Actually, I'm really just resuming my amateur astronomy hobby after a +40 year hiatus. But while "Returning to the Stars" is a bit of a "bait and switch" subject line, it sounds so much better than "I'm resuming a youthful hobby as an old man." This is a test shot of the M31 galaxy I took last night from my remote telescope:
(https://i.imgur.com/joaBl3Q.jpg)
That's very impressive Trip. I can remember my older brother always outside at night with his telescope when I was a kid, lining-up stars and planets for me to look at. That is a great hobby.
That's great. I hope you'll share pictures regularly.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 13, 2024, 02:33:46 AMThat's great. I hope you'll share pictures regularly.
I will. I really like astrophotography. I haven't done a lot in the past 40 years due to time and light pollution everywhere I live. However, computer and the internet now allow for remote telescopes to be run from your home. An organization called Starfront (https://starfront.space/) has an observatory in west Texas, away from light pollution. They rent sites for your telescope, and have wifi set up so you can control them. I just shipped a telescope, camera and various bits of gear to them, they set it up, and I'm now able to do astronomy again.
Quote from: Tripoli on December 13, 2024, 12:34:02 PMQuote from: Jarhead0331 on December 13, 2024, 02:33:46 AMThat's great. I hope you'll share pictures regularly.
I will. I really like astrophotography. I haven't done a lot in the past 40 years due to time and light pollution everywhere I live. However, computer and the internet now allow for remote telescopes to be run from your home. An organization called Starfront (https://starfront.space/) has an observatory in west Texas, away from light pollution. They rent sites for your telescope, and have wifi set up so you can control them. I just shipped a telescope, camera and various bits of gear to them, they set it up, and I'm now able to do astronomy again.
That's amazing...and pretty ingenious.
PLEASE PLEASE share any good pics here!! I used to have a sweet Orion dobsonian telescope and I loved looking at the sky through it but of course I stupidly left it outside in the rain uncovered a few times and .... :hair:
That is a GREAT pic for your first one!!!
Quote from: DesertFox on December 15, 2024, 10:47:01 AMPLEASE PLEASE share any good pics here!! I used to have a sweet Orion dobsonian telescope and I loved looking at the sky through it but of course I stupidly left it outside in the rain uncovered a few times and .... :hair:
That is a GREAT pic for your first one!!!
Thanks. I was really pleased with it, especially given the moon was about 70% full at the time, so it drowned out some of the detail. I tried shooting last night, but high clouds and smoke from a fire in Mexico prevented me from taking any photos. Next reasonable photo opportunity looks like it will be on the 18th
The results of last night's shooting were pretty good. I had about 3 hours of no moon. Still trying to figure out this new-fangled astronomy equipment. Here is the Heart Nebula (IC 1805)n done with five 1000 second images stacked, no other processing:
(https://i.imgur.com/VWrPFr7.jpg)
And here is M33, five 300 second images stacked, no other processing
(https://i.imgur.com/iJRgML2.jpg)
Here is M3, a Globular cluster of stars. Twenty stacked images of 120 seconds each:
(https://i.imgur.com/mVw2QkP.jpg)
Finally, here is M101, five stacked 1000 second images. I applied a little bit of contrast here:
(https://i.imgur.com/HX7aEtX.jpg)
Damn, that's impressive Trip. It sounds like an awful lot of effort. Yay or nay?
Quote from: Sir Slash on December 20, 2024, 11:15:25 PMDamn, that's impressive Trip. It sounds like an awful lot of effort. Yay or nay?
Hmm. Not really sure how to answer that. There is a learning curve, but IMHO, it is a rewarding learning curve. Some things (tax law, for instance) take a lot of effort to learn, but you don't get a sense of accomplishment as you advance your skills in the field. Astronomy is different. Speaking for myself, (and while trying not to stray into R&P territory) as I see more of the universe and its wonders, I am struck with wonder and draw closer to God. Its a bit like when you visit a place like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/Z5xxhlK.jpg)
It is not just a beautiful place, but the visit becomes a spiritual experience. Astrophotography is a bit like that. I can never actually visit the places I photograph in astrophotography, but seeing these images and understanding that each of those dots is a star, or a galaxy like our own, or seeing the beauty of a nebula, or seeing an image like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/CFtzslm.jpg)
and realizing that there are 10,000 galaxies in it, and that this frame consists of an area of the sky so small you can cover it up with a 1mm square piece of paper held at arm's length (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Ultra-Deep_Field)
To summarize, being able to experience these places, whether it be the mountains in real life, or a nebula through photography, not merely an appreciation of beauty, but a spiritual experience. This makes the effort in learning how to take these photos worthwhile.
I know it sounds stupid, but I'm becoming really impressed with the changes in amateur astronomy equipment and computer processing in 40 years. Below is a detail of the first image I took of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) (the image I did in the first post of this thread). A single exposure of 1000 seconds in moonlight with a 3" refractor. The detail is of a nebula/gaseous region of M31.
(https://i.imgur.com/rQF1b0k.jpg)
Below is the same region, done using the same telescope, but with a stacked, 31 image series of photos (210 min total exposure) of the same region taken with no moon. Aside from stacking, there is no other processing in these images.
(https://i.imgur.com/4unMK9U.jpg)
The detail is impressive, and is similar to that being taken by considerably bigger research observatories in the 1970's. For instance, here is a photographic negative done by the Kitts Peak 24" telescope of the same region of M31 in 1974. It is a bit difficult to compare, since it is a B&W negative, but it appears to be of similar quality to what I did over a couple of hours with something that would fit in a backpack.
(https://i.imgur.com/NJgNbYH.jpg)
If anyone is interested, here is the full image I've taken thus far. I'm going to try to get 8 hours of total exposure before I process it.
(https://i.imgur.com/jZ3VKCF.jpg)
Just to confirm and illustrate the advancement that computers have made in imaging: I just did a little experiment/illustration of how much technology has impacted astronomy. The attached image on the Right is a photo from Kitts Peak (KPO) in October 1973, using the 8 meter (315 inch) telescope, with a single 25 minute exposure. The image is a B&W photo negative. See https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ANDROMEDA_Atlas/frames.html The left is my image of the same area, taken in late December 2024 of M31 with 10 hours of data, no moon, no clean up using a Apertura 75Q Refractor (3" diameter). In very rough terms, the KPO telescope has 11,025 times the light gathering capacity as my telescope. However, since I imaged for 10 hours, vice 25 minutes, the light captured by the KPO telescope in the two images below is 11025/((600min/25min)), or 459.375 times greater the light captured by my telescope.
The image below is a side by side comparison. My image is on the left, and the 1973 KPO image is on the right. Aside from rotating, removing the color and creating a photo negative for comparative purposes, I did not enhance my image at all. While the stars in the KPO image are sharper, it appears my image captured all the stars that KPO did, and my dust lanes in my image may be more distinct. This illustrates the incredible advance in imaging technology, in particular digital processing, over the past 50 years. As someone who was doing this kind of thing in the late 70's, I can't tell you how gobsmacking this comparison is. I'm also attaching the master image that I took my crop from.
(https://i.imgur.com/hqjuThS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/JXRuVhT.jpg)
Edit: for those who like the photos, here is the Orion Nebula, with about one hour of total exposure time:
(https://i.imgur.com/yn1IFQj.jpg)
Here's the California Nebula (NGC 1499), an emission nebula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Nebula
(https://i.imgur.com/wKCJRdU.jpg)
This is a 58x300 second (4.8 hours total exposure) stack of images that I'm currently working on. I'm going to take some photos using some filters to see if I can get some more definition of the nebula
This is the image I'm currently working on. It is the Rosetta Nebula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosette_Nebula), taken using a combination of Hydrogen alpha, OIII and SII filters. Total imaging time is 10 hours.
(https://i.imgur.com/4rxWr73.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/a7rSJqy.jpg)
This is an image of the Seagull nebula, SH2-296. I took this image using some filters to bring out the ionized gases. The red in the nebula is ionized sulfur, the green is ionized hydrogen, and the blue is ionized oxygen. As you can see with the mixing of colors, the nebula is mostly hydrogen and oxygen, with a little bit of sulfur in the "head" of the nebula.
The main components of the Seagull are three large clouds of gas, the most distinctive being Sharpless 2-296, which forms the "wings". Spanning about 100 light-years from one wingtip to the other, Sh2-296 displays glowing material and dark dust lanes weaving amid bright stars. It is a beautiful example of an emission nebula, in this case an HII region, indicating active formation of new stars, which can be seen peppering this image. The complex of gas and dust that forms the head of the seagull glows brightly in the sky due to the strong ultraviolet radiation coming mostly from one brilliant young star — HD 53367 — that can be spotted in the center of the image and could be taken to be the seagull's eye. The eye is the brightest and hottest region in the nebula, with newborn stars born about 1.5 million years ago.
The radiation from the young stars causes the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow with a rich red colour and become an HII region . Light from the hot blue-white stars is also scattered off the tiny dust particles in the nebula to create a contrasting blue haze in some parts of the picture. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1913/
In the photo above, you may notice the prominent bluish arc slightly below and to the right of the center of the image. This is a bow shock from the star FN Canis Majoris. This is a massive binary star (if you zoom in, you can see its companion star) with the larger star estimated as ranging from 19 to 36 times the mass of the Sun, and luminosity estimates of 122,079 to 690,000 times the Sun's luminosity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Canis_Majoris
(https://i.imgur.com/9UnyXXZ.jpg)
This is an image of SH2-1 a diffuse emission nebula and reflection nebula. The redish color gas is Hydrogen Alpha, which is ionized Hydrogen. This is the part of the nebula that is an emission nebula The bluish and grey gas is mostly Oxygen and dust. This is the part of the nebula that is a reflection nebula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh_2-1. This image was made using a total of 620 min with a UV/IR filter and 265 min Ha/OIII filter. I artificially reduced the number of stars in the image so you can better see the nebula:
(https://i.imgur.com/mhs91nj.jpg)
I just finished up processing this is an image of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) a bright emission nebula. This image was made by combining a total of 261 images using Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulfer filters. Nebula integration: 770 min SII/OIII filter (48x600, 58x300); 915 min Ha/OIII filter (155x300). I've reduced the stars so you can see the nebula better. The red areas are ionized sulfur, the blue is ionized oxygen., and the green is ionized hydrogen. The various shades of yellow are were there is a mix of hydrogen and sulfur
NGC 7000 is called the North American Nebula because it resembles North America. The portion of the nebula resembling Mexico and Central America is known as the Cygnus Wall, which is an area of substantial star formation. This region exhibits the most concentrated star formation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America_Nebula. The nebula itself is located 1,700 lightyears away and measures 100 lightyears across.
(https://i.imgur.com/W9Enfjv.jpg)
This is my image of comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that I took this morning at about 5:30 AM. The photo is a stacked series of six 120second images. Other than stacking, I haven't done any processing on the image.
Currently, the comet is at magnitude 5, making it barely visible with binoculars about 90 minutes before sunrise in the east. It should brighten up as it approaches earth, and it may reach magnitude 4. It should have its closest approach on 21 October, when it will be about 56 million miles distant. It is currently 60,562,152 miles from Earth. This is a good page for getting more information on the comet, including charts to help spot it: https://theskylive.com/c2025a6-info.
This image shows both the dust and ionization tail of the comet, which are almost on top of each other. The ionization tail (or gas tail) is the thin, sharp stream of ionized particles, created by the interaction with the solar wind. In this image, there is a dust tail, which is the more difuse area of dust particles surrounding the ionization tail. The dust tail is created by the reflection of light from the sun on the dust ejected from the comet.
(https://i.imgur.com/SjA2zSa.jpg)
Here's my most recent effort in astrophotography: The Heart Nebula (SH2-190) with WeBo1, a planetary nebula. Illustrating the incredible advances in optics and imaging processing over the past 30 years is this image taken with a 3" refractor in 2025 of the Heart Nebula and WeBo 1 (inset). WeBo 1 is a planetary nebula surrounding a binary star system containing a late-type giant Barium star orbited by a subdwarf. It was first imaged by the 48" Oschin Schmidt telescope at Palomar, but remained unnoticed until 1995, when Ronald Webbink, while reviewing DSS images noted a faint elliptical nebula surrounding a 14th magnitude star. (C:\Users\Steve\Downloads\Bond_2003_AJ_125_260.pdf) Subsequent narrowband images taken in 1996 with the 0.8m and 4m telescopes at Kitt Peak resolved this object as a planetary nebula. Below is what is probably the image on which Webbink first noticed the elliptical nebula. Since WeBo1's discovery in 1995, image processing technology has made huge advances in capability while lowering cost, allowing what previously required large telescopes operated by large observatories to be readily imaged by small amateur telescopes.
(https://i.imgur.com/tXbhVac.jpg)
Here's my most recent effort: The Eagle Nebula (M16) (no, Jarhead, not that M-16..... :grin: )
(https://i.imgur.com/zPk2ieG.jpg)
The Eagle Nebula is an emission nebula, located in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, 7000 light-years from Earth. It spans approximately 70 by 55 light-years in size and is only about 5.5 million years old. M16 is the collective name for two distinct objects that are listed separately in astronomical catalogues: The emission nebula IC 4703 and the open star cluster NGC 6611. This cluster has approximately 8100 stars. In the center of this image is a "hand-shaped" feature known as "The Pillars of Creation." This feature is 4-5 light-years and is being sculpted by the intense radiation from the young, hot stars in the cluster. The charged particles for these stars clear dust and gas away from the dense areas of gas (a process termed "photoevaporation" As the gas is eroded, areas of particularly dense gas, called evaporating gaseous globules or EGGs, shield the gas behind them from the intense solar wind, leading to the formation of the pillar structures. In some of these EGGs are embryonic stars whose growth is stunted when the EGGs are uncovered, and the gas surrounding them and fueling their growth is photoevaporated away.
(https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-16/ ; https://www.space.com/16396-eagle-nebula-m16-hubble-images-pillars-of-creation.html; https://science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble/stellar-eggs-emerge-from-molecular-cloud-closeup-of-evaporating-globules-in-m16/ ; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustration_of_Stellar_EGGs_in_M16_(1995-44-354).jpg)
Here's my latest: SH2-131 The Elephant Trunk Nebula
(https://i.imgur.com/XopSVgV.jpg)
IC1396 aka SH2-131 is an large emission nebula, located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth.
Within IC1396 is IC1396A, otherwise known as the "Elephant Trunk Nebula." In this image it is the sinuous structure that extends down from the top center of the image. This is a dark, dense globule that is an active site of star formation. It contains several very young (less than 100,000-year-old). Two slightly older (1-3 million years old) stars that are located in the small, circular cavity in the head of the globule of the nebula. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the region here, forming the "cavity" at the end of the "trunk".
The bright rim of the nebula is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive multiple triple star named HD 206267, located in the center of this image. Two of the stars are very hot (30,000 degrees K) class O stars and are large, with a mass of 27.8 and 17.7 solar masses. These two stars orbit each other with a period of 3.7 days. The third star possibly orbits at a period of 143 years, and is smaller, with a mass of only 10 solar masses. These stars create a very fast "solar wind", clocking at 3,225 km/s, and strip away the protoplanetary disks of nearby stars. It is the radiation from this system that is ionizing the gases of the nebula, and compressing gas at the edge of the nebula, creating star formation.
The little bright lime-green area, just below the middle left-hand side of this image an emission nebula, called PN G100.4+04.6 or PK100+04.1. A planetary nebula is an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from an intermediate-mass (1-8 solar masses) star late in their lives. Planetary nebulae probably play a crucial role in the chemical evolution of the Milky Way by expelling elements into the interstellar medium from stars where those elements were created. Planetary nebulae are observed in more distant galaxies, yielding useful information about their chemical abundances.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant%27s_Trunk_Nebula; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_206267; https://grokipedia.com/page/hd_206267; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
Here's one of my recent images: C34, the Western Veil Nebula
(https://i.imgur.com/LgUCYE1.jpg)
his image is the western part of the Veil Nebula, and is known by various names, including C34, NGC6960, or simply the "West Veil Nebula." The Veil Nebula is a large supernova remnant located 2,400 light-years from Earth. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it collapses and blows itself apart in a catastrophic supernova explosion, releasing so much light that it can briefly outshine an entire galaxy of stars. This explosion sweeps out a huge bubble edged with stellar debris and material swept up by the blast wave. This glowing, brightly colored shell of gas forms a nebula that astronomers call a "supernova remnant." In the case of the Veil Nebula, the blast wave from the supernova explosion is plowing into a wall of cool, denser interstellar gas, emitting light. The bright regions are where this shock wave is encountering denser interstellar gas. In this image, red corresponds ionized hydrogen, green is ionized sulfur, and blue from ionized oxygen. The bluish features outline the cavity wall. The red glow surrounding these areas is from cooler gas that was excited by the earlier shock collision and has since diffused into a more chaotic structure. In this image, the colors have been artificially saturated to bring out some of the details. The entire Veil Nebula extends 110 light-years across in diameter, covering an area of sky six times larger than the full moon. This image of the West Veil Nebula covers only about 106x43 light-years of the entire nebula.
The star that created this nebula was about 20 times more massive than the Sun and exploded between 8,000 and 20,000 years ago. The mass ejected from this explosion created this nebula, which is still expanding at a velocity of about 1.5 million kilometers, or 900,000 miles per hour. Before the star went supernova, nuclear reactions deep inside of it were creating heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and iron. When it exploded, it sent these heavier elements throughout space. Over time, these elements may coalesce into new planetary systems.
It's been awhile since I've posted one of these. This is one of my most recent images:
(https://i.imgur.com/Jm0Xzhq.jpg)
This image is made up of a total of 840 images, totaling 5125 min. of exposure (240x300, 138x600 HaO3; 47x600, 415x300 S2O3). It is of SH2-248, aka IC443, aka "the Jellyfish Nebula," is a supernova remnant (SNR) located roughly 5,000 light-years from Earth. The yellow "Jellyfish" portion of the nebula is approximately 70 light-years in diameter. This image is shot using a modified "Hubble Palette," with red representing ionized sulfur, green ionized hydrogen, and blue ionized oxygen. The strong yellow colors of the jellyfish portion of the nebula show that sulfur and hydrogen are the primary components of the nebula, with traces of oxygen in the outer portions of the "shell."
Supernovae are relatively rare, with only 1-3 occurring every 100 years in our galaxy. IC443, the supernova that created SH2-248, occurred somewhere between 3,000 and 35,000 years ago. left a neutron star, CXOU J061705.3+222127. However, this was not the first supernova in this neighborhood. In fact, there were two supernovae not just in this small part of space, but likely within the same star system. Using an annotated and rotated version of this photo, along with a NASA image, tells this story:
Looking at the annotated photo (below), you can see a whisp of blue gas in the upper left-hand of this image. This is G189.6+3.3, a supernova that exploded sometime before the supernova that created the Jellyfish nebula, with astronomers estimating this first supernova occurred between 20,000 and 110,000 years ago. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/15053; https://science.nasa.gov/missions/fermi/nasas-fermi-sibling-supernova-remnants/. Later, approximately 3,000-35,000 years ago, the supernova that created SH2-248 occurred, leaving a neutron star, CXOU J061705.3+222127 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CXOU_J061705.3%2B222127). Astronomers have puzzled over the location of this neutron star, as it is not at the center of the Jellyfish nebula, as would be expected, but near the nebula's outer edge, suggesting that the neutron star was already moving at an unusually high velocity when it went supernova.
The first piece to answering this question comes from the structure and location of the Jellyfish nebula. It consists of two "shells" consisting of ionized gas being pushed out from the site of the explosion, with a third shell being visible in the X-ray spectrum. I've outlined the shell from the first supernova in red, and the shell from the second explosion in yellow. Tellingly, the Jellyfish nebula is located near SH2-249, a star-forming nebula. (On the annotated image, the yellow-green area in the upper left of the image is part of this nebula. This is a clue that the supernova was part of this star-forming nebula. Because of this, they were both massive. The first star to go supernova was likely 30-40 solar masses, and the smaller companion was a mere 25-35 solar masses. (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/15053) When the first star went supernova, it hurled its companion away at 143 miles/second (230 km/sec). This first supernova also sent shockwaves through the gas making up SH2-249, creating supernova remnants (SNRs) such as G189.6+3.3, as seen in the annotated image. Over thousands of years, as the companion star sped through space, the nebula from the first supernova faded. Then, after traveling approximately 40 light-years, the companion star also went supernova. This second explosion likewise sent a shockwave crashing into not only the hydrogen gas of SH2-249 but also into the first shockwave created by the earlier supernova of its companion. This complex interaction of the two shockwaves within the gas of SH2-249 creates the complex filamentary structure of the Jellyfish nebula.
This second supernova also left behind a pulsar, known as XOU J061705.3+222127, or J0617. A NASA composite image using X-ray and visual data of this region appears in this photographic inset of this image. When a star goes supernova, it implodes, forming a dense stellar core called a neutron star. This object is so dense (about 100,000,000,000,000 times the density of water) that a single teaspoon of material from it would weigh approximately as much as Mt. Everest. A spinning neutron star that produces a beam of radiation is called a pulsar. The radiation sweeps by like a lighthouse beacon and can be detected as pulses of radio waves and other forms of radiation. J0617 shows several interesting features, including a distinct ring surrounding the pulsar, which is believed to be the result of a shock wave generated as high-speed particles fly away from the neutron star. Also, there is also a blue comet-like tail of X-ray emission trailing behind the pulsar, which initially puzzled astronomers because it points away from the presumed center of the nebula rather than along its path of motion. This feature is visible in the inset. Finally, visible light images also show a jet that passes through the pulsar. This is visible on a zoomed in version of this image. It is unclear if the long, pink wisp of optical emission is related to the pulsar, as similar wisps found in IC 443 are unrelated to X-ray features from the pulsar. of high-energy particles cutting through the pulsar ring, spewing radiation out into the remnant. https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/what-spawned-jellyfish-nebula/ ; https://phys.org/news/2015-12-spawned-jellyfish-nebula.html
(https://i.imgur.com/mfEON4Y.jpg)