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Astronomical Stargazer Thread


Panzermann

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Been awhile since I shared anything. Here are a few of my late spring/summer images:

 

The moon needs no introduction:

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

 

I took this picture of Jupiter by hooking my camera up to my friends 14" mead SCT:

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

 

This is a false color image of the Eagle Nebula:

 

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And here is a false color image of the Lagoon nebula:

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

It might be awhile before I get a chance to image again... we're in the process of selling our current home and building a new one. The new home will be under darker skies but it wont be completed until December. Stay tuned!

 

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Seriously impressive shit. I'm rather jealous of you.

 

 

 

 

That said, I'm looking forward to the nova that's expected in 2022 in Cygnus. Should make for a nice new photo motive. You don't get to see the formation of a new nebula that often.

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Seriously impressive shit. I'm rather jealous of you.

 

 

 

 

That said, I'm looking forward to the nova that's expected in 2022 in Cygnus. Should make for a nice new photo motive. You don't get to see the formation of a new nebula that often.

 

 

Thanks!

 

I heard that the 2022 Cygnus binary star collision was miscalculated and that its not happening in 2022 now :(

 

Beatualgous is supposed to pop soon... but soon could be a few hundred years.

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Come on, who doesn't hate Cygnians? Pompous blowhards, the lot of them! Like the bloody Denebians, always "casually" mentioning how they come from a blue-white supergiant. Well la-dee-dah!

 

And don't get me started on Altairans, always bragging about their high rotational speeds, to say nothing of the upstart Vegans.("we're younger and bigger than you Sol-ites, and also for some reason we have started a weird vegetarian religion on Terra just to mess with you wankers!")

B)

 

--

Soren

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  • 4 weeks later...

Got another stray.

 

October 14, 2019 / 9:55 PM / Updated 13 hours ago

Interstellar interloper is a comet resembling those in our solar system
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The second interstellar object ever spotted passing through the solar system is a comet that appears quite like those formed in our neighborhood of the cosmos, providing fresh evidence that other planetary systems may be very similar to our own.

Astronomers on Monday provided some of the first details about the comet now hurtling toward the sun, saying it has a solid nucleus with a radius of about six-tenths of a mile (1 km), a cloud-like structure of dust and gas emitted by the nucleus, the telltale tail of a comet and a reddish color.

 

First detected in August by an amateur astronomer named Gennady Borisov, it is called 2I/Borisov. The only previous interstellar visitor discovered in our solar system was a cigar-shaped rocky object called ‘Oumuamua found in 2017.

 

The comet was studied using telescopes in Hawaii and Spain.

 

“Its properties determined so far - morphology, color, estimated size - are remarkably similar to the native solar system comets. This is important because it shows that comets exist in interstellar space, confirming long-standing predictions, and it tells us that comets similar to the ones we know from this solar system also form around other stars,” said astronomer Michal Drahus of Jagiellonian University in Poland.

 

[...]

 

The comet is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun on Dec. 8 and its closest point to the Earth soon thereafter, coming within about 186 million miles (300 million km) of our planet. By way of comparison, the moon orbits about 240,000 miles (386,000 km) from Earth.

 

The research was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-comet/interstellar-interloper-is-a-comet-resembling-those-in-our-solar-system-idUSKBN1WT2CU

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Got another stray.

 

 

The comet is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun on Dec. 8 and its closest point to the Earth soon thereafter, coming within about 186 million miles (300 million km) of our planet. By way of comparison, the moon orbits about 240,000 miles (386,000 km) from Earth.

 

The research was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-comet/interstellar-interloper-is-a-comet-resembling-those-in-our-solar-system-idUSKBN1WT2CU

Holy cow, that is a wide berth when the radius of the Earths orbit is only 93 million miles.

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  • 1 month later...

Got one more finished before we moved. This one is known as the Elephant trunk's nebula. Like the others it's a false color image showing the ionized Hydrogen (Ha), Oxygen (O3) and Sulfur (S2).

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

I'm moving to significantly darker skies next month. Also plan a few upgrades to my imaging rig, starting with a new mount. After that probably a new camera and then a new scope.. something with a lot more focal length than what I'm using right now (336mm).

Edited by JamesR
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Got one more finished before we moved. This one is known as the Elephant trunk's nebula. Like the others it's a false color image showing the ionized Hydrogen (Ha), Oxygen (O3) and Sulfur (S2).

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

I'm moving to significantly darker skies next month. Also plan a few upgrades to my imaging rig, starting with a new mount. After that probably a new camera and then a new scope.. something with a lot more focal length than what I'm using right now (336mm).

Interesting move. Where do you take these wonderful photos now?

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Got one more finished before we moved. This one is known as the Elephant trunk's nebula. Like the others it's a false color image showing the ionized Hydrogen (Ha), Oxygen (O3) and Sulfur (S2).

 

get.jpg?insecure

 

I'm moving to significantly darker skies next month. Also plan a few upgrades to my imaging rig, starting with a new mount. After that probably a new camera and then a new scope.. something with a lot more focal length than what I'm using right now (336mm).

Interesting move. Where do you take these wonderful photos now?

 

 

I took most of the images from the backyard of my old house in North Austin, Texas. I had a 4 lane road behind my house with obnoxiously bright white LED lights that my city was so proud of when installed several years ago. Due to the street lights, I had my telescope setup on the north side in my house's shadow. I had a tiny sliver a sky south, north and directly above. No view east or west. On the Bortle scale my old house was in class 8. The new house is in Bortle class 4 skies and has a near 360 unobstructed views.

 

This image of the Elephants truck has over 20 hours exposure in it. At the new house, I can probably get the same results in just a few hours. Instead of needing several nights for an image, I'll be able to get it all done in a single night... or continue spending several nights on a single target and go much deeper than what I can do now.

 

Info about the bortle scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_scale

Edited by JamesR
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I recently got the iOptron SkyGuider Pro with iPolar electronic polar alignment camera, and I am looking forward to tracked shooting the night sky soon.

 

I recently took a photo of the Saturn-Moon-Venus-Jupiter conjunction from the roof deck of my office building:

 

Saturn, Moon, Venus, Jupiter Conjunction 29 November 2019

 

49144133947_588d2541df_k.jpg

Edited by Corinthian
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A few months ago, I was able to take a photo of the Andromeda galaxy. I did not have a tracker at the time. I did stacking, using a GX85 mirrorless camera with Leica Summilux 15mm f1.7 prime lens. Image is stacked and cropped.

 

48967333693_304751bceb_h.jpg

 

I am looking forward to taking tracked photos of Andromeda with my Olympus 40-150mm f4-5.6 lens (will be shooting at 100mm). Since it is a micro four thirds system, the EFL is 200mm. I also ordered a Kamlan 50mm (EFL 100mm) f1.1 lens Mk II which I can't wait to use for night sky photography.

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I recently got the iOptron SkyGuider Pro with iPolar electronic polar alignment camera, and I am looking forward to tracked shooting the night sky soon.

 

I recently took a photo of the Saturn-Moon-Venus-Jupiter conjunction from the roof deck of my office building:

 

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

 

Very Nice! Your Andromeda looks great too. Very impressive for not having any tracking on that one. Looking forward to seeing what you can do with the new equipment.

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