Photography talk , post up your images.

[ExMX5owner]

Just got back from Dark skies, thought I might share this one, It is Eta Carina just a bit off center so the globular cluster is visible lower right, that on a clear night call barely be seen as a faint star.. 129 images at 60 seconds each , stacked...

The sky was jumping around all over the place for first half of the run, de-focusing the ASI 120 mini guide helped a bit, just something I read and it seems to work. Much better than what I normally get living on a beach in FNQ

... Bags of fun, I wonder why I ever gave this up for a decade or so... In my own defense I was well on the way before I started the run, and legless by the time I had had enough, I had already fallen out my of camp chair twice..

. Still missing a couple of lens caps, no clue what happened to those, probably ended up in the camp fire, It wouldn't be the first time..

 

[Synclare]

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[ExMX5owner]

Question: If or when a star obliterates/self destroys itself for whatever reason, does it create a blinding flash that could/has been seen?

Yes, Another example is what is now called the Crab nebular in Taurus, Its 6500 Light years away thats roughly 614950000000000000 kms
It blew up in 1054 and was visible to the unaided eye during the day for 2 years..

 

[andyglym]

Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness.

 

[ExMX5owner]

Some Stars, like to accumulate in one place...

 

[Eddie Zedder]

Some Stars, like to accumulate in one place...

View attachment 337973

M3 or M13?

 

[ExMX5owner]

M3 or M13?

M3 that one, I think...I always get the two confused, M13 would have a little galaxy in the image...Ill double check though next time I have the ASIAR plugged in. .

Edit, yes M3, or as my system labelled it, NGC5272. Same same..

 

[ExMX5owner]

And another from the other night, not a brilliant photo but it,s interesting due to the number of galaxies in it..
Makarians Chain..

 

[ExMX5owner]

@Eddie Zedder . Weather looks OK for tonite mate..Ill give M13 a go, very low to the north .

 

[ExMX5owner]

@Eddie Zedder , got it M13. Low on the north horizon, so not brilliant. But did get the background galaxy, just...

 

[Eddie Zedder]

Brilliant @ExMX5owner. I'm itching to get more pics done with the S50 but being hampered by summer at the minute . Following the latest updates for the Seestar you can now mount it for EQ mode use and take images of up to 60 seconds.

 

[Eddie Zedder]

Still waters on Derwent Water back in late March, canoeing around St Herbert's Island.

 

[Rod and Kate]

Getting the early morning

 

[ExMX5owner]

Back from Dark skies, and I thought I might share this one...
The back story...
After a pretty dismal Wednesday night with overcast conditions, I was not too exited about Thursday night, so I put the the scope in my wife's tent all ready to go just in case the weather gods were not paying too much attention, and crawled into my separate swag after extinguishing the camp fire. Separate because one of us snores you see, jury is out as to who is the culprit.
Anyway, woke up about 2.55 am to relieve myself of the many non alcoholic beverages I had consumed the night before. An interesting point here is that zippers on swags and tents although are only about 25 to 30 db during the day are about 110 to 120 at night or in the wee smalls of the morning, it's not advertised in the literature that came with them though. So as you do when answering a call of nature, you assume the plumbing is going to work as it,s designed and have a look around for other campers or prying eyes, and inevitably look up. Behold the sky was black the milky way stood out in blazing glory, but my gear is my sleeping wife's tent with another 110db zipper on sentry duty. Boldly I thought I can maybe open the zipper a tooth at a time and not wake her, so I tried and only achieved a sequence of not so load clicks and got 2 inches in 5 minutes. Some quick math told me it was going to take nearly an hour to open the thing wide enough to get my gear my gear out, so I went and had another look at the sky to see if the exercise was really worth it. Well ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZip was the conclusion, maybe invoking the wrath of Khan, This was not the case, I got "oh so its clear outside, would you like me to get up and make a coffee .

Within 5 minutes the gear was out and I was imaging the Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 (M31), is the closest major spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. It's located about 2.5 million light-years away. It contains an estimated one trillion stars, significantly more than the Milky Way's 300 billion. Astronomers predict that Andromeda and the Milky Way will eventually collide in about 4.5 billion years, though the exact outcome is uncertain. In dark skies, it can be seen with the naked eye as a faint smudge. significantly larger than the full moon.

A Stack of 107 individual 60 second exposures, with an ASI 533 MC pro camera @ -10 degrees, through a Redcat 51 Scope, On an ZWO AM5N Harmonic drive

 

[John_B]

Incredible picture Shawn

 

[ktnez99]

Back from Dark skies, and I thought I might share this one...
The back story...
After a pretty dismal Wednesday night with overcast conditions, I was not too exited about Thursday night, so I put the the scope in my wife's tent all ready to go just in case the weather gods were not paying too much attention, and crawled into my separate swag after extinguishing the camp fire. Separate because one of us snores you see, jury is out as to who is the culprit.
Anyway, woke up about 2.55 am to relieve myself of the many non alcoholic beverages I had consumed the night before. An interesting point here is that zippers on swags and tents although are only about 25 to 30 db during the day are about 110 to 120 at night or in the wee smalls of the morning, it's not advertised in the literature that came with them though. So as you do when answering a call of nature, you assume the plumbing is going to work as it,s designed and have a look around for other campers or prying eyes, and inevitably look up. Behold the sky was black the milky way stood out in blazing glory, but my gear is my sleeping wife's tent with another 110db zipper on sentry duty. Boldly I thought I can maybe open the zipper a tooth at a time and not wake her, so I tried and only achieved a sequence of not so load clicks and got 2 inches in 5 minutes. Some quick math told me it was going to take nearly an hour to open the thing wide enough to get my gear my gear out, so I went and had another look at the sky to see if the exercise was really worth it. Well ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZip was the conclusion, maybe invoking the wrath of Khan, This was not the case, I got "oh so its clear outside, would you like me to get up and make a coffee .

Within 5 minutes the gear was out and I was imaging the Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 (M31), is the closest major spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. It's located about 2.5 million light-years away. It contains an estimated one trillion stars, significantly more than the Milky Way's 300 billion. Astronomers predict that Andromeda and the Milky Way will eventually collide in about 4.5 billion years, though the exact outcome is uncertain. In dark skies, it can be seen with the naked eye as a faint smudge. significantly larger than the full moon.

A Stack of 107 individual 60 second exposures, with an ASI 533 MC pro camera @ -10 degrees, through a Redcat 51 Scope, On an ZWO AM5N Harmonic drive
View attachment 343289
View attachment 343291

WOW!!!
Loving your images and write-ups. Very, very interesting.

 

[ExMX5owner]

WOW!!!
Loving your images and write-ups. Very, very interesting.

Thankyou....

 

[ktnez99]

I'm not sure this belongs alongside some of your masterpieces, but this is a photo I took last night.

For a bit of background, I have been overweight my entire adult life, but a few years ago was really getting into cycling as a means to lose weight and get fit. I was training for a 100 mile sportive when I was hit by a car - despite being decked out in reflective & fluro clothing and having lights on (even in daylight) and thankfully in this case - a helmet. The driver didn't stop and left me laying in the grass verge where I came to rest. Thankfully it was a busy road and the car behind them stopped for me. They gave me dashcam footage, but sadly it was not clear enough to get a reg. Anyway, I digress. My cycling came to a grinding halt that day, and although it only took a few months for my body to heal, the psychological damage has taken much (much) longer.

Last night was the first time since the accident that I have properly cycled on a main road! I didn't go far - partly because I am so unfit , but also because I am going to be sticking to bridleways and quiet roads, but a short blast on the A6 was actually quite exhilarating. And the anxiety/adrenaline coursing through me meant I was going so fast only a couple of cars passed me in that time

(PSA: Please be kind and considerate to cyclists. We're not all angry lycra-clad nazis who flout traffic laws. We're actually very vulnerable road users, and some of us are fellow Zed enthusiasts! )

View attachment 327055

Gosh! This is terrible. Thankfully, you survived. Thought provoking image and write-up.

 

[ktnez99]

So, having been away for a week, Here is a picture I took. And its what happens when you fall asleep in your camp chair at 1.00 am and wake up with the roosters leaving your camera running. The gear tracked the sky beautifully whilst I was stacking Zs.. I do some of my best work with my eyes shut, quite clearly..
View attachment 321917

Super great image, Shawn.

 

[ktnez99]

Here where i am in the South west of Scotland on the coast road about 3 miles from my house you get some great sunsets right through the summer ( weather permitted it is Scotland after all )
Been out in the zed last couple of evenings View attachment 298335View attachment 298337View attachment 298339View attachment 298341View attachment 298343View attachment 298345View attachment 298347View attachment 298349View attachment 298351View attachment 298353View attachment 298355
Some from last night



And a couple from tonight

View attachment 298357View attachment 298359View attachment 298361View attachment 298363View attachment 298365
Stephen.

Gorgeous images, Stephen.