Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[1oldman2]

You guys sure make me want a nice "Scope" I'm feeling motivated but I have a lot to learn.

 

[DennisN]

You guys sure make me want a nice "Scope" I'm feeling motivated but I have a lot to learn.

I feel exactly the same . I've been thinking about a scope for years now, but I've had other things to do, and if I get a scope I want to put it to good use. I have been very tempted by this entry level scope, which have got some pretty good reviews (e.g. it won the comparison with other scopes here: http://telescopes.toptenreviews.com/telescopes-for-beginners-review/celestron-cosmos-review.html )...
And a clip here:

 

[Andy Resnick]

You guys sure make me want a nice "Scope" I'm feeling motivated but I have a lot to learn.

I can speak from experience- people here are excellent resources for learning this stuff. Go for it!

 

[1oldman2]

Go for it!

I'm going to start getting the ducks in a row, it will take time but I have been accused of having too much patience.
I also find these sites inspirational.
http://www.atscope.com.au/BRO/bardenridgeobs.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

 

[1oldman2]

I feel exactly the same . I've been thinking about a scope for years now, but I've had other things to do, and if I get a scope I want to put it to good use. I have been very tempted by this entry level scope, which have got some pretty good reviews (e.g. it won the comparison with other scopes here: http://telescopes.toptenreviews.com/telescopes-for-beginners-review/celestron-cosmos-review.html)...
And a clip here:

Another investment opportunity missed.
http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/astronomy/telescopes/cosmos-90gt-wifi-telescope $400.00 US
http://telescopes.toptenreviews.com/telescopes-for-beginners-review/celestron-cosmos-review.html -Discontinued
Amazon $670.47 US

That would be a nice starter.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Now that I have PEC working fairly well, I'm able to acquire many more useful images- here's 40 minutes total integration time, with fairly strict thresholds for image acceptability based on DSS 'score' and 'FWHM':

A small section of the total field, showing NGC 6207:

And a 100% crop, cranking up the saturation ('cuz I can...)

Thanks to davenn for helpful hints...

 

[1oldman2]

 

[DennisN]

Simply s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g...

Hubble’s High-Definition Panoramic View of the Andromeda Galaxy
This sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor.
Credits: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler

Page source: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-high-definition-panoramic-view-of-the-andromeda-galaxy
Full size image is here (click twice to zoom in order to see the enormous amount of stars as small pixels...)

 

[1oldman2]

Simply s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g...

Page source: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-high-definition-panoramic-view-of-the-andromeda-galaxy
Full size image is here (click twice to zoom in order to see the enormous amount of stars as small pixels...)

 

[1oldman2]

 

[1oldman2]

This is pretty cool.
http://www.space.com/33059-massive-coronal-hole-formed-on-sun-zoom-in-video.html

 

[DennisN]

Thought I might post this in this thread; a tool for those who are interested in making visualizations...
Cosmographia Mission Visualization Tool (NASA)
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/cosmographia.html

NAIF offers for public use a modified version of the open source visualization tool named Cosmographia. Cosmographia is an interactive tool used to produce 3D visualizations of planet ephemerides, sizes and shapes; spacecraft trajectories and orientations; and instrument field-of-views and footprints. Cosmographia has many user controls, allowing one to manage what is displayed, what vantage point is used, and how fast the animation progresses.

 

[1oldman2]

Thought I might post this in this thread; a tool for those who are interested in making visualizations...
Cosmographia Mission Visualization Tool (NASA)
http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/cosmographia.html

Thanks ! this looks interesting, have you spent much time working with it ?
Just a quick note, while downloading this my Antivirus pulled a (Trojan-Gen-2) from it. This sometimes happens on certain legitimate software downloads so I'm curious to see if a critical piece will be missing when I try and run the program. I'll comment on that after I look into it further.

 

[Andy Resnick]

First night imaging the Ring Nebula (M57)- seeing was very poor, I was only able to acquire 3 minutes worth of exposure. Full frame:

and 100%

Not enough exposure time to capture IC1296 (yet), but I can already easily see the central white dwarf.

 

[DennisN]

Thanks ! this looks interesting, have you spent much time working with it ?

No, I just got the link from a friend and thought I might share it here.

 

[1oldman2]

No, I just got the link from a friend and thought I might share it here.

I'm still playing with the program to see what all I can do with it, looks pretty cool. About the Trojan.Gen.2, I've decided that most likely came from my Granddaughter playing minecraft through her Steam account and my antivirus just happened to catch it while analyzing the site you posted. No worries

 

[DennisN]

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
A bigger picture is here.
(from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150205.html)

 

[1oldman2]

From http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/horseheadir_hubble_1225.jpg

 

[davenn]

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
A bigger picture is here.
(from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150205.html)

that's one I have yet to imageD

 

[davenn]

From http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/horseheadir_hubble_1225.jpg

View attachment 101998

imaged that one recently, but my gear cannot compete with that of the HST

Dave

 

[1oldman2]

<<< On my "wishlist" as well. At the present, here is the best my "equipment" can do.

I should add that my gear consists of a "Cheesy" cell phone camera on 4 times zoom, the "mount" is my hand braced against a pick-up.
Of course after posting this I came across, http://www.astronomysource.com/2011/12/29/astrophotography-without-a-telescope/ Who would have figured?

 

[1oldman2]

I mentioned in another thread not long ago a book from the early 80's called "From Quark to Quasar", basically a non technical but visually very cool study of scale in our universe. Lately whilst perusing the internet I came upon this link http://www.numbersleuth.org/universe/ which brought to mind the old Q to Q book.
It's a very good lesson on perspective.

 

[1oldman2]

Carina Nebula by Hubble http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/ is a great site

 

[1oldman2]

View attachment 102031 <<< On my "wishlist" as well. At the present, here is the best my "equipment" can do.
View attachment 102032
I should add that my gear consists of a "Cheesy" cell phone camera on 4 times zoom, the "mount" is my hand braced against a pick-up.
Of course after posting this I came across, http://www.astronomysource.com/2011/12/29/astrophotography-without-a-telescope/ Who would have figured?

http://www.space.com/33191-take-astronomy-pictures-with-mobile-devices.html =

 

[1oldman2]

Don't forget to go into settings on the player and turn up the resolution to the appropriate setting as each of these begins.

Hubble zoom on milky way center

Veil Supernova 4K

Monkey head nebula Pillars

And finally I've found a digital clock I like.
http://www.space.com/33210-cosmic-watch-app-astronomical-clock.html

Cool images here also... http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/data/rosetta/osiris_escort.html

 

[Andy Resnick]

This time of year Cygnus is favorably positioned (for me). It's one of my favorite regions to photograph because of the star density- at 23 minutes of exposure time, stars fill in 3% of the sky. Here's 2 frames, one located at γ-Cygni and the other at the North American Nebula:

Each of these fields of view covers about 5 degrees (400/2.8 lens). A few 100% crops:

NGC 6910 (Rocking Horse cluster)

M29

And a flicker of the crescent nebula

The dense dust clouds form interesting 'holes' in the otherwise dense starfield:

Another interesting aspect of these images is that the size distribution of the stars, which is proportional to the magnitude distribution, obeys Poisson statistics- which it should, because thermal photons also obey Poisson statistics.

 

[DennisN]

It's one of my favorite regions to photograph because of the star density- at 23 minutes of exposure time, stars fill in 3% of the sky.

Awesome to look at those photos! . So many stars, so many places, so many things we can see/imagine being there (well, having been there ). But we can only look, not visit and not touch... I'm getting poetic over here .

 

[davenn]

Of course after posting this I came across, http://www.astronomysource.com/2011/12/29/astrophotography-without-a-telescope/ Who would have figured?

do you have any other camera that has the capability of multiple seconds of exposure time ?

 

[1oldman2]

do you have any other camera that has the capability of multiple seconds of exposure time ?

Not currently, I do plan an "upgrade" soon and that is one of the main features I'm looking into, I'm currently educating myself to maximize the "bang per buck" on a limited budget.

 

[1oldman2]

These images speak for themselves.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2016/0624-wise-views-in-infrared.html

 

[davenn]

Not currently, I do plan an "upgrade" soon and that is one of the main features I'm looking into, I'm currently educating myself to maximize the "bang per buck" on a limited budget.

hi ya

this one is about the cheapest I could find that has manual focus
manual focus is critical for doing star photography

http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod12066.htmlet me know if that is within your budget or you can extend a bit further so I can make some better suggestions
obviously ... have a look in your local camera shop and get the US$ price for that model Dave

 

[1oldman2]

hi ya

this one is about the cheapest I could find that has manual focus
manual focus is critical for doing star photography

http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod12066.htmlet me know if that is within your budget or you can extend a bit further so I can make some better suggestions
obviously ... have a look in your local camera shop and get the US$ price for that model Dave

Hi Dave, That would be an ideal camera, thanks for the suggestion. I have been playing around with my brothers NIKON COOLPIX L840 and considering that however the Canon seems to be a much better deal, (I have found that where optics and electronics is concerned "better deal" does not mean cheaper) The price range of the Canon is about right and as you can see, aside from the sale price the US equivalent is about the same price as in Oz dollars, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/canon-p...lack/2761156.p?id=1219556849220&skuId=2761156
Now all I have to do is package this deal and sell it to my wife as something she really needs also, This shouldn't be all that difficult as she's been bugging me about getting a new camera for a while. We live on a very conservative budget while she is recovering from a stroke but should be able to put that amount together within the next month so hopefully the sale price will still be available in early August, with a little luck by October-November a first good telescope should be in the works also, The mountain peaks here average between 2000 and 3000 meters and when the air is cold they make some awesome viewing of the night sky.
Cheers, 1oldman.

 

[OmCheeto]

Hi Dave, That would be an ideal camera, thanks for the suggestion. I have been playing around with my brothers NIKON COOLPIX L840 and considering that however the Canon seems to be a much better deal, (I have found that where optics and electronics is concerned "better deal" does not mean cheaper) The price range of the Canon is about right and as you can see, aside from the sale price the US equivalent is about the same price as in Oz dollars, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/canon-p...lack/2761156.p?id=1219556849220&skuId=2761156
Now all I have to do is package this deal and sell it to my wife as something she really needs also, This shouldn't be all that difficult as she's been bugging me about getting a new camera for a while. We live on a very conservative budget while she is recovering from a stroke but should be able to put that amount together within the next month so hopefully the sale price will still be available in early August, with a little luck by October-November a first good telescope should be in the works also, The mountain peaks here average between 2000 and 3000 meters and when the air is cold they make some awesome viewing of the night sky.
Cheers, 1oldman.

Whatever you do, listen to that one line; "manual focus is critical for doing star photography"

I want to stab myself...

 

[davenn]

I have been playing around with my brothers NIKON COOLPIX L840 and considering that however the Canon seems to be a much better deal,

not only is the canon a better deal
that Nikon Coolpix DOESNT have manual focus and only has a longest exposure of 4 seconds

The Canon does have manual focus and it's longest exposure time is 15 seconds, which is great for star pix

ohhh exposure time is inversely proportional to focal length ... the longer the focal length the shorter the exposure time before star trails occurDave

PS... all these posts should really be in another thread of their own

 

[Andy Resnick]

manual focus is critical for doing star photography

Truer words have rarely been spoken.