Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Devin-M]

cropped for better screen-viewing:

 

[Devin-M]

this one of Orion Nebula (1344 light years distance, 12 light year radius) was also done similarly to the last one... 8x lights (300mm nikon lens, f/4.5, 2.5sec, 12600iso, raw w/ 36mp full frame nikon dslr body), 10x darks (lens cap on) and 10x flats (towards light w/ plastic bag over lens), no tracking equatorial mount, bortle 5, cropped, software: lightroom, starry landscape stacker & photoshop, northern california 12/31/20 ~8p

pre-processing:

 

[bruha]

Hello, it is very nice,
what is measuring (zooming) i.e. where is for ex. Orion main stars...?

Have nice day

 

[Devin-M]

Hello, it is very nice,
what is measuring (zooming) i.e. where is for ex. Orion main stars...?

Have nice day

I used this site for the astrometric calibration:
http://nova.astrometry.net/upload

You can see a couple individual stars are labeled in the image (42 & 45 Orionis):

To find targets I use the starmap app on my phone.

 

[DennisN]

I used this site for the astrometric calibration:
http://nova.astrometry.net/upload

Hehe, I use that site too.

 

[bruha]

Hi, thank you I see, its quite focused on Orion "sword".. .
Thanks to site notice I will try it

 

[Devin-M]

In case anyone was wondering “why bother shooting flats with a plastic bag over the lens and darks with the lens cap on...”

I just learned about this... it removes lens vignetting and image sensor inconsistencies...

No image processing, single image:

No “Flats” or “Darks,” just 20 “Lights” (lens vignetting looks like bright area in center of image and a sensor inconsistency looks like a pinkish strip along the bottom of the image):

Adding in the “Flats and Darks” removed obvious vignetting:

Cropped for screen-viewing:

astrometric calibration via http://nova.astrometry.net/upload :

 

[Devin-M]

barnard's loop
1/4/21 9pm
bortle 2 - 40 miles north of redding, california
80x dslr 50mm f/2 6sec 25600iso
40x flats
40x darks
no equatorial mount/tracking

detail:

 

[bruha]

Hi, it is beautiful, I never heard about Barnard loop- How its position regarding Great Orion Nebula...?

Have nice day

 

[Devin-M]

Hi, it is beautiful, I never heard about Barnard loop- How its position regarding Great Orion Nebula...?

Have nice day

its a supernova remnant. it looks like a pink half circle starting in the center of the image and proceeding to the left and down all the way to the bottom of the orion constellation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnards_Loop

 

[bruha]

Ou, it really huge in contrast of nebula.. (or at least looks it dep. on distance of course)
Thanks very interesting...

 

[Devin-M]

80x 300mm 4sec f/4.5 25600iso + 40 flats + 40 darks, no tracking / equatorial mount, bortle 2

 

[chemisttree]

80x 300mm 4sec f/4.5 25600iso + 40 flats + 40 darks, no tracking / equatorial mount, bortle 2...

Is the lens you use the Nikkor AIs 300mm f4.5? On a D810?

 

[Devin-M]

Is the lens you use the Nikkor AIs 300mm f4.5? On a D810?

yes on the lens, d800 nikon full frame dslr body.

 

[chemisttree]

yes on the lens, d800 nikon full frame dslr body.

That combo is going to be a real performer if/when you get a tracking mount! I think 30 s subs would really improve your faint fuzzies at the Bortle 2 sky location.

 

[Devin-M]

I was able to get this much nicer photo of andromeda at the bortle 2 location... (both dust rings and the ngc 205 star cloud are clearly visible)

(40x dslr 300mm f4.5 5sec 25600iso no tracking + 40 flats + 40 darks)

compared to bortle 5:

wide shot of the bortle 2 location 40 miles north of redding california (14mm f2.8 15sec 5000iso):

^the light pollution on the horizon is the town of redding california 40 miles away which gets up to about bortle 6)

 

[davenn]

the light pollution on the horizon is the town of redding california

nice work

gosh, haven't been through Redding since 2006

 

[bruha]

HI, excelent , in Czech, Bohmerwald is probably is best maximaly 5 bortle

 

[Andy Resnick]

wide shot of the bortle 2 location 40 miles north of redding california (14mm f2.8 15sec 5000iso):

HI, excelent , in Czech, Bohmerwald is probably is best maximaly 5 bortle

You all have it easy!... I image in typically Bortle 8 conditions :)

 

[bruha]

 

[Keith_McClary]

What Bortle would this be?:

Today

Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries or rain showers or thunderstorms. Wind west 90 km/h gusting to 120. High 8 with temperature falling to plus 1 this afternoon.

 

[Tom.G]

Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries or rain showers or thunderstorms. Wind west 90 km/h gusting to 120. High 8 with temperature falling to plus 1 this afternoon.

What Bortle would this be?:

That's Stay-In-Bed weather!

 

[Devin-M]

I just purchased a dslr lens with a mirror in it from the 1960s called a nikon 500mm f5 reflex, a couple of 2x nikon teleconverters (tc 201 and 301) and a sky watcher star adventurer 2i pro mount. so i should have 1000mm focal dslr and equatorial mount— any have any thoughts on how they’ll do?

500mm lens:
https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/telephotos/50cmf5/index.htm

 

[chemisttree]

That should be great too. So you will have 200, 400, 500, and 1000 covered. Looks like a baby Schmidt-Cassegrain!

 

[davenn]

and a sky watcher star adventurer 2i pro mount. so i should have 1000mm focal dslr and equatorial mount— any have any thoughts on how they’ll do?

I got one of those mounts a couple of months ago but the weather has been so crappy I haven't been able to try it out yet
Tomorro nite ( saturday 16th) I hope to give it it's first try out when out astro club has its under the stars meetup .

I would be doubtful if the 2i PRO mount could handle the weight of your camera and 1000mm as it only has a 5kg max payload limit.

Do you know the weight of that combo ?

I suspect that I will be struggling a bit with my Canon 6D and the 70-200mm f2.8 combo.
6D is 770g including battery
70-200mm is II USM lens -- 1490g (1.49 kg)

Good stability for astrophotography, the gear weight should be kept well below the payload limit of the mount
This applies to any mount/gear comboDave

 

[Devin-M]

According to this the Nikon 500mm f5 reflex lens weighs 1.6kg:

https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/telephotos/50cmf5/index.htm

The D800 camera body weighs 1kg, so I’m up to about 2.6kg. The teleconverter is about 0.2 kg so that’s 2.8kg total for 1000mm focal f/10 with the teleconverter including the camera.

I had been looking at the nikon 600mm f/4 which weighs 5.6 kg but found the 1.6kg 500mm f/5 mirror lens after realizing that would probably be too much weight and size for the mount.

 

[davenn]

According to this the Nikon 500mm f5 reflex lens weighs 1.6kg:
The D800 camera body weighs 1kg, so I’m up to about 2.6kg. The teleconverter is about 0.2 kg so that’s 2.8kg total for 1000mm focal f/10 with the teleconverter including the camera.

That should be good. Look forward to seeing how it goes
Sky still clear here so am looking forward to tonite under the stars the club location is about a Bortle 3-4

The first column is the Bortle number the second is the NELM and the 3rd is the general description

3 Rural Sky	6.6 – 7.0	Some light pollution evident at the horizon. Clouds are illuminated near the horizon. Milky Way still shows structures. M33 easily visible with averted vision. M15, M4, M5, and M22 are distinct naked-eye objects. Surroundings vaguely visible.
4 Rural / Suburban Transition	6.1 – 6.5	Light pollution dome visible in various directions over the horizon. Milky Way above the horizon shows less finer details. M33 is a difficult averted vision object, only visible above 55º. Clouds illuminated but still dark at the Zenith. Surroundings are clearly visible.

My home location is Bortle 7 - 8

7 Suburban / Urban transition (or Full Moon)	4.6 – 5.0	Entire sky looks grayish-white. Strong light sources are evident in any direction. Milky Way invisible; Clouds are brightly lit. M31 and M44 are almost invisible.
8 City Sky	4.1 – 4.5	Sky glows white or orange. The Pleiades are visible but not much else. Dimmer constellations lack key stars.

What Is The Bortle Scale?
Before the Bortle Scale was created, and before it went mainstream, amateur astronomers were used to “eyeballing” the darkness of the sky by assessing the Naked-Eye Limiting Magnitude (NELM).

With NELM, one considers the magnitude of the faintest star visible in the night sky.

Today, the Bortle Scale is probably the most famous classification scale used by amateur astronomers and astrophotographers to estimate the brightness of the night sky.cheers
Dave

 

[Devin-M]

she’s a beauty... a quick test shot was very sharp with no color fringing...

500mm f/5 catadioptric nikon reflex (mirror) lens

 

[DennisN]

500mm f/5 catadioptric nikon reflex (mirror) lens

Really? It looks like the Hubble Space Telescope attached to a camera.

 

[Devin-M]

 

[DennisN]

It looks very cool!

 

[Devin-M]

I'll have to test with some deep sky objects once my tracker arrives but I was able to do this daytime test of some distant trees which looks pretty decent...

iphone 11 pro:

 

[chemisttree]

Save gas and time. Buy a good filter!

 

[Devin-M]

I was able to get this with the new lens-- the vertical lines on each star are caused by the vibration each time the mirror flips up in the dslr and the star trails are caused by the Earth's rotation. I should be able to fix both problems by taking each shot in live view after a timer so the mirror is already flipped up when the shutter releases and the star trails should be fixed with the equatorial mount I have coming in the mail.

bortle 5 (backyard), no tracking, 40x nikkor-reflex focal 500mm, f/5, 2.5sec, 25600iso + 40 darks + 40 flats, nikon d800 full frame dslr, cropped

... or maybe it’s time for a mirrorless camera...

 

[collinsmark]

I was able to get this with the new lens-- the vertical lines on each star are caused by the vibration each time the mirror flips up

I have a couple of Nikon bodies and both of them have a function that allows you keep the mirror up prior to exposure. And some sort of cable control of your DSLR -- whether that be a dedicated cable or USB -- can be game changer; that way you don't have to touch the camera (even the shutter release button). The dedicated cable that I have for my Nikons is programmable, allowing for multiple exposures (I rarely use my Nikon setup any longer, but it's there if I need it).