Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Devin-M]

This one seems to be a small and nifty allround lens, and easy to pack

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/1115/20/nikon-ai-ed-600mm-4-lens-ct-602-case_1_7392b8dd2021eac21b3bfca438743a9e.jpg

https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/fu...9f0936246892c7c8c3e8b3d59f4.jpg?itok=2Vft_6xE

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images2/1/1115/20/nikon-ai-ed-600mm-4-lens-ct-602-case_1_7392b8dd2021eac21b3bfca438743a9e.jpg

https://i1.wp.com/pixelpluck.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sigma-200-500mm-lens.jpg

 

[DennisN]

Ooooh! Look what came in the mail today!

I thought so!

I just had an idea: Try the filter on the cloudy sky.
Maybe it can filter out the clouds and yield a clear view through them.

(Directed at the Internet in general):

There is a bunch of anti-light pollution filters available on the net.
We don't need any more of those, thanks!

Can someone please develop an anti-cloud filter for us`?
Anyone? Anyone?

 

[Devin-M]

I ordered the other 2 filters — Sulphur II 6nm and Oxygen III 6nm to go with the Hydrogen Alpha 6nm ... this way I can collect narrowband from home and when the moon is out, then I’ll collect RGB when it’s moonless from bortle 2, then I’ll superimpose all 3 bands (R-Sulphur, G- Hydrogen, Blue- Oxygen) over the RGB to get Hubble palette + RGB.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Another night viewing Orion- Flame and Horsehead nebulae @ 400/2.8, 4.8 hours @ ISO 320.

And a 100% crop:

 

[Andy Resnick]

Amazing you get them with such a minor adjustment. Very nice, though.

Thanks! I needed some time to respond on this point, because you noticed a phenomenon that gets to the whole point of image stacking, or at least my approach to image stacking: dynamic range compression.

That is to say, the images that I post here are compressed from the original 32-bit/channel (in reality, around 24-bit to 26-bit) image to an 8-bit/channel image. When I post-process, my goal is to preserve and emphasize local intensity gradients, so that objects that may differ by 5 or 6 magnitudes (or more- up to about 10) maintain contrast in the final 8-bit image.

For example, two objects that differ by 6 stellar magnitudes appear as 1:250 relative brightness and two objects that differ by 10 stellar magnitudes appear as 1:10000 brightness ratio. 8-bits simply can't display either situation.

The diffraction pattern is not clearly visible in any of the original 14-bit RAW images because the amount of optical power that is diffracted is (nearly) negligible. However, by dynamic range compression, I increase the relative visibility of the diffraction spikes. In a sense, what I do is a variant of Dolby noise reduction.

 

[chemisttree]

Can someone please develop an anti-cloud filter for us`?
Anyone? Anyone?

My cloud filter would come with solid rocket boosters.
And what a filter cassette!

 

[Devin-M]

I haven’t done any stacking/processing on this yet whatsoever— it’s a straight download from dslr to iphone of one of the subs from last night of the Rosette nebula through the 500mm f/5 mirror lens - 3 minutes at 1600 iso with no filter, just straight RGB. The nebula is faintly visible toward the center of the image. I’ll edit it soon to bring out the nebula detail hidden away in the shadow information in the RAW files. I figure I’ll do the narrowband imaging when the moon is out, otherwise I’d be bored. This was moonless crystal clear bortle 2 about 30 miles from home.

I had a but of a frustration, fell asleep and the star adventurer 2i equatorial mount had stopped running for 45 minutes so I only got about 75 minutes at 3 mins per shot.

 

[DennisN]

Hello, please do you know somebody how to adjust exp. time clone and ISO in Open Camera?

You mean Open Camera for Android, right?

(1) Make sure you enable "Camera2 API" in the settings, which let's you manually set exposure time, focus etc. and also let's you save photos as RAW.

(2) Setting the ISO manually is (if I remember correctly) already possible by default. Click the "-/+" button in the camera interface.

When I click the "-/+" button in Open Camera on my LG G4, a small window pops up where I can manually set ISO and shutter speed (with Camera2 API enabled in my settings).

 

[bruha]

Hello, yes thank you i found "Camera 2 API". I just do not know which buton is "-/+" .
Can I still ask which software you use for tracking-green circles nebula mark on your image?
Thank you and lot of succes

 

[Devin-M]

Can I still ask which software you use for tracking-green circles nebula mark on your image?

Upload your astro-photo to:

http://nova.astrometry.net/upload

Once uploaded it will tell you where in the sky the picture was taken and put green circles around the objects in the frame to identify them. It’s called “plate solving.”

Lately I’ve been plate solving while out in the field while pointing the camera to confirm I’m aiming in the right place — I have an adapter that let's me download pictures from the DSLR camera directly to my phone. This saves a huge amount of frustration when trying to point the camera on very small targets. Before I started doing this, on at least one occasion I thought I spent 2 hours photographing a nebula only to find I had completely missed the target. That could be very frustrating if it’s the only clear night that week and you drove an hour or more to get to a dark enough sky.

 

[Devin-M]

I think I may have figured out why the Star Adventurer 2i equatorial mount randomly stopped turning in Star mode, and how to easily fix it (long story short: software bug).

See 4th post in this topic:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/738337-skywatcher-star-adventurer-pro-2i-help/

Basically when you use the app mode, and program the mount to function as an intervalometer, but then you switch back to normal star mode (non app) while using a separate intervalometer, the mount will only run for as long as you had programmed into the app mode, even though you aren’t in that mode...

By the way I stopped using the app mode because it seems to only turn while it’s taking pictures then stops so you lose your framing if you fiddle around with settings in between shots, etc, so I’ve been using the non app mode with an external intervalometer.

 

[DennisN]

Hello, yes thank you i found "Camera 2 API". I just do not know which buton is "-/+"

Here's the "-/+" button in the Open Camera UI (I've drawn a red circle around it):

 

[bruha]

O yes, thank you very much

 

[Devin-M]

uncropped, 500mm focal f/5, 17 x 3min (51 minutes of 75 minutes captured) + 12 darks + 40 flats, 1600 iso, full frame dslr, starry sky stacker, lightroom, photoshop, moonless bortle 2, rgb no filter

Center (RA, Dec): (97.806, 4.928)
Center (RA, hms): 06h 31m 13.549s
Center (Dec, dms): +04° 55' 40.652"
Size: 3.98 x 2.66 deg
Radius: 2.395 deg

detail...

 

[Andy Resnick]

A clear moonless weekend; this happens maybe twice a year here, so I took full advantage, imaging (among other targets) M51 @ 800/5.6, 1.7 hours @ ISO 1000. Full frame:

and 1:1 crop:

 

[Devin-M]

Heart Nebula - 20”x30” ink on metal

 

[Andy Resnick]

Here's what I mostly imaged last weekend- the Flame and Horsehead nebulae in Orion:

This image represents 6.5 hours of imaging @ 400/2.8, ISO 320. This field of view has been cropped to approximately that of a APS-C format image. Some of the fainter features are beginning to come into view, and the noise level is approaching tolerable- here's a 200% crop:

This represents what I can achieve post-processing with a round of noise reduction (Neat Image) followed by background subtraction (Fiji).

 

[DennisN]

I got this link from a friend today... a page with stunning images and a LARGE mosaic of the Milky Way.

Milky Way, 12 years, 1250 hours of exposures and 125 x 22 degrees of sky

It took nearly twelve years to collect enough data for this high resolution gigapixel class mosaic image of the Milky Way. Total exposure time used is around 1250 hours between 2009 and 2021. The final photo is about 100 000 pixels wide, it has 234 individual mosaic panels stitched together and 1,7 gigapixels.

A thumbnail of the mosaic:

Page: http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2021/03/gigapixel-mosaic-of-milky-way-1250.html

 

[Devin-M]

Milky Way, 12 years, 1250 hours of exposures and 125 x 22 degrees of sky

When my package arrives I'll have to try 3 hours of exposures (narrowband Sulphur-Hydrogen-Oxygen) and 104 x 80 degrees (14mm/2.8 full-frame)...

 

[Andy Resnick]

I got this link from a friend today... a page with stunning images and a LARGE mosaic of the Milky Way.

That's amazing! I'm not sure what is more impressive- the ability to merge 12 years' worth of images or the ability to compensate for 12 years worth of digital sensor improvements.

And now I am lusting over his 200/1.8 lens:

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/20/canon-200mm-f1-8-legendary-lens-known-eye-sauron/

And this bad-boy lens:

https://petapixel.com/2017/04/27/canon-300mm-f1-8-yes-monster-lens-exists/

 

[Devin-M]

Hubble palette unlocked...

^ Astronomik 6nm ionized Sulphur, Hydrogen and Oxygen narrowband filters for Nikon DSLR full-frame sensor from Germany

PS it is cloudy the next couple days but there is a Sharp Shinned Hawk outside my window waiting for birds at my girlfriend’s bird feeder...

600mm f/9 1600iso 1/320sec

 

[Devin-M]

This was supposed to be my first attempt with the narrowband 6nm clip in oxygen filter. I was under the impression it would block all light pollution and moonlight. So I attempted to image NGC 7822 which is quite a large angular size nebula with the 300mm/4.5 + 6nm oxygen narrowband filter, 4x10 minute subs at 1600 iso. It should fill a large portion of the center of the full frame image.

Well not only could I not find any nebulosity in the images after stretching, I discovered local light pollution in the form of LED street lights will go right through the filter, even though the light isn't in the frame. I made an animated gif of the 4x10minute shots I got and as the equatorial mount rotates closer and closer to a street light, & the corner of the image where the light is close to gets brighter and brighter. The target was also fairly close the horizon so probably has a lot of LED streetlight caused skyglow as well.

So oddly, even though I'm shooting narrowband, I'll probably still have to drive out to a bortle 2 to get any useful data.

Single 10minute 1600iso 300mm/4.5 sub (unmodified from camera):

This is what I should've seen with this framing (from Stellarium):

100 Percent Crop:

Animation of 4 subs:

Center (RA, Dec):	(1.082, 67.231)
Center (RA, hms):	00h 04m 19.603s
Center (Dec, dms):	+67° 13' 51.863"
Size:	6.85 x 4.57 deg
Radius:	4.115 deg

Histogram:

 

[chemisttree]

Output from LED streetlight has a significant broadband spectrum.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.re...tive-of-the-lights-used-in_fig2_299395983/amp

Compared to sodium lamps.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-vapor_lamp#Low-pressure_sodium

...and mercury lamps. Pretty much a discrete source below 750 but not entirely so.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Emission-spectrum-of-a-mercury-vapor-lamp_fig5_223137703

 

[Keith_McClary]

LED streetlight

In my town they are just replacing sodium with blinding LEDs. I hardly need lights in my living room now.

 

[chemisttree]

Yeah. Did you see the huge emission in the blue? Not good for old eyes!

 

[collinsmark]

This was supposed to be my first attempt with the narrowband 6nm clip in oxygen filter. I was under the impression it would block all light pollution and moonlight. So I attempted to image NGC 7822 which is quite a large angular size nebula with the 300mm/4.5 + 6nm oxygen narrowband filter, 4x10 minute subs at 1600 iso. It should fill a large portion of the center of the full frame image.

It isn't really a good time of year to capture NGC 7822 since it starts out quite low near the northwestern horizon at sunset, and then just gets worse from there. You should have better luck for this target when it's closer to the zenith (i.e., higher in the sky). For example, in September it will pretty high in the sky around midnight, giving you many hours before and after for good imaging.

It also looks like you have some glare to contend with from that streetlight. Still, that might be manageable for targets higher in the sky. [Edit: you might consider setting up behind a barrier for the streetlamp right next to your house.]

And, all else being the same, you should have more luck pulling out nebulosity with Sii and Hα than with Oiii, at least for NGC 7822 (and well, most other emission nebula, for that matter -- Oiii is usually always the problematic one).

One website that's a godsend for finding good targets for the particular time of year is Telescopius (https://telescopius.com/) Not only does it provide local weather forecasts (if your region of the world supports it), but also has a wonderful tool for recommending targets based on preferred type and sky-location of target based on the time of the year. It's my new first stop place to go for choosing targets. With an account you can save your favorite targets to a list (to access later in the year) for easy access when choosing targets for the night.

 

[Devin-M]

Suppose I drove to a Bortle 2, would the moon be an issue for collecting Oiii data? Does it emit similar broadband light pollution to LEDs?

 

[collinsmark]

Suppose I drove to a Bortle 2, would the moon be an issue for collecting Oiii data? Does it emit similar broadband light pollution to LEDs?

The Moon's spectrum is pretty flat. So if the Moon is close to your target, then yes, It can be an issue (but less-so than if you weren't shooting narrowband).

Again though, I think the biggest problem with your recent NGC 7822 adventure was you were using a target too close to the horizon. You lose a lot of signal when shooting through all that extra atmosphere.

Of the three narrowband filters, Oiii is the most susceptible to light pollution, whether that be from moonlight or LEDs. Oiii also typically has the lowest signal strength of the three for most nebula* (there are exceptions such as planetary nebulae and supernovae remnants).

Don't give up on imaging in the city, even with a bit of moonlight, with your narrowband filters. You may have success yet. Just try to choose targets higher in the sky (less atmosphere corresponds to more signal). A little moonlight isn't a big deal as long as the moon is not right next to your target. If you have the choice, pick your Oiii exposures to coincide with times that have the least amount of moonlight. You can combat glare (from streetlamps) by blocking the light with a bedsheet or anything you have laying around.

*[Edit: On second thought, this really depends on the target. Often Sii has the lowest signal strength. Still, Oiii is more susceptible to light pollution.]

 

[Keith_McClary]

I tried Skygems. This is 10 minutes with their 20" scope in Namibia. Tarantula Nebula.

Cost €1.86 (with the EarlyAdopter 50% off).
It took 2 weeks, probably because I ordered just before new moon.
This is a "preview", the full data will come later.
I bought more time than I intended, so I have €4.14 left. Anything you would like to image? They have a scope in Spain for the N hemisphere.

Edit: There is a choice of filters: luminance, R, G, B, Ha7, OIII, SII. This was luminance.
Here is a multi-color with longer exposures by Eduardo.

 

[chemisttree]

I tried Skygems. This is 10 minutes with their 20" scope in Namibia. Tarantula Nebula.
Cost €1.86 (with the EarlyAdopter 50% off).
It took 2 weeks, probably because I ordered just before new moon.
This is a "preview", the full data will come later.
I bought more time than I intended, so I have €4.14 left. Anything you would like to image? They have a scope in Spain for the N hemisphere.

I’ve always liked M104.

This is cheap!

 

[Keith_McClary]

I’ve always liked M104.

This is cheap!

M104 is too far away ! (They show this when you make the request.)

 

[bruha]

Hello, this is Rigel by SV Ebony eyepiece camera, standard and low exposition.
I have just problem with this camera, that images are too grainy ( as low resolutions but it is set to cca 1200x1900 pix.) as seen on low exp. image.
Can I ask about this Skygem prices?
Thank you and lot of succes

 

[Devin-M]

Hello, this is Rigel by SV Ebony eyepiece camera, standard and low exposition.
I have just problem with this camera, that images are too grainy ( as low resolutions but it is set to cca 1200x1900 pix.) as seen on low exp. image.

Probably the easiest way to get into astrophotography would be to start with Astro-Landscapes where you capture the ground and sky in one shot. This can be done with a tripod, cheap DSLR and ordinary lens. Once you get comfortable with focusing, exposure settings etc, then you can start adding to the challenge with longer lenses, equatorial mounts, filters, stacking, darks and flats, etc.

single 14mm lens, f/2.8 15sec 5000iso full frame dslr processed through adobe lightroom, bortle 2:

 

[Klystron]

Probably the easiest way to get into astrophotography would be to start with Astro-Landscapes where you capture the ground and sky in one shot. This can be done with a tripod, cheap DSLR and ordinary lens. Once you get comfortable with focusing, exposure settings etc, then you can start adding to the challenge with longer lenses, equatorial mounts, filters, stacking, darks and flats, etc.

single 14mm lens, f/2.8 15sec 5000iso full frame dslr processed through adobe lightroom, bortle 2:

View attachment 280250

Apologies for Art intruding into a science thread, but I have painted many similar landscapes. Capturing the diffused light in the sky brought down to Earth in the lower right third of the composition, is magnificent. Is that a reflection from a waterfall? Or artificial lights such as at Yosemite?

The sparse natural almost top heavy trees provide foreground for the meandering fog, enhanced by the right-leaning foliage at lower left. One can not separate photographic lens artefact from windblown lean.

 

[Devin-M]

Capturing the diffused light in the sky brought down to Earth in the lower right third of the composition, is magnificent. Is that a reflection from a waterfall? Or artificial lights such as at Yosemite?

The glow on the horizon is the town of Redding, California about 40 miles to the South, which peaks at a bortle 6 (viewed from bortle 2). The roadway at the lower right side of the picture is Interstate 5 near the town of Sims, California.