Mike McNerney

@mikemcnerney.bsky.social

Actor/Assistant Director who loves astrophotography, terrestrial photography, writing, guitar playing, and Chicago dogs.

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.

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.

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.

A frog sits in a creek amongst some rocks that are similar in color to the frog, making him/her blend into the waterscape.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sunset through breaking storm clouds cast an orange and yellow tint to the sky with green grass and red earth in the foreground and an adobe building at the horizon line on the right. The horizon from near center to left edge is distant mesa topped mountains.

In foreground of this nighttime image, on the lower left, the Rosette Nebula on an iPad screen is an orange, yellow, and red nebula shaped like a flower, with a dark blue-green center. Outside of the flower shape is green and blue outer space. The complete image if the nebula on the iPad screen is heavily dotted with mostly white and yellow stars. In the background, behind and to the right (upper right in the picture) is a large dark blue newtonian telescope on a large white mount, dimly lit, but with accents of red equipment lights and reflection off of a red astronomy camera attached on the underside of the telescope. The telescope and mount are in front of a fence running horizontally from left to right across the middle of the image at the bottom of a hill covered in foliage with a couple of distant trees, and a close tree in the upper left behind the iPad.

Framed on the left by dark rich forest soil with green and yellow leaves on the upper and lower left, and on the right by a single sun-dappled tree standing out in the forest, a waterfall cascades from a ridge at the upper third center, flowing over three stone ridges down to the left, then two more stone ridges back to the right. With a slow shutter speed, the water appears like sheer white cloth draped over the rocks. The slow shutter speed also shows blurred movement in some of the leaves in the upper and lower portions of the image.

An old broken off tree stump sticking out of the blue water of a lake has a red and yellow bobber hung on it, caught by the fishing line snagged on one of the jagged edges on the top of the stump. The water of the lake has concentric circles similar to a warped vinyl record echoing from the base of the stump, as the motion of the water bounces off the impediment. In the ripples of the concentric circles, the wavy reflection of the stump and bobber create an abstract reverse image reflecting off the water surface.

Wild golden, tan, and green grasses backlit by sun rays shining in from a dark background in the upper right. At the top are whispy tan and off-white grasses with full seed heads, in the middle are grasses with tiny golden flower stalks, and in the foreground are green leaves and grasses with a few red wine-colored leaves.

A night scene of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago on the left with red lights in the upper three tiers of the fountain and golden light on the lower tier, with the fountain animal sculpture lit in a green light. On the right, in the distance, red, white, green, and blue fireworks burst from Navy Pier, creating a smoke trail being blown to the upper left. In the left foreground, three people in light colored pants and darker patterned tops have a conversation in front of the fountain.

A yellow and black butterfly with iridescent blue splotches on it's tail sits on a purple flower bunch which is mostly still in buds. In the background, the bright green grasses and leaves make the butterfly and flower stand out.

in the golden orange sunrise light, a single bird takes off from a tree on the left side of frame, flying toward the yellow/white ball of the sun emerging from behind a more distant tree on the right side of frame, with high straight clouds above the sun, the haze of morning fog creating depth from the clear weed stalks in the foreground to the far distant telephone lines deep in the lower center of the frame.

On a background of near black outer space dotted with white, gold, and red stars, centered and diagonally positioned is a large, oblong, mostly pink nebulous cloud of mostly hydrogen gas, the upper left being the brightest, fading to shadows on the lower right. The nebula has defined ridges where shadows define a brain-like shape. Around most of the pink opaque nebula are translucent blue whispy clouds of oxygen gasses creating an aura effect. A few brighter stars are present in front of the nebula, which, along with faint deep red nebulosity winding through areas of the black space behind, give the image a three dimensional quality.

From above the cloud layer, puffy white clouds with dark contrasty undersides jut out of a silvery blue smooth cloud bank with a darker blue sky in the upper third.

On white paper background, black and gray charcoal drawing of a Dachshund dog's head and neck, with large dark eyes looking up at the artist past an inquisitive nose. The dog's ears are floppy and chin-length, with random strands of longer wild hair stringing from them. The dog's neck is fur covered, with some folds showing a bit of age, and sports a simple collar with a single tag dangling from it. A few bits of hair extend beyond the collar, which identifies the bottom of the drawing, fading into the drawing paper after.

On a black background of outer space, white and yellow stars speckle over a skewed heart shaped nebula with the top of the heart shape angling toward the upper left - the larger, or closer appearing, lobe to the left and the smaller, more distant appearing, lobe to the right, and the point at the bottom toward the lower right. A bright gasseous emission is featured at the center, below the point made by the two heart lobes.

Over a black background of space, white, yellow, gold, and red stars of varying sizes randomly dot the entire image, while centered is an eye-shaped cloud of red and orange gasses surrounding a blue center circle of gasses, all semi opaque allowing stars in the background to be seen through the nebulous form.

$On a black background dotted with white, gold, and red stars, the Dumbbell Nebula is centered and roughly a spherical pink translucent ball with blue transluscent wing-like structures on the left and right sides, with the left side blue structure slightly higher than centered on the pink ball, and the right side structure slightly lower than centered on the pink ball. The combination of the pink and blue translucent structures gives an appearance similar to a hard candy disc wrapped in cellophane with the twisted "ears" of the cellophane being the blue structures. In the upper right corner, a white star is bright enough to have four diffraction spikes - or star points - jutting from the top, bottom, left, and right of the star.$