Gary Woodall Astrophoto

Gary Woodall Astrophoto Capturing the Abstract Art of Our Universe. I'm an astrophotographer and retired meteorologist. Visit my website at https://gwastrophoto.weebly.com

From the "better late than never" department, here's my first effort from the Lunar Eclipse. I used my 530mm focal leng...
08/30/2026

From the "better late than never" department, here's my first effort from the Lunar Eclipse. I used my 530mm focal length telescope and color astronomy camera, and collected image data every 10 minutes leading up to the maximum.

The center image was a little challenging, since there was a big contrast between the sunlit area and the area in Earth's shadow. To try to remedy this, I blended two different exposure lengths...short exposure for the bright area, long exposure for the dim. It was my first time trying this technique in Photoshop.

Enjoy!

“Giving back”. This will mark the second year that I have donated one of my astrophotography images to the Scottish Rit...
08/28/2026

“Giving back”. This will mark the second year that I have donated one of my astrophotography images to the Scottish Rite Hospital’s “Brushes and Bites“ event. This is a silent art auction, with all proceeds benefiting the hospital. The event will take place the evening of September 17.

This year, I donated my image of the waxing crescent moon. I’m always happy to contribute to such a worthy cause!

Overexposed screenshot, 11:07 PM. 
08/28/2026

Overexposed screenshot, 11:07 PM. 

Giving the lunar eclipse a go… hopefully the clouds will hold off!
08/28/2026

Giving the lunar eclipse a go… hopefully the clouds will hold off!

Saturday evening, I set up the "almost aligned" reflector scope and tried some quick lunar imaging. The Moon was pretty...
08/24/2026

Saturday evening, I set up the "almost aligned" reflector scope and tried some quick lunar imaging. The Moon was pretty low in the sky by the time I got everything squared away. As a result, the viewing conditions weren't great, but gave it a go anyway.

Both images are with the scope at its full 1,600 mm focal length. For the second image, I had the software use a smaller imaging area so it appears a little more zoomed in.

My goal was to capture the Apenninus and Caucasus Mountains and the shadows they cast. They are the mountain chains running from bottom to top through the center of the images. The tallest peaks in these mountains are over 15,000 feet above the surface. The mountains separate the Sea of Showers (left) from the Sea of Serenity (right).

Enjoy!

Excited and honored to have one of my images on display at Oshi's ArtScape grand opening! It will be on display through...
08/23/2026

Excited and honored to have one of my images on display at Oshi's ArtScape grand opening! It will be on display through mid September.

Here is the "Hubble" false-color version of the Elephant Trunk Nebula. I gathered the exposure data for this a few week...
08/21/2026

Here is the "Hubble" false-color version of the Elephant Trunk Nebula. I gathered the exposure data for this a few weeks ago, and shared the "Hydrogen/Oxygen" palette image a couple of days ago.

The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a "dark nebula", an area of thick gases and dust which blocks out the light from behind. Catalogued as IC 1396A, it is part of the (very) large nebula complex IC 1396. Its nickname comes from its resemblance to an elephant's trunk, complete with a curl at the tip.

IC 1396A sits about 2,400 light years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. For this image, I used my "bazooka" refractor scope at 840mm focal length, a monochrome camera, and the hydrogen and oxygen nebula filters. I gathered 3 hours of hydrogen exposure data and 6.5 hours of oxygen.

The Hubble palette was developed by the Hubble Space Telescope team. In this palette, the gold/brown areas are ionized hydrogen gas, and the blue areas are dust or ionized oxygen.

Enjoy!

A target from a few weeks ago, not Monday night's effort.The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a "dark nebula", an area of thick ...
08/18/2026

A target from a few weeks ago, not Monday night's effort.

The Elephant Trunk Nebula is a "dark nebula", an area of thick gases and dust which blocks out the light from behind. Catalogued as IC 1396A, it is part of the (very) large nebula complex IC 1396. Its nickname comes from its resemblance to an elephant's trunk, curled up at the tip.

IC 1396A sits about 2,400 light years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. For this image, I used my "bazooka" refractor scope at 840mm focal length, a monochrome camera, and the hydrogen and oxygen nebula filters. I gathered 3 hours of hydrogen exposure data and 6.5 hours of oxygen.

The image is processed in the "HOO", or hydrogen/oxygen color palette. Red areas indicate glowing ionized hydrogen gas, and teal areas are either dust or ionized oxygen. I'm finishing up a version in the "Hubble" color palette, and will share it soon.

Enjoy!

High temperature today of 103 F, 39.4 C. Let’s give the cooler inside the camera a workout this evening! 🥵🔭📷
08/18/2026

High temperature today of 103 F, 39.4 C. Let’s give the cooler inside the camera a workout this evening! 🥵🔭📷

Here's the finished(?) version of the Cygnus-area nebulae taken with the 135mm focal length "baby scope". This is from ...
08/14/2026

Here's the finished(?) version of the Cygnus-area nebulae taken with the 135mm focal length "baby scope". This is from the NE Texas "relatively dark" site. I gathered about an hour and 15 minutes each of hydrogen and oxygen exposures using my monochrome camera and filters.

The image is processed in the "hydrogen/oxygen" color palette, with the hydrogen areas appearing red and the oxygen (or dust) in the teal/cyan color. Bright pink areas suggest a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. I've also included the annotated version of the hydrogen image to point out the significant features.

Enjoy!

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