Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Devin-M]

Heart Nebula - IC 1805 - Sharpless 2-190 - 7500 light years
2hr exposure - 60 x 2min - 12800iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonlit Bortle 2 (2/20/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount

Finally had a successful evening after many cloudy ones... I drove 30 miles to a Bortle 2 east of Redding, California, USA. The only downside was the moon was out and definitely affected the pictures. Tried out attaching the green laser to the camera for the first time and plate-solving with the plug from dslr to iphone ( http://nova.astrometry.net/upload ) -- I'd say it was revolutionary. I didn't even look through the viewfinder or at the live view at all. I figured out on the Stellarium app my phone where I wanted to point the camera, then aimed the green laser (after syncing the laser and camera on the north star), then took a test shot, downloaded to phone, plate-solved and adjusted till aim achieved. It was far easier than trying to look through the viewfinder and figure out where I'm pointed. Focused through Bahtinov mask, 40 darks & 40 flats. Took photos of the Heart Nebula and the Great Galactic Face in Markarian's Chain of galaxies.

Center (RA, Dec): (38.105, 61.368)
Center (RA, hms): 02h 32m 25.087s
Center (Dec, dms): +61° 22' 04.363"
Size: 2.52 x 1.68 deg
Radius: 1.513 deg
Pixel scale: 4.72 arcsec/pixel

 

[Devin-M]

Great Galactic Face - Markarian's Chain - M86 - M84 - NGC 4388 - NGC 4387 - 52 - 65 million light years
2hr exposure - 60 x 2min - 12800iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonlit Bortle 2 (2/20/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount

Center (RA, Dec): (186.432, 12.801)
Center (RA, hms): 12h 25m 43.624s
Center (Dec, dms): +12° 48' 04.830"
Size: 40.6 x 27 arcmin
Radius: 0.406 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel

 

[Oldman too]

Great detail on your info, thanks!

 

[DennisN]

I used 1/503 sec and the ISO that made that work on the moon.

I will definitely try with various settings the next time.

Moongazing/moon photo session:

Last evening/night I photographed the Moon and tried various new camera settings (shutter speeds 1/500 s and 1/1000 s at ISO 50, 100 and 200), along with new stacking settings and new editing in Photoshop.

Even though I only used my small monocular (diameter 40 mm), I got very pleased with the result.
It became the best photo of the Moon I've taken so far.

I guess I understand now why this hobby can be so addictive; over a long period of time you try, change things and then try again etc, in order to improve the results. And this time, when I saw the finished photo I felt very satisified. The next time I will try the same using my cheap 70 mm telescope instead of the monocular.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear used: 40 mm monocular, tripod, LG G4 phone.
Photo settings: ISO 100, 1/1000 s shutter speed, DNG (uncompressed)
Stacking info: 25 stacked photos (50% of the photos), Drizzle 1.5 incl. Sharpening and 50% mix in of the original photos.
Software used: Open Camera (Android) -> PIPP -> AutoStakkert -> Photoshop
Photoshop edits: (1) increased contrast (2) Shadows/Highlights: increased highlights and increased midtone contrast (no editing of "Shadows") and (3) slight increase of vibrance

Here's the monocular I used, with a very technically advanced stray light shield made of black paper fastened with masking tape :

 

[Devin-M]

Markarian's Chain (of Galaxies) - M86 - M84 - NGC 4388 - NGC 4387 - 52 to 65 million light years
2hr exposure - 60 x 2min - 12800iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonlit Bortle 2 (2/20/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount

I wanted to do a bit more processing than normal before posting this image. I edited out all the foreground stars so almost every point of light in the above image is an entire galaxy.

Full Frame w/ Stars:

Center (RA, Dec): (186.947, 12.897)
Center (RA, hms): 12h 27m 47.179s
Center (Dec, dms): +12° 53' 47.830"
Size: 3.01 x 2.01 deg
Radius: 1.810 deg
Pixel scale: 5.65 arcsec/pixel

 

[davenn]

With stars
looks totally weird without stars

 

[DennisN]

A friend just sent me a link to this STUNNING video.
Seeing a craft land on another planet, and filmed live, is just simply a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)

 

[Andy Resnick]

( http://nova.astrometry.net/upload )

Thanks for this link! I gave it a try with one of my images (downscaled to 33%, 8-bit TIFF) and it worked!

Thanks!

 

[Devin-M]

I gave it a try with one of my images (downscaled to 33%, 8-bit TIFF) and it worked!

I’ve started setting the quality setting on my dslr camera to capture both the RAW image and a low res jpg, so that while I’m trying to point the camera I can transfer the low res jpg from the dslr to iphone via the camera dongle, then upload to http://nova.astrometry.net/upload to find where I’m pointing, then I can adjust as needed til the aim is close to perfect. Also for plate solving, a 10 sec exposure is good enough, then when I’m pointed properly I crank the exposure time up to 2min, etc.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Whoa- the site managed to handle the full mosaic:

 

[Devin-M]

With stars
looks totally weird without stars

To me it looks like a lobster. M86, M84, NGC 4388, NGC 4387 are the face, NGC’s 4474, 4468, 4459 are the end of the tail, M87 & NGC 4371 are the claws. NGC 4402 is a raised eyebrow.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I second using nova.astrometry.net, it's a lot of fun to see how many deep sky objects it can find- here's one of the Leo Triplet-

But it failed to identify a small smudge near the Ring nebula (I marked it with a square)- it's present in the SDSS survey but not named...? Any guesses?

 

[Devin-M]

I would try cropping the image and inputting just that area...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Ah- Aladin to the rescue! It's LEDA 2029852, a galaxy:

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=LEDA 2029852&NbIdent=1

 

[bruha]

Hello, still one sun green filt. image from today (sharpened and expos. adjusted with Gimp-I supose some granulation is recognizable ...

 

[chemisttree]

I can’t wait for solar activity to come back!
Today’s SOHO image...

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hello, still one sun green filt. image from today (sharpened and expos. adjusted with Gimp-I supose some granulation is recognizable ...

I can’t wait for solar activity to come back!
Today’s SOHO image...

What's that thing? Haven't seen it in months...

 

[chemisttree]

Hello, still one sun green filt. image from today (sharpened and expos. adjusted with Gimp-I supose some granulation is recognizable ...

Are you observing using an aperture mask or full aperture? Here is an example of an aperture mask. Discussion here.

 

[bruha]

Hello, I observing with full aperture, I don't know this way.. you mean put lit over Sun baader folie or just lit without folie?
Thanks,,,

 

[chemisttree]

You put the large cap on the tube, remove the small cap and place a solar filter over the small opening. Your Baader green filter would still go on your eyepiece.
You will need 1 more filter to cover the small aperture in the tube cap.

Do you currently not have a full aperture solar filter of some kind? ! If you don’t, we should talk before your next observation!

 

[Devin-M]

Speaking of filters, just ordered one of these clip-in Narrow band pass (6nm) Hydrogen Alpha filters for Nikon full frame cameras so I can image nebulas in moonlight or with light pollution... hopefully works well, was over $500US...

https://www.astronomik.com/en/clip-...mik-h-alpha-6nm-ccd-clip-filter-nikon-xl.html

I felt as if the moonlight had ruined this pic of the Heart Nebula so hopefully this will be a step in the right direction...

 

[chemisttree]

I ordered one of these for the same reason!

 

[bruha]

Hi, thank you for answer, I have sun baader folie over full telecope aperture. So I mean if I should apply cap with small opening after I put baader folie on telescope it will be OK?
Thanks

 

[chemisttree]

Hi, thank you for answer, I have sun baader folie over full telecope aperture. So I mean if I should apply cap with small opening after I put baader folie on telescope it will be OK?
Thanks

I don’t think the cap will work with the full aperture foil filter but if you can... it will work. If you do that, you will be observing through a small opening in the cap and the light would go through both the foil filter and the green filter. It will be much dimmer but you should have much better resolution.

 

[bruha]

Thank you, I will try it (eventually I wil put foil just over small opening if its will not work)

 

[Devin-M]

according to this a full moon is equivalent to a bortle 7...

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/714908-bortle-equivalent-for-a-full-moon/

apparently there will be a couple hours of moonlessness by wednesday...

 

[DennisN]

Two more cool links regarding NASA:s Perseverance on Mars:

NASA captures FIRST SOUNDS on the surface of Mars

(where a Martian wind can be heard)
NASA’S Perseverance Rover’s First 360 View of Mars (Official)

(a scrollable 360 degree panorama; click "Play" and then "Pause" and then close the "More videos" popup. Then you can start scrolling around the panorama with the mouse (while holding down the left mouse button) )

 

[Andy Resnick]

Finally, a clear night- first one in 4 months. Cropped and 50% downsized image of Horsehead and Flame nebulae @ 400/2.8, 3.9 hours integration @ ISO 500:

 

[bruha]

Hi, it is really beautiful... what is cca app. diameter of this objects (arcsec..?)
Thank you and lot of succes!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hi, it is really beautiful... what is cca app. diameter of this objects (arcsec..?)
Thank you and lot of succes!

Thanks! Not sure of the apparent size- I think the flame nebula is about 0.5 x 0.5 degrees.

 

[Devin-M]

I did a similar angle a few weeks ago... ran it through nova.astrometry.net/upload ... roughly 2 degrees by 1.3 degrees...

Center (RA, Dec):	(85.333, -2.390)
Center (RA, hms):	05h 41m 19.894s
Center (Dec, dms):	-02° 23' 23.720"
Size:	1.98 x 1.32 deg
Radius:	1.191 deg
Pixel scale:	7.13 arcsec/pixel

 

[Andy Resnick]

Two clear nights in a row! I tried imaging Orion @ 105/1.4, 2.5 hours total integration time @ ISO 64. Full frame:

Unfortunately, it looks terrible at 100%- shooting wide-open is indeed best for low light but also maximizes lens aberrations. I probably need to stop it down to about f/2 to really clean everything up... maybe next time. Regardless, I'm pleased with the 'efficiency' (2.5 hours represents 70% of the total time spent outside, and 90% of the acquired frames were acceptable) using this lens.

 

[Devin-M]

Looks like perhaps you had a bit of local light pollution such as from a street light shining on the lens a little bit on the left side of that frame.

I’m eagerly waiting for the sun to go down to try out this 6 nm narrow band hydrogen Alpha clip in sensor filter for nikon full frame cameras on a nebula in a moonless cloudless bortle 2 tonight. It looks interesting... almost a mirror finish but takes on a reddish tinge when held up to the light.

 

[chemisttree]

Looks like perhaps you had a bit of local light pollution such as from a street light shining on the lens a little bit on the left side of that frame.

I’m eagerly waiting for the sun to go down to try out this 6 nm narrow band hydrogen Alpha clip in sensor filter for nikon full frame cameras on a nebula in a moonless cloudless bortle 2 tonight. It looks interesting... almost a mirror finish but takes on a reddish tinge when held up to the light.

View attachment 279096

View attachment 279097

Oooh! Aaahh!
Shouldn’t it be cloudy when you receive your gear?
Looking forward to your results tonight!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Looks like perhaps you had a bit of local light pollution such as from a street light shining on the lens a little bit on the left side of that frame

Not exactly- it is an artifact, but not from that. It's from post-processing to fine-tune field flattening, resulting in what can be thought of as out-of-tolerance stack-up along the edges. I was able to crop off the effect from 3 of the 4 sides.

Have fun with the new filter!

 

[Devin-M]

Heart Nebula - IC 1805 - Sharpless 2-190 - 7500 light years
45 minute exposure - 9 x 5min - 6400iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonless Bortle 2 (3/3/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount
Astronomik Narrow Band (6nm) Hydrogen Alpha Filter For Nikon Full Frame DSLR

I'm quite happy with the hydrogen alpha filter. Well worth the $500 when comparing to the previous shot with just the Rollei Astroklar filter in a moonlit bortle 2. It was a moonless, cloudless bortle 2 area. I'll probably end up compositing both shots together.

Center (RA, Dec): (38.250, 61.296)
Center (RA, hms): 02h 33m 00.048s
Center (Dec, dms): +61° 17' 46.914"
Size: 3.07 x 2.05 deg
Radius: 1.848 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel

detail...

 

[chemisttree]

Nice round stars! Very good for 5 min subs unguided.

 

[Devin-M]

Thank you! I also took this shot of the Flaming Star nebula during the same session, similar shooting method to the last one...

Center (RA, Dec): (79.808, 33.951)
Center (RA, hms): 05h 19m 13.990s
Center (Dec, dms): +33° 57' 03.901"
Size: 3.03 x 2.02 deg
Radius: 1.823 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel

 

[chemisttree]

That Ha filter is a winner.

 

[Devin-M]

I thought this was somewhat interesting... I've always heard that sensor noise is temperature dependent. Well after my last imaging session, I was shooting dark frames in the car on the way home (10 shots x 5 minutes @ 6400iso with the lens cap on). For those that don't know, the dark frames are taken to subtract the non-random sensor noise from the final astrophotography image. The interesting part is the camera was heating up the whole time I was shooting the dark frames from the outdoor temperature of about 35 deg fahrenheit to the cozy temp in my car (70 degrees f?). I made a animated gif showing the dark frames. I have increased the brightness of all the individual shots all uniformly so the sensor noise becomes visible, but what can clearly be seen from this is as the camera heats up, the sensor noise obviously increases. No surprise here but it's interesting to see it visually none-the-less.

 

[Devin-M]

focusing on the north star through bahtinov focusing mask and 6nm narrowband hydrogen alpha filter (cropped 30sec @ 25600iso test shots)

https://www.speakev.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.speakev.com/attachments/5f0e8216-b6f4-4de9-87a8-9921e69b1dad-jpeg.140546/

 

[Devin-M]

This is last night's attempt at the Wizard Nebula with the narrow band hydrogen alpha filter under heavy light pollution (bortle 6 surrounded by street lamps)... I think my effort was hampered by only getting 7 x 5 minute exposures at high iso (8063iso) resulting in significant noise remaining in the final image.

Wizard Nebula - NGC 7380 - 8500 light years
35 minute exposure - 7 x 5min - 8063iso - 600mm f/9 - Bortle 6 w/ heavy local light pollution (3/6/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount
Astronomik Narrow Band (6nm) Hydrogen Alpha Filter For Nikon Full Frame DSLR
Center (RA, Dec): (341.716, 58.101)
Center (RA, hms): 22h 46m 51.916s
Center (Dec, dms): +58° 06' 03.161"
Size: 48.7 x 73 arcmin
Radius: 0.731 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel

detail...

 

[DennisN]

This is last night's attempt at the Wizard Nebula

What's that big device mounted on a tripod on the grass?
Is it your camera gear or an anti-aircraft gun? Hard to tell...

 

[DennisN]

Here's a black thing I picked up from a store yesterday:

Finally, after years of angst deciding on a suitable camera for me, I decided to give this one a shot,
since I wanted a better low-light camera (than my LG G4 phone), combined with a decent allround camera, since I did not want to buy two cameras. I need the remaining funds for lenses, a scope and a guider.

Fellows, I'm finally getting a bit closer. :)
(though I have not decided on a decent scope and guider yet, I have had really trouble making
my mind up!)

Now, does anyone of you know which camera the above is?
The first one who guesses correctly will win a free, used lens cap from me.

Spoiler

It's the Sony A6000 mirrorless system camera (24 MP), which has a Sony APS-C sensor
with pretty good low light performance. It has also got great autotracking and pretty
decent video capabilities.

I will also buy a couple of more lenses to it (e.g. wide, ultrawide and portrait lenses),
since I intend to use it as a normal, non-astro camera too.
I already have some tele- and zoom lenses at home so I will probably get mount adapters for them.

Here are three reviews:

• Astrophotography Review of Sony A6000 by "Lonely Speck"
  (there are some very nice photos of auroras further down on that page,
  and a gorgeous clip of moving auroras!)
• Sony A6000 sensor review - Little wonder (on DXOMark)
• Review on "Digital Photography Review" (a long and very thorough review)

(and, yes, you are seeing correctly; the thing to the right of the camera is the ship
that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. It's a model project of mine.
I haven't gotten around to paint it with airbrush yet, and put LEDs into it, which I intend)

Edit:

Oh, I forgot to say that one very cool thing is that the camera can be remotely controlled via a computer, tablet or smartphone (incl. taking photos, setting ISO, shutter speed etc).
That is a great added benefit that I had not anticipated nor even looked for.
This of course means I don't need a dedicated remote shutter control for it.

It also supports uncompressed video out via HDMI to a computer/recorder, and it's got WiFi and NFC connectivity. It is truly remarkable for the low price. I paid ca $580 for it (brand new), which included a standard lens and some minor accessories.

 

[chemisttree]

Things are going to get very interesting for you now!

 

[Devin-M]

It's the Sony A3000 mirrorless system camera (24 MP), which has a Sony APS-C sensor

Some Sony mirrorless cameras have been known to have issues with noise reduction that can't be turned off even in raw files which has led them to be referred to by some astrophotographers as "star eaters" ... hopefully you won't have the same issue.

https://petapixel.com/2018/06/08/sonys-star-eater-problem-has-been-defeated-in-the-a7-iii/

https://petapixel.com/2017/05/04/star-eater-issue-no-longer-recommend-sony-cameras-astrophotography/

https://www.lonelyspeck.com/sony-star-eater-and-how-to-fix-it/

https://www.michaelfrye.com/2017/08/06/sony-star-eater-issue/

http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/SonyA7S/sonystareater.html

 

[chemisttree]

View attachment 279318
View attachment 279319

I like the homemade dew shield and especially the battery pack!

 

[bruha]

Hello, I attach images of Orion M42 (resp. central trapezium ) taken by my friend:

*Nikon d600 + Tamron 70-300/4-5.6
*Stacked from the 30 photos (2s, f5.6, iso 10159) in the Affnity Photo editorOndřej Brůha

Horský průvodce a fotograf
tel. +420733263858
mail ondrej.bruha@outlook.com
web www.ondrejbruha.com

 

[DennisN]

Things are going to get very interesting for you now!

Yes, and not only with respect to astrophotography, also normal photography. I've tried the camera briefly and it clearly and visibly beats my LG G4, which actually has a quite good camera on a phone.

But not all is that peachy... I'm a complete newbie when it comes to system cameras, and I had a real shock when I discovered how incredibly expensive many lenses can be. :)

I thought telescopes was rather expensive (which they can be) , but if anybody has got a ton of money to spend, go for a couple of high-tier tele- or zoom lenses, and you'll see your money disappear faster than Millennium Falcon. :)

Therefore I will go for some decent budget lenses from budget brands and/or maybe some vintage lenses with manual focus. There are a lot of interesting sites and videos with reviews on good budget lenses.

 

[DennisN]

Some Sony mirrorless cameras have been known to have issues with noise reduction that can't be turned off even in raw files which has led them to be referred to by some astrophotographers as "star eaters" ... hopefully you won't have the same issue.

Luckily the camera isn't a "wallet eater" :).
And I 've got 50 free days to test it, and I can return it if I'm dissatisfied.
And actually I consider astrophotography yet as a secondary photo hobby. I spend much more time doing normal photography. But who knows, that may change. :)