Samuel Warfel Photography

10/11/2024

What an amazing aurora last night! I chased this one on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I was involved in an event, and had a beautiful view despite being in the middle of the city! I was especially pleased to shoot the aurora with our observatories, Washburn (brick) and Burnham (silver).
A stunning astronomical event.

07/23/2024

On my recent trip to the UP, I had a little window of moonless, clear sky time during the short, short UP summer night. Using my DSLR and a 35mm lens on a tripod, I pointed it at the summer Milky Way, the bright central core of the galaxy, seen low in the south in the summer. From the house we stayed at, we were mostly outside Marquette's light dome and had very dark skies to the south. The sand dome on the property just south of the house perfectly framed the view!
I feel this is my best Milky Way shot so far, I am having fun shooting it with this 35mm.

Astro-modded Nikon D5300, Nikon 35mm f/1.8, fixed tripod.
Sky: 6s*283, foreground 1*1/8s (twilight). Shot from different locations on the same property, facing the same direction for accurate sky alignment.

07/20/2024

On our visit to Pictured Rocks we went on a cruise with Pictured Rocks Cruises, and had some lovely views of the Pictured Rocks cliffs and arches, waterfalls, and Grand Island lighthouse. The water was stunning Caribbean blue, the lake was calm and the weather was perfect! A beautiful day!

07/19/2024

On the trip to the UP last week, we visited Miner's Falls and Munising Falls in Pictured Rocks! They are lovely! Bonus shot: the creek among mossy stones along the boardwalk to Miner's Falls.

07/18/2024

When I went out to look for the aurora on the 12th from a roadside park east of Marquette, I noticed the young crescent moon setting above the city. I snapped some pics cause I thought it looked cool, then the next night revisited it with my longer lens for a different composition. I love the red crescent that also shows the shadowed part illuminated by Earthshine.
And with the unusually calm Lake Superior, it reflected both the moon and the city lights.

07/16/2024

The Lily Bow
Sunday night a line of intense storms swept through to the south an hour before sunset. When they cleared, a magnificent sight appeared! A vivid rainbow, one of the brightest I've ever seen, which sported a double that at the peak was fully visible. After standing outside my apartment gaping for a bit, I grabbed my camera, smashed on a lens, and ran down the street to the Arboretum less than a block away. After running down some muddy trails at full speed trying not to wipe out and destroy my camera, I reached the closest lake overlook, and found a giant tree blocking my view. I ran again, running along until I saw a little path leading straight down to the water. I peered out and saw this lagoon with lilypads and the rainbow reflected in the water. I took a deep breath, tore off my shoes and socks, and gritted my teeth as I waded out into slimy oozy mud knee-deep, something I typically refuse to do.
But it was worth it, from this view I could see the whole rainbow over the lagoon. The first image is a double-row/HDR pano, the second two are single images. Without a doubt, the best rainbow I have ever seen.
Nikon D500, Nikon 16-80mm f/2.8

07/13/2024

On July 8th I witnessed a very subtle KP2 aurora from M28 east of Marquette MI, Appearing as soon as the twilight faded enough to see it, and persisting until well after the end of twilight, this subtle pink glow with a little green underneath never built up the strength to substorm and produce pillars or a more substantial show. This pic is from 11-11:30 or so. The glow at the left side of the frame extending high up is not aurora, it's the light dome from Marquette and maybe a little twilight. The lake was so calm you can see the stars reflected in it, especially bright Capella, which I watched rise. This little pink gave me my third aurora from Marquette for four trips, not too shabby.

05/13/2024

Aaand here's my timelapse from Friday night's incredible show! This is my longest timelapse yet, by far. Enjoy!

Wow. Just Wow. Friday night was the most insane Aurora I'd ever seen, by a huge margin. The weakest part of this storm was still stronger than the stronge...

05/10/2024

❤️💚Aurora alert!💚❤️
If you follow me for Aurora in southern Wisconsin, or that interests you, heads up. The sun has been throwing the strongest flurry of activity so far this solar cycle. This could bring us some substantial aurora activity. The predictions put the strongest activity tomorrow night, perhaps in the later half of the night. Cloudcover is also workable to decent for a lot of WI, especially later at night.

When I say substantial aurora, overhead displays, strong naked-eye visibility, and sightings from cities in Southern WI are on the table. Of course, it could also fall short, we cannot predict it.

If this interests you, I recommend joining the group Northern Lights of Wisconsin, and watching for posts for admins/group experts there, and live sighting pictures later on as the best way to stay up to date about what's going on.
This could be legit. Could, not will be. But could!

Image is from April 23rd 2023, north of Dane County WI. I'm hoping for activity like this again, if we can get lucky.
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More info for the science-y:
SpaceWeatherLive
Space Weather Trackers

04/18/2024

My last solar eclipse image to post for now: a composite image showing the partial phases of the eclipse before and after totality, superimposed on the HDR corona image. A fun way to visualize most of the eclipse!

Technical detail:
Scope: Sky-watcher Evolux 62ED
Camera: Nikon D5300 (astromodded)
Mount: Sky-watcher HEQ5 Pro belt modded
Filter for partial phases: Thousand Oaks solar film
Power: Bluetti PS54 battery bank
Control: intervalometers and cabled shutter release