Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[davenn]

With stars
looks totally weird without stars

 

[DennisN]

A friend just sent me a link to this STUNNING video.
Seeing a craft land on another planet, and filmed live, is just simply a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

 

[Andy Resnick]

( http://nova.astrometry.net/upload )

Thanks for this link! I gave it a try with one of my images (downscaled to 33%, 8-bit TIFF) and it worked!

Thanks!

 

[Devin-M]

I gave it a try with one of my images (downscaled to 33%, 8-bit TIFF) and it worked!

I’ve started setting the quality setting on my dslr camera to capture both the RAW image and a low res jpg, so that while I’m trying to point the camera I can transfer the low res jpg from the dslr to iphone via the camera dongle, then upload to http://nova.astrometry.net/upload to find where I’m pointing, then I can adjust as needed til the aim is close to perfect. Also for plate solving, a 10 sec exposure is good enough, then when I’m pointed properly I crank the exposure time up to 2min, etc.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Whoa- the site managed to handle the full mosaic:

 

[Devin-M]

With stars
looks totally weird without stars

To me it looks like a lobster. M86, M84, NGC 4388, NGC 4387 are the face, NGC’s 4474, 4468, 4459 are the end of the tail, M87 & NGC 4371 are the claws. NGC 4402 is a raised eyebrow.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I second using nova.astrometry.net, it's a lot of fun to see how many deep sky objects it can find- here's one of the Leo Triplet-

But it failed to identify a small smudge near the Ring nebula (I marked it with a square)- it's present in the SDSS survey but not named...? Any guesses?

 

[Devin-M]

I would try cropping the image and inputting just that area...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Ah- Aladin to the rescue! It's LEDA 2029852, a galaxy:

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=LEDA 2029852&NbIdent=1

 

[bruha]

Hello, still one sun green filt. image from today (sharpened and expos. adjusted with Gimp-I supose some granulation is recognizable ...

 

[chemisttree]

I can’t wait for solar activity to come back!
Today’s SOHO image...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hello, still one sun green filt. image from today (sharpened and expos. adjusted with Gimp-I supose some granulation is recognizable ...

I can’t wait for solar activity to come back!
Today’s SOHO image...

What's that thing? Haven't seen it in months...

 

[chemisttree]

Hello, still one sun green filt. image from today (sharpened and expos. adjusted with Gimp-I supose some granulation is recognizable ...

Are you observing using an aperture mask or full aperture? Here is an example of an aperture mask. Discussion here.

 

[bruha]

Hello, I observing with full aperture, I don't know this way.. you mean put lit over Sun baader folie or just lit without folie?
Thanks,,,

 

[chemisttree]

You put the large cap on the tube, remove the small cap and place a solar filter over the small opening. Your Baader green filter would still go on your eyepiece.
You will need 1 more filter to cover the small aperture in the tube cap.

Do you currently not have a full aperture solar filter of some kind? ! If you don’t, we should talk before your next observation!

 

[Devin-M]

Speaking of filters, just ordered one of these clip-in Narrow band pass (6nm) Hydrogen Alpha filters for Nikon full frame cameras so I can image nebulas in moonlight or with light pollution... hopefully works well, was over $500US...

https://www.astronomik.com/en/clip-...mik-h-alpha-6nm-ccd-clip-filter-nikon-xl.html

I felt as if the moonlight had ruined this pic of the Heart Nebula so hopefully this will be a step in the right direction...

 

[chemisttree]

I ordered one of these for the same reason!

 

[bruha]

Hi, thank you for answer, I have sun baader folie over full telecope aperture. So I mean if I should apply cap with small opening after I put baader folie on telescope it will be OK?
Thanks

 

[chemisttree]

Hi, thank you for answer, I have sun baader folie over full telecope aperture. So I mean if I should apply cap with small opening after I put baader folie on telescope it will be OK?
Thanks

I don’t think the cap will work with the full aperture foil filter but if you can... it will work. If you do that, you will be observing through a small opening in the cap and the light would go through both the foil filter and the green filter. It will be much dimmer but you should have much better resolution.

 

[bruha]

Thank you, I will try it (eventually I wil put foil just over small opening if its will not work)

 

[Devin-M]

according to this a full moon is equivalent to a bortle 7...

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/714908-bortle-equivalent-for-a-full-moon/

apparently there will be a couple hours of moonlessness by wednesday...

 

[DennisN]

Two more cool links regarding NASA:s Perseverance on Mars:

NASA captures FIRST SOUNDS on the surface of Mars

(where a Martian wind can be heard)
NASA’S Perseverance Rover’s First 360 View of Mars (Official)

(a scrollable 360 degree panorama; click "Play" and then "Pause" and then close the "More videos" popup. Then you can start scrolling around the panorama with the mouse (while holding down the left mouse button) )

 

[Andy Resnick]

Finally, a clear night- first one in 4 months. Cropped and 50% downsized image of Horsehead and Flame nebulae @ 400/2.8, 3.9 hours integration @ ISO 500:

 

[bruha]

Hi, it is really beautiful... what is cca app. diameter of this objects (arcsec..?)
Thank you and lot of succes!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hi, it is really beautiful... what is cca app. diameter of this objects (arcsec..?)
Thank you and lot of succes!

Thanks! Not sure of the apparent size- I think the flame nebula is about 0.5 x 0.5 degrees.

 

[Devin-M]

I did a similar angle a few weeks ago... ran it through nova.astrometry.net/upload ... roughly 2 degrees by 1.3 degrees...

Center (RA, Dec):	(85.333, -2.390)
Center (RA, hms):	05h 41m 19.894s
Center (Dec, dms):	-02° 23' 23.720"
Size:	1.98 x 1.32 deg
Radius:	1.191 deg
Pixel scale:	7.13 arcsec/pixel

 

[Andy Resnick]

Two clear nights in a row! I tried imaging Orion @ 105/1.4, 2.5 hours total integration time @ ISO 64. Full frame:

Unfortunately, it looks terrible at 100%- shooting wide-open is indeed best for low light but also maximizes lens aberrations. I probably need to stop it down to about f/2 to really clean everything up... maybe next time. Regardless, I'm pleased with the 'efficiency' (2.5 hours represents 70% of the total time spent outside, and 90% of the acquired frames were acceptable) using this lens.

 

[Devin-M]

Looks like perhaps you had a bit of local light pollution such as from a street light shining on the lens a little bit on the left side of that frame.

I’m eagerly waiting for the sun to go down to try out this 6 nm narrow band hydrogen Alpha clip in sensor filter for nikon full frame cameras on a nebula in a moonless cloudless bortle 2 tonight. It looks interesting... almost a mirror finish but takes on a reddish tinge when held up to the light.

 

[chemisttree]

Looks like perhaps you had a bit of local light pollution such as from a street light shining on the lens a little bit on the left side of that frame.

I’m eagerly waiting for the sun to go down to try out this 6 nm narrow band hydrogen Alpha clip in sensor filter for nikon full frame cameras on a nebula in a moonless cloudless bortle 2 tonight. It looks interesting... almost a mirror finish but takes on a reddish tinge when held up to the light.

View attachment 279096

View attachment 279097

Oooh! Aaahh!
Shouldn’t it be cloudy when you receive your gear?
Looking forward to your results tonight!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Looks like perhaps you had a bit of local light pollution such as from a street light shining on the lens a little bit on the left side of that frame

Not exactly- it is an artifact, but not from that. It's from post-processing to fine-tune field flattening, resulting in what can be thought of as out-of-tolerance stack-up along the edges. I was able to crop off the effect from 3 of the 4 sides.

Have fun with the new filter!

 

[Devin-M]

Heart Nebula - IC 1805 - Sharpless 2-190 - 7500 light years
45 minute exposure - 9 x 5min - 6400iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonless Bortle 2 (3/3/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount
Astronomik Narrow Band (6nm) Hydrogen Alpha Filter For Nikon Full Frame DSLR

I'm quite happy with the hydrogen alpha filter. Well worth the $500 when comparing to the previous shot with just the Rollei Astroklar filter in a moonlit bortle 2. It was a moonless, cloudless bortle 2 area. I'll probably end up compositing both shots together.

Center (RA, Dec): (38.250, 61.296)
Center (RA, hms): 02h 33m 00.048s
Center (Dec, dms): +61° 17' 46.914"
Size: 3.07 x 2.05 deg
Radius: 1.848 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel

detail...

 

[chemisttree]

Nice round stars! Very good for 5 min subs unguided.

 

[Devin-M]

Thank you! I also took this shot of the Flaming Star nebula during the same session, similar shooting method to the last one...

Center (RA, Dec): (79.808, 33.951)
Center (RA, hms): 05h 19m 13.990s
Center (Dec, dms): +33° 57' 03.901"
Size: 3.03 x 2.02 deg
Radius: 1.823 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel

 

[chemisttree]

That Ha filter is a winner.

 

[Devin-M]

I thought this was somewhat interesting... I've always heard that sensor noise is temperature dependent. Well after my last imaging session, I was shooting dark frames in the car on the way home (10 shots x 5 minutes @ 6400iso with the lens cap on). For those that don't know, the dark frames are taken to subtract the non-random sensor noise from the final astrophotography image. The interesting part is the camera was heating up the whole time I was shooting the dark frames from the outdoor temperature of about 35 deg fahrenheit to the cozy temp in my car (70 degrees f?). I made a animated gif showing the dark frames. I have increased the brightness of all the individual shots all uniformly so the sensor noise becomes visible, but what can clearly be seen from this is as the camera heats up, the sensor noise obviously increases. No surprise here but it's interesting to see it visually none-the-less.