Astronomy

[LKB]

I had the opportunity last night to introduce a colleague to my practical version of Astronomy 101. Now he should be able to pick out the brighter planets, along with Antares, Vega and Polaris.

Hopefully he'll take the ball downfield from here on out...

[Karl Henning]

I had the opportunity last night to introduce a colleague to my practical version of Astronomy 101. Now he should be able to pick out the brighter planets, along with Antares, Vega and Polaris.

Hopefully he'll take the ball downfield from here on out...

Fun!

[vandermolen]

I had the opportunity last night to introduce a colleague to my practical version of Astronomy 101. Now he should be able to pick out the brighter planets, along with Antares, Vega and Polaris.

Hopefully he'll take the ball downfield from here on out...

Excellent - I've seen the Rings of Saturn and the Moons of Jupiter through my telescope.

[relm1]

Excellent - I've seen the Rings of Saturn and the Moons of Jupiter through my telescope.

Nice!  What kind of telescope do you have?  I just took pictures of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune - will post some soon.

[LKB]

Nice!  What kind of telescope do you have?  I just took pictures of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune - will post some soon.

I look forward with interest. 

[vandermolen]

Nice!  What kind of telescope do you have?  I just took pictures of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune - will post some soon.

I used to have a proper once since about aged 14 but now I have a child's one shaped like a space rocket. One of my old colleagues, a serious astronomer, recommended it. I'll post a photo but now I'm hopefully off to a Max Richter concert in London.

[relm1]

I took these pictures on Septer 26, 2022.  The closest point Jupiter will be until 2081!  That same night I took pictures of Mars and Neptune (also in opposition). 

[LKB]

I took these pictures on Septer 26, 2022.  The closest point Jupiter will be until 2081!  That same night I took pictures of Mars and Neptune (also in opposition).

Well done! Looks like Jupiter's GRS was on the far side, but the belts show up nicely. 

I know from experience how difficult imaging Uranus and Neptune can be, my last decent view was in 1971 iirc.

Relm1, do you also enjoy deepsky targets? Those have been my preference since 1980 or so.

[vandermolen]

I took these pictures on Septer 26, 2022.  The closest point Jupiter will be until 2081!  That same night I took pictures of Mars and Neptune (also in opposition).

That's amazing! How did you take that photo and what sort of telescope do you have Karim?
Here's mine 

[relm1]

Well done! Looks like Jupiter's GRS was on the far side, but the belts show up nicely. 

I know from experience how difficult imaging Uranus and Neptune can be, my last decent view was in 1971 iirc.

Relm1, do you also enjoy deepsky targets? Those have been my preference since 1980 or so.

I might have caught the red spot - there is a darker notch in the upper cloud belt so not sure what that is.  Yes, I've taken loads of deep sky objects including nebula, star clusters, and galaxies billions of light years away.  There is just no good way to post here because 500k max file size. 

[relm1]

That's amazing! How did you take that photo and what sort of telescope do you have Karim?
Here's mine 

That's a great little scope.  When I was a kid, I had a huge 10" reflector dobsonion that I loved but now have a Stellina astrophotography set up.  It's only meant for photography, there is no eye piece which is fine for me because deep sky objects really don't work visually, they need to be captured photographically for the colors and details to show up. 

[krummholz]

I took these pictures on Septer 26, 2022.  The closest point Jupiter will be until 2081!  That same night I took pictures of Mars and Neptune (also in opposition).

Very nice pictures, especially of Neptune which I've never actually seen through a telescope. The blue color is quite striking. Neptune is 8th magnitude and impossible to see with the naked eye, and there are currently no bright stars nearby... so I have to ask, did you find it visually, or is your telescope a go-to?

[krummholz]

Has anyone been here?

https://stellafane.org/

Stellafane holds an annual convention timed every year to coincide with a new moon (and therefore dark skies) in late July or early August. Pretty much the mecca for amateur astronomers. I've been there three times - this summer I was there for the talks and to try to establish some connections for my work trying to study exoplanet transits (new project, just starting). I don't have access to a telescope that I could take there, but on Saturday on the hill a kindly amateur astronomer shared his view of many deep-sky objects through his 10-inch Dobsonian, including many open clusters, a couple of globulars (including M13) and a galaxy or two (including, of course, the famous M31 in Andromeda). Saturn was close to opposition as well, so we had a great view of the rings. I was impressed as his scope was not a go-to, so he was limited to finding objects by visual reference. Maybe not as impressive a feat as I thought from Breezy Hill though - it claims to be a designated "Dark Sky site", though I couldn't find it on the IDA map - it's plenty dark there at new moon!

[relm1]

Very nice pictures, especially of Neptune which I've never actually seen through a telescope. The blue color is quite striking. Neptune is 8th magnitude and impossible to see with the naked eye, and there are currently no bright stars nearby... so I have to ask, did you find it visually, or is your telescope a go-to?

I have a "smart" scope - it goes to coordinates you tell it.  Interestingly, comet 2017 (PanSTARRS), moved extremely fast and the coordinates changed in just a few minutes so you have to find a planetarium software (I use Stellarium) for the exact time and location you'll observe it to get the coordinates.  I've photographed some very distant and dim objects down to magnitude 15-17 where I thought I got the coordinates wrong because nothing was visible other than a few random stars only to find in post processing that the faint object was in fact present, just needed to be post processed to reveal it.  I grew up with the old Polaris alignment with equatorial mounts and would never go back to that now that smart scopes are a thing and do a great job at doing that part.

[vandermolen]

That's a great little scope.  When I was a kid, I had a huge 10" reflector dobsonion that I loved but now have a Stellina astrophotography set up.  It's only meant for photography, there is no eye piece which is fine for me because deep sky objects really don't work visually, they need to be captured photographically for the colors and details to show up.

Probably a daft question but how do you know where to point the scope if there is no eye piece? Also is the photo of Jupiter taken over an extended time period.

[LKB]

Probably a daft question but how do you know where to point the scope if there is no eye piece? Also is the photo of Jupiter taken over an extended time period.

Not asked of me, but I'll answer the second part for relm1, hopefully with his pardon.

Jupiter is one of the brightest planets. Indeed, it's actually the brightest celestial object in the northern hemisphere atm save the Moon, and doesn't need a lengthy exposure.

If you're interested in a rather special Jovian experience, last night NASA was livestreaming views of Jupiter from the JWST. I tuned in for about 30 minutes, and it was beyond spectacular.

[vandermolen]

Not asked of me, but I'll answer the second part for relm1, hopefully with his pardon.

Jupiter is one of the brightest planets. Indeed, it's actually the brightest celestial object in the northern hemisphere atm save the Moon, and doesn't need a lengthy exposure.

If you're interested in a rather special Jovian experience, last night NASA was livestreaming views of Jupiter from the JWST. I tuned in for about 30 minutes, and it was beyond spectacular.

Thanks so much!

[relm1]

Probably a daft question but how do you know where to point the scope if there is no eye piece? Also is the photo of Jupiter taken over an extended time period.

Coordinates.  We use right ascension and declination to indicate very precise coordinates in the sky.  With that, it is very precise.  These are generally set for deep sky objects, change every day for planets, and change every minute for comets and asteroids.  Yes, jupiter was maybe 5 or 10 minutes of images.  The reason we do that is to address atmospheric issues.  Every frame taken has a flaw but if it's atmospheric distortion, it will be in a different place on the next frame.  Software is good enough now that it can average the flaws to produce a layered picture better than any single frame. That translates to hundreds if not thousands of individual picture frames.  With deep sky objects, yes we'll use hours and sometimes days of pictures.  When I captured the rather faint M-101 (Pinwheel galaxy) was several nights of photography.  About 1,000 individual pictures at 20 seconds duration each layered (stacked) together.  Then processed.  This is generally how all astrophotography is done - I was taught this method by a professional astronomer friend who works at a research observatory albeit with them, they're talking about multi-million dollar equipment that has fare superior gear than I have access to but it's the same general approach.  The Hubble and James Webb space telescope pictures are all layered and stacked then processed.  We know this because NASA allows downloading of all the raw images before they are processed so you can see what was captured. 

[relm1]

Not asked of me, but I'll answer the second part for relm1, hopefully with his pardon.

Jupiter is one of the brightest planets. Indeed, it's actually the brightest celestial object in the northern hemisphere atm save the Moon, and doesn't need a lengthy exposure.

If you're interested in a rather special Jovian experience, last night NASA was livestreaming views of Jupiter from the JWST. I tuned in for about 30 minutes, and it was beyond spectacular.

No mind at all from another space enthusiast.   

[krummholz]

I have a "smart" scope - it goes to coordinates you tell it.  Interestingly, comet 2017 (PanSTARRS), moved extremely fast and the coordinates changed in just a few minutes so you have to find a planetarium software (I use Stellarium) for the exact time and location you'll observe it to get the coordinates.  I've photographed some very distant and dim objects down to magnitude 15-17 where I thought I got the coordinates wrong because nothing was visible other than a few random stars only to find in post processing that the faint object was in fact present, just needed to be post processed to reveal it.  I grew up with the old Polaris alignment with equatorial mounts and would never go back to that now that smart scopes are a thing and do a great job at doing that part.

Yes, go-to scopes are the same thing, I think, though you don't need to enter the coordinates by hand (in most cases) because they have a database and built-in ephemeris so that with a time and location, they can find just about any permanent object in the database - deep sky objects, planets, in some cases some asteroids. (Comets, of course, are a different matter.) When I lived in Michigan, I used to teach astronomy and held viewing sessions on the roof of a building in the heart of Detroit. Talk about light pollution! The department had a 6-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain, and without its go-to feature it would have been a waste of time. But I was able to show the students a number of deep-sky objects that would be impossible to find with the naked eye in that environment.

Having to enter RA and DEC by hand sounds a bit cumbersome, but yeah, much better than setting circles.