Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[DennisN]

Something unusual this time...

I saw that a team recently had used AI to generate better images of the M87 black hole, so I started wondering how well AI could render celestial bodies and space related stuff. So I asked of friend of mine who has got AI software if he would like to try it out, which he did, and I posted some of his pictures here: (post 1, post 2).

 

[Astronuc]

Eight planets and many worlds - from Galileo to New HorizonsI was interested in the Roche limit of Jupiter and other planets and objects
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/r/Roche_limit.htm

 

[dlgoff]

Eight planets and many worlds - from Galileo to New HorizonsI was interested in the Roche limit of Jupiter and other planets and objects
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/r/Roche_limit.htm

I was a student of the professor who taught Clyde Tombaugh at the University of Kansas after he discovered Pluto.
See: https://union.ku.edu/planetary-man

 

[timmdeeg]

The Leo-Triplet

I love it because each galaxy has it's own "personality".

Taken April 14. 2023 with

Sony A7III
UNC 200 f/4 Newton on HEQ5 - guiding with StarAid - no Filter
DSS - Siril - LightZone

Frames 32x180s 1.6 h - ISO 800

 

[Andy Resnick]

Heh... I was getting ready to post my image of the same region of sky :)

Deets: Nikon D810 + Nikkor 800/8 ơn a Losmandy GM-8, 8s subs, total integration time 8.3 hours. Stacking with AstroPixel Processor. Guess I have a thing for the number '8'....

There's a plethora of faint galaxies everywhere in this image, I haven't had a chance to upload it to Astrometry.net and see what's what.

 

[Astronuc]

The outer planets Uranus and Neptune have some interesting characteristics and features.

Voyager 2's Discoveries On Neptune and Uranus [4K] | Zenith | Spark​

The first 20 minutes cover early missions to Mercury and Venus, and only the last 7 minutes cover Uranus and Neptune. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see where missions failed and what was learned in order to improve subsequent missions.

Uranus And Neptune | A Travellers Guide To Planet​

 

[timmdeeg]

Heh... I was getting ready to post my image of the same region of sky :) View attachment 325140

Deets: Nikon D810 + Nikkor 800/8 ơn a Losmandy GM-8, 8s subs, total integration time 8.3 hours. Stacking with AstroPixel Processor. Guess I have a thing for the number '8'....

There's a plethora of faint galaxies everywhere in this image, I haven't had a chance to upload it to Astrometry.net and see what's what.

Indeed, lots of galaxies!

 

[Structure seeker]

Eight planets and many worlds - from Galileo to New Horizons

At the ending phrase, "perhaps life is just next door": I'm certain it is! I can hear my neighbours at this very moment.

 

[collinsmark]

Bode's Galaxy (M81), captured from my back patio from February through April, 2023. Bode's Galaxy is about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is a grand design spiral galaxy: a galaxy who's arms are prominent, well defined spirals.

M81 is named after Johann Elert Bode, who discovered the galaxy at the tail end of the year 1774. It's a bit unusual for a nearby, bright galaxy's common name be that of its discoverer. But here we are for M81. His name stuck.

Bode was pretty famous astronomer in his time. He may be most famous for his Titus-Bode law, which hypothesizes planets orbiting a star should be spaced roughly exponentially; i.e., each planet should be about twice the distance to the star as the one before. This works out pretty well, more-or-less, for the planets in our solar system, sort of. Time will tell how well it applies generally once we get more data from exoplanets.

Bode is known for quite a few other things too, such as creating a star atlas, determining the orbit of Uranus, and even suggesting the planet be named Uranus. So if you're wondering whom we ultimately have to thank for all the Uranus jokes, that honor goes to Bode.

Equipment:
Meade 10" LX200-ACF fork mounted on an equatorial wedge.
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera.
Optolong broadband filter set.
Optolong L-Pro filter
Optolong 3 nm Hα filter
ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro main camera.

The weather weather did not cooperate with my imaging of M81. It was cloudy and rainy nearly every day for months.

Software:
Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A.)
PHD2 guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro plugins

I think I spent more time on this object than any other so far in terms of days/weeks waiting for the skies to clear, and almost the most time in terms of total hours of exposure/integration when it was.

Integration:
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 3×3
R: 210×4 min = 14.00 hrs
G: 116×4 min = 7.73 hrs
B: 136×4 min = 9.07 hrs
L-Pro: 244×4 min = 16.27 hrs
Hα: 35×10 min = 5.83 hrs
Total integration time: 52.90 hours
.

 

[timmdeeg]

Thanks for commenting on Bode! And for this great image, almost 53 hrs with such weather conditions.

 

[Devin-M]

I heard that Jupiter will pass behind the moon on May 17 (occultation)…

 

[Devin-M]

It looks like Jupiter will pop out from behind the moon at about 5:30 AM May 17 Pacific time USA based on Stellarium.

 

[DennisN]

A set of beautiful photos here... some inspiration, perhaps?

36 Awe-Inspiring Sun, Moon, and Milky Way Photos of 2020 (PetaPixel)
https://petapixel.com/2021/02/01/36-awe-inspiring-sun-moon-and-milky-way-photos-of-2020/

Some examples:

Man over the solar eclipse in the Andes (Chile) by Michael Ostaszewski

Man over the Milky Way reflected on the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) by Jheison Huerta

Comet Neowise over Stonehenge (Wiltshire, UK) by Declan Deval

 

[Structure seeker]

Very beautiful!

 

[Devin-M]

Wow, magnetic field lines of sun visible??

Man over the solar eclipse in the Andes (Chile) by Michael Ostaszewski

 

[Borg]

You're seeing Earthshine on the moon's surface also.

 

[berkeman]

Man over the Milky Way reflected on the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) by Jheison Huerta

Sorry for the dumb question, but why is the Milky Way curved in that picture? I think I've only seen it as a straight line of stars across the night sky when I've been lucky enough to see it (camping, etc.).

 

[Devin-M]

It’s a 360 photo so like a map, it gets stretched because it’s a sphere projected on a flat surface

 

[collinsmark]

Sorry for the dumb question, but why is the Milky Way curved in that picture? I think I've only seen it as a straight line of stars across the night sky when I've been lucky enough to see it (camping, etc.).

I think it's just a matter of the shot taken with a very wide angle lens -- specifically, a full frame sensor (36×24mm) paired with a 16 mm focal length lens.

 

[Devin-M]

I have a 14mm DSLR lens, that shot is wider, it’s a stitched panorama…

https://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/360pano/?sort=-release_date

 

[Devin-M]

PS 14-16mm lenses are “rectilnear” so unless labeled “fisheye” they don’t curve straight lines.

 

[Devin-M]

 

[bdrobin519]

Just saw Venus lit up so bright it was the first visible object in the sky.

 

[collinsmark]

I don't think I ever posted a proper photo of my secondary astro-rig. So here's a recent pic:

There's obviously some cable management on the to-do list. But there's some other tweaks, like cone error reduction, that I'm planning to do first. I'm waiting for clear skies with a full moon for that stuff though. In the mean time, it works well enough as it is -- well, if the clouds will just go away.

 

[collinsmark]

Bode's Galaxy (M81), The Cigar Galaxy (M82), and the Garland Galaxy (NGC 3077) gathered from my back patio in March-April, 2023. I was able to sneak this acquisition in during the few clear nights within the last couple of months using my secondary astro-rig.

You might recognize Bode's Galaxy (M81, center) from a recent post (post 2009), and the Cigar Galaxy (M82, lower-left) from a post I made almost a year ago (post 1681), where both of those images were acquired using my primary setup.

The Garland Galaxy (NGC 3077, lower-right) is new to me, however. The galaxy gets its name for the dwarf structure nearby the NGC 3077 galaxy itself. Either that or it gets its name from another group of stars (most in our Milky Way Galaxy) that appears -- at first glance -- as though it's about to be wrapped around NGC 3077 like a string of garland about to be wrapped around a Christmas tree. Anyway, the extra-galactic dwarf structure has been nicknamed, the "Garland." It should be noted that most of the background stars in the image (aside from the galaxies themselves) are not actually in the background at all, but rather they are quite close to us in the foreground of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Garland, on the other hand, is not in the Milky Way; it really is in the M81 group, near NGC 3077. What appears to be just a handful of dim stars and nebulous knots are actually some exceptionally bright stars in and around star clusters and active regions of star formation in a whole 'nother galaxy system, some 13 million light-years away.

Here's a 1:1 crop of NGC 3077 and its nearby "Garland" structure. (My little 80 mm refractor isn't able to resolve The Garland into individual stars. Anyway, The Garland is the faint area just to the right of the galaxy):

The formation of the Garland is still an area of active study; it presents a few mysteries that haven't been fully solved yet. That said, the conventional wisdom is that the Garland was formed by chaotic, tidal interactions involving a "close call" between M81 and NGC 3077 whipping past each other eons ago.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Optolong L-Pro filter
Baader Hα 3.5nm Ultra-Narrowband filter
ZWO LRGB filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 guiding
PixInsight with RC-Astro plugins

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 1x1
L-Pro: 239×120s = 7.97 hrs
Hα: 59×600s = 9.83 hrs
R: 125×120s = 4.17 hrs
G: 63×120s = 2.10 hrs
B: 100×120s = 3.33 hrs
Total integration time: 27.4 hours.

(Here's a link to more information on The Garland: https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1985MNRAS.217..731K/0000731.000.html)

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,..." Hold on, the M81 group isn't all that far away from us comparatively. 13 million light-years is actually pretty close in terms of galaxy cluster scales. Let me start over. "A long time ago in a galaxy that isn't really all that too terribly far away, galaxy-wise that is, ..." Hmm. 'Doesn't have the same ring to it. ... I'm just going to stop now.

Here's a crop of the image showing just M82 and M81.

 

[Andy Resnick]

It's been cloudy for nearly an unbroken month, but last week I was able to get some imaging time on M101:

Nikon D810 + 800/8 lens, 13s subs, total integration time of 15 hours. Definitely happy how this is coming along- M101 is nicely framed by NGC 5474, NGC 5422, and NGC 5485, and a lot more are easily visible in the image. Here's a 1:1 crop of the area near NGC 5474, a "peculiar" dwarf galaxy:

The trio of galaxy blobs to the left of NGC 5474. These are, from the leftmost, "Gaia DR3 1609195779046805376", the center one is apparently nameless, and the rightmost is "SDSS J140458.21+534358.3".

 

[timmdeeg]

Testing Optolong L-Ultimate 3 nm dual band

I choose Abell 12 to see how the promised halo suppression of stars works. Abell12, the “Hidden” planetary nebula in the Orion constellation is close Mu Orionis. The halo suppression seems to work but a comparison is missing.

Unfortunately clouds prevented longer exposure, so no colors of the nebula.

Abell 12: size 37", distance ,~ 7000 LJ

Date 21. March 2023
Frames 14x180s ISO 1600
Sony A7III
UNC 200 f/4 Newton on HEQ5 - guiding with StarAid
DSS - Siril - LightZone

 

[DennisN]

I don't think I ever posted a proper photo of my secondary astro-rig. So here's a recent pic:

A very impressive rig!
Lots of cables and technology... where's the flux capacitor located?

 

[TonyStewart]

Flower pot holders?

 

[Devin-M]

I’m only about 120 miles from the 2023 Annular Solar Eclipse. 9:20am Sat Oct. 14, 2023. I hope they test launch Starship from Boca Chica, TX during the eclipse.

 

[timmdeeg]

Bode's Galaxy (M81), The Cigar Galaxy (M82), and the Garland Galaxy (NGC 3077) gathered from my back patio in March-April, 2023. I was able to sneak this acquisition in during the few clear nights within the last couple of months using my secondary astro-rig.

Congratulation to these beautiful images! The colors look very natural. These galaxies belong to my favorites, however I am still waiting for better weather conditions.

 

[collinsmark]

Arguably, this post belongs in one of the jokes threads. But it's so specific to the topic of this thread (if you're at all concerned with telescope optics), I put it here.

Crystal Ball

(Source: https://xkcd.com/2776/)

 

[DennisN]

I was out the other night trying to capture the Milky Way, and this time I succeeded for the first time .
I went out a bit outside of the city at a Bortle 6 site, but the site wasn't particularly good for this job, so another lesson learned. Next time I will probably go to a darker site at a beach and try to shoot over the ocean in order to get less light pollution.

In the meantime, here is one photo which shows three types of "disturbances" in one and the same photo: satellite, airplane and light pollution "dome" in the distance...

(quotes from PF members two years ago)

This kind of light streak, which I have sometimes seen in photos by others, are they satellites? Or could they also be airplanes?

Satellite

Yeah, that's either a satellite or a high-altitude plane. Here, transcontinental/transoceanic flights are high enough that I can't distinguish those from satellites.

Airplane navigation (clearance) lights blink on and off.

Airplanes typically show as dotted lines if the field of view is large enough with an exposure time is a second or so.

Cheers,
Tom

Magnified:

Satellite (probably):

Airplane (probably):

Since the first photo was only one unprocessed frame the Milky Way was very, very dim there.
Here's one processed in Sequator where the Milky Way is at least more present:

I'm far from satisfied with this photo, so I will try to process in other ways and in other software, probably Siril.

And a screenshot from Stellarium for comparison:

 

[Devin-M]

Remember to set your alarm clock for 5:17 AM tomorrow morning pacific time to see Jupiter emerge from behind the moon.

 

[Devin-M]

@DennisN I’d be happy to try and draw out some more clarity if you upload the RAW file here: https://u.pcloud.com/#page=puplink&code=cwlkZxnAbdImDSG8LT1xX8zffYkao7EUX

 

[Devin-M]

Occultation of Jupiter by the Moon
Photo By: Devin M
~5:20am PST 5/17/23, Redding, California
Nikon D800 DSLR on a 6" diameter Meade 2175mm f/14.5 Maksutov Cassegrain reflector telescope, Full Frame

In this frame grab from a video, Jupiter is still partially blocked by the moon:

Video PT 1 of 3:


Video PT 2 of 3:


Video PT 3 of 3:

 

[Devin-M]

Apparently the last occultation of Jupiter visible in the US was 1968.

 

[DennisN]

@ All PF astrophotographers, FYI:

@swampwiz posted a thread about a new, close supernova here:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/supernova-in-pinwheel-galaxy.1052633/

...and an article here: New supernova! Closest in a decade (EarthSky.org)

A new supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy, aka M101, is the closest to Earth in a decade.

[...]

It should remain visible to amateur astronomers with backyard telescopes for a few months.

[...]

The supernova – named 2023ixf – lies in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper.

[...]

And a photo from the article above:

"Our friend Eliot Herman used the Utah Remote Desert Observatories to capture this image of the new supernova in M101 – the Pinwheel Galaxy – just hours after its discovery on May 19, 2023. See the bright spot by the yellow arrowhead? This is the closest supernova to us in more than a decade. [...]"

 

[DennisN]

@DennisN I’d be happy to try and draw out some more clarity if you upload the RAW file here: https://u.pcloud.com/#page=puplink&code=cwlkZxnAbdImDSG8LT1xX8zffYkao7EUX

@Devin-M :

Thank you very much for your kind offer!

I haven't yet tried Siril myself, but if you like to have a go at the RAW files (which are .ARW files), I've just uploaded them as a RAR archive (unencrypted) on the pCloud link you posted.

Name of RAR archive: "Milky Way from DennisN to Devin-M.rar" (ca 1.9 GB)

I hope you can unpack RAR files... the reason I stored them in a RAR archive was because there are three different folders for the different file types:

1 - Light Frames (x25, 6s, f4, ISO 3200), i.e. the actual photos
2 - Dark Frames (x10, 6s, f4, ISO 3200), i.e. the noise signature photos
3 - Calibration Frames (x21, 1-8000s, f4, ISO 3200), i.e. the calibration/bias photos

(note: no flat frames, I haven't yet done flat frames, it's on my to do-list )

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

Gear & Settings Info:

Camera: Sony A7R
Lens: Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 (Sony Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 35/2,8 ZA)

Settings: (Frame type: exposure time, f-number, ISO)

Light Frames: 6 sec, f/4, ISO 3200
Dark Frames: 6 sec, f/4, ISO 3200
Calibration Frames: 1/8000 sec, f/4, ISO 3200

Cheers!

 

[Devin-M]

I will edit these. PS I think bias only affects the flat frames, but you may want to double check.

 

[Devin-M]

Actually, could you do about 10 flat frames? Just stretch white plastic bag over lens with a couple rubber bands and point at sky during daytime (not at sun) such that the exposure ends up about 50% grey. Histogram will look like a peak in the middle.

 

[DennisN]

Actually, could you do about 10 flat frames? Just stretch white plastic bag over lens with a couple rubber bands and point at sky during daytime (not at sun) such that the exposure ends up about 50% grey. Histogram will look like a peak in the middle.

@Devin-M :

Ok, I just did some flat frames (20) and uploaded them as a RAR archive ("Milky Way from DennisN to Devin-M - Flat Frames.rar", 701 MB) on your pCloud link.

I hope I did it right :

Gear: Same camera and lens (of course )
ISO: Same (3200)
f: Same (4)
Exposure: 1/8000s with a paper* in front of lens, to get correct exposure
Focus: Same (Infinity)

I had to read up on flat frames, and I read this article:

How to take Flat Frames for Astrophotography (AstroBackyard)

* I tried with a plastic bag first, but it seemed to thin, since the photo got overexposed even on the shortest exposure time:

So I tried with a paper in front of the lens instead (taped onto the camera):

Cheers!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Test cropped image from a large stitched-and-stacked image of the Virgo supercluster ( I think that's what it is...), this crop is centered on Markarian's chain and neighborhood:

It's ok, but the seams are unacceptable. Tests like this help me diagnose stacking problems (here, it's insufficient blending of the substacks) but also keep me motivated to see large projects through to the end.

Deets: total integration time is about 20 hours @ 400/4, 13s subs, but it's spread over the whole region which covers about 5 FoV of a full-frame 35mm sensor. This crop is close to a single FoV.

 

[timmdeeg]

It’s really nice and includes the Great Galactic Face.

 

[timmdeeg]

https://mapstr.com/place/JNuKeafrwog

During a trip in the south of Malta we came along a historic tower - the Ghar Lapsi Tower - and I imagined stars looking down on it. At night it took us a half hour from Valetta to arrive at the tower.

Unfortunately fainter stars were missing due to dust coming from the desert Sahara, so only SQM 19.

Sony A7iii with FE 1.8 / 14 GM
stacked with Sequator - processed with Siril and LightZone
May 18. - 18x25s ISO 200 no guiding

I have no great experience to process such images. Which would you prefer? I think the second looks more natural. Both are a slight crop.

 

[Devin-M]

Unfortunately fainter stars were missing due to dust coming from the desert Sahara, so only SQM 19.

Sony cameras are known to use a spatial filtering algorithm that removes stars (and by design hot pixels), known in the astrophotography community as “star eater” cameras…

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

 

[Devin-M]

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

Improvements in the Sony a7III​

The below section is an excerpt from my a7III review.

The a7III exhibits a similar, but different characteristic noise filtering as previous generations. The filtering reduces noise and diminishes the brightness of small dim stars in an image for exposures of 4 seconds or longer. An easy way to see the effects of star-eater on the a7III is to simply compare a 3.2s exposure (left) with a 4s exposure (right):

A comparison between a 3.2s exposure and a 4s exposure makes apparent that the a7III still has some built-in noise reduction that affects stars.

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

 

[timmdeeg]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the "star eater" issue.

This sounds like an improvement though:

As you can see, the 8s a7III (right) shot looks a lot better than the star-eaten a7S Bulb shot (left). The a7S Bulb shot (left) shows some weird color shifted or blocky looking stars that appear a little bit defocused as a results of the old a7S’s spatial filtering (star-eater) in Bulb mode. The a7III shot shows more dim stars and stars appear markedly sharper than in the old a7S Bulb shot. Stars look “normal” in the a7III shot. This result is great news for astrophotographers looking to get the a7III.

I'm not sure if I can expect more if under such conditions I can see only a few stars with the naked eye.

 

[DennisN]

A new video by Nico Carver which I think is worth posting because it is unusual;
he talks about psychological issues here which can affect astrophotographers (and photographers in general):

Pixel peeping (which can lead to unnecessary dissatisfaction) and GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)*.

Confession: I've become a pixel peeper (Nebula Photos)


* GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and LBA (Lens Buying Addiction) are concepts in photography which I can identify with . Here is a short video which describes it: LBA and GAS - a journey (Simon's Utak).

 

[Borg]

Today's APOD is pretty awesome!
Moons Across Jupiter