Astronomy pictures thread

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foolsgold said:
allSky Camera 08-11-2024 Clouds, Stars, Aircraft, Satellites, Meteorites and Green Aurora.

I could not post this to X, said I have a 5 meg limit.

Click to expand...

This was absolutely stunning. You guys are amazing.
 
Here is a composite of Perseid meteors that I captured the night of 8/12-8/13.

Also visible is a conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in the upper left of the image.

Meteors-2024-08-12-Composite3S.jpg
Camera: Canon EOS 850D (modified)
Lens: 24mm f/1.4 sigma
Exposure: Multiple 5sec exposures at f/1.4 and ISO 3200
 
Goldhedge said:
Click to expand...

Looking forward to this.

From spacex.com:
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, August 27 at 3:38 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch of Polaris Dawn to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are two additional launch opportunities within the four-hour window at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET. If needed, backup opportunities are available on Wednesday, August 28 at the same times.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 3.5 hours prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX.
The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew Crew-1 to and from the International Space Station, and Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to orbit. This will be the fourth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-8 and two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

MISSION OBJECTIVES​

During their multi-day mission to orbit, Dragon and the crew will endeavor to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown since the Apollo program and participate in the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) by commercial astronauts wearing SpaceX-developed EVA suits. They will also conduct 36 research studies and experiments from 31 partners designed to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight, and test Starlink laser-based communications in space.

The Polaris Dawn crew will combine their expertise, knowledge, and passion for spaceflight to further human space exploration. This will be the first human spaceflight for Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon. Mission Commander Jared Isaacman previously flew to space as commander of Inspiration4. This will also be the first time two SpaceX employees will be part of a human spaceflight crew, providing valuable insight to future missions on the road to making life multiplanetary.
Click to expand...
 
foolsgold said:
Still recovering from some surgery. I tried to get back in the saddle again today. Here's an image of the photosphere with a Calcium filter.

Best 100 images from 2480 images taken. Processed with FireCapture.
80mm refractor, Lunt B1800 filter and ASI533mm camera.
https://www.astrobin.../full/2hbj8a/0/

View attachment 13653
Click to expand...
Awesome image. In contrast, my shot of the sun was a single hand held shot with just a white light filter. I had a lot of yard work to do today so that's what I could fit in.

I hope you heal quickly.
 
13 years ago today I captured this image of The Bubble Nebula along with the Cassiopeia Salt-andPepper Cluster. I decided to re-process it this morning with modern tools I did not have at the time (BlurXterminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXterminator).

Original
BubbleNebula-08-25-2011-P2C1S.jpg

Re-process:
NGC7635-2011-08-25-P3S.jpg
Date: 8/25/2011
Camera: Canon EOS-20D modified
Telescope: 110mm f/7 ED refractor (orion)
Exposure: 150x2min (5hr total) at ISO 800
About: The bubble nebula lies about 11,000 light years away in theconstellation Cassiopeia
 
EricTheCat said:
13 years ago today I captured this image of The Bubble Nebula along with the Cassiopeia Salt-andPepper Cluster. I decided to re-process it this morning with modern tools I did not have at the time (BlurXterminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXterminator).

Original
View attachment 13660

Re-process:
View attachment 13659
Date: 8/25/2011
Camera: Canon EOS-20D modified
Telescope: 110mm f/7 ED refractor (orion)
Exposure: 150x2min (5hr total) at ISO 800
About: The bubble nebula lies about 11,000 light years away in theconstellation Cassiopeia
Click to expand...
Huge improvement. Excellent study on the progress that processing has made.
 
savvydon said:
Huge improvement. Excellent study on the progress that processing has made.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I was surprised how bad the data was on this one before processing. Terrible "walking noise" and very bad gradient (poor flat frame technique). Itching to get some new data when weather allows. It's been too long.
 
I managed to capture quite a few red sprites last night. Sprites are an upper atmosphere phenomena that occur over some very powerful lightning strikes.

These are 3 of my favorite frames taken from video.

Sprite-2024-08-26_00151S.jpg

Sprite-2024-08-26_00104S.jpg

Sprite-2024-08-26_00048S.jpg
Camera: Sony A7s III
Lens: Sigma 35mm f/1.4 art lens
Exposure: 1/60sec at f/1.4 and ISO 128000
 
Eric I'm assuming the lightening was in the distance, with no clouds?
 
In this case I could see some of the lightning and storm clouds in the distance. The storm was about 50 miles away. The storm was very large so many of the sprites could have been from strikes further away than that.

My general rule is to try for sprites when I can see stars above a distant storm. Usually can at least see lightning flashes in the direction.

Here is a frame with a little more context. As the storm got further away I was able to pan down without losing sprites at the top of the frame.

Sprite-2024-08-26_00208S.jpg
 
By the way, last night was insane. I thought I was going to catch up on sleep. Joke was on me. The sky erupted with aurora so I stayed up until 2am when fog rolled in.

Hopefully I get some rest tonight. Looks like we're in for a round of severe storms tomorrow.

 
A couple images from last night.

Aurora-2024-08-27-IMG_6681S.jpg
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Lens: 15mm f/2.8 sigma
Exposure: 20sec at ISO 400 and f/2.8

Aurora-2024-08-27-24mm-IMG_1709S.jpg
Camera: Canon EOS 850D (modified)
Lens: 24mm f/1.4 sigma art
Exposure: 2sec at ISO 3200 and f/1.4
 
Joe King said:
^^^ I'd be tempted to kill for those temps. lol
Click to expand...
I hear you, but you gotta realize the dewpoint much of this summer here almost matches the temperature. So let's say it's 74 where you're at. How do you feel when the dewpoint is 72? Just saying. :ROFLMAO:
This forecast is nice reprieve though.
 
EricTheCat said:
I hear you, but you gotta realize the dewpoint much of this summer here almost matches the temperature. So let's say it's 74 where you're at. How do you feel when the dewpoint is 72? Just saying. :ROFLMAO:
This forecast is nice reprieve though.
Click to expand...
Yea, it's a lot drier here, but I'd still like some cool night time temps. It's not gotten below 82 at night for at least two whole Months.
 
Finally a telescope night last night and it looks like the next 2 or three nights could be telescope nights as well. I'll be leaving the telescope outside with a cover for easy setup.

West Veil Nebula (NGC6960) - Supernova Remnant in Cygnus
NGC6960-2024-08-30-P1S.jpg
Date: 8/30/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 59x300sec (4hr 55min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator
 
Last night.

M27 (The Dumbell Nebula) - Planetary Nebula in Vulpecula
M27-2024-08-31-P1S.jpg

Cropped to show detail
M27-2024-08-31-P1C1S.jpg
Date: 8/31/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 63x300 (5hr, 15min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator

 
3rd telescope night in a row. Having this line up with a new moon and a 3 day weekend is crazy.

I went for a faint lesser known nebula since the sky was exceptionally clear.

NGC6820/NGC6823/Sh 2-86 - Star Cluster, Emission and Reflection nebula in Vulpecula
NGC6823-2024-09-01-P1S.jpg

Cropped to show detail
NGC6823-2024-09-01-P1C1S.jpg
Date: 9/1/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 59x300sec (4hr 55min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator
 
foolsgold said:
Spectroscopy of stars can tell us their chemical make-up and temperature.
Last night (09/01/2024) I captured Vega and here is it's spectrum. The device used to capture the spectra only costs $210 can be found here - https://rspec-astro.com/
It can even be mounted on a DSLR.View attachment 13711
Click to expand...
Very nice work. One of these days I'll have to get that device and give spectroscopy a try. Seems a little more in reach than when I was researching it 20+ years ago.
 
Last night was my 4th telescope night in a row. It has been a very long time since I have had a stretch like that.

East Veil Nebula (NGC6992) - Supernova Remnant in Cygnus
NGC6992-2024-09-02-P1S.jpg

Crop to show detail
NGC6992-2024-09-02-P1C1S.jpg
Date: 9/2/2024
Camera: Canon Rebel T8i (modified)
Telescope: 92mm f/5.5 triplet (Astrotech AT92) with focal reducer
Exposure: 47x300sec (3hr 55min total) at ISO 400
Acquired using BackyardEOS, stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using PixInsight, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXterminator, StarXTerminator
 
Just beautiful material. You guys keep delivering. Many thanks!
 
Speaking of the moon, there is going to be a partial lunar eclipse tomorrow night.

Looks like weather might cooperate here and not only that, there is predicted to be a Tiangong (Chinese space station) lunar transit from my location about 10 minutes after the end of penumbral eclipse so I'll probably try and catch that if I can stay awake for it.

Details of the lunar eclipse here:
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2024-september-18
 
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