Sky watching

[Flying Crane]

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Sky over Maui, I take it?

 

[Flying Crane]

A few new pictures from yesterday and last night.

The image of the sun, if you blow it up on your screen and look carefully at the lower right corner near the edge, you can just see a very small sunspot. I initially thought there were none, but then spotted that one and was able to capture it in the photo. I was able to figure out how to get the shot without the iphone camera being overwhelmed by the brightness, like it was in previous sun photos.

Others are more clarity with Orion’s nebula, some moon shots. The green moon was caused by a light pollution filter that I was trying out. Mars looks pink because of a filter I was trying out l, supposed to enhance mars viewing. I’m on the fence about it.

 

[Flying Crane]

New pictures of the sun this morning while still low in the sky. We had some light clouds in the sky drifting in front of the sun. You can see them quite clearly, I think its pretty cool.

 

[Flying Crane]

Photos of the recent lunar eclipse, and the sun with a very clear sunspot in the upper right corner.

 

[Flying Crane]

Recent photos of Jupiter, moons are clearly visible, as well as cloud bands, and Saturn with a couple moons.

 

[_Simon_]

Unbelievable photos... but I believe them!

 

[Dirty Dog]

Those are very cool. I've occasionally thought it would be interesting to invest in a decent telescope, but it's never gone beyond the thought.

 

[Flying Crane]

Those are very cool. I've occasionally thought it would be interesting to invest in a decent telescope, but it's never gone beyond the thought.

If you are seriously entertaining the idea, there are several suppliers who can guide you in choosing an appropriate instrument. I got mine from Orion in California, their website is telescope.com and I know they would be happy to talk to you about options.

A quality telescope does not need to be huge, and does not need to be outrageously expensive. With a diameter of 3-4 inches and magnification of 60-100x, you can see a lot, including the rings on Saturn and Jupiter’s moons and the craters on our moon.

the one thing I will say is that you need to commit to purchasing a certain minimum baseline of quality, or else your experience will be very frustrating. Do not buy one of the National Geographic telescopes that you find in a toy store for example. That is money thrown away. If you are able to spend $250-500, you can get a quality beginner level instrument that will give you good viewing.

Every instrument is a trade-of in features. A smaller instrument is highly transportable and you can easily take it wherever you want, to find dark skies away from the city. A larger telescope is less portable, but collects more light and will give you brighter images and the ability to use higher magnification. Simple mountings like a Dobsonian can make it more affordable to buy a larger instrument, but are not capable of supporting sophisticated photography that requires long exposures and the ability to track the movement of the sky. (My telescope is a Dobsonian mounted 14 inch Newtonian reflector, and all my photographs are done by holding my iPhone camera up to the eyepiece, so you can still get some surprisingly good images). Equatorial mounts with sky-tracking capabilities that support sophisticated photography can be very expensive.

Then there are refractors, reflectors, and hybrid Cassegrain designs, which all have pros and cons. So talk with a supplier to get some advice in making a good choice. But it is a fun thing to have.

One of my favorite things to use is a night-vision scope. It picks up the faint light of the stars that you cannot see with the naked eye, and suddenly you can see how full the sky really is. Really jaw-dropping. That can be fascinating, just scanning the Night sky with a night-vision scope. Ive spotted nebulae and galaxies with it, even though it has no magnification. It just picks up that faint light, and those things look like a faint, fuzzy cottonball.

fun stuff.

 

[Flying Crane]

A few recent shots of the night sky. I figured out that my iPhone has some editing tools that can help bring out the details a bit. The crescent is Venus, which goes through phases like the moon. A couple shots of Jupiter and Saturn, some deep sky star fields, the Orion Nebula both unedited and edited. The Andromeda galaxy which is a spiral like the Milky Way, but it just looks like a fuzzy patch and you cannot see the spiral details in the picture.

 

[Flying Crane]

Venus last night, in a waning crescent phase.

 

[Flying Crane]

Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn tonight.

 

[Flying Crane]

Some recent images. The moon in the daytime sky, the crescent of Venus in the brightening morning sky, the Orion Nebula.

 

[Flying Crane]

A few recent shots. The moon, the Andromeda galaxy, a nice shot of the Orion Nebula with the surrounding star field, and a nice shot of the Orion Nebula with the four stars of the trapezium in the middle of it nice and sharp.

 

[Flying Crane]

The results of last night’s viewing. The faint smudge above and to the right of center is the Crab Nebula off the tip of one of Taurus’ horns. It was very difficult to find in my light polluted sky. The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova seen about a thousand years ago, I think.

And a couple shots of the moon.

 

[Gyakuto]

What wonderful photos of the Moon!

 

[Flying Crane]

Results of tonight’s viewing, spiral galaxy M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and it’s neighbor to the right, NGC 5195, an irregular galaxy. These are located in the sky near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper, and are 31 million light years distant. The first photo has been edited to bring out the features a bit, and he second photo is unedited.

 

[Flying Crane]

These photos were from a short while ago, M106, a spiral galaxy near the Big Dipper in the sky, and about 22.8 million light years distant.

 

[Flying Crane]

These are also from a short time ago, M81 is a spiral galaxy to the lower left, and M82 is an irregular galaxy to the upper right. Then photos of each individually. They are also near the Big Dipper, and are about 12 million light years distant.

 

[Gyakuto]

Truly astonishing!

I wonder what martial arts are like on other planets? Lot’s of tentacles to deal with, no doubt…

 

[Buka]