Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Andy Resnick]

Prior to this past weekend, every single night for the past 7 weeks has been overcast. Then finally, a pair of perfect viewing nights, and even better- on a weekend (no bedtime!).

The region around M42 through an 800mm lens:

Starting from the top: Sh2-279, a molecular HII cloud region comprising both emission and reflection nebulae, and in the center: M43 and M42- here's a closer crop of part of M42:

And, at the bottom, NCG 1999 and (very faintly) Herbig-Haro objects HH 1/2:

Deets: Nikon D810 + 800/8 lens on Losmandy GM8 mount, unguided. Total integration time 9 hours. Stacking in Astro Pixel Processor.

 

[collinsmark]

The California Nebula (NGC 1499, Sh 2-220) imaged from my back patio in Dec. 2023 - Jan. 2024. It's an emission nebula in the constellation Perseus.

The California Nebula gets its name because, although it has plenty of hydrogen and sulfur, it doesn't have comparatively that much oxygen. 'Just like the USA state of California.

OK, jokes aside, it gets its name from its shape: its resemblance to the shape California, the state.

You may recall that I previously imaged the California Nebula a little over a year ago, but that was with the bigger telescope. This image here is more recent from the smaller telescope producing a wider field of view. It's true what I said about there not being comparatively a lot of oxygen, so I had to push the O-iii data pretty hard (mapped to blue in the image), exacerbating the halos caused by my O-iii filter. Those blue-purple halos are not actually in space, they are a result of internal reflections inside the Baader O-iii filter that I used. (The stars are in space, of course, but the blue/purple halos surrounding them are not, is what I mean.)

As circumstance would have it, I'm going to be swapping some filters around my setups in the near future, so next time I image this target I hope the results will be more forgiving regarding the halos.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader 3.5/4nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

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

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, California, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Stacked using the drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 92×480s = 12.27 hrs
Hα: 129×480s = 17.20 hrs
Oiii: 105×480s = 14.00 hrs
Total integration time: 43.47 hours.

 

[DennisN]

I want to share two wallpaper sites I've used frequently lately, Unsplash and WallpapersCraft. They've got many different categories of wallpapers, including space related ones (though it's a mix of real images, compositions and rendered images):

UnSplash, Space: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/space
WallpapersCraft, Space: https://wallpaperscraft.com/catalog/space


Here's one nice example:

(Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/cosmic-view-during-night-time-TV2gg2kZD1o)

 

[Andy Resnick]

It's been cloudy for weeks (and for more weeks to come), this faint smudge is all I could manage for M78 after 45 minutes of acquisition time with my usual setup:

Why M78? Well, as I was reminded of recently, M78 is Ultraman's home!

 

[bruha]

Today I noticed one bigger sunspot (Little Gimp corrected) I
(Unfortunately I am not sure which component in whole optic system is so dirty

 

[neilparker62]

It's been cloudy for weeks (and for more weeks to come), this faint smudge is all I could manage for M78 after 45 minutes of acquisition time with my usual setup:

The last "faint smudge" I found on one of my pics turned out to be 10 million stars in a (possibly) collapsed galaxy. As a child, the family had a wonderful dog called "Smudgie" so I guess that's where doggy heaven must be (Caldwell 80!).

 

[collinsmark]

It's been cloudy for weeks (and for more weeks to come), this faint smudge is all I could manage for M78 after 45 minutes of acquisition time with my usual setup:

View attachment 340594

Why M78? Well, as I was reminded of recently, M78 is Ultraman's home!

I didn't know that about Ultraman. Nice to know, thanks! I used to watch Ultraman (TV series) as a small child (but I was so young I don't remember much of it). I know M78 as "Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula."

The Ultraman reference makes sense now. When I imaged the nebula myself last year (see: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/our-beautiful-universe-photos-and-videos.800540/post-6865767) I did so at the request of a friend. I incidentally happen to know that that friend is a huge fan of Ultraman. But I didn't put 2 and 2 together until now.

I'll have to re-image M78 with the new setup, although I'm doubtful it will be this year.

 

[collinsmark]

NGC 660 imaged from my back patio, Dec 2023 - Jan 2024. NGC 660 is a lenticular, polar ring galaxy, approximately 44 million light-years away, in the constellation Pisces. Its ring -- offset from the galaxy's central axis by about 45 deg -- spans about 40,000 light-years in diameter. The galaxy as a whole has an exceptionally high rate of star formation, making it a "starburst" galaxy.

NGC 660 likely gets its unique shape from a galaxy merger that happened perhaps a billion years ago. That merger, not only produced a "strung out" ring, but also left the galaxy scarred, twisted, and jaded; both physically, and I presume, emotionally*.

*(galaxies consist of gas, dust, and billions of stars, so they don't experience emotion themselves. But if they did, I imagine NGC 660 would be among the angrier ones.)

NGC 660 doesn't presently have a common name, at least not one that I could find. But maybe that's because I gave up looking too soon and ran away out of my own insecurities.

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.

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

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 3×3
R: 160×3 min = 8.00 hrs
G: 208×3 min = 10.4 hrs
B: 195×3 min = 9.75 hrs
L-Pro: 192×3 min = 9.60 hrs
Hα: 22×10 min = 3.67 hrs
Total integration time: 41.42 hours
.

 

[Devin-M]

@collinsmark are the streetlights in your city LED?

 

[collinsmark]

@collinsmark are the streetlights in your city LED?

I had to look it up just now. I thought the city lights were moving to LED, but perhaps not. That's good news for me!

[Edit: Also, I'm more than 30 miles from Palomar Observatory, so that means I'm in the region with induction (fluorescent) lights. That's not not such good news.]

The Street Division is responsible for all the streetlights in the City of San Diego. The City of San Diego has over 40,000 streetlights in operation. Nine thousand of these lights belong to local community "Lighting Districts" which pay a special assessment fee to support the additional or ornamental lighting in their neighborhoods. In addition, Street Division maintains over 4,000 lights in parks, community ball fields, and other City facilities. We also share responsibility with Caltrans for lights on the freeway off/on ramps that intersect city streets.

Currently, there are two types of streetlights in San Diego, Induction lights, which emit a white light and Low Pressure Sodium (LPS), which emits a monochromatic yellow light. Induction lighting is the City's standard type of street lighting. Because of the need to limit light pollution that affects Palomar Observatory, LPS is used in all areas within a 30-mile radius from the Observatory.

Source: https://www.sandiego.gov/street-div/services/electrical/strlight

But there's still lots of headlamps from cars, and all sorts of porchlights everywhere, even all around my neighborhood. And most of those are LEDs or halogen by now -- things which don't do so well regarding light pollution. But I guess there's hope that the city is taking light pollution into account at least to some extent.

 

[Devin-M]

Our area in Redding, CA uses LED, can’t filter out…

 

[bruha]

Hello, here is my last attempt of Orion Neb. center with trapezium -Bohmerwald, Bortle 6-7 as was full moon, Newton 1000 x 200 mm, Iphone camera with eyepiece adapter (eyepiece 8 mm). Is it clear that without drive is not possible with these condition and system to get better result.

 

[collinsmark]

The Pleiades asterism, open star cluster, and reflection nebula (a.k.a., M45, NGC 1432, the "Seven Sisters," "Subaru," "Matarii," "Yunggarmurra Water Girls," "Seven Rishis," and many other names). Imaged from my back patio in January, 2024. The Pleiades can be seen with the naked eye in the constellation Taurus, and lie about 444 light-years away (give or take, roughly).

I'm guessing that the Pleiades (or by whatever name they were called), may have been used by early humans as the original vision test. "How many individual stars can you discern in the Pleiades?" I imagine people asking each other. As you can see in the image above, there are more than 7 stars in the asterism. But without the aid of a telescope, and without my contact lenses or glasses, I can see exactly zero of them. I'm sure most people fare better. I'm guessing that if you can distinguish six or seven separate stars, it means you have pretty good eyesight.

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

I took 4871 subframe images total (not counting the bad frames). Each subframe image is 26 megapixels. Together with all the calibration frames and whatnot, this project takes about 1 terabyte of space on my hard drive.

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2 guiding
PixInsight with
o Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch plugin
o RC-Astro plugins

I have a couple of sisters. I can only imagine the joy and chaos of growing up with seven of 'em.

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 1x1, stacked with drizzle algorithm
R: 1364×10s = 3.79 hrs
G: 2148×10s = 5.97 hrs
B: 1359×10s = 3.78 hrs
Total integration time: 13.53 hours.
.

 

[Devin-M]

Here’s an oldie but goodie from 2 years ago…

Its been a while since I’ve done any shooting, hopefully this will motivate me back under the stars again…

This is looking towards the south out over Whiskeytown lake to the west of Redding, California USA. The length of the timelapse is 1 or 2 hours I can’t remember exactly.

 

[Andy Resnick]

A few targets, all acquired during the past month or so:

NGC 2244 (Rosette Nebula):

Nikon D810 + 400/4 lens, Losmandy GM8 mount, unguided. Cropped view, total integration time = 20.7 hours. It's a tricky target- very faint. Over time, my technique has improved enough that individual exposures are now 15s, up from 5s 2 years ago.

M44 (Beehive cluster):

D810 + 800/8 lens, etc. Total integration time 4h. I'm not sure why I spend time on this... I can't seem to reproduce the jewel-tones you can find in other images. Maybe this needs to be shot at 400mm so it doesn't look so empty?

Lastly, M81/M82:

Shot using 800/8, lightly cropped, 10.2 hours integration time. Surprisingly difficult target (for me) to acquire, partly because it is so faint (the brightest stars are 9th magnitude) but it marks the start of "multiple galaxies in my field of view" season, running through Leo and culminating in Virgo/Coma Berenices.

 

[collinsmark]

NGC 3166 (left) and NGC 3169 (right) captured from my back patio Dec. 2023 - Jan. 2024. These spiral galaxies, which can be seen (from Earth) in the constellation Sextans, are spiraling into each other before they ultimately merge into one.

The much smaller galaxy to the upper left is NGC 3165.

This is the last image I plan on taking with the Meade 10" LX200-ACF telescope setup for a while. If you're curious about its replacement, see this thread:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/documenting-the-setup-of-my-new-telescope.1059921/

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.

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

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 3×3
Stacked using drizzle algorithm
R: 91×5 min = 7.58 hrs
G: 90×5 min = 7.50 hrs
B: 99×5 min = 8.25 hrs
L-Pro: 110×5 min = 9.17 hrs
Hα: 73×10 min = 12.17 hrs
Total integration time: 44.67 hours

 

[Andy Resnick]

Practicing for the eclipse:

A few sunspots, not much solar activity:

Shot through Spectrum Telescope Solar Optical film using a Nikon 800/11 lens, 1/40s ISO 320. Color balance is tricky, I needed to set my camera white balance to 2500K blackbody and then post process for fine tuning.

 

[Borg]

Coming soon to a galaxy near you - T Coronae Borealis Nova.

A star system, located 3,000 light-years away from Earth, is predicted to become visible to the unaided eye soon. This could be a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity as the nova ouburst only occurs about every 80 years. T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, last exploded in 1946 and astronomers believe it will do so again between February and September 2024.

 

[DennisN]

I stumbled upon a cool image when I was looking for wallpapers.
Now, this is likely rendered (i.e. not real) but I thought the idea was very cool:

Source: https://wallpaperscraft.com/download/silhouette_starry_sky_art_136059/7200x3572

Maybe it would be possible to do this in reality, well, at least as a composite. What I mean is an image with landscape and star trails in the background, and then edit in a photo of a person holding his hand up.

Just a thought.

I have for some reason not tried shooting star trails yet, but I think it would be fun to do so.

 

[Devin-M]

Just a thought.

Reminded me of a photo a took many years ago at Purdon Crossing, Nevada City, California…

PS she’s holding one of these, which is an n’Goni, a type of 11-stringed African harp predating the invention of the guitar as I understand it from Burkina Faso, Western Africa…

 

[DennisN]

Reminded me of a photo a took many years ago at Purdon Crossing, Nevada City, California…

A very cool photo!

 

[Andy Resnick]

I stumbled upon a cool image when I was looking for wallpapers.

[...]
I have for some reason not tried shooting star trails yet, but I think it would be fun to do so.

Interesting artwork. At best, it's a composite of several images- notice how the start trails appear in front of the background along the lower section.

Shooting star trails is about the easiest thing possible- just leave the shutter open- and the post processing is also simple (mostly background subtraction). To get the variable brightness, tho- that takes work. Here's a few tutorials that you may find inspiring:

https://liketheocean.com/night-photography/stacking-up-the-stars-getting-creative/
https://milkywaymike.com/2015/03/02/vortex-star-trails-tutorial/

 

[DennisN]

Shooting star trails is about the easiest thing possible- just leave the shutter open- and the post processing is also simple (mostly background subtraction). To get the variable brightness, tho- that takes work. Here's a few tutorials that you may find inspiring:

https://liketheocean.com/night-photography/stacking-up-the-stars-getting-creative/
https://milkywaymike.com/2015/03/02/vortex-star-trails-tutorial/

Thanks a lot!

 

[phinds]

Interesting pic from NPR (https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241...new-image-magnetic-field?ft=nprml&f=191676894)

pic is captioned below

 

[collinsmark]

Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group), captured from back patio, Dec. 2023 through Mar. 2024. The galaxy to the left is NGC 3628 (a.k.a. the Hamburger Galaxy). To the lower right is M66 (a.k.a. NGC 3627) and the one to the upper right is M65 (a.k.a. NGC 3623). These galaxies are found in the constellation Leo.

I've imaged these galaxies before, about 2 years ago (also posted in this thread). Here they are again with a completely fresh set of raw data, taken with a different camera and mount (compared to the setup I used a couple years ago). I'm also hoping my processing skills have improved a little in that time.

The Leo Triplet is one of those targets that amateur astronomers and astrophotographers go back to again and again. This surely won't be the last time I revisit these galaxies.

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

Acquisition/Integration:
Location: San Diego, USA
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 1x1, stacked with drizzle algorithm
L-Pro: 513×90s = 12.83 hrs
Hα: 61×480s = 8.13 hrs
R: 212×90s = 5.30 hrs
G: 375×90s = 9.38 hrs
B: 286×90s = 7.15 hrs
Total integration time: 42.78 hours.

 

[DennisN]

Interesting pic from NPR (https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241...new-image-magnetic-field?ft=nprml&f=191676894)

A stunning image!

 

[neilparker62]

Closer to "home" albeit not much more than a 'holiday snap' , here is a portion of the Milky Way on a clear Highveld night. 2024/03/20 / 03:47:12

 

[Andy Resnick]

Feeling pretty good today- I had a goal to image the chromosphere during the solar eclipse, and this is what I was able to capture:

and some 1:1 crops-

 

[neilparker62]

Feeling pretty good today- I had a goal to image the chromosphere during the solar eclipse, and this is what I was able to capture:

Great pics - did you or anyone out there try taking a pic with a diffraction grating lens ? Should get an excellent solar spectrum!

 

[Andy Resnick]

Great pics - did you or anyone out there try taking a pic with a diffraction grating lens ? Should get an excellent solar spectrum!

Thanks! More to come...

I didn't see anyone with a diffraction grating (and I didn't try, either). Honestly, I was too busy using both hands to snap images (with a shutter cable) and vary the f-stop (to adjust illumination level) the entire time during totality to even think about anything. I did look through the lens a few times at the corona in order to re-center but I knew if I stopped to watch I'd miss taking images.

Got some great images of Bailey's beads and what is purported to be the 'diamond ring'... which doesn't look like much if the image is not overexposed.

Unfortunately, I forgot to switch to mirror-up during the corona phase, so I only got 1 or 2 blur-free images of that.