Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

Didn't see it but it's interesting that they're taking life finding detectors again after purely geological detectors for a while.

If anyone's interested, NASA / spacex dragon capsule is coming in right now...

Nice skies out by the sea last week

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Did you see the ghost giant!

Yep, and he was wearing a Swrve Milwaukee jacket of a size I have never seen before

Sky at night in Cornwall, hints of the milky way, but then it clouded over which was annoying.

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Nice view of the gas giants in front of Sagittarius and Capricornus!

You see that???

I see white spots on blue black

But just look at the handle of the teapot at lower right! Instantly recognisable to any fixed gear rider, surely.

If you are onna Mac, CB, do a right click and then select 'open image in new window' - you can then give it bigness.
You can probably do the same on a windows machine - but I'm not sure how.

So many stars last night - this was a 138s shot with a 50mm lens. Mars Is rising and brightening, it will be a fine sight in the south over the next month or so.

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This is excellent. Really beautiful.

stunning photo!!

That is cool.

138 seconds with no star trails? Or 138 something elses?

The camera was tracking the stars, so the apple tree is trailed

Whats your setup @ludd?

I was using a basic canon 1000d and a 50mm (nifty fifty) lens; the tripod is a fairly cheap Benro number, but the real magic is the bit between the tripod and the camera, and it’s called an astrotrac - basically a pair of aluminium arms hinged together at one end, and with a very precise threaded rod running between the other ends which rotates slowly to drive the arms apart and gradually turn the camera on top at precisely the right rate to counteract the spinning of the earth.

Like in the photo here (not mine). See how the astrotrac is angled so that it’s axis of rotation points up to the north celestial pole - and that side arm holds a little scope that you use for fine alignment (and for swearing at when it keeps falling out of its bracket)

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that is cool

What do you google to get that? i assume can be attached to a telescope as well?

#novice

I did an image search for astrotrac.

It claims to be able to carry a lot of weight, and I am contemplating getting a counterweight kit so that I can use my little 70mm scope on it, but to be honest there are more practical mounts to be had if it is going to be carrying more than a few pounds. I have an elderly Japanese mount that tracks beautifully and can carry several kilos of kit.

What a nice piece of kit.
Lovely image, BTW.

Thanks Jurek. And yes, a brilliantly simple concept for the tracking mount, now copied by a number of other manufacturers.

Here are some from last night - the Andromeda galaxy rising over next door’s tree, the Veil nebula (a supernova remnant) and the North America Nebula. Again, Canon 1000D and mix of 85mm and 200mm lenses.

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These are beautiful, @Ludd! ❤️

Thanks Joe. The great thing is that these things are up there for us all to enjoy - unless you live in Australia, in which case I guess they are a bit low in the sky. And of course London’s famous light pollution will hide them too.

I'm still a bit salty about that comet... Think I'll nip out for a quick look at a galactic bulge to make myself feel better... 🙃