Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[collinsmark]

Speaking of which...

Here's Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), taken Friday morning (2023-01-27) from my back patio.

I've mentioned before that astrophotography is an exercise in failure. A celebration of failure! An onion of failure that you have to peel one layer at a time, with each peel revealing yet another layer of failure. It's OK though, as long as I learn a little along the way. Needless to say, the above image wasn't my first attempt (fourth?, fifth?). I could seriously go on and on about this one. I'm beat. Sooo much "learning."

Processing comets is a real challenge, since they move quite quickly against the background stars. Ya have to get quite clever in stacking techniques to avoid streaking in the stars and/or the comet itself.

Equipment:
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount
Explore Scientific ED80-FCD100 telescope
Astronomik RGB filters
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro monochrome camera
Guide scope and ASI290MM-mini guide camera

Software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2
PixInsight

Integration:
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
R: 57×40 sec
G: 57×40 sec
B: 57×40 sec
Subframes were acquired in a loop, alternating R, G, B, R, G, B..., and so on (this is important for later). Telescope tracking/guiding was done on the background stars (like normal). Total integration/exposure time: 1.9 hours. I would have acquired for longer but there was a fixed window from the time the comet rose above my building till morning twilight. I even moved my telescope to a part of the patio that makes no sense except for the comet (at the expense of most everything else. There's a whole story there).

Two phases of stacking/alignment were performed. Phase 1 is aligning on the background stars. When integrating that stack, heavy emphasis was placed on Winsorized Sigma Clipping for high valued pixels: The idea was the comet streak would be treated as a statistical anomaly, leaving pretty much only the background stars.

For phase 2, frames were aligned on the comet (same raw data on the previous phase, just aligned differently). But before alignment on the comet, the background stars (from the previous step) were subtracted from each frame, leaving pretty much only the comet after integrating that stack.

Finally, the stacked image of the stars were combined with the stacked image of the comet. Lots of other miscellaneous processing steps were performed, not mentioned here.

----

I have a slightly different configuration set up now as I write this. Hopefully I'll be able to get a wider field of view with it. Weather's looking iffy though. Clouds are coming in. Sooo much learrrning.

[Edit: clouds came in. No additional "learning" attempt for me today. I'm going to go munch on an onion.]

 

[DennisN]

Here's Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

What a lovely color!

 

[DennisN]

Orion Field Flattener

Haha, when I read your post again, I read "Onion Field Flattener".

 

[collinsmark]

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) taken from my back patio last night/this morning (morning of 2023-Feb-01).

I feel this is an improved one over my last post. 'New data, slightly new processing techniques, some new equipment, wider field of view, and longer integration/total exposure time.
'Same old light pollution though.

Equipment:
EQ6-R Pro mount
Explore Scientfic 80ED-FCD100 telescope
Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractors (first light)
Baader CMOS-optimized RGB filter kit
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera (first light)
Guide scope and guide camera

Acquisition software:
N.I.N.A.
PHD2

Processing Software:
PixInsight
GIMP

Integration:
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Comet:
R: 132×40 sec
G: 133×40 sec
B: 132×40 sec
Total Integration time of comet: 4.4 hours

The total integration time of of the background stars is closer to 5 hours, since I intentionally let the comet drift outside the field of view for awhile (helps with Phase 1, below).

Notes:
Processing was more-or-less the same as last time, Except that I was more careful with the stretching operations and color calibration. Brief summary:

• Phase 1: Aligned on the background stars. Integrated to get an image of background stars (letting the pixel rejection algorithm [Winsorized Sigma Clipping] do the heavy lifting of removing the comet artifacts).
• Phase 2: Re-aligned to create a new stack aligned on the comet's head. Integrated to produce a starless image of the comet.
• Phase 3: Combined the two images (stars and comet). Performed miscellaneous post processing.

I guess I'll call it a success. Close enough. That was my 5th? maybe 6th attempt at Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). I think I might move on now.

Goodbye green comet!

Oh, by the way, if you didn't know, its green color comes from diatomic carbon, apparently.

 

[DennisN]

I have a slightly different configuration set up now as I write this. Hopefully I'll be able to get a wider field of view with it. Weather's looking iffy though. Clouds are coming in. Sooo much learrrning.

[Edit: clouds came in. No additional "learning" attempt for me today. I'm going to go munch on an onion.]

Total Integration time of comet: 4.4 hours

I guess I'll call it a success. Close enough. That was my 5th? maybe 6th attempt at Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). I think I might move on now.

I admire your patience. And I am inspired by it.
And I like your shots a lot, I think they look cool!

I've never tried shooting a comet, I hope I'll come to do that.
I kept a close eye on the weather, and there was one (possible) opportunity for me for this comet, but I would have had to go at least down to the beach to try it.
And it was very cold and windy. And late.*
So I waited, but all I got afterwards was grey skies.

* Edit:

There are two types of people who would go down and stay on a dark beach on a cold and windy night in the middle of the winter: crazy ones and astrophotographers (and the two types are not necessarily mutually exclusive ).

 

[DennisN]

There are two types of people who would go down and stay on a dark beach on a cold and windy night in the middle of the winter: crazy ones and astrophotographers (and the two types are not necessarily mutually exclusive ).

Speaking of which, here's a photo I found when I went through old photos.
(shot with my phone about two years ago, before I had a system camera).

It was REALLY cold that winter night, so I put on a REALLY warm jacket (it's actually a really good jacket).
I was probably just testing shooting the night sky with my smartphone.
And what a crappy spot I chose, it looks like there are spotlights directed at the camera .
Despite this, somehow the phone managed to pick up Orion and some other stars.

 

[collinsmark]

The Flaming Star Nebula (also called IC 405, SH 2-229, and Caldwell 31), imaged from my back patio from late Dec 2022 through Jan 2023.

The Flaming Star is a reflection and emission nebula in the constellation Auriga. Most of what you see here is from the emission spectra, since it was imaged exclusively with narrowband filters.

We at the Shady Crypt Observatory like the Flaming Star Nebula because it kinda looks like a zombie.

Equipment:
Meade 10" LX200-ACF fork mounted on an equatorial wedge.
Starlight Instruments FTF2008BCR focuser modified for electronic focusing.
Off-axis guider (OAG) with ZWO ASI174MM-mini guide camera.
Baader 3.5-4 nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set.
[Edit: I might have switched to the Optolong 3 nm narrowband filter set at some point.]
ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro main camera.

I used to regularly have dreams about zombies. In most of them I was fighting the zombies, trying to survive and such. But in the really good dreams, not only did I lose the battle, I became a zombie myself.

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

It really wasn't bad being a zombie. It was kind of peaceful, really. Stress was low. Life was fairly simple. Most of existence consisted of wandering around, looking for brains and stuff.

Integration:
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 3×3
SHO mapping
SII: 68×10 min = 11.33 hrs
Hα: 81×10 min = 13.5 hrs
Oiii: 71×10 min = 11.83 hrs
Total integration time: 36.67 hours

I wonder if that's what it's like working in Human Resources.

 

[Andy Resnick]

An improved stack of Comet C/2022 E3- fixed the registration process and did a better job combining the two separate stacks:

 

[bruha]

Excelent! Can I ask what is this bright spot lower right ?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Excelent! Can I ask what is this bright spot lower right ?

Thanks! That bright star is "HD 42818", one of the bright stars in the constellation Camelopardalis.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Hmm...I just noticed my first post didn't end up here... That image was generated on the night of 2/1, after much planning. It had been cloudy for weeks, on 2/1 there was a brief 2 hour window of opportunity before the clouds rolled back in (and here they still are!). In order to locate the comet, I used TheSkyLive to get celestial coordinates and after setup and a quick model build, I was able to get about 150 15s subframes (one advantage of tracking objects located near Polaris is the relative insensitivity to polar alignment error) before the cloud cover got too thick to image through.

 

[DennisN]

An improved stack of Comet C/2022 E3

Beautiful color!

 

[bruha]

Thanks! Camelopardalis , I suppose animal "Žirafa" by czech language

 

[Ibix]

Thanks! Camelopardalis , I suppose animal "Žirafa" by czech language

Yes - giraffe in English. The ancient Greeks supposedly thought that they had spots kind of like a leopard and a body shape kind of like a camel and proposed that they were some kind of cross-breed, which is where the funny name comes from. It clings on in the latin nomenclature and trivia quizzes.

 

[collinsmark]

The Tiger's Eye Galaxy (NGC 2841), clinched from my back patio from late December (2022) through January of this year. The Tiger's Eye is about 46 million light-years away, in the constellation Ursa Major. It is a flocculent spiral galaxy, a galaxy who's arms are patchy and discontinuous.

(Full image, reduced resolution for PF)

(Here's a 1-to-1 crop.)

NGC 2841 reminds me of groundbreaking movie, Rocky III, which had the Survivor (band) theme song, "Eye of the Tiger," and skyrocketed the acting career of Mr. T into the stratosphere for his portrayal of the voraciously determined, upstart bruiser, James "Clubber" Lang, who briefly takes the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World (boxing).

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

"Eye of the Tiger," by American rock band, Survivor, held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks in 1982.

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

In the montage scene of Rocky's successes and increasing fame, he is seen on the Muppet Show. The footage is from an actual episode of the Muppet Show (episode 320, 1979) where Sylvester Stallone guest starred.

Integration:
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 3×3
R: 159×4 min = 10.60 hrs
G: 54×4 min = 3.60 hrs
B: 64×4 min = 4.27 hrs
L-Pro: 199×4 min = 13.27 hrs
Hα: 99×10 min = 16.5 hrs
Total integration time: 48.23 hours

My computer, on which I am presently writing this very post, is named "Clubber Lang."

 

[DennisN]

The Tiger's Eye Galaxy (NGC 2841), clinched from my back patio from late December (2022) through January of this year.

Amazing details!

Edit (off topic):
@collinsmark :

NGC 2841 reminds me of groundbreaking movie, Rocky III, which had the Survivor (band) theme song, "Eye of the Tiger,"

"Eye of the Tiger," by American rock band, Survivor, held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks in 1982.

By the way, I recently saw a great interview of the composer of the song, with some fun and thoughtful stories about it. It's here on the youtube channel "Professor of Rock":
After #1 Rock Band REJECTED HUGE Movie Anthem...UNKNOWN Stepped In & KILLED IT!

 

[Andy Resnick]

"Proof of principle" test image; This past Saturday and Sunday nights were clear, here's a 2-day composite image of Comet 2022 /E3 and Mars (!). Images taken @ 400mm focal length (f/4):

Tonight (Monday) is clear as well, I've already taken the images. Comet stacking is a bit time-consuming, but when the full 3-day composite is finished (hopefully, in a week or so), it should look pretty cool. Unfortunately, Mars is not in the frame this evening - too far away- but whatevs!

 

[DennisN]

A lovely photo!

Falcon 9 with the Moon in the background. Photo: SpaceX

Source: New SpaceX Photos: Falcon 9 Starlink Launch & Starship Engine Test (Friends of NASA)

 

[timmdeeg]

First I have been sceptical if it makes sense at all because here in Teneriffa where we are for some days we hade Calima, the Sahara sand storm which makes the sight milky. The brightest stars have been visible though.

Nevertheless I tried my luck with my Sony A7III and a 14 mm 1.8 lense.

20x6s stacked with Sequator

 

[Andy Resnick]

Finished assembling my 3-day (2/11 - 2/13) comet image (400mm), this is the image down-scaled to 10%:

Mars is on the left and fit in the frame only on 2/11 and 2/12. This image is formed from 6 stacks, each day consists of 2 stacks, one for the stars and the other for the comet. Definitely happy with this!

 

[collinsmark]

The Great Orion Nebula (also called M42), taken from my back patio in January 2023, with a sort-of old astro-camera, and some really old narrowband filters that were lying around.

Those purple orbs are "halo" artifacts from the old narrowband filters, which occur around bright stars. The halos themselves are not actually in space nor did I put them in the image intentionally for artistic purposes. Narrowband filters don't generally degrade over time either (aside from general wear and tear). It's just that narrowband filters are designed and manufactured better these days, to reduce or even eliminate such halos. The filters used here were from a time before such improvements were made, and are pretty unforgiving.

My idea was to put together a secondary telescope setup, frankensteining old components together with enough new stuff to get it to work. I'm still in the process of tweaking it. This is probably the last image with those old narrowband filters though.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion Field Flattener for Short Refractors
Guide scope and guide camera
Astronomik narrowband filter set, circa 2008
ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro main camera

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

Integration:
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 1x1
SHO mapping
SII: 622×40s = 6.91 hrs
Hα: 111×60s + 464×40s = 7.01 hrs
Oiii: 548×40s = 6.09 hrs
Total integration time: 20.0 hours.

Oh, I should mention that M42 is pretty bright. In dark skies, you can see it with the naked eye.

 

[Astronuc]

Some interesting perspectives on Mars, the Earth, Stars, Galaxies and the Universe.

Fascinating Truths About Our Universe | Cosmic Vistas Season 5 Compilation | Spark​

Science Journalist - Ivan Semeniuk

Interesting discussion starting at 34 minutes concerning the relationships of stars, which is related to the previous discussion beginning at ~22 minutes, which involves patterns in natures and constellations, and ends with a mention of blue stars, red giants, supernovae and the impact on the earth. Lots more in the 2 hour, 12 minute video.

 

[collinsmark]

The Running Man Nebula (a.k.a. NGC 1977 and SH 2-279) captured from my back patio in January 2023.

The Running Man Nebula itself is in the lower half of the picture. Just outside and above the top of the frame is the Great Orion Nebula. As a matter of fact, you can see the space within this image in the image of my previous post, albeit in less detail, since the previous image was taken with a wider field telescope. The image shown here shows greater detail (and "zoomed in") and was taken with my primary telescope setup.

I like this region of space, because it seems to show -- in my eyes, at least -- an uncannily accurate depiction of me struggling to get off the sofa, when on a mad dash to the toilet.

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

Believe it or not, I used to be a cross-country runner in high school. I wasn't particularly good at it though.

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

'Strange that there would be nebula named for what seems to be some arbitrary guy having the runs, but here we are.

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 3x3
SHO mapping
SII: 133×300s = 11.08 hrs
Hα: 129×300s = 10.75 hrs
Oiii: 154×300s = 12.83 hrs
Total integration time: 34.67 hours.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Beautifully clear nights last weekend, plenty of time to image M44 (Praesepe or the Beehive cluster). Imaged with D810 and 800/8 lens on a Losmandy GM-8, 6s subs, total exposure time 1.3h:

The hardest part of this image was the final color balancing- lots of G-type stars, hard for me to see with my deuteranomaly (I had to call in reinforcements...).

There's a string of NGC objects that barely peek out from behind the background (below, courtesy Astrometry.net):

Galaxies 2MFGC 6800, Z 89-56, and UGC 4526 are also visible the image. The bright stars have nice sunburst patterns, and stars down to magnitude 15 are visible:

 

[Devin-M]

I only got a mental picture, but Jupiter and Venus were very close together in the sky this evening.

 

[Tom.G]

Jupiter and Venus were very close together in the sky this evening.

Yup, about 1° separation when they set here in Southern California at 8pm local time.

A neighbor pointed them out to me about 5 minutes before that.

Since they were being viewed thru some distant trees, they sometimes gave the impression of one object moving VERY rapidly.

The website www.heavens-above.com is a good one for checking such things.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Andy Resnick]

I only got a mental picture, but Jupiter and Venus were very close together in the sky this evening.

Yeah- I noticed it as well, and by the time I got my camera out and ready, clouds had rolled in :(....

 

[Devin-M]

I was driving north on I-5 in far northern California at sunset so it was to my left out the driver’s side window and at first glance I thought it was an airplane then I realized it must be a pair of planets.

Venus and Jupiter, in a rare conjunction, seem close even though they are 400 million miles apart.
Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images

Source:

 

[bruha]

Hello, here is Jupiter Venus conjunction from Prague 1.3. - Venus is bigger one
(surprisingly
)

 

[DennisN]

I just listened to a new video by Nico Carver in the background, and he seemed pretty excited about the new version of the free astro software Siril (available for Windows, macOS and Linux), so thought I'd share the video here in case someone is interested:

The Best Free Astro Software just got even BETTER (Nebula Photos (Nico Carver))

 

[Devin-M]

I just listened to a new video by Nico Carver in the background, and he seemed pretty excited about the new version of the free astro software Siril (available for Windows, macOS and Linux), so thought I'd share the video here in case someone is interested:

The Best Free Astro Software just got even BETTER (Nebula Photos (Nico Carver))

I started using Siril as it can stack my Nikon’s RAW files directly rather than me having to convert then to TIF’s first which unbeknownst to me til recently was drastically reducing the final quality and it outputs at 32 bits rather than 16 bits which improves the final histogram stretch (brightness enhancement). It’s not very intuitive though until you’ve done it once… you just create folders in your photos directory with the names “lights” “darks” “flats” “biases” then drop the RAW files in the appropriate folders then go to the “Scripts” button and choose “OSC_Preprocessing” (if you’re on a color camera - OSC stands for “One Shot Color”) and then it does the rest of the stacking process. It's really worth it because the final colors are much more accurate than if you are converting your RAW files to TIFs first before stacking. It outputs a 32 bit FITS file so I then use Siril once again to convert this to a 32 bit TIF file which I then bring into Adobe Lightroom for the final histogram stretch.

Comparison (same RAW files)--

Converting RAWs to TIFs, then stacking:

OSC_Preprocessing Script directly on RAW files in Siril:

 

[pinball1970]

I started using Siril as it can stack my Nikon’s RAW files directly rather than me having to convert then to TIF’s first which unbeknownst to me til recently was drastically reducing the final quality and it outputs at 32 bits rather than 16 bits which improves the final histogram stretch (brightness enhancement). It’s not very intuitive though until you’ve done it once… you just create folders in your photos directory with the names “lights” “darks” “flats” “biases” then drop the RAW files in the appropriate folders then go to the “Scripts” button and choose “OSC_Preprocessing” (if you’re on a color camera - OSC stands for “One Shot Color”) and then it does the rest of the stacking process. It's really worth it because the final colors are much more accurate than if you are converting your RAW files to TIFs first before stacking. It outputs a 32 bit FITS file so I then use Siril once again to convert this to a 32 bit TIF file which I then bring into Adobe Lightroom for the final histogram stretch.

Comparison (same RAW files)--

Converting RAWs to TIFs, then stacking:

View attachment 323184

OSC_Preprocessing Script directly on RAW files in Siril:
View attachment 323185

You took this?

 

[Devin-M]

You took this?

Yes-- Andromeda galaxy on a Nikon D800 w/ Nikon 300mm f/4.5 lens.

 

[Devin-M]

…AKA “The Goldman Array…” w/ Science Directors Hudson & Colby.

 

[pinball1970]

…AKA “The Goldman Array…” w/ Science Directors Hudson & Colby.

View attachment 323187

An array right there. 3 meters?

 

[pinball1970]

…AKA “The Goldman Array…” w/ Science Directors Hudson & Colby.

View attachment 323187s

The dogs are looking at something else?

 

[Devin-M]

It lets me shoot through all my narrowband filters simultaneously. For example suppose I’m shooting in the “Hubble Palette” with Ha, OIII, SII narrowband filters, each individually takes about 10 hours (10 minutes per exposure x 60 exposures) so we’re talking about 30 total hours but with the Goldman Array I can get the same result in 10 hours in a single evening… Its much more feasible for me to spend 10 hours in the cold in a single evening vs 30 hours spanning multiple evenings.

RGB:

HA:

OIII:

SII:

RGB+Ha+OIII+SII Composite:

 

[Astronuc]

Video of the outer planets, discussion of Neptune, Triton and other moons

Astronomers:
Alexis Bouvard - https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Bouvard/
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier - https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Le_Verrier/

William Lassell - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lassell - discovered Triton in 1846 and subsequently other moons of Saturn and Uranus

In 1846, Lassell discovered Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, using his self-built instrument. In 1848, he independently co-discovered Hyperion, a moon of Saturn. In 1851 he discovered Ariel and Umbriel, two moons of Uranus.

Neptune's other moons were discovered much later, e.g., Nereid was discovered in 1949 by Gerard Kuiper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Kuiper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_(moon)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereid_(moon)The title is quirky, but it is an interesting narrative

 

[Andy Resnick]

IC 434 (Horsehead nebula, Flame nebula) in Orion, 10 hrs @ 400/4, 10s subs:

The large field of view works well here, and just outside the frame are both M78 and M43.... I found that's actually the 'imaging problem' with this part of the sky. I started with a tight crop of IC434, but then wanted to include the nearby objects (IC 431, IC 432, etc, etc...):

And if I zoom out a bit more, I include some of the diffuse dust/gas like the Slug nebula (IC 423) and IC 426, and if I zoom out a bit more I get M78 and M43, and if I zoom out more I get... (not mine!!!):

https://www.deepskycolors.com/archive/2010/10/22/orion-from-Head-to-Toes.html

Some interesting ways to think about this image: the apparent magnitude of the objects visible above range from the bright star, Alnitak (apparent magnitude 2, note- did not saturate the detector!), down to the faintest objects just detectable above background (some apparent magnitude 17 galaxies, for example PGC178593). 15 units of stellar magnitude range corresponds to an optical flux ratio of 10^6, which can also be expressed as a signal-to-noise ratio of the object scene as either 120 dB or 20 bits. For the noise level, if the "lowest visible feature" is taken to have a SNR of 10:1 (4 bits or 24 dB), that gives us a final image (signal + noise), obtained by stacking (averaging) many many 14-bit RAW files into a final 24bit/ch or 144 dB/ch image. The 24-bit/ch image (encoded as a 32-bit/ch FITS file) is then compressed by tone mapping to an 8-bit/ch (42 dB) TIF or JPG image, which means the dynamic range of the object scene has been compressed by 102 dB.

Dynamic range compression is the reason why bright stars are so much larger than fainter stars.

 

[Devin-M]

Could've been longer exposure for the H-Alpha channel (w/ stars removed filter), shorter exposure for stars then overlay it as an adjustment layer.

 

[collinsmark]

Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula (a.k.a. M78, Messier 78, NGC 2068) welcomed from my back patio in February 2023. M78 is a reflection nebula, approximately 1350 light-years away, and can be seen from Earth in the constellation Orion. Casper is dead center on the celestial equator, making him equally friendly to observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Figure 1. Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula (M78).

Figure 2: Same image, just rotated so it can be displayed a little larger on PF.

This is my very first attempt to photograph a reflection nebula, ever (I'm a little embarrassed to say). Unlike emission nebulae, which emit light at very specific wavelengths via electron excitation and ionization, reflection nebulae merely reflect the light from nearby stars, thus having very wide, continuous bands of wavelengths.

That makes narrowband filters pretty much useless for reflection nebulae, and there isn't an easy way to separate the nebulosity's signal from the noise of the light pollution. And I've got plenty of light pollution.

I had some struggles with reproducible gradients in the unprocessed data. I've ruled out my flats, and almost ruled out moon glow, but their true source is still somewhat of a mystery. I managed to remove the gradients in post processing, but I'm afraid I might have taken out some of the nebulosity along with them. I would have liked to gather more data (like luminance data with an L-Pro filter), but then the clouds and rains came and haven't stopped for weeks.

[Edit: I think I may have figured out the gradients. I neglected to shield my telescope from my neighbor's porchlight by propping up a bedsheet nearby, like I occasionally do. I forgot about that, this time. Without the bedsheet, the glare strikes the inside of my telescope's dewsheild when the telescope is facing anywhere near that direction. Hence the gradients.]

Equipment:
Meade 10" LX200-ACF fork mounted on an equatorial wedge.
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera.
Optolong LRGB filter set.
ZWO ASI6200MM-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 3x3
R: 160×240s = 10.67 hrs
G: 243×240s = 16.20 hrs
B: 108×240s = 7.20 hrs
Total integration time: 34.07 hours.

Casper the Friendly Ghost is, of course, always welcome at the Shady Crypt Observatory.

 

[Astronuc]

NASA captures 74,500-mile-high 'solar tornado' on the sun's surface
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...solar-tornado-on-the-suns-surface/ar-AA18RtEy

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA18RKkl.img?w=1920&h=1080&q=60&m=2&f=jpg

The twister, composed of plasma and heat, measured more than 74,500 miles high and moved up to 310,000 miles per hour.

 

[collinsmark]

The Seagull Nebula (IC-2177) captured from my back patio in February, 2023. IC-2177 can be seen hovering on the border between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major.

IC-2177 is quite large, angular-wise; it's about the angular length of roughly 5 full moons, more-or-less. The reason the Seagull Nebula is not visible to the naked eye isn't because it's too small, rather it's because it's not bright enough.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader 3.5/4nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

While we're on the subject of dim seagulls, actual seagulls (the living, fleshy variety) are not regarded as being the brightest of birds, cognitively speaking.

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

San Diego is a pretty good place to observe seagulls.

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 1x1
SHO mapping
SII: 48×600s = 8.00 hrs
Hα: 12×600s = 2.00 hrs
Oiii: 25×600s = 4.17 hrs
Total integration time: 14.17 hours.

 

[collinsmark]

The Jellyfish Nebula (a.k.a. IC 443, Sh 2-248), caught from my back patio in February, 2023. The Jellyfish Nebula is a supernova remnant, roughly 5000 light-years away, and can be seen in the constellation Gemini.

Well, this came out better than expected. There's a couple of star halos (caused by the narrowband filters) that I didn't bother removing in post, but overall I'm satisfied. Less than 7 hours of data. I look forward to scuttling back to the jellyfish in coming years.

Below is a crop (from the same data, same image) showing a little more detail.

Equipment:
Explore Scientific 80ED-FCD100
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractors
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader 3.5/4nm Ultra-Narrowband filter set
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro main camera

Ya might think that the Jellyfish Nebula would be better in Pisces, but no, it's in Gemini. I suppose it's fine though, since living jellyfish are not actually fish; they're invertebrates, sometimes called "gelatinous zooplankton." Of course, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) is neither; it's the remnants of an exploding star.

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

I'm on record as saying that man can live on peanut butter sandwiches alone. But I suppose a bit of jelly could be welcome from time to time.

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 1x1
SHO mapping
SII: 19×600s = 3.17 hrs
Hα: 8×600s = 1.33 hrs
Oiii: 13×600s = 2.17 hrs
Total integration time: 6.67 hours.

I've never been stung by a jellyfish, myself. But if you get stung, I would recommend against peeing on the wound. That treatment method is based on urban myth without scientific backing. It may do more harm than good.

Keeping a fair distance away from presently exploding supernovae might be wise advice, however.
.

 

[horacio torres]

View attachment 181606
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Here we see disproven the commonly held notion that shields don't work inside a nebula. Bow shock of LL Orionis plowing through the Orion Nebula, protected by its stellar wind.

Beautiful pic,, Amazing

Horacio

 

[Andy Resnick]

The constellation Orion, captured @ 105mm f/2 (50mm refractor equivalent), total integration time 12 hours:

The full size image looks a lot better.....

A couple 1:1 crops:

 

[Astronuc]

Polar Crown Prominence - 60,000-mile-tall 'plasma waterfall' seen showering the sun
https://www.space.com/sun-plasma-waterfall-polar-crown-prominence

Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, who is based near Rafaela in Argentina, captured a striking image on March 9 using specialized camera equipment. The plasma wall "rose some 100,000 km [kilometers, or 62,000 miles] above the solar surface," Poupeau told Spaceweather.com. For context, that is as tall as around eight Earths stacked on top of one another. "On my computer screen, it looked like hundreds of threads of plasma were dripping down a wall," Poupeau added.

The dazzling phenomenon is known as a polar crown prominence (PCP), according to Spaceweather.com. PCPs are similar to normal solar prominences, which are loops of plasma, or ionized gas, that are ejected from the solar surface by magnetic fields. However, PCPs occur near the sun's magnetic poles at latitudes between 60 and 70 degrees North and South, which often causes them to collapse back towards the sun because the magnetic fields near the poles are much stronger, according to NASA (opens in new tab). This collapse back to the sun has earned them the nickname "plasma waterfalls."

The plasma within PCPs is not actually in freefall because it is still contained within the magnetic field that initially spat them out. However, the plasma travels downwards at speeds of up to 22,370 mph (36,000 km/h), which is much faster than the magnetic fields should allow based on experts' calculations, according to NASA. Researchers are still trying to figure out how this is possible.

 

[Tom.G]

However, the plasma travels downwards at speeds of up to 22,370 mph (36,000 km/h), which is much faster than the magnetic fields should allow based on experts' calculations, according to NASA. Researchers are still trying to figure out how this is possible.

Cool! A cosmic mystery in our own backyard. (and after spending many $$$ on Bigger-n-Better telescopes )

 

[DennisN]

I just posted this video in the "First telescope" thread on PF", but I think it is worth posting here too .

I like that one of the points he is making is that you don't have to start with very expensive things if you want to try the hobby. He also has a number of videos on his channel about doing astrophotography with quite cheap equipment. I like this approach, since that's how I got hooked. I started with just a smartphone.

Busting Five MYTHS About Astrophotography in Ten Minutes (Nico Carver/Nebula Photos)

 

[Tom.G]

Another informative video at: