Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Stavros Kiri]

(For Aug. 18, 2025)

[td]LAST CHANCE TO SEE TITAN'S SHADOW: On Aug. 19th, Saturn’s largest moon will cast its jet-black shadow onto the planet’s cloudtops--one of the final transits of the current season. The event is visible through backyard telescopes. Don’t miss it: The show won’t return until the 2040s. (...)

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[td] Above: Titan's shadow on Aug. 3rd recorded by amateur astronomer Philip Smith of Manorville, NY​

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For more details, see the second part of part B) in this post:
Post in thread 'Solar Activity and Space Weather Update thread' https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ace-weather-update-thread.923468/post-7275665
(...)

 

[Andy Resnick]

Since I'm not willing to chop down trees to increase my field of view, the only thing I could image for the past month has been M27 (Dumbbell nebula):

1:1 crop

Nikon D810 + Nikkor 800/5.6 @ f/8, 6s subs, 14.5 hours viewing time on Losmandy GM-8, stacking and post-processing using Astro Pixel Processor.

Not only is the nebula and neighborhood rather boring (all things considered), it's also hard for me to image well because of the low elevation (poor seeing) and nearness to celestial equator (which is why the subframe time is so short). At least the final result looks good.... sigh.

 

[collinsmark]

NGC 2903 captured from my back patio, Feb.-Mar., 2025. NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy found in the constellation Leo. It lies about 30 million light-years away. It presently doesn't have a fancy, common name ("NGC 2903" will have to suffice for now).

Equipment:
Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope
SkyWatcher EQ8-R Pro mount
Celestron 0.7x Focal reducer (for C14 EdgeHD)
Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera
Baader LRGB filter set
Antlia Hα filter
ZWO ASI6200MM-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 2×2
Stacked using drizzle algorithm
L: 300×120 sec = 10.00 hrs
R: 354×120 sec = 11.80 hrs
G: 288×120 sec = 9.60 hrs
B: 343×120 sec = 11.43 hrs
Hα:106×600 sec = 17.67 hrs
Total integration time: 60.50 hours

 

[Andy Resnick]

Finally finished this panorama around Gamma cygni, ready for print:

This covers about a 3 x 3 array of 400mm fields-of-view (14.6k x 12k pixels). All stacking of the original 10s subs and stitching of 43 stacks performed in APP. Zooming in (just) a little: near IC 1311

and my homage to this image:

Lastly, a 1:1 crop of NGC 6910, which Wikipedia calls "Inchworm cluster" but I rather like the alternate, "rocking horse cluster":

One interesting challenge due to the substantial amount of diffuse nebulosity was getting the color balance correct across the whole image. To be frank, for all I know I failed and you are looking at a candy-colored swirl of rainbow hues... Normally, I can get pretty close to what PanSTARRS DR1 imagery looks like on Aladin Lite. For this image, I get much closer to DSS-2 imagery.

 

[DennisN]

Very nice, @Andy Resnick !

ready for print

Which print service do you use, I wonder?

I tried Google Photos print service recently and got quite pleased with the result. Though it was mostly "normal" (non astro) photos, a whole bunch of them. But I also ordered small 10x15 cm photos of mine of the Moon and Andromeda Galaxy, just for fun.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Very nice, @Andy Resnick !



Which print service do you use, I wonder?

I tried Google Photos print service recently and got quite pleased with the result. Though it was mostly "normal" (non astro) photos, a whole bunch of them. But I also ordered small 10x15 cm photos of mine of the Moon and Andromeda Galaxy, just for fun.

I've used a few local groups to make matted prints, this image supports a print size up to 40" on a side so I'll need to price out a frame before moving forward. Not sure how big a print I want- 40" is BIG.

OTOH, have you ever seen wall-sized posters made from smaller panels? In college, someone had a view of the earth from the space shuttle bay that covered an entire wall.... that could be an interesting option.

Edit: these are called 'wall murals'... maybe for the office/lab?

 

[DennisN]

OTOH, have you ever seen wall-sized posters made from smaller panels? In college, someone had a view of the earth from the space shuttle bay that covered an entire wall.... that could be an interesting option.

I think I've seen such things.

I've used a few local groups to make matted prints, this image supports a print size up to 40" on a side so I'll need to price out a frame before moving forward. Not sure how big a print I want- 40" is BIG.

For Google Photos prints the minimum size is 4x4" and maximum size is 24x36".
And they have two options: Photo prints (cheaper) and Canvas prints (more expensive) (and they also have photo books).

(Source: New ways to print your memories with Google Photos in Europe and Canada (Google))

 

[collinsmark]

Saturn is approaching opposition for this apparition. It reaches opposition September 21st. It's easily visible with the naked eye, and you can see its rings even with a modestly small telescope. For the next month or so, Saturn will rise in the east around sunset (roughly) and set in the west around sunrise (roughly). It will be high in the southern sky at midnight if you're in the northern hemisphere (high in the northern sky if you're in the southern hemisphere).

Here's an image I captured last Saturday night. It looks like I was able to capture a bit of non-banded weather on Saturn. See the bright splotches on Saturn's southern hemisphere (look at the lower-left portion of Saturn's disk in the image). That's a first for me!

Five of Saturn's moons are visible in the image (Although Enceladus and Mimas are very dim and hard to spot). Starting on the left side of the image, from left to right:
Dione
Rhea
Enceladus (very dim, hard to spot)
Tethys

Then, just off the tip (in the image) of the right side of Saturn's rings you can barely make out Mimas (just barely visible).

Equipment:
Celestron C14 EdgeHD telescope
Skywatcher EQ8-R Pro mount
TeleVue 2x Powermate (a fancy Barlow lens)
Astronimik RGB filter set
ZWO ASI290 (monochrome camera)

Software:
FireCapture (for acquisition)
AutoStakkert! (for lucky imaging processing)
WinJUPOS (for derotation, RGB combination)
PixInsight with RC Astro plugins (sharpening and misc. processing)

Acquisition (using FireCapture):
Location: San Diego, USA
Date/Time: 2025-09-07, from 08:58.0 to 09:12.5 UT
(Midpoint time: 2025-09-07 09:05.2 UT)
Atmospheric seeing: mildly pleasant
Sub-frame exposure time: ~25 ms.
Acquisition video length: 60 sec per color, alternating R-G-B-R-G-B...
15 minutes of total acquisition time.

Lucky Imaging with AutoStakkert!:
Best 50% frames kept.
Drizzle/Resampling not used (i.e., Off)

Initial sharpening (after lucky imaginging processing) by PixInsight:
MultiscaleLinearTransform
DynamicCrop (to remove stacking artifacts at frame edge)

Derotation:
For each color channel (R, G, or B) 5 sharpened images were derotated and stacked using WinJUPOS. Images were then combined into a single RGB image, also using WinJUPOS.

Final adjustment processes with PixInsight:
CurvesTransformation
UnsharpMask
NoiseXTerminator
.

 

[DennisN]

Here's an image I captured last Saturday night.

Lovely, as usual!

I looked at Saturn yesterday when I and a couple of others were out observing and shooting the lunar eclipse.

A woman and her daughter came by (people I didn't know), and they asked if they were intruding and I said "no, you're welcome" and then I showed them Saturn through my telescope (Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70).

They were stunned!

I heard them loudly exclaim "wow!" and "that's so cool!" in excitement, and they told me seeing Saturn really made their day. That was really fun, and it's so fun to see others get excited by it too.

I will post photos of the lunar eclipse and our observation location below soon.

 

[DennisN]

Lunar eclipse, September 7, 2025

The blood red Moon, with stars in the background:

This is a "semi-composite" (background autolevelled but the Moon kept untouched) so I would personally not quite call this photo "fake"; photos of the Moon ("close up") along with stars is as far as I know usually not possible to do, because of the different light intensities, but it is possible during lunar eclipses. And the original photo does have both the Moon and stars visible; the photo above is one single photo. Gear: Sony A6000 + Tokina 400mm f/5.6.


Below are some photos from the observation location with various gear present.

We were three persons in our group, but then a couple of other persons with gear also came to the location (which we hadn't foreseen) and we ended up being six persons observing and photographing the lunar eclipse. We had very fun, and goofed around a lot!

From left to right: My Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70 telescope, my mirrorless camera and another
guy's smartphone on a tripod.

Me and the gear (my face blurred because I'm not that keen on being on photos).
The gear of four persons are shown here, but there were two more persons close by.

One person setting up his smartphone to shoot the Moon
through a spotting scope during the lunar eclipse.

My camera pointing at the Moon.


More photos may come here later .

 

[Borg]

Today's APOD - Up from the Earth: Gigantic Jet Lightning

Up from the Earth: Gigantic Jet Lightning
Image Credit: NASA, Expedition 73, Nicole Ayers
Explanation: What's that rising up from the Earth? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early in July, astronaut Nicole Ayers saw an unusual type of lightning rising up from the Earth: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears near the center of the featured image in red, white, and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 25 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible, sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the dark night sky. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remain active topics of research.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Lunar eclipse, September 7, 2025

View attachment 365285
Me and the gear (my face blurred because I'm not that keen on being on photos).
The gear of four persons are shown here, but there were two more persons close by.

More photos may come here later .

Very cool! Are those giant binoculars on the right side of the above image?