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Astronomical Stargazer Thread


Panzermann

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Finished up another image recently. I present the Leo triplet:

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

I have 17 hours of exposure on this one. I actually intended to go longer but I just picked up a new camera so I wrapped up this one. Now I just need some clear nights :)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Picked up a new camera (ZWO ASI1600mm-cool) and tested it out on a popular target. The bright star is Alnitak. This star is easy to spot in the night sky because it's the left most star in Orion's belt. The famous "horse head" is a thick column of dust that's blocking the light that's coming from all the ionized hydrogen. To the left of Alnitak we have the flame nebula. There are newly formed stars in the center of the flame nebula. This entire region is filled with dust which is also visible in this image. This is a false color image taken with narrow band filters. In natural color it would be very red. I only have about 8 hours of total exposure which is less than I normally take.

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

 

Astrobin which is where I've been uploading my images experienced a catastrophic data loss event recently. The site is still not 100% so if that thumbnail doesn't work, let me know and I'll post the picture someplace else (probably imgur).

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  • 3 weeks later...

49641327836_567bb30829_k.jpg

 

23 photos were involved in creating this image of the galactic core over Taal Volcano. First part (the Milky Way stack set) was taken on 25 February 2020. The illuminated foreground (darkened in post processing) was taken on 9 March 2020 under a supermoon.

 

It is a tracked, stacked, blended, composite image taken on two different dates.

More info:

 

Milky Way over Taal Volcano

Edited by Corinthian
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49641327836_567bb30829_k.jpg

 

23 photos were involved in creating this image of the galactic core over Taal Volcano. First part (the Milky Way stack set) was taken on 25 February 2020. The illuminated foreground (darkened in post processing) was taken on 9 March 2020 under a supermoon.

 

It is a tracked, stacked, blended, composite image taken on two different dates.

 

More info:

 

https://flic.kr/p/2iCCMhG

Reminds me of Psalm 19:1. Well done, very well done! Have you had any of your photographs published or win any contests?

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49641327836_567bb30829_k.jpg

 

23 photos were involved in creating this image of the galactic core over Taal Volcano. First part (the Milky Way stack set) was taken on 25 February 2020. The illuminated foreground (darkened in post processing) was taken on 9 March 2020 under a supermoon.

 

It is a tracked, stacked, blended, composite image taken on two different dates.

 

More info:

 

https://flic.kr/p/2iCCMhG

Beautiful image Corinthian, very well done!

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It's fun looking at these milky shots and identifying all the objects. Jupiter is easy to see here. I'm not 100% certain but I think that bright object under the cloud is Saturn. At the core, the Lagoon nebula is very easy to see. The trifid nebula is there too but harder to see. Working left I see the what I think is the Omega nebula and then a little further the Eagle nebula. Moving to the right of the Lagoon.. we have star cluster.. don't recall its name. Then I think the lobster nebula.. not sure though. I think that reddish star up top is Antares.

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Thank you guys! ^_^

 

Rick: None. I've entered at least one but it didn't win. Then again, seeing the photographs submitted, the competition is really tough. It only motivates me to do better. :) I do have two persons who are buying prints of the image above, and that is a first for me. ^_^

 

JamesR: Yup! I have an annotated version of the image, I'll post it up as well. Yes, that is Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. Antares on top. ^_^

Edited by Corinthian
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  • 3 weeks later...

Been awhile since I shared anything. The weather has been absolutely horrible the past several weeks. That said I do have a couple to share.

 

This one is an image of Markarians chain. It's a group of 7 galaxies (centered in the image) that are linked together. The astronomer, Markarian was the one who discovered that these galaxies are all moving as a group.

 

Galaxies come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are beautiful spirals, then you have the bared spirals (our own galaxy is believed to be a bar spiral) and then you get these large elliptical galaxies. I can even see one blue irregular galaxy in the middle left. In addition to the the galaxies in the "chain", this image is full of distant galaxies. I have not tried to count them all but its probably over a 100.

 

 

 

k8GvIarshmAp_1824x0_9Hm9M6dZ.jpg

Edited by JamesR
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Awesome shot JamesR!

 

I'm looking to buy a new telescope but the pandemic suspended that. Also aiming for the ASIair but since it's made in China highly unlikely it's available anytime soon.

Edited by Corinthian
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Phenomenal!

Thanks Rick!

 

 

Awesome shot JamesR!

 

I'm looking to buy a new telescope but the pandemic suspended that. Also aiming for the ASIair but since it's made in China highly unlikely it's available anytime soon.

Thanks Tomas!

 

I picked up a new telescope and associated components just before this pandemic started. I plan on hooking everything up tonight as a dry run. We wont have a clear night for at least a couple of weeks. The telescope I got is a Celestron Edge 8" plus a .7 reducer. That will get my focal length to 1422mm and a image scale of .55 arc seconds. I'm not sure my mount is up to the task but I'm going to give it a go anyway for galaxy season. Never shot at this FL before so it's going to be a learning process.

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Here's the other image I took recently. M42, the Orion nebula. I've taken more pictures of the Orion nebula than any other deep sky object. The last one I shared here was a false color narrow band image. This one is in RGB, so no false color.

 

eBM0OJ0kzdui_1824x0_ptnikos1.jpg

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Beautiful shot, JamesR. I'm looking to get an FMC 80 400 telescope. It seems the best bang for buck for the budget I have. Alas, everything is closed so can't order it any time soon. By the time the lockdown here is lifted, it'll be rainy season already and hardly any chance for clear night skies.

Edited by Corinthian
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Beautiful shot, JamesR. I'm looking to get an FMC 80 400 telescope. It seems the best bang for buck for the budget I have. Alas, everything is closed so can't order it any time soon. By the time the lockdown here is lifted, it'll be rainy season already and hardly any chance for clear night skies.

Thanks Tomas.

 

Be careful of inexpensive telescopes. My first telescope when I started this hobby was an Orion ST80. It's an 80mm telescope with a 400mm FL and a single speed focuser. The glass was not very good with severe chromatic aberration. Worse than that, the focuser was very frustrating to work with. It would shift while focusing in and out, making it difficult to get your framing right. I think getting a ~200mm lens for you camera may be a better bet than going with an inexpensive scope like that. In the long run you'll end up wanting to replace it sooner rather than later so it ends up costing you more. Maybe the FMC 80 400 is better than the st80 but it looks like they are both in the same price range so I'd be wary.

 

Something like this I think would be superior in every way, including a good match for your sky guide pro:

 

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech-at60ed-60mm-f-6-fpl-53-ed-doublet.html

 

I know that's a US company and a US brand but the scopes are made in china and folks can often find the sames scopes in other countries under different brands.

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I'd really love the William-Optics Spacecat unfortunately it's terribly expensive. 250mm FL and a 51mm opening for a focal ratio of f4.9. It's a petzval type and so produces very nice images. Also very expensive.

I've decided to go for the F30070M. It's much much cheaper and those who've used it say chromatic aberration was almost non-existent. It's also very cheap so it won't feel bad on the wallet if it turns out to be not so good. Pretty fast at f4.2.

 

Most scopes it seems are now made in China. William-Optics is made in China AFAIK.

 

Here's my photo of yesterday's supermoon (although taken early at night on 7 April 2020 and not at maximum extent which was at 0209hrs Philippine Standard Time 8 April 2020):

 

49745688683_904d8eb62d_k.jpg

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