Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[davenn]

Not currently, I do plan an "upgrade" soon and that is one of the main features I'm looking into, I'm currently educating myself to maximize the "bang per buck" on a limited budget.

hi ya

this one is about the cheapest I could find that has manual focus
manual focus is critical for doing star photography

http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod12066.htmlet me know if that is within your budget or you can extend a bit further so I can make some better suggestions
obviously ... have a look in your local camera shop and get the US$ price for that model Dave

 

[1oldman2]

hi ya

this one is about the cheapest I could find that has manual focus
manual focus is critical for doing star photography

http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod12066.htmlet me know if that is within your budget or you can extend a bit further so I can make some better suggestions
obviously ... have a look in your local camera shop and get the US$ price for that model Dave

Hi Dave, That would be an ideal camera, thanks for the suggestion. I have been playing around with my brothers NIKON COOLPIX L840 and considering that however the Canon seems to be a much better deal, (I have found that where optics and electronics is concerned "better deal" does not mean cheaper) The price range of the Canon is about right and as you can see, aside from the sale price the US equivalent is about the same price as in Oz dollars, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/canon-p...lack/2761156.p?id=1219556849220&skuId=2761156
Now all I have to do is package this deal and sell it to my wife as something she really needs also, This shouldn't be all that difficult as she's been bugging me about getting a new camera for a while. We live on a very conservative budget while she is recovering from a stroke but should be able to put that amount together within the next month so hopefully the sale price will still be available in early August, with a little luck by October-November a first good telescope should be in the works also, The mountain peaks here average between 2000 and 3000 meters and when the air is cold they make some awesome viewing of the night sky.
Cheers, 1oldman.

 

[OmCheeto]

Hi Dave, That would be an ideal camera, thanks for the suggestion. I have been playing around with my brothers NIKON COOLPIX L840 and considering that however the Canon seems to be a much better deal, (I have found that where optics and electronics is concerned "better deal" does not mean cheaper) The price range of the Canon is about right and as you can see, aside from the sale price the US equivalent is about the same price as in Oz dollars, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/canon-p...lack/2761156.p?id=1219556849220&skuId=2761156
Now all I have to do is package this deal and sell it to my wife as something she really needs also, This shouldn't be all that difficult as she's been bugging me about getting a new camera for a while. We live on a very conservative budget while she is recovering from a stroke but should be able to put that amount together within the next month so hopefully the sale price will still be available in early August, with a little luck by October-November a first good telescope should be in the works also, The mountain peaks here average between 2000 and 3000 meters and when the air is cold they make some awesome viewing of the night sky.
Cheers, 1oldman.

Whatever you do, listen to that one line; "manual focus is critical for doing star photography"

I want to stab myself...

 

[davenn]

I have been playing around with my brothers NIKON COOLPIX L840 and considering that however the Canon seems to be a much better deal,

not only is the canon a better deal
that Nikon Coolpix DOESNT have manual focus and only has a longest exposure of 4 seconds

The Canon does have manual focus and it's longest exposure time is 15 seconds, which is great for star pix

ohhh exposure time is inversely proportional to focal length ... the longer the focal length the shorter the exposure time before star trails occurDave

PS... all these posts should really be in another thread of their own

 

[Andy Resnick]

manual focus is critical for doing star photography

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

 

[1oldman2]

Coming attractions .

 

[1oldman2]

Whatever you do, listen to that one line; "manual focus is critical for doing star photography"

Point well taken, these tips will end up saving me significant money as well as substantial heartbreak, I really do owe you guys more than a simple thanks

I want to stab myself...

Don't do it! I'm pretty sure the experience is overrated.

 

[1oldman2]

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

 

[1oldman2]

PS... all these posts should really be in another thread of their own

This is a great suggestion, there is always a shortage of good advice in the world.

 

[DennisN]

Not quite in space, but going to space... I simply had to share the photo here when I saw it a while ago...

What's that rising from the clouds? The space shuttle. Sometimes, if you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time, you could have seen something very unusual -- a space shuttle launching to orbit.

Source: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150524.html

 

[1oldman2]

Here's one for Dave, NASA's pic of the day, south of Oz.
And another "killer" ISS view.

 

[1oldman2]

Anyone wanting a lesson in orbital mechanics come over to http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv for a few, good show and good people

 

[1oldman2]

Anyone wanting a lesson in orbital mechanics come over to http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv for a few, good show and good people

A few highlights of the test.

In keeping with the forum rules on "text speak" I've just got to say "Oh My God" this sites images are great! https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/with/16912110270/

 

[1oldman2]

Cygnus returning from...

 

[sjzrifdsa]

excellent!

 

[1oldman2]

Western US

Eastern US

 

[Clever Penguin]

I chose to show some pictures of the ISS from Earth:

And a time lapse:

 

[1oldman2]

A couple of APOD beauties here.

 

[DennisN]

Night time lights over Europe.

 

[DennisN]

Earth seen from space Time-lapse footage - ISS FullHD 1080p Night/day

 

[1oldman2]

 

[davenn]

look at all that light pollution ... so difficult to do astronomy

 

[1oldman2]

From. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p..._campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=daily20160711-1

 

[Clever Penguin]

NGC1000 and IC5067
North America nebula and Pelican nebula

 

[Andy Resnick]

Heh- that's where I'm looking right now (400mm, about 50 minutes exposure):

 

[1oldman2]

 

[1oldman2]

 

[1oldman2]

Okay "Three in a row, Orion in infrared, M42

For the "Real Deal" go to http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Orion-ESO-Remastered.html and select largest.

 

[1oldman2]

Pardon the "Star trek plugs" but this is very cool. Hubble is "lookin' good"

For the 15.95MB download (very zoom-able)
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/28/image/a/warn/

 

[Andy Resnick]

4 nights of good viewing in the past few weeks has yielded the veil nebula:

Deets: 400/2.8 lens, 15s ISO800 exposures, total integration time = 68 minutes.

A few details of the various parts:

 

[DennisN]

4 nights of good viewing in the past few weeks has yielded the veil nebula:

Very impressive, @Andy Resnick!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Very impressive, @Andy Resnick!

Thanks!

 

[DennisN]

Ok, now I'm posting a long video here (1 hour 40 minutes), but it is worth watching for those who are interested in astronomy/astrophysics and particularly gravitational waves:

Published on 22 Jun 2016
On September 14th, 2015, a ripple in the fabric of space, created by the violent collision of two distant black holes over a billion years ago, washed across the Earth. As it did, two laser-based detectors, 50 years in the making – one in Louisiana and the other in Washington State – momentarily twitched, confirming a century-old prediction by Albert Einstein and marking the opening of a new era in astronomy. Join some of the very scientists responsible for this most anticipated discovery of our age and see how gravitational waves will be used to explore the universe like never before.

This program will feature exclusive footage from director Les Guthman’s upcoming documentary chronicling the drama of the gravitational waves discovery.

Original Program Date: June 4, 2016
MODERATOR: Brian Greene
PARTICIPANTS: Barry Barish, Nergis Mavalvala, Frans Pretorius, David Shoemaker, Rai Weiss

Gravitational Waves: A New Era of Astronomy Begins (World Science Festival)

 

[DennisN]

Top 15 Space Station Earth Images of 2015
The following images were taken by astronauts on board the International Space Station. This Top 15 list was selected by NASA Johnson Space Center's Earth Observations team.

Page is here: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/top-15-earth-images-of-2015
Examples:

Red Sprites, northwest Mexico

Rivers and Snow in the Himalayas, China and India

Scandinavia at Night

 

[1oldman2]

 

[DennisN]

Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA captured a series of photos on April 25, 2016, for this composite image of the setting sun reflected by the ocean.
Image Credit: NASA
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sunset-from-the-international-space-station

 

[1oldman2]

Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA captured a series of photos on April 25, 2016, for this composite image of the setting sun reflected by the ocean.
Image Credit: NASA
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sunset-from-the-international-space-station

I love that shot, the zoomed in telephoto images are great, I tried posting that one a bit ago but got an error message that said file to large, you must know a trick I haven't learned yet.

 

[DennisN]

I love that shot, the zoomed in telephoto images are great, I tried posting that one a bit ago but got an error message that said file to large, you must know a trick I haven't learned yet.

I clicked with the right mouse button over the photo on the NASA page and then selected "copy image location". After that I pasted the copied image location into the image url box that appears when you click the button "image" in the PhysicsForums post toolbar... (my computer runs Windows as OS and Firefox as browser)...

 

[OmCheeto]

I saw a similar image yesterday:

At first, I thought it was some silly photoshop type thing.
But then, I discovered, that it was real.

ps. I'm pretty sure that mom or dad had some hand in this, as the headline said it was a couple of kids, aged 9 & 11, that were responsible for this experiment.
[ref]

 

[1oldman2]

ps. I'm pretty sure that mom or dad had some hand in this, as the headline said it was a couple of kids, aged 9 & 11, that were responsible for this experiment.

Mom or dad get a passing grade as well as the kids.
That must be Banks lake to the left of cat.

 

[1oldman2]

 

[1oldman2]

From, http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ I found several "postworthy" images.

 

[1oldman2]

 

[Andy Resnick]

A few recent images taken during vacation:

Andromeda galaxy taken with 50mm lens (whole frame, then 1:1 crop). 90 4s images (I don't lug my tracking mount to the beach!)

And a stitched panorama (15/2.8 lens) of the entire sky visible from the deck: 15 stacks, each 50 x 10s. First is fisheye projection, next is equirectangular projection, then some 1:1 crops, one of a few Messier objects near the horizon, the next of a region in Cygnus near zenith, and the last one is of Andromeda. The original images are about 15k x 15k pixels...

 

[DennisN]

2016 August 17
Meteor before Galaxy, Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich

Explanation: What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy last Friday, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a sand-sized rock from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy's far-distant companion. The small meteor took only a fraction of a second to pass through this 10-degree field. The meteor flared several times while braking violently upon entering Earth's atmosphere. The green color was created, at least in part, by the meteor's gas glowing as it vaporized. Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseids meteor, the orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks earlier.

Source page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160817.html.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Source page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160817.html.

I think I 'got' this one as well:

I smell a homework problem... my location was Latitude: 35.228824 | Longitude: -75.626187 (sea level), where was Fritz?

 

[1oldman2]

My posting seems to be glitching

 

[1oldman2]

Here is a nice one from down APOD August 16th

 

[DennisN]

A panorama from Mars...

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover at Murray Buttes (360 View)

Published on 19 Aug 2016

Explore this Mars panorama by moving the view with your mouse or mobile device. This 360-degree panorama was acquired on Aug. 5, 2016, by the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the rover neared features called "Murray Buttes" on lower Mount Sharp. The dark, flat-topped mesa seen to the left of the rover's arm is about 50 feet (about 15 meters) high and, near the top, about 200 feet (about 60 meters) wide.

Source page is here.

 

[1oldman2]