Random picture thread...that you took

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

Holy Crap man.....just when I thought you might not get it any better

LOL. It's funny, my astrophotography geek buddies are all excited I was able to capture all the dust surrounding the object. Definitely got some cred with them as a result. With a landscape photo, I'd spend a lot of effort getting rid if it!

Was looking for something funny to reply with and stumbled on the "sisters" chop. Not my work.

[Grey Ghost]

Originally Posted by TripleBlack

From Wiki: The nine brightest stars of the Pleiades are named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione. As daughters of Atlas, the Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades. The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. A faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternative name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now likely an unrelated foreground dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.

Shot this the night of 11/5/18. 49 5 minute exposures at IS01600 using an equatorial mount and 70mm refractor telescope (f4.7). In camera terms this was like shooting with a 520mm lens. This kind of photography requires stacking the individual exposures and processing them with specialized software. The processing can be done in photoshop but it's difficult to get really good results. I didn't add color but did saturate existing colors; you won't see anything this colorful looking through a telescope.

The light areas outside of the star cluster are "lanes" of interstellar dust faintly illuminated by the stars of Pleiades. Many images with less exposure time don't show this detail so I was happy to see it in mine.

Should mention the Pleiades is very bright and easily visible with the naked eye under darker skies. You can get a nice view with just some binoculars.

Attachment 20370

Out of this world! Incredible capture

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

Out of this world! Incredible capture

Thanks man!

Kinda funny, as a geezer, I'm quick to disparage millennials but my mentor is about 25 and is killing it when it comes to astrophotography. He's spent lots of hours tutoring me. Check out his work at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ak_astro.

[Sea Six]

Got any pictures from our solar system?

Mars? Jupiter? Our Moon?

[04 commemorative]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ak_astro

Makes it hard to think we are alone here

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by Sea Six

Got any pictures from our solar system?

Mars? Jupiter? Our Moon?

Nothing impressive. It's sort of counter intuitive, but the equipment required to get good images of planets is very different than what's needed for galaxies and other deep space objects. It takes a very powerful scope to get anything more than a red dot when shooting Mars. And the more powerful the scope the bigger and heavier it is which in turn requires a heavier and more accurate (read expensive) mount.

The moon is a little easier. It's about 1/2 a degree in diameter in the sky. Andromeda is appears 6 times that. With my rig, I can almost fill the frame with Andromeda but the moon looks very small and planets just look like stars.

A couple years ago I took this picture of a "super moon" but it's very tightly cropped. A large print wouldn't look very good. This was taken with a 600mm lens. My telescope rig is 537mm I think.

[TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ak_astro

Makes it hard to think we are alone here

Some estimates are that the Andromeda galaxy has a trillion stars. Hubble scientists say there are 100 billion galaxies. The current thinking is that most stars have planets. Pretty good odds there's some biology out there somewhere.

That's a lot of planets - I think we'll need DAB to help with the math.

[04 commemorative]

Thanksgiving 2018.....taken with phone on timer

[MEANZ06]

From Thanksgiving weekend...

Sunrise


My backyard


Sun & moon

[04 commemorative]

Love the backyard man !

[04 commemorative]

Come on people you know you are taking pictures......
From 2017

[simpleman68]

[LilRedCorvette]

Camel at the local Xmas lights festival/holiday village carnival...

[carlton_fritz]

Hand held Nikon P1000

[carlton_fritz]

Moar

[carlton_fritz]

Hand held P1000 3000mm.

[TripleBlack]

Wow, those are great moon images! I've never taken any except when it's full and much of the detail isn't visible.

Just saw the birdie! Most excellent!


Very nice!

[carlton_fritz]

Originally Posted by TripleBlack

Wow, those are great moon images! I've never taken any except when it's full and much of the detail isn't visible.

Just saw the birdie! Most excellent!


Very nice!

I can't wait for nice weather when I have time to go find that eagle that hides on the other side of the lake. I got that camera just for him. That and topless beaches.

[StaticCling]

This morning...

[carlton_fritz]

Full moon behind thin clouds and a kitty