Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[Devin-M]

I've taken the time to learn how to use Siril too, and I like it.

@Devin-M : I've now tried stacking the shots of the Milky Way we talked about before in Siril, and my result was pretty poor. It could partly be due to my processing, but I think it is mainly due to the site I shot it at, i.e. the Milky Way brightness was low in comparison to the present light pollution. So maybe it is a waste of time to try to process these shots .

Milky Way, stacked with Siril:

I don't know why these "rainbow artifacts" appeared. Maybe I did something weird in the post-processing in Photoshop.

Sorry it took so long, here's my version after processing your image through Siril and Adobe Lightroom:

Your original:
https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZnDHNVZNMEUuHswPzpW36DuSpjLnhVPCgAy

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

 

[Devin-M]

Center (RA, Dec): (274.520, -6.529)
Center (RA, hms): 18h 18m 04.699s
Center (Dec, dms): -06° 31' 43.209"
Size: 49.1 x 32.8 deg

http://worldwidetelescope.org/webcl.../nova.astrometry.net/image/19483857&wtml=true

 

[DennisN]

Sorry it took so long, here's my version after processing your image through Siril and Adobe Lightroom:

No problem at all, I appreciate the effort!
I'm thinking of going to a better location (Bortle 3 or 4) for a Milky Way shoot later this summer or in the autumn.

 

[collinsmark]

The Spindle Galaxy (a.k.a. M102, NGC 5866) coiled-up in my back patio from April through July 2023. The Spindle Galaxy is a lenticular galaxy (it might actually be a spiral) approximately 50 million light-years away, and can be seen from Earth in the constellation Draco.

It's presumably called the "Spindle" Galaxy because nobody knows what a spindle is these days, and they had to call it something. Seriously though, a spindle is any sort of rod or cylinder who's purpose is to wrap stuff around it like thread, yarn, rope, wire, toilet paper, or pretty much anything that wraps around a rod or cylinder. M102 sort of looks like, at a glance, a rod with a bright ball of stuff wrapped around it. Or maybe it looks like a nearly empty roll of toilet paper: That cardboard thing at the center of a toilet paper roll together with the rod attached to the wall next to your toilet is technically a spindle mechanism. Either way, M102's similarity to a spindle is mostly a matter of perspective.

The most notable feature of M102 is its unmistakable dust lane. From Earth, we see it edge on, making it look like rod. But if it were possible for us to view this dust from another angle, it would certainly appear more circular, like a disk, ring, or spiral.

What's perhaps most interesting, is that this dust lane is slightly off axis -- tilted/warped a little bit -- compared to the galaxy's disk of starlight. Conceivably this might be explainable as the result of some sort of interaction with a nearby galaxy (M102 is the largest member of a small cluster of galaxies, the NGC 5866 Group). Whatever the case, I find it fascinating.

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.

This project took months due to some unusually cloudy weather in San Diego.

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

It may be a coincidence that I also find toilet paper spindles fascinating.

Integration:
San Diego, California
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 3×3
R: 115×4 min = 7.67 hrs
G: 107×4 min = 7.13 hrs
B: 137×4 min = 9.13 hrs
L-Pro: 197×4 min = 13.13 hrs
Hα: 66×10 min = 11.00 hrs
Total integration time: 48.07 hours

 

[DennisN]

I've just started to watch this lecture from The Royal Institution, it seems good and also seems to have nice images and animations in it.
If you are a space fan, it might be worth checking it out.

Mapping the universe: dark energy, black holes, and gravity – with Chris Clarkson (Royal Institution, 25 April 2023)
"How can we map the universe and its galaxies? What's the evidence for dark matter and dark energy? And how has Einstein's general theory of relativity been proven by modern technology?"



Edit: And a Q&A is here too (which I will watch after I've seen the entire lecture).

 

[collinsmark]

The Omega Nebula (a.k.a. M17, Swan Nebula) taken in my back patio from late April through early August, 2023. The Omega Nebula is about 5 or 6 thousand or so light-years away. It can be seen from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.

Here's a slight crop of the image:

The Omega nebula gets its name because when observed visually with a small telescope or binoculars it kind of looks like a bright shard of light enveloped by an ornate, Greek uppercase omega, Ω.

It's also called the Swan Nebula, presumably because if you turn around and observe it from the opposite orientation (upside down from the orientation shown in my image) you might be able to make out a swan-like shape if your skies are dark enough. I tried that by turning my narrowband image upside down but I can only see a maniacal, undead zombie cobra snake. I think I'll just stick with omega.

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

The Greek letter Ω is commonly used for all sorts of constants and variable names in cosmology & astrophysics, other physics, and mathematics (and the symbol for the unit of resistance, the Ohm, in engineering).

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

This episode was brought to you by the letter Ω.

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Stacked using the drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 97×600s = 16.17 hrs
Hα: 71×600s = 11.83 hrs
Oiii: 89×600s = 14.83 hrs
Total integration time: 42.83 hours.

 

[DennisN]

The Omega Nebula (a.k.a. M17, Swan Nebula) taken in my back patio from late April through early August, 2023.

Amazing colors and details!

 

[collinsmark]

The Dumbbell Nebula (a.k.a. Apple Core Nebula, M27, and NGC 6853) lifted from my back patio from July through August, 2023. M27 is a planetary nebula and can be seen in the constellation Vulpecula. A planetary nebula is a former star that shed its outer layers leaving a white dwarf at the center (somewhat like our Sun will do in several billion Years from now). M27 is estimated to be about 1360 light-years away.

The central region shown in white in my narrowband image is relatively bright and can be seen visually with binoculars or a small, amateur telescope (although it might be a touch more bluish-green when viewed visually or in broadband though). It's called the "Dumbbell Nebula" presumably due to this bright region's hourglass, apple core, or hyperbola shape (or hyperboloid shape if one stumbles into the 3rd dimension). In other words, it's shaped like a dumbbell -- the kind of dumbbell you might use in fitness training. Hence the name, the Dumbbell Nebula.

Well, it's either that or it gets its name because it's dimwitted.

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.

I'm fairly confident it gets its name from its shape though.

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

To be sure, we could look to a quote from Proffessor John Nerdelbaum Frink, Jr., who explains, "It should be obvious to even the most dimwitted individual, who holds an advanced degree in hyperbolic topology,..."

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies.
All subframes binned 3x3
Stacked using drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 65×600s = 10.83 hrs
Hα: 82×600s = 13.67 hrs
Oiii: 75×600s = 12.5 hrs
Total integration time: 37.00 hours.

Hoyvin-glaven.

 

[pinball1970]

Supermoon? Yesterday apparently. You guys get anything?

 

[DennisN]

Supermoon? Yesterday apparently.

Yes, I had heard about that and hoped for reasonably clear weather...

You guys get anything?

...I got a lot of clouds.

 

[DennisN]

Rare blue supermoon illuminates sky – in pictures (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/science...re-blue-supermoon-illuminates-sky-in-pictures

Example:

An unmanned aerial craft passes in front of the supermoon during a technology and aerospace festival in Ankara, Turkey

Photograph: Emrah Gürel/AP

 

[DennisN]

First light with my Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70

I saw a Moon yesterday evening and decided to try taking the first shots with my Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70 telescope. I went to a nearby park, attached the camera to the telescope without an eyepiece (prime-focus method), targeted the Moon, focused and then started shooting.

Our ancient companion:

Info:

Date: 5 September 2023
Gear: Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70 + Sony A6000 + Rollei wireless intervalometer
Settings: 1/1000 s exposure, ISO 400
Total photos: 1024 (20% of the best stacked in AutoStakkert)
Software used: PIPP, Autostakkert, Photoshop (levels & some fixes)Some details (crops), and I hope I got the names correct :

Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity)

Tycho crater

Theophilus craterComparison with Stellarium:

How a frame should look like according to Stellarium:

How a single frame actually looked like:

So, a pretty accurate preview in Stellarium.

I also shot Jupiter and its moons, but I haven't processed the frames yet.

 

[DennisN]

I also shot Jupiter and its moons, but I haven't processed the frames yet.

Now I've processed them...Jupiter and its moons (composite)

with labels:

Stellarium view:

And this was the first time I saw the Great Red Spot in one of my images .
It is visible here:

Info:

Date: 5 September 2023
Gear: Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70 + Sony A6000 + Rollei wireless intervalometer
Settings (Jupiter): 1/400 s exposure, ISO 400
Settings (moons): 1/100 s exposure, ISO 4000
Total photos (Jupiter): 500 (20% of the best stacked in AutoStakkert)
Total photos (moons): 80 (20% of the best stacked in AutoStakkert)
Software used: PIPP, Autostakkert, Photoshop (levels, some fixes and composition)

Note: I could probably have done some color corrections to make Jupiter look more naturally colored, but I didn't this time.

 

[DennisN]

with labels:

Stellarium view:

Hmm, I just now saw that the Stellarium view of Io and Europa is different from my photo...
I don't know why, I have to check it out...

 

[collinsmark]

Hmm, I just now saw that the Stellarium view of Io and Europa is different from my photo...
I don't know why, I have to check it out...

When in Stellarium, make sure you enter the observation time just right. Jupiter's moons orbit quite quickly. 'Looks like you were off by about 1 hour.

 

[DennisN]

When in Stellarium, make sure you enter the observation time just right. Jupiter's moons orbit quite quickly. 'Looks like you were off by about 1 hour.

Thanks a lot, you solved it!
I was scratching my head, wondering if I had mistaken noise or something for Io or Europa , but I couldn't figure it out.

You are correct, I had set the time to 2 AM in Stellarium because that's when I shot the Moon.
But I shot the moons of Jupiter around 3 AM.

Here's the view at 3 AM in Stellarium:

...which fits my image.

Thanks again!

 

[DennisN]

More moon...

I saw another moon and couldn't resist taking more shots...
This time a less percentage of the surface was illuminated...

I identified the mountain range Montes Carpatus and the craters Copernicus, Kepler, Bullialdus and Longomontanus with the help of Stellarium:

Some details (crops):

Montes Carpatus and the crater Copernicus:

The crater Kepler:

Info:

Date: 9 September 2023
Gear: Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70 + Sony A6000 + Rollei wireless intervalometer
Settings: 1/1000 s exposure, ISO 1000
Total photos: 735 (20% of the best stacked in AutoStakkert)
Software used: PIPP, Autostakkert, Photoshop (levels & some fixes)

Some shots from the location:

Targeting the Moon:

The Moon on the camera screen:

The entire beast:

(note: it was darker at the location than it seems on the photos)

 

[DennisN]

A new comet on the horizon

(FYI: @collinsmark , @Andy Resnick , @Devin-M and others)

I just heard about another newly discovered comet, C/2023 P1 (Nishimura):

[...] by 27 August its apparent magnitude was estimated to be 7.3 and its coma to have a diameter of 5 arcminutes, while a thin ion tail 1.5–2 degrees long is visible in photographs.

Though it may be a bit tricky:

It is possible that it could be bright enough to observe with binoculars in the first days of September before sunrise.

[...]

The comet will be briefly in the evening sky in mid September, being 5 degrees over the horizon 30 minutes after sunset at 35° north latitude. Even though the comet might reach a naked eye apparent magnitude of around +2, it may be difficult to locate against the glare of the Sun.

A photo from Wikipedia:

This is an image of C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) taken on 25.8.2023 @ ~6:20 (UTC+2).
From Trevinca-Skies on Spain. Photo by "SomeAstroStuff" (Creative Commons).

 

[collinsmark]

Here's my annual, Saturn picture for 2023. It was captured pretty close to opposition, about two weeks ago, from my back patio.

Equipment:
Meade 10" LX200-ACF fork mounted on an equatorial wedge
TeleVue 2x Powermate
ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC)
Astronomik RGB filter set (a really old set)
ZWO ASI290MM camera

I decided to go back to a monochrome camera and a filter wheel for this year's picture. It makes processing a little more complicated, but sometimes I miss the oldschool stuff.

Software:
FireCapture for acquisition
AutoStakkert! for lucky imaging processing
PixInsight for sharpening and everything else

This is my first planetary image that I used PixInsight for the wavelet sharpening instead of using RegiStax. I'm pleased with the result. Don't get me wrong, I like RegiStax, and the fact that it's free. But I figure it's about time I learn new things too to go with the old things.

Integration:
Thirty, 1-minute videos, alternating RGB...RGB filters, 1-minute per filter.
Exposure time per individual frame: Between 10 ms and 12 ms.
Best 70% of frames stacked
Drizzle algorithm, 1.5 X.
That makes the total integration time: 30 min x 0.7 = ~21 minutes

There are a few of Saturn's moons, namely Tethys, Dione, Enceladus, and maybe Mimas that can still be seen in the image as faint streaks. They're streaks because they moved a significant amount during the 30 minutes of acquisition. I didn't bother removing them from the final image.

The central timestamp is 2023-08-29 07:09.5 UT.

 

[Andy Resnick]

A new comet on the horizon

(FYI: @collinsmark , @Andy Resnick , @Devin-M and others)

I just heard about another newly discovered comet, C/2023 P1 (Nishimura):

Too close to the horizon for me to see, unfortunately. My favorite images (and timelapse), about 1/2-way down:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/action-packed-sky-saturn-comet-nishimura-and-more/

 

[DennisN]

My favorite images (and timelapse), about 1/2-way down

These ones, I suppose?

(Comet Nishimura, photo by Gerald Rhemann)

(Comet Nishimura, by Michael Jaeger)

They're marvellous!

 

[DennisN]

Too close to the horizon for me to see, unfortunately.

I just loaded comet Nishimura into Stellarium to check it out, and it's quite tricky at my location...

At 5:10 tomorrow it will be at ca 2.5° altitude...

...and at 5:30 it will be at ca 5° altitude, and the sunrise will start to interfere...

...and the weather forecast here does not look promising either .
But I'll cross my fingers .

 

[Andy Resnick]

Finished my image of the region around Cygnus:

This is (approximately) a 2 x 2 panorama using a Nikon D810 and 105/1.4 @ f/2, 31 h total imaging time. The original is 10k x 10k pixels, good for a 3' x 3' print. The image spans North America nebula (lower left corner) to NGC 6800 in the upper right, and the Veil nebula in the lower right.

 

[DennisN]

9 minutes of Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura:

9 minutes of Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura, September 8th 2023, image by Dan Bartlett
Source: https://www.astrobin.com/kqa84k/B/

 

[DennisN]

A whole bunch of beautiful images in this article, warmly recommended:

Stunning image of Andromeda galaxy takes top astronomy photography prize of 2023 (gallery) (space.com)
https://www.space.com/royal-observatory-greenwich-astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-15-winners

Example:

This winning photo of the Andromeda galaxy from the amateur astronomer team led by Drechsler, Strottner and Sainty is titled Andromeda, Unexpected, for the large, blue plasma arc pictured next to our nearest galactic neighbor. (Image credit: Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty)

 

[Borg]

Today's APOD has an awesome Red Sprite!

 

[DennisN]

image by Dan Bartlett

I just saw another image of Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura by the same photographer...
...my gosh, what a crisp image (though the preview below looks less crisp on PF; visit the source for more crispness). And you can even see galaxies in the image .

More Horizon Time, Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) Swings By the Clown Face Planetary Nebula, 2023-08-19, image by Dan Bartlett

Source: https://www.astrobin.com/7ozahw/B/

Note: If you visit the source page above and click on the image, you get a (sort of) fullscreen version.
If you click again on that you can zoom in further.

 

[sandy stone]

Today's APOD has an awesome Red Sprite!

View attachment 332129

How on earth is a photo like that captured? How come I've never seen anything like that?

 

[Bystander]

How on earth is a photo like that captured? How come I've never seen anything like that?

https://earthsky.org/earth/definition-what-are-lightning-sprites/

 

[berkeman]

https://earthsky.org/earth/definition-what-are-lightning-sprites/

Thanks, that helps a lot. I'd assumed they had some sort of light-triggered shutter to capture the event, but a long exposure makes a lot more photographic sense...

How to photograph lightning sprites

To photograph a sprite, you need a dark sky and a clear view toward a distant thunderstorm. The sky needs to be dark, because you’ll be taking long exposures; too much stray light in your sky will wash out your photo and make capturing sprites impossible.

 

[bruha]

Hello,
Jupiter+4 moons (which one is off-plane?) and Saturn (G-Gimp correction) from last Sunday (Bohmerwald) -in seems that rings is not very visible novadays (rotation axis is quite perpendicular to earths orbit....)

 

[Andy Resnick]

A handful of galaxes (imaging target: Stephan's quintet) acquired over this past weekend, a total of 2.75 hours integration using Nikon D810 + 800/8 lens. This is a fairly tight crop of the desired region (quintet is in the upper right):

Images stacking using AstroPixel Processor, no post-processing (background subtraction, etc. ). Image is decent for the integration time- good enough for astrometry.net to identify a bunch of NGC objects:

 

[collinsmark]

The Pelican Nebula (a.k.a. IC 5070 and IC 5067) captured from my back patio, June-August, 2023. It can be seen in the constellation Cygnus. Technically, the bottom two-thirds of the image are the Pelican Nebula. The upper one-third -- above the dust lane -- is technically a small portion of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000, to be featured in a future post).

It's called the Pelican Nebula because its brighter parts resemble the shape of pelican, complete with a somewhat bent wing and long, pouched bill (beak), typical among pelicans. (In the nebula, if you're looking for the bill shape, it's subtly silhouetted in the dust lane.)

When I started processing the image data, I was fully expecting to uncover the contours of yet another mutated avian shape (there are many of them in astronomy). But instead, well, hot-damn! There's a lot going on in that part of the sky. It looks like something out of a sci-fi fantasy, Heavy Metal magazine, rather than some sick bird.

This is an image that aught to be viewed large. Unfortunately, PF restricts the height of any image to 650 pixels. So I've included a link here to see the full size image.
Full Size Image:
http://shadycrypt.com/PF/Pelican2023_Final.jpg

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
-- RC-Astro plugins
-- Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch plugin

Interestingly, astrophysicists consider every element heavier than helium to be a metal. Yes, in astrophysics terms, even oxygen is metal.

Integration:
Location: San Diego
Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies
All subframes binned 1x1
Stacked using the drizzle algorithm
SHO mapping
SII: 64×600s = 10.67 hrs
Hα: 66×600s = 11.00 hrs
Oiii: 76×600s = 12.67 hrs
Total integration time: 34.33 hours.

===============================
Special bonus section: Can you spot the nebula?

Below are four images, only one of which is the Pelican Nebula. The rest are some pictures I took of flesh and blood pelicans in La Jolla, about a decade or two ago. Can you spot the nebula?

 

[DennisN]

The Pelican Nebula (a.k.a. IC 5070 and IC 5067) captured from my back patio, June-August, 2023.

I looked at the full size image, it's beautiful! Amazing detail and crispness!
And very nice pelican photos too!

 

[DennisN]

Our Ancient Companion - The Movie (well, a clip at least )...

When I took the first shots with my Sky-Watcher Capricorn-70 I also filmed the Moon. Afterwards I played around with video editing, and I enjoyed it so I ended up doing a 2 m 34 s clip.
Here it is:

Our Ancient Companion - The Moon
(for highest quality on youtube choose "cogwheel"->Quality->1080p50)



I'm not very used to video editing and this one was the most challenging I've done so far; there were quite many text transitions and also a couple of zoom ins and zoom outs.

Estimated time:

• Transport, setup, filming and processing: 2 hours.
• Video production: 3 days .
• Final video: 2 minutes 34 seconds (ouch ).

Sidenote: I've named my gear "Three Angles Observatory" just for fun, and it's a bit of play on words regarding the location from which I was shooting.