Last Night’s Astro Image

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 29/01/2019 21:38:59:

M1. the Crab Nebula

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Neil

Aha, thanks. I could recognise that once I'd figured out how to zoom the image.

I read somewhere that astronomy splits into the study of the Crab Nebula and the study of everything else…

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Weather on Mars / incompetent reporting: **LINK**

https://futurism.com/the-byte/martian-weather-reports-nasa-lander

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[quote]

The temperature at Mars’ Elysium Planitia has hovered around a bracing -80 degrees Fahrenheit (-17 degrees Celsius) for the past week

[/quote]

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MichaelG.

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Somebody added 32 instead of subtracting it. Pretty bad.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Amazing run of clear, dark not-too cold nights!

Here's one of my images from last night, Orion's Sword:

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 27/02/2019 23:53:07

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Very nice stuff Neil.

I wish …. but around here we might get some dark nights (much modified by city lights) but they are bleakan' cold.

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Gee Neil

You are really kicking goals with your astro imaging, I am in awe of the images and the work you need to have done to get them.

[Michael Cox 1Participant @michaelcox1]

Posted by John McNamara on 28/02/2019 05:41:53:

Gee Neil

You are really kicking goals with your astro imaging, I am in awe of the images and the work you need to have done to get them.

What I am in awe of is that Neil holds down a day job, edits MEW, writes books, spends time in his workshop, is very active on this website and he still finds time to sit outside at night staring at the stars!!!! Amazing.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hmm.. you want to see what other people achieve! The limit for me is very much the sky quality here, trouble is imaging at home is an hour setting up, then a check every half hour to an hour, and fifteen minutes to knock it all down.

If I go to a dark site its a MUCH bigger investment in time and I can't do other things.

My way of working is NOT 9-5, mon-fri; I just work when I want to, but I probably do a tad more than 37.5 hours! Being self employed means I can juggle things how I want, obviously MEW is something I'm deeply interested in, something which helps with any job, and my other work is too, so I'm incredibly fortunate.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

The moon last night:

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

These are from 19 and 20 September, taken with my modified and cooled 450D using a narrowband Ha filter (so only the red channel used which is why they are mono).

Crescent Nebula (bubble of expanding hydrogen thron out when a star went supernova, beyond – clouds of hydrogen)

Wizard Nebula

SH2-86, the long and shorter 'elephant trunks' are star forming regions like the 'Pillars of Creation':

CED-214. The darkest areas across the picture are more lilkely to be clouds of cold dust in front of the hydrogen clouds than gaps in them:

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

Very, very nice Neil.

[Phil WhitleyParticipant @philwhitley94135]

Amazing Neil! Keep em coming.

Phil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks, with those four images I feel like I've made a big step forward – in my processing as much as my photography. The Ha filter only lets light through from a narrow bandwidth (7nm) so the results are very faint sdespite being 5-minute exposures – you can only see a handful of stars in the RAW images. Although the camera preview does an automatic stretch that works so well you end up wishing you could duplicate it on the computer!

All those four use guiding to keep the scope exactly aligned and are stacks of 20-30 pictures which has a dramatic effect on reducing noise and enhancing detail.

Neil

[LainchyParticipant @lainchy]

These are superb Neil. I used to grab images of the planets, with a ToUCam pro, and tried long exposure after doing a mod to it…. long time ago though. It's not even supported by Windows 10 now.

I gave up deep sky due to periodic error in the EQ5 mount. Sahme really, because I really did like the 8" Orion Newtonian on the top.

Cracking pictures though. Very well done

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Super images, of the Fascinating Universe, Keep the images coming

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Here’s an interesting one for consumers of Astro Images : **LINK**

https://news.sky.com/story/black-hole-swallowing-and-ripping-apart-star-captured-for-first-time-11820432

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Two images from this month, taken with a new filter that suppresses light pollution and enhances nebulosity. (Optolong L-Enhance) at the expense of natural colour, especially in the stars. Combined into a mosaic, the Heart and Soul Nebulas.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 01/11/2019 16:10:48

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 27/09/2019 09:44:41:

Here’s an interesting one for consumers of Astro Images : **LINK**

https://news.sky.com/story/black-hole-swallowing-and-ripping-apart-star-captured-for-first-time-11820432

MichaelG.

Yes, interesting images – from a time when bony fish were just appearing on Earth…

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

I’ve just downloaded this from the iOS AppStore: **LINK**

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/orbit-satellite-tracking/id1141694548

It’s free, and appears to do what it should.

MichaelG.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Thanks for that Michael …. I'll give it a try.

(Looks like an orbital version of the app that I have for tracking local flights in an out of the airport in essentially real-time. It's particularly interesting since I live close to Toronto (Pearson) Airport).

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Well last night was the first clear, moonless one for nearly eight weeks so we had about 25 people out at Rosliston Astronomy Group. Several of us imaging, I was using a dual band filter that brings out emission nebulas and handles light pollution, which was useful as there was a good deal of mist most of the night.

Incredibly cold, -2 air temperature, but the mounts, scopes, even my computer and its bag had a thick hoar frost.

Flaming star nebula, top right, and tadpole nebula (you can barely make out the tadpoles):

Flame and horsehead nebulas (it's impossible not to keep coming back to this one!):

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 30/11/2019 15:18:13:

[…]

Incredibly cold, -2 air temperature, but the mounts, scopes, even my computer and its bag had a thick hoar frost.

[…]

.

… Which reminds me … How’s that cooled camera project going ?

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 30/11/2019 16:08:18:

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 30/11/2019 15:18:13:

[…]

Incredibly cold, -2 air temperature, but the mounts, scopes, even my computer and its bag had a thick hoar frost.

[…]

.

… Which reminds me … How’s that cooled camera project going ?

MichaelG.

Finished & working but not yet used!

I'll post an update soon.

Neil

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Not in the same league, but I did wave to our brave astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS as it went past tonight (about -3.5 mag). Visible even here in the cloudy Midlands suburbs.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mark Rand on 30/11/2019 19:39:18:

Not in the same league, but I did wave to our brave astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS as it went past tonight (about -3.5 mag). Visible even here in the cloudy Midlands suburbs.

Always good to see the ISS

Neil

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