Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[collinsmark]

Its green!
Is that real or some atmospheric/ camera effect?

I'm going to venture a guess here without knowing the full story:

I'm guessing the video/images were taken with the Nikon's white balance set to "Auto." But since the camera was just pointing up at the darkness, for the most part, it's just white-balance metering on the noise. Perhaps since there are fewer red and blue pixels, compared to green, in the Bayer matrix, it means there is more noise (as in SNR) in the red and blue channels, resulting in the greenish hue, after the camera's automatic white-balance adjustment.

If my guess is right, the problem could have been alleviated somewhat by setting the white balance to "Daylight." But even then, Saturn would appear a bit yellow due to typical atmospheric scattering (same reason our Sun looks yellow).

Getting the color right invariably takes some adjustments in post processing no matter what you do.

[Edit: it's still a fine image and I appreciate it regardless of the color nuances.]

 

[timmdeeg]

Milky Way

Location: Astrofarm Kiripotib
Date: 09.16.2023
Camera: Sony A7III with Clip Filter
Lens 1.8 / 14 GM - focal length 14 mm

Frames: 15x25s - ISO 800

Software: Siril - Graxpert - LightZone

 

[collinsmark]

The Lagoon Nebula (a.k.a., M8, NGC 6523) from my back patio, imaged from April-July, 2024.

M8 is about 4000-6000 light-years away from Earth. It is fairly large (angular wise) and bright, comparatively, but you'll need a telescope or binoculars to see it. You can find it in the constellation Sagittarius.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader 3.5/4nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

It reminds me of Gilligan's Island.

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro plugins

It's bigger than the lagoon on Gilligan's Island, of course.

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Stacked using the drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 72×480s = 9.60 hrs
Hα: 77×480s = 10.27 hrs
Oiii: 81×480s = 10.80 hrs
Total integration time: 30.67 hours.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Its green!
Is that real or some atmospheric/ camera effect?

If you say so- I can't tell :)

Normally I use APP to auto- color correct (via star colors), but I skipped that step here and don't trust myself to do it manually. Honestly, I had no idea!

 

[Andy Resnick]

I'm going to venture a guess here without knowing the full story:

I'm guessing the video/images were taken with the Nikon's white balance set to "Auto." But since the camera was just pointing up at the darkness, for the most part, it's just white-balance metering on the noise. Perhaps since there are fewer red and blue pixels, compared to green, in the Bayer matrix, it means there is more noise (as in SNR) in the red and blue channels, resulting in the greenish hue, after the camera's automatic white-balance adjustment.

If my guess is right, the problem could have been alleviated somewhat by setting the white balance to "Daylight." But even then, Saturn would appear a bit yellow due to typical atmospheric scattering (same reason our Sun looks yellow).

Getting the color right invariably takes some adjustments in post processing no matter what you do.

[Edit: it's still a fine image and I appreciate it regardless of the color nuances.]

I set the camera WB to 'direct sunlight' b/c 'auto WB' would likely drift as the sky darkens and streetlights turn on, assuming it works at all under low light conditions.

But yeah- color correction is tricky, especially since I don't trust my eyes. :)

Edit: actually, upon reflection, I think the problem was focus error. Longitudinal chromatic aberration (sometimes called 'purple fringing') is the likely culprit for the green tint.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Heh- no sooner had I completed an analysis of my imaging system when I enjoyed 10 clear nights over 2 weeks, a rarity. Using my conclusions, I put together a 2 x 3 panorama centered on the North America Nebula:

(obviously this is downscaled, the original is 11k x 9.7k pixels).

This only took 2 weeks! Had I been using my (now prior) settings, this would have taken 2 *years* to put together. Really happy I can make out IC 5068. Deneb is the super-bright star.

Nikon D810 + Nikkor 400/2.8 @ f/4. 13s subs ISO 200. Losmandy GM-8 mount, all stacking and post-processing done in APP.

 

[Andy Resnick]

This entire past week was clear skies- unheard of! Stephan's quintet is in a good viewing location, so I had another chance to check my model predictions, this time at 800mm focal length.

Here's the whole field of view:

(Nikon D810+ Nikkor 800/5.6 @ f/8, Losmandy GM-8 mount, 8s subs, ISO 200, 9.3 hours integration time, stacking in APP)

The smudge is NGC 7331. Stephan's quintet is in the center, barely resolvable at this focal length, shown here at 250%:

Serious imaging of this object requires significantly longer focal lengths than I have access to. But in terms of brightness, my model predicted the results pretty well- the model predicts that I am barely able to detect magnitude 18 stars. Zooming into the group of stars in the lower left:

According to the SIMBAD catalog, the brightest star on the left is (apparent) magnitude 13.0 and the nearby second-brightest is magnitude 15.2. Comparing the brightness values in the image, I extrapolate the third bright star (upper right) as magnitude 17, and the three faint dots decorating the brighter stars are extrapolated to about magnitude 18.

 

[collinsmark]

The Trifid Nebula (a.k.a. M20, NGC 6514) captured from my back patio, April-July 2024. M20 is approximately 4100 light-years away and can be found (looking from Earth) in the constellation Sagittarius. It's a comparatively bright emission nebula. Its declination is -23 degrees, making it a fairly easy target if you live in the Southern hemisphere. Although if you live in the Northern hemisphere (like me), it's still visible so long as a you have a good view to the South (although you may need binoculars or a telescope).

If you notice any diffraction spikes in my image, they're not from spider vanes in my telescope, but rather from the corner of my storage shed that the Trifid Nebula drifted behind each night.

This image is "first light" for the Antila SII (sulphur-II) and Oiii (oxygen-III) filters that I installed several months ago.

Equipment:
Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope
SkyWatcher EQ8-R Pro mount
Celestron 0.7x Focal reducer (for C14 EdgeHD)
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Antlia 3nm Narrowband (SII, Hα, Oiii) filter set
ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro Main Camera

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 Guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro Plugins

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle Class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 2×2
Stacked using drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 83×600 sec = 13.83 hrs
Hα: 82×600 sec = 13.67 hrs
Oiii: 88×600 sec = 14.67 hrs
Total integration time: 42.17 hours
.

 

[berkeman]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/12/science/astronomy-photographer-year-2024-scli-intl/index.html

 

[bruha]

Hello, I attach Saturn, Jupiter and Sunspots (with green filter-unfortunately I have defected lens of mobile camera) Saturn was in opposition last weekend and rings plane was directed to earth as seen...}..
(little Gimp corrected)
Lot of succes.....

 

[Andy Resnick]

SH2-125, "Cocoon Nebula", IC 5146, Caldwell 19, Barnard 168... lots of names for the same object:

Nikon D810 + Nikkor 400/2.8 @ f/4, Losmandy GM8 mount. 10s subs, 10 hours total integration, image stacking with APP. A 1:1 crop:

 

[bruha]

Hello, here is my Saturn image with better resolution..

 

[Astronuc]

Upcoming event - Watch a partial lunar eclipse during Tuesday’s Super Moon (Harvest Moon) and Saturn.
https://www.astronomy.com/observing/how-to-watch-a-partial-lunar-eclipse-during-tuesdays-super-moon/

Additionally, if you’re up early and ready to pregame on Tuesday morning, the Moon passes in front of the planet Saturn in the pre-dawn sky for those in the western half of the U.S. (including Hawaii) and Canada. All other observers will still see the two objects hanging close together in the early-morning twilight.

 

[collinsmark]

SH 2-92 (LBN 145) imaged from my back patio, June-August 2024. SH 2-92 is an emission nebula that can be found (as seen from Earth) in the constellation Vulpecula, near the border of Cygnus. It's an HII region ionized by the Wolf-Rayet star, WR 127.

While it's not an extremely challenging/dim nebula, it's not particularly bright either. I wouldn't bother trying to observe this target visually, even with a telescope or binoculars.

It's also right up against one of the arms of our Milky Way galaxy, so there's a plethora of background stars, all around. What at first appears to be noise is really just stars and stars galore. I did my best in post processing to implement some star reduction techniques to enhance the nebulosity.

To me, SH 2-92 looks like a phoenix or maybe a depiction of a winged person you might find on a trophy top.

Others have affectionately named it "The Scream" based on the famous painting by Edvard Munch (this hasn't totally caught on yet). I suppose that works too. To see the similarity, imagine the dust lane in the lower-right is the person's mouth, and then mentally picture the hands to the sides of a face.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader 3.5/4nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro plugins

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Stacked using the drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 102×480s = 13.60 hrs
Hα: 81×480s = 10.80 hrs
Oiii: 93×480s = 12.40 hrs
Total integration time: 36.80 hours.
.

 

[Andy Resnick]

NGC 188, imaged over 2 nights (total integration time 4 hours):

Deets: Nikon D810 + Nikkor 800/5.6 (shot @ f/8), Losmandy GM-8 mount, stacking in APP.

NGC 188 is abnormally old.

NGC 188 is very close to Polaris so tracking errors are minimized- I was able to keep 90% of the 20s subs resulting in an efficiency rating of 75%, which is great. I didn't perform any alignment procedures (other than visually sighting Polaris/2nd star), so I probably could have shot 30s subs with some alignment corrections.

 

[bruha]

Hi,
here is Venus by Sunset (Kefalonia Island september)

 

[pinball1970]

Some Aurora in the North West of the UK

c/o astranut

and my work colleague Katie

 

[collinsmark]

Saturn and several of its moons last Thursday night.
To the left is Dione.
The bright one to the upper right is Titan.
Below Titan is Tethys.
Mimas and Hyperion are also in the picture but are too dim to make out.

'Not my best image of Saturn; I had issues.

I won't complain about San Diego's entire month of night-haze/fog, since it's trivial compared to the devastation in other parts of the country here. But it did keep me from getting an image closer to Saturn's opposition in September.

This is my first planetary image with the new telescope setup. There's still a few kinks that need to be worked out. I did not use the atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC), nor a barlow/Powermate for this one. I need to make a few tweaks to the mount's control interface before I attempt that. I'm still learning/experimenting.

Equipment:
Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope
SkyWatcher EQ8-R Pro mount
ZWO ASI585MC camera

Software:
FireCapture
AutoStakkert! 4
PixInsight
WinJUPOS

Acquisition/Processing:
Location: San Diego, CA, USA.
Atmospheric Seeing: Slightly on the sad side of "meh."
Midpoint timestamp: 2024-10-11 06:18.3 UTC.
Several hours worth of 1-minute videos were captured with FireCapture.
Nine contiguous 1-minute videos were selected.
Each video processed with AutoStakkert!
Each of the 9 images sharpened and processed in PixInsight.
Each of the sharpened images derotated and combined in WinJUPOS.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Saturn seems rather oblate. Optical illusion from the rings or are the poles dark in this picture.

Clearly Saturn needs more moons too!

 

[jtbell]

Has anyone seen Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS? I think I saw it tonight. This was about 8 pm. Note the smudge above the sign on the fence. Venus is at far left, and Arcturus is at top right. There was some light haze near the horizon. I'll try again in another day or two, when I might get a clearer view.

 

[Andy Resnick]

A clear moonless week of nights, so I continued to image Sh2-125 (Cocoon Nebula):

Nikon D810 + Nikkor 400/2.8 @ f/4 mounted on Losmandy GM-8. 10s subs, 20 h total integration time. A 1:1 crop:

 

[glappkaeft]

Quick stack and edit of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) shot using a simple tripod from earlier tonight (CET). 11 individual 6s exposures with 70 mm focal length (Canon 70-200mm F4L @ F/5.6 and a Canon 5D mk III @ ISO 6400). Note the faint anti-tail and globular cluster Messier 5 (fuzzy spot just left of 12 O'clock from the comet nucleus)

Not sure why some bright stars are square, must be a DSS stacking artifact, haven't used it in a while. Weather looks good tomorrow as well, will go back with a wider lens.

The comet was pretty nice naked eye and gorgeous in 7x50 mm binos.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Not my best image of Saturn

Nevertheless. it is excellent.

Is the scope too big for Jupiter? If that's Saturn, Jupiter must be enormous and bright.

 

[collinsmark]

Nevertheless. it is excellent.

Is the scope too big for Jupiter? If that's Saturn, Jupiter must be enormous and bright.

Nah, the scope is the right size. The Saturn picture is actually a pretty heavy crop from a very small sensor -- yet still a heavy crop. I could have done better by using a 2x Barlow lens (increases the focal length by 2X). 'Same goes for Jupiter. A 2X Barlow lens, for an effective f/ ratio of around f/22 will help improve image quality.

One of the challenges of planetary (as in planetary astrophotography) is just getting the target into the field of view in the first place. If the telescope's pointing is not perfectly centered (it never is), you just see nothing. A whole bunch of nothing. Plate solving is useless, since it's way too "zoomed in" for that. It's just a whole bunch of nothing.

And a 2X Barlow makes finding the target 4X as difficult, since there's only 1/4 the field of view area compared to no Barlow.

There are some tricks to use to get the target in the field of view. I won't discuss those here: that's a whole post on its own. But there are ways to get the planet to line up with the camera's small sensor.

The problem I was having is that when my laptop is connected to the telescope mount, and then use the telescope's hand-controller to slew, to get the planet roughly centered in the finderscope, the mount automatically disables its tracking. Like, WTH, man?! It made everything vastly more difficult.

So, as a potential solution, I've got a game controller coming in the mail -- the same sort of game controller you use to play on game-consoles -- to control the mount through the laptop software. That way I don't even have to touch the mount's hand-controller. That way I can do everything through the software running on the laptop.

I'll try that next time.

 

[bruha]

Hi, here is not quite succesfull atempt of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS from 20.october-Bohmerwald CZ-cca 250x magnificied (direction by telescope is of course opposite- to up)-probably not quite good light condition and equipment as well...

 

[timmdeeg]

Hi, here some results of my recent trip to Namibia.

Telescope: Lacerta 8" Fotonewton on mount EQ6-R PRO
Camera: Sony A7III modified
Software: Siril/Starnet - Fitswork - LightZone
Location: Astrofarm Kiripotib - Namibia
Date: Sept. 2024

NGC 1316 accompanied by NGC 1326 - Distance 70 Mill Lj.
Frames: 92x300 - ISO 400
Integration: 7h 40'
Field radius 1,2°

NGC 5128, Centaurus A - Distance 17 Mill Lj
Frames: 46x300 - ISO 400
Integration: 3h 50'
Field radius 0,75°

 

[bruha]

excellent!

 

[collinsmark]

Ghost Nebula* (Sh2-136) haunted from my back Patio, June-August 2024. The nebula can be found in the northern constellation Cepheus.

*(Not to be confused with Ghost of Cassiopeia [IC 63]; that's a different nebula.)

I've been saving this one for the right time. Happy Halloween!

The Ghost Nebula is one of my favorite reflection nebulae, not just because it's intriguing and spooky, but because it reminds me of the treasured Glueslug.

Several decades ago, back in college, one of my friends acquired a Glueslug toy. It's this semi-translucent, rubbery slug-shaped thing about the size of a small bread roll (don't eat it though). You could toss it up to the ceiling, directly above the sofa or comfy-chair, and it would stay there, stuck to the ceiling for hours. Then later when some unsuspecting soul went into the living room to watch Ren and Stimpy or to study, the Glueslug would fall onto their lap or head. Oh, what fun we had.

Equipment:
Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope
SkyWatcher EQ8-R Pro mount
Celestron 0.7x Focal reducer (for C14 EdgeHD)
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader LRGB filter set
ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro Main Camera

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 Guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro Plugins

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle Class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 2×2
Stacked using drizzle algorithm
L: 693×40 sec = 7.70 hrs
R: 672×60 sec = 11.20 hrs
G: 784×60 sec = 13.07 hrs
B: 690×60 sec = 11.50 hrs
Total integration time: 43.47 hours

=================
If I'm not mistaken, here is what the Glueslug looked like:

 

[.Scott]

Coming soon to a galaxy near you - T Coronae Borealis Nova.

I do a 2-hour walk every day - usually at night. And (weather permitting, of course) I have been keeping an eye on Coronae Borealis. Except for the fact that is has worked its way to the western horizon as the Sun prepares to transit that part of the sky, nothing has happened.

So, could we reschedule this for next year - and since I am more likely to be walking outdoors in the evening (as opposed to the morning) could we make it for mid-summer to mid-fall?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[.Scott]

More on T Coronae Borealis Nova:
I just ran into this IFL Science article published a month ago. It echoes some of what I said in my last post.

There's a good reason why they bemoaned tardiness of the T CrB show a month before I did. T CrB is at a declination of 25.9N and I am at 42.7N - north of all major Earth-bound observatories. So while I'm just loosing my view now - most Blaze-Gazers lost it weeks ago.

But there is one hopeful point that that article made - the widely announced Blaze time window was never that certain. It was a prediction by a Prof Bradley Schaefer, and it was not a simple linear extrapolation from earlier observations.

This paper documents those observations:

T Coronae Borealis was discovered to have risen from magnitude 9.8 to 3.0 on February 9, 1946, by Norman F. H. Wright, of Bedford Park, England, and by Armin J. Deutsch, at the Yerkes Observatory, 3 months less than 80 years after J. Birmingham had discovered a similar rise to magnitude 2 on May 12, 1866. It is, therefore, without question, a recurrent nova.

So using a strictly linear extrapolation, we would put the Blaze at early November, 2025. Not that I'm trying to make any prediction. But this "November 2025" value suggests that Schaefer's predictions were based on wrong assumptions - and the nature of those assumptions (for example, trying to use the possible 1787 observation) are likely to be not just imprecise but inaccurate.

So, we aren't dealing with a bell curve with the center somewhere in September 2024, and the good observation opportunities of Summer and Fall 2025 several standard deviations less likely that this Winter.

And it is certainly not beyond hope that the Blaze will wait for better times.

 

[sas3]

Mentor's Note: Post merged into this thread.
Taken with my Seestar S50 44 minutes processed and cropped in GIMP

 

[bruha]

Hello, I add atempts of Saturn, Jupiter and Trapezium (Orion nebula centre) from Saturday -Bohmerwald.
Images are little highlighted (sharpened) by Gimp and made by eyepiece camera Toupsky with newton scope 1000x200 mm. Lot of succes....

 

[collinsmark]

Eastern Veil Nebula (Caldwell 34), pulled from my back patio, Aug-Sept 2024. If you ignore the "tail" and concentrate on the "Head" of the Eastern Veil Nebula, that smaller section is sometimes called the "Bat Nebula"* (NGC 6995; upper, and slightly to the left in the image). I posted an image of the Bat Nebula a couple of years ago using a different setup. The image here is a larger field of view showing the whole Eastern Veil Nebula.

*(Not to be confused with the Flying Bat Nebula [Sh 2-129] or the Cosmic Bat Nebula [LDN 43]. Those are different nebulae.)

The Eastern Veil Nebula is part of an even larger structure (not shown in its entirety in the image) called The Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 103).

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader 3.5/4nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro plugins

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Stacked using the drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 80×480s = 10.67 hrs
Hα: 91×480s = 12.13 hrs
Oiii: 87×480s = 11.60 hrs
Total integration time: 34.40 hours.

 

[bruha]

Hello, here is still another Jupiter and Saturn version (little better-Jupiter probably me best up to now. )
Lot of Success and have no light pollution

 

[Andy Resnick]

Since it's going to be cloudy for another week or so, I'll go ahead and post results of imaging M31 at either 400mm or 800mm focal length:

Nikon D810 + nikkor 400/2.8 (shot at f/4), mounted on Losmandy GM-8. 10s subs, 21.5 hours total integration time, stacking and post process in Astro Pixel Processor

Nikon D810 + nikkor 400/2.8 (shot at f/4) + 2x tele , mounted on Losmandy GM-8. 10s subs, 17.5 hours total integration time, stacking and post process in Astro Pixel Processor.

I wanted to try this comparison b/c at 800mm, M31 just barely fits in the field of view, meaning that I have to work harder to correct the image corner-to-corner rather than just crop. Also, imaging at f/4 captures a lot more light than at f/8, so accumulating enough signal for a decent SNR requires less time.

Other than differences in color and field of view, it's hard to tell if there are substantive differences at this scale. It's much more obvious at 1:1, which I'll accentuate even more by posting a field of view with a double star at 2:1 (800mm) and 4:1 (400mm):

400mm:

and 800mm:

The differences in image sharpness are (IMO) primarily due to seeing effects; under conditions of 'diffraction-limited imaging' the images should look much more similar.