission accomplished. #photography #photo #nature #water #rocks #california #green #camouflage #waterscape
A frog sits in a creek amongst some rocks that are similar in color to the frog, making him/her blend into the waterscape.
March 24, 2025 at 11:23 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. California quail in our backyard. #photography #photo #bird #quail #california #green #nature
On a background of deeply out of focus (bokeh) greenery, a California quail poses. The quail is on the right half of the frame, with the dark brown plume protruding from the top of its head, from right where the maroon/brown feathers at the top meet the white feathers that make up its forehead. It's beak is shiny black, at the edge of which, where it meets the face, its dark eye accents his black face with a white sideburn and beard. The back of its neck is covered in alternating tiny brown and white feathers, his upper chest, from chin to breast area, is solid gray feathers, and below that, his chest and stomach is covered in fan shaped burnt orange feathers outlined in black, fading to white and gray feathers to the wings. In the foreground, an out of focus plant blocks his lower section.
March 22, 2025 at 10:19 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
#pictureoftheday. #spring! Throwback to the #california #superbloom. These were taken near Soda Lake and the Carrizo Plain #nationalmonument. In the image with my wife walking down the path, the white ridge is the San Andreas fault. #photography #photo #flowers #yellow #nature @altnps.bsky.social
Green grass covered hill in the foreground, beginning at the middle left edge of the picture, extending to the bottom right corner. Behind that a yellow, green, and orange hill covered in poppies and other wildflowers - that hill extends from the upper third right edge of frame, down to meet and go behind the green hill near center left, about a quarter of the way down the green hill. Beyond that hill is the distant valley ranging in color from tan to blue, with the hazy blue sky above. This is a square image, taken with a film camera, so it's a little grainy if you zoom in. The image is a field of yellow wild flowers with occasional patches of green weeds covering the lower two-thirds of the frame, with a dirt path extending from center left edge of frame to center upper third of frame and the end of the field of flowers. There is also an area in the near foreground at the bottom of the frame, where the flowers and weeds are less compacted and the sandy ground beneath is exposed. Walking along the dirt path away from camera is a woman in white sneakers, black pants, a white smock-type tops with large prints of flowers on it, and a black bucket-style hat. At the upper third of frame, where the flower field ends, is a narrow blueish-gray strip of lake running left to right across the entire frame. On the other side of the lake is an off-white sand and rock ridge running the length of the photo from left to right, with occasional yellow flower patches. This ridge is the San Andreas fault. Above the fault ridge is a row of darker green and yellow mountains, then a mostly cloudy sky with the clouds being higher level streaks rather than puffy ones. A small patch of blue sky emerges from the clouds just at the right edge, extending about a quarter of the way into the frame to the left. In the foreground, a horizontal row of orange flowers runs across the entire bottom of the frame, extending about an eighth of the way up from the bottom. Above the orange flowers is a horizontal band of yellow wild flowers, followed by a band of green and gray weeds, followed by a rolling carpet of yellow flowers, occasionally broken by green weeds, all extending up to the center of the frame. Above that rises a green, yellow and tan mountain, with areas of white sand/rock ridges which identify where the San Andreas fault is. Above the mountain, at about the upper third frame line, are some grayish-white puffy clouds with blue sky above them. A dirt road extends from near the center of the frame forward to the lower right corner of the frame, with a Jeep driving down the road toward us, leaving a dust haze in its wake. The dirt road runs through a field of orange and yellow wildflowers on a bed of green weeds, extending up from the center line into the rolling mountains which are mostly covered in the yellow flowers up to about the upper third of the frame, where the mountain becomes green up to the blue sky above. In the center, at about the lower third line, a man dressed in all white faces away from us and toward the flower field, with a tripod leg visible in front of him, although the camera is hidden by his body. The dust cloud from the Jeep is approaching him. Slightly farther up the road and on the other side, a car is parked facing away, with both doors open and a person standing in the driver's doorway taking a picture of the flowers. In the far distant portion of the road are two other vehicles traveling away.
March 21, 2025 at 6:59 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula - NGC2264. Taken 12/5/24 from my backyard. 102 x 180 seconds = 5 hours and 6 minutes of data (ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera). #photography #photo #astrophotography #astronomy #science #stars #space #nightsky #night #sky #science #red #nebula
On a dark background of outer space, a mostly red nebula (cloud of gasses in space) stretches across almost the entire frame from left to right, with a cone shaped cloud protruding from left to right near the left edge, and a bluish white cloud from about center (left to right) to about 1/3 of the way from the right edge and from about 1/3 of the way from the bottom edge to about the center top to bottom, with a very bright star illuminating the bluish white cloud. Medium and small stars cover the entire image.
March 20, 2025 at 3:44 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Tadpole Nebula (NGC1893) in the constellation Auriga. Taken on 12/4/24 from my backyard in Castaic, CA. 132 frames x 180 seconds = 6 hrs 36 min exposure time. #photography #photo #astrophotography #astronomy #night #sky #nightsky #stars #nebula #universe #space #outerspace
on a black background of outer space, a red nebulous cloud covers most of the upper two-thirds of the image, curving from a little below center at the left edge of the frame, around to about the upper third near the right edge of the frame, with a pink reflection nebula glowing from under the red upper/thicker cloud formation. A single large dark brown to black odd-shaped spot is just left of center frame, like a hole cut in the nebula to see through to the blackness of space beyond. A few other non-uniform splotches of darkness permeate the nebula above and to the right of the large one. Below and to the right of the large dark spot are two nebulous forms looking like red tadpoles with bright heads swimming toward the center. The entire image is spattered with small, medium and large white, blue, orange, yellow, and red stars. Deep in the shadows to the outer edges are faint whisps of red nebulae, as this is a bright portion of a much larger nebula system.
March 19, 2025 at 12:37 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Happy St. Patrick's Day! #photography #photo #chicago #river #green #blue #city #skyscrapers #bridge #cityscape
Skyscrapers line both sides of the Chicago River, which is dyed green for St. Patrick's day. This picture looks east down the river, which has a brown bridge crossing the river below a blue sky with whispy high clouds which filter the afternoon sunlight.
March 17, 2025 at 7:22 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Okay, the second one today. Medium format #film image taken with a vintage #mamiya C330 twin-lens reflex camera on #kodak TriX 400TX film at Carpenteria State #beach near #santabarbara #california. #photography #photo #blackandwhite #monochrome #ocean #waves #bird #seagull #sand
Monochrome (black and white) image of a seagull flying over the waves along the coastline. The bird is in the upper right of the picture, the horizon at the upper third, the sky is clear, the waves are rolling with foam crashing, but not large waves running along the coastline from the left horizon edge to about the lower third on the right edge of the picture, with two spent waves rolling back to sea under the newly crashing waves. The beach is mostly smooth with a few small stones in the lower center of the picture, and two sizeable clumps of seaweed near the left edge at about the center between top and bottom.
March 16, 2025 at 6:47 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Messier 46, an open cluster in the constellation Puppis about 5k light years away. Within this frame are also two tiny planetary nebulae, NGC2437 and M1-18, and a smaller open cluster, NGC2425. #photography #photo #astrophotography #space #stars #nightsky #night #sky #outerspace
on a black field of outer space, the entire frame is covered in yellow, gold, white, and orange stars, with a tight grouping of small stars in the center. Just to the upper right of center is a single larger yellow star. At the left edge of the grouping in the center is a tiny red ring nebula with a blue center. About half way to straight to the left edge of frame from that nebula is an even smaller round red nebula.
March 16, 2025 at 1:09 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Horsehead and Flame Nebulas, uncropped, including a sizeable halo from Alnilam, the middle star in Orion's belt. I took this about 3 years ago from Cosmic Campground, NM. #photography #photo #astrophotography #astronomy #nebula #space #outerspace #night #sky #nightsky #red #stars
On a dark field of outer space, diagonally from the lower right to the mid-upper left is a pink and red nebulous cloud, featuring shadows and highlights, including, at near the middle of the picture, the shadow side of a cloud protruding above the lighter nebulous clouds in a curve from near straight up to a right-angle point to the left, resembling a horses head (although I think it looks more like JarJar Binks from the Star Wars movies). About a quarter of the width of the picture to the left of the horsehead, is a bright nebula with protrusions to the left resembling flames (although I think it looks more like a flaming musical lyre or parade configured xylophone). In the upper left corner, extending down from the top of the picture, is the halo from the bright star Alnilam that is just out of frame. To the lower right of that halo is a nebulous cloud extending tall and clear from above the flame nebula. Immediately above the upper right corner of the flame nebula is Alnitak, the left-most star of Orion's belt. There are other stars of varying sizes dotting the entire image.
March 13, 2025 at 10:00 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Video of the day. We took the tour at #firestonewalkerbrewery where someone in the bottling department is apparently a 2001 A Space Oddyssey fan.
March 11, 2025 at 8:42 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Pictures of the day. We spent the past couple of days with #friends in #pasorobles #california #wine and #beer tasting and touring. #tincity #firestonewalker #etto
March 11, 2025 at 8:37 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Wizard Nebula imaged from a Bortle 2 campsite near Ash Fork, AZ a few days before in October 2024. #photography #photo #astrophotography #astronomy #universe #nebula #sky #nightsky #night #stars #outerspace #space #red
On a dark field of outer space, this vertical image focuses on a red and pink nebulous cloud curved with the convex side facing to the lower left and concave side to the upper right. The features of the cloud make it appear as a wizard's face with pointy hat about center-left, his body curved down and to the right from his head, with darker cloud formations appearing as arms and hands in a robe-like gown reaching out from his body, and a pink glow effusing from his hands toward the upper right, dissipating about center-right in the frame. There is a medium sized star just to the right of the wizard's left hand, two brighter stars close together about half way from his hand to the right edge of the frame, slightly above and nearly to the right edge of the frame is a very bright star, and near the top center of the frame, but slightly to the left of center, is another very bright star. The entire image is dotted with tiny to medium white, yellow, orange, and red stars.
March 10, 2025 at 4:59 AM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Seagull Nebula (IC 2177) in Hubble palette. Taken from Corales, NM taken 11/25/22. 70 x 300 seconds (mixed narrowband). #photography #photo #astrophotography #astronomy #sky #nightsky #night #nebula #universe #blue #yellow #stars
Against a black background of outer space, a nebula cloud shaped like a bird flying through space, with the trailing edges of the wings a translucent blue, the leading edges of the wings gradiating from translucent gold on the left to a greenish yellow on the right, and the head of the bird form also gradiating from gold to greenish yellow. The entire image is dotted with various sized stars from medium to tiny in size.
March 8, 2025 at 11:47 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Bubble Nebula - NGC 7635. This includes 60 images at 180 seconds each, taken with a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera through Orion 6" Ritchey-Chretien telescope last October. #photography #photo #astrophotography #red #bubble #space #nebula #night #nightsky #universe #astronomy
Against the dark background of outer space dotted with hundreds of medium to small stars, a red glowing nebulous cloud increases in brightness toward the center, where a bubble shaped nebulous cloud glows from the light of a bright star emanating from within the bubble shape.
March 7, 2025 at 7:46 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Flaming Star Nebula, in the constellation Auriga, is about 1,500 light years away. This is just over two hours of data I collected from somewhere in northern Illinois (I think). #photography #photo #astrophotography #nightsky #night #sky #universe #stars #nebula #red
On the black background of outer space, a large, red cloud of gasses roils over most of the left half of the picture, lit by a single bright white star near the center of the image, with dozens of smaller stars dotting the whole scene.
March 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Sun roof becomes Milky Way roof. Yes, I actually took this from inside my car. It's a single frame, not composited. #photography #photo #night #nightphotography #milkyway #sunroof #sky #universe #galaxy #astrophotography #astronomy #toyota #rav4 #illinois
From inside a car, looking up through the open sunroof, the Milky Way runs from bright stars and nebulosity at the lower (farther) end of the sunroof opening to blending into the dark night sky at the upper end. The gray interior of the car roof gives a light purple glow as reflection from the dashboard lights which are out of frame to the lower left. At the lower left in frame, is the side window, out of which is the black silhouette of trees and power pole and lines against the yellow tinted clouds near the horizon reflecting light from a nearby town.
March 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Globular cluster Messier 15, in the constellation Pegasus, is one of the oldest known globular clusters at about 12.5 billion years old. Taken from my backyard. #photography #photo #astrophotography #stars #cluster #night #sky #nightsky #space #outerspace #universe
On a black background of outer space, white, yellow, orange, red, and blue stars increase in numbers from the edges to the very center, where a tight cluster of stars emits a bright white and yellow light.
March 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. The Cygnus Wall in the constellation Cygnus. 35 x 180 sec, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, Orion 6" Ritchey-Chretien on Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount, processed in Pixinsight. #photography #photo #astrophotography #nebula #stars #space #nightsky #night #sky #pink #red #astronomy #universe
On a black field of space dotted with a handful of bright stars and thousands of smaller, dimmer stars, a diagonal pink cloud of gasses runs from lower left to upper right with a large and a smaller protrusion extending for a short distance to the upper left. Also extending from the cloud are grayish-pink partially translucent gas and dust clouds, mostly on the upper left side of the nebula. In the far upper left, a clear area open to outer space creates a stark black void with a few distant stars visible.
March 3, 2025 at 8:52 PM
mikemcnerney.bsky.social
Picture of the day. Yes, we still listen to #cassette tapes.
Yes, we still listen to #footloose .
Yes, we still #dance in our underwear.
That last part isn't in the picture.
#80smusic #throwback #music #generationjones #oldtech #lowtech
On a wooden shelf, a cassettetape box of the Footloose movie soundtrack sits at the foot of a black graphic equalizer which is stacked under a black cassette tape player with the cassette tape of Footloose being inserted by a fingers and a thumb.
March 2, 2025 at 11:41 PM