Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Andy Resnick]

The great cluster in Hercules (M13): a 1:1 crop and a 6:1 zoom (3x dither followed by 2x enlargement). Total integration time = 2 hrs @ ISO 2000, 800/5.6 lens.

The colors aren't right, but it's a lot easier to control now that I am using the correct RAW setting in DSS.

 

[davenn]

The great cluster in Hercules (M13)

lookin good

The colors aren't right,

not too bad
I love globular clusters with all those very old yellow starsDave

 

[bruha]

Hello,
it is very impressive photo!? :) Please which telecope you use (and what is magnification?)
Have nice day :)

 

[bruha]

Hi
I attach ome sun images by NIKON body (unfortunately I can not attach directly without eyepiecde because of not suitable focus lenght) so this is with Hyperion 8 mm. Except Image S4 it is with made with SONY compact afternoon Hi

 

[DennisN]

now there was not any sunspots-it is just error artefacts

unfortunately there's still lots of dirt/dust marks

Hi @bruha and @davenn, I just wanted to share something I've learned recently. Since I've been modifying various optics equipment and since I've touched the lenses I searched for appropriate methods for cleaning lenses. I read on a photography forum that a good basic tool is a small blower like this one to blow off dust from lenses. I personally happen to have an airbrush (and a compressor) which I can use with a low pressure setting for blowing off dust from the lenses, so I'm good.

For more serious cleaning there are special lens cleaning fluids, and I read a post on a photography forum on how to make your own fluid which is much cheaper: mix 2/3 isopropanol with 1/3 distilled water. Use two cloths (e.g. microfiber cloths), one for applying the fluid on the lens, and the other one to clean the lens when it is dry again. I did my own lens cleaning fluid this way, and I've tried it and it worked very well for me. I am not sure if this method is suitable for cleaning image sensors, though (it might be).

Here's an article on cleaning lenses and filters:
How to Clean Your Lens and Filters (BHPhotoVideo)

This was the isopropanol (IPA) I used:

 

[bruha]

Hi DennisN,
and thank you very much for your advices-I suppose it will be very useful for me.
Just for interest I send two recent images -noon sun and evening sun. Anyway now I bought Bresser ful HD mini camera for eyepiece so I hope made some improvement. Lot of success and have nice day

 

[Andy Resnick]

Last night was the first clear sky in weeks; good images of Jupiter

and the moon- Rupes Recta is an escarpment about 250m high:

and Plato's shadow showing the crater edge topography.

The Jupiter image is a composite of stacked planet pasted onto a longer exposure for the moons. The lunar images have been zoomed in 3x.

 

[bruha]

Hi , your images are very impressive.. Jupiter is quite nice -can I ask how much stacked images it is composited from and in which time period? And moon images are made just with camera (without telescope)?
have nice day

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hi , your images are very impressive.. Jupiter is quite nice -can I ask how much stacked images it is composited from and in which time period? And moon images are made just with camera (without telescope)?
have nice day

Thanks!

All the images are JPGs and were acquired with my 400/2.8 lens with 2x tele (so the lens acts like an 800/5.6 lens); I acquired about a dozen frames of Jupiter for stacking, each image had an exposure of (IIRC) 1/50s, ISO 64. The moon images are single frames.

 

[bruha]

Hi thak you for answer (so Jupiter is magnified cca 143 x..?) . Can I still ask were you from? (I am from Prague..)

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hi thak you for answer (so Jupiter is magnified cca 143 x..?) . Can I still ask were you from? (I am from Prague..)

Not sure what the magnification is; the view through an 800mm lens is, IIRC, 20X. But then I posted a 1:1 crop which I think provides another magnification factor of 9X (posting an image that is 800 pixels wide instead of 7300 pixels). I suppose that results in an end-to-end magnification of 180X, but I'm not sure that's how it all works.

All my astro images are acquired in (currently) rainy, cloudy, Cleveland Ohio (USA).

 

[bruha]

Hi and thank you for answer-
I wish you better weather. ( I was trying last night to capture Rupes Recta on the moon , but now is here full moon therefore its overlighted .. ). I attach my attempt of Jupiter with cam. Breesser full HD cca 1900 x 1200pix. (it needs to be zoomed, and color is not natural of course) but here was similar problem-Jupiter is nowadays close to the moon -so overlighted as well. Have nice times

 

[bruha]

Hi I attach still two sun images taken by some cam.

 

[Andy Resnick]

A rare clear night this past Tuesday, I tried out astrophotography with my 105/1.4 lens on the constellations Hercules and Lyra.

scaled down to 800x600 they don't look like much, but at 1:1 they are quite colorful. Here's 1:1 crops of M53 and M57:

Using a (relatively) short focal length isn't advised for detailed high-magnification views :)

Using a shorter focal length makes polar alignment less critical- individual 30s exposure times are trivial- but the diffuse sky background is more prominent as the field of view increases. This trade-off (longer exposures and lower ISO vs. brighter background) is also important when imaging meteors.

 

[bruha]

Hi, its again very impresive, 3 image is detail of 1 image with M53? (I think I can recognize it in the almost middle of 1 image). And what is on 4 image (as detail of 2 image)?
I attach result of Jupiter image stacking (10 images) by Registax (as I noticed color is not natural). Lot of success and have nice nights.

 

[davenn]

I attach result of Jupiter image stacking

awesome effort !

Are you using any editing software to tidy up the stacked image ?
If you have lightroom, GIMP or similar, you would be able to get rid of most of that green hue

Dave

 

[bruha]

Hi Dave and thank you for advise.. I will try it. (green hue is due to camera software adjusting-I use camera Bresser HD)

 

[davenn]

(green hue is due to camera software adjusting-I use camera Bresser HD)

OK ... with a little editing you should be able to get rid of that :)

 

[bruha]

Hi, I send my attempt with GIMP (I supposed that by the help of "magic wand" highlight strips will be possible but it recognize another some colours area ...)
Have nice days (nowadays is terribly hot in Prague till the late night)

 

[bruha]

Hi, here is another attempt by GIMP- I hope little better.

 

[davenn]

Hi, here is another attempt by GIMP- I hope little better.

looking better

the usual trick to do simple colour balancing is to do a "white balance" on an image
Hopefully you still have your original image ? and saved edited images with a different filename ?

Never overwrite an original image

 

[bruha]

Hi, and thank you for advise.. I attach "white balance" Jupiter and Moon image processed by similar way..
Have nice day...

 

[davenn]

Sunspots/active region of the new solar cycle, cycle #25

Its is high latitude and reverse magnetic polarity
( the active region towards the lower limb)

It's been quite some time since we last saw an active region of the new cyclecheers
Dave

 

[bruha]

Hi Dave , its very interesting...it is mean that sunspot region is in lower part and little left on images?
Today I make observation with solar filter and did not see any sunspots -do you think it could depend as well on Earth location? (i.e. Prague versus Sydney for example)? So lot of succes and have nice days

 

[davenn]

.it is mean that sunspot region is in lower part and little left on images?

Yes

Today I make observation with solar filter and did not see any sunspots -do you think it could depend as well on Earth location?

No, We all see the same sun

This is a reasonably small region, visible spots are not always there. They were, in that active region, a
couple of days ago. This morning ( Thursday) I notice there is nothing visible

So lot of succes and have nice days

And to you too


Dave

 

[bruha]

Hi and thanks for answer- it is clear. (although I think taking rigorously while day "sun moving" we see always see litlle diferent part . Do you have some experience with observing sun through H-alpha filter? -I am thinking about it. Hi and have nice day :)

 

[davenn]

Do you have some experience with observing sun through H-alpha filter? -I am thinking about it.

Yes, have been doing Ha solar imaging and observing for a couple of years
See this thread that I have dedicated to that ...
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/solar-imaging-and-techniques.925656/
A solar Ha system is quite expensive my system cost

AU$2950 just for the scope/filter system,
I use the same tracking mount as I do for the night time scopes.
My images start at around post #66 on page 3 of that thread.
The images in the first couple of pages are with the mylar style filter for capturing sunspots​

cheers
Dave

 

[davenn]

A couple of quick pix of this morning's partial Lunar eclipse, just before sunrise from Sydney, Australia.
The moon was getting low to the western horizon. Trying to photo through a thick layer of atmosphere wasn't exactly conducive to good quality images

Canon 6D, 100-400mm L lens @400mm and x2 teleconverter. ​

Dave

 

[bruha]

Hi Dave , it is quite interesting, (we can observe it this night as well but from oposite side ). Anyway nowadays is good condition for Saturn observing but late cca 0.30 hod. so I plan to try make some images if will be clear. Hi

 

[metastable]

~3am, looking southwest about a week ago, about 150miles north of San Francisco, CA USA along Interstate-5, 14mm dslr lens, 2.8f, 2000iso, 10sec, full frame raw

^Andromeda galaxy is visible close the center of the frame on this one, just to the right of the Milky Way