Astro Photos, Astronomy and The Deep Space

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Post your astrophotos, anything astronomy or maybe a theory of Dark Matter. I’ll get things started with an image of The Andromeda Galaxy. But first, some explanation as to how these images are obtained. Read on or just enjoy the photos….

An astrophotographer’s set up typically consists of a telescope, motorized focus, various optical filters (LRGB+), cooled camera, guiding camera, guiding mount and a very stable pier. This equipment is controlled by dedicated software. The quality of an image will be determined by how well the equipment is operated, the atmospheric conditions and the dark sky quality.

The imaging apparatus will gather exposures ranging roughly from 30s up to 600s and more. Very long exposures run the risk of introducing image artifacts due to poor tracking or even capturing a sat track (thanks Elon). Capturing exceptional detail requires patience, proper operation of the equipment and cooperation with the atmospheric conditions.

For high quality deep space images the total time integration of the images usually goes well over 10 hours. What this means is that the final image consists of many exposures stacked together. These images are sorted by optical filter for quality, registered and stacked by some fairly sophisticated software. The next step involves using a program like Photoshop to bring out details, provide brightness snd color balance. This last part of the image processing sometimes moves the results from scientific data to artistic expression!

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Andromeda Galaxy

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Integration: 7.6 hours. The Andromeda Galaxy sometimes called M31. At a distance of 2.5M LY, it is part of our local galactic group. Look at the detail in the image. The blue regions of the image consist of younger short-lived, very hot, high mass. The red regions are dominated by older, cooler, low mass stars that have much longer lifespans. The dark areas that follow the spiral arms are dust lanes. The stars in the foreground of the image are from our own galaxy - The Milky Way.

If you’ve had the opportunity to see Andromeda with the naked eye or with low power optics it is obvious why up until the early 1900’s some astronomers thought M31 was a nebulosity. Try it!

[NCF]

That is so cool.

[Raptorman]

This morning they just launched a new telescope into space. I'm sure the pictures coming from it in the future will be amazing. 7 ft to 21 ft is huge.

From Wiki.

The primary mirror of JWST, the Optical Telescope Element, consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium which combine to create a 6.5 m (21 ft) diameter mirror – considerably larger than Hubble's 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Web ... _Telescope

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That is so cool.

Thanks. I’ll share more in the future.

[GJPackerBacker]

This morning they just launched a new telescope into space. I'm sure the pictures coming from it in the future will be amazing. 7 ft to 21 ft is huge.

From Wiki.

The primary mirror of JWST, the Optical Telescope Element, consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium which combine to create a 6.5 m (21 ft) diameter mirror – considerably larger than Hubble's 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Web ... _Telescope

Definitely looking forward to seeing the images generated by the JWST!!

[texas]

So wait did you take this photo?

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So wait did you take this photo?

Yes. I took the exposures for this image. I took the exposures about a year ago. There were a total of 93 individual images that were integrated to achieve the image. Since it was one of my early data sets, this data was processed with the assistance of someone who teaches astrophotography processing. He has taught me a lot about all the important steps, mostly in Photoshop. Here is a photo of the equipment used.

4” Stellarvue Set Up

3E1ADC77-2B51-4AF1-B0BD-AB2631F244C3.jpeg (2.17 MiB) Viewed 8333 times

[Raptorman]

This morning they just launched a new telescope into space. I'm sure the pictures coming from it in the future will be amazing. 7 ft to 21 ft is huge.

From Wiki.

The primary mirror of JWST, the Optical Telescope Element, consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium which combine to create a 6.5 m (21 ft) diameter mirror – considerably larger than Hubble's 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Web ... _Telescope

Definitely looking forward to seeing the images generated by the JWST!!

I was thinking, "Hey, I'll wake up in the morning and see the launch." Well, I slept in. It's a good thing because the launch wasn't from FL but from French Guiana. Duh.

[texas]

So wait did you take this photo?

Yes. I took the exposures for this image. I took the exposures about a year ago. There were a total of 93 individual images that were integrated to achieve the image. Since it was one of my early data sets, this data was processed with the assistance of someone who teaches astrophotography processing. He has taught me a lot about all the important steps, mostly in Photoshop. Here is a photo of the equipment used. 3E1ADC77-2B51-4AF1-B0BD-AB2631F244C3.jpeg

That's pretty sweet

[APB]

Holy smokes. That is some cool stuff…and quite the setup!

[Raptorman]

Sorry, I just had too.

270207905_7155318347819566_8319190914520719720_n.jpg (84.37 KiB) Viewed 8310 times

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Sorry, I just had too.

270207905_7155318347819566_8319190914520719720_n.jpg

That’s funny. Especially following the major screw up on the Hubble mirror. The recovery from the Hubble mistake was one huge engineering success, in itself a great measure of human ingenuity.

[salmar80]

Dunno if this counts, but my first aurora borealis in Rovaniemi. Hoping to see some more spectacular ones.

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Dunno if this counts, but my first aurora borealis in Rovaniemi. Hoping to see some more spectacular ones.

Keep on posting the aurora borealis images! Have you tried to video an AB? Have you ever seen an AB that varies in intensity and has some motion?

[salmar80]

Keep on posting the aurora borealis images! Have you tried to video an AB? Have you ever seen an AB that varies in intensity and has some motion?

I will. I did see real strong and moving ones in southern Finland years ago. About 99% chance I'll see some good ones up here, and will take a video when that happens. With weak aurora, the camera sees it better than the human eye that has gotten adjusted to the dark.The past week has been all cloudy, hoping cold days for clear skies.

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Keep on posting the aurora borealis images! Have you tried to video an AB? Have you ever seen an AB that varies in intensity and has some motion?

I will. I did see real strong and moving ones in southern Finland years ago. About 99% chance I'll see some good ones up here, and will take a video when that happens. With weak aurora, the camera sees it better than the human eye that has gotten adjusted to the dark.The past week has been all cloudy, hoping cold days for clear skies.

This is on my bucket list.

[Raptorman]

Dunno if this counts, but my first aurora borealis in Rovaniemi. Hoping to see some more spectacular ones.

Used to see them in WI at times in the winter. Really cool when they dance.

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Objects captured by astrophotographers include: Aurora Borealis, meteor showers, planets, the sun, comets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies. These are the major objects imaged. This list goes from near to far distances, which brings up an important discussion. The light we see from ABs reaches us nearly instantaneously. The light from the sun takes a little over 8 minutes to reach us. The light from Jupiter and Saturn takes hours to reach us. The light from Andromeda Galaxy, takes 2.5 million light years to reach us, so we say it is 2.5 million LY away. With such large distances involved the unit of LY becomes an important measuring stick.

This image of the Great Nebula in Orion was taken with my 6” refractor. Integration time: 1.3 hours. The nebulosity is located in our galaxy in the center of the sword below Orion’s Belt. This region of space, 1300 LY away is filled with gasses and dust. Prime conditions for a star nursery.

The Great Nebula in Orion (M42)

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This nebulosity is visible to the naked eye. With the dark skies, say a few miles just outside of GB the faint object will look just like an extended fuzzy irregular ball of light. Let me know if you can see it. This should be real easy for Sal with the very dark skies he has.

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These images were taken with a camera mounted on a tripod during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse. The images include: The Diamond Ring Effect, Stacked Coronal image and Total Eclipse Collage.

The Diamond Ring Effect

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Stacked Coronal Image

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Solar Eclipse Collage

94B02759-0640-4E0C-BC44-7925CB80B7C6.jpeg (85.57 KiB) Viewed 8239 times

Enjoy!