Topic: SPACE PHOTOS THIS WEEK: Great Nebula, Lacy Dunes, More

[sam]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/photogalleries/week-in-space-pictures-39/index.html?source=rss

oh and for a few I took the other week that I just got around to making colour... http://www.krioma.net/blog/2009/04/observing_at_wast_hills.php

[Simon]

Wow, those are spectacular, Sam.  The National Geographic ones aren't bad either. 

[Clive]

Nice photos Sam.     What size telescope and magnification did you use?  Presumably they are CCD images?       

[sam]

all CCD images, using the University telescope (http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/observatory/index.php, another webpage that I maintain, you will find a bunch of software I wrote on their too) with a focal reducer on it (so we get a rough 40arcmin field - its pretty wide for our undergraduate projects). Its the first time we have really used it like this and I'm intending to change the setup slightly and go deeper (the night sky pollution is the real limit). We only took 30s exposures to get those images! We can easily do 10minute shots with excellent tracking, but I'll probably do a bunch of images and stack them.

[Clive]

Stacking is the way to go.  We get a guy called Nik Hart to give talks on city centre astrophotography down to mag 22.  Hard to believe isn't it?  Since he lives in Newport and is a bit of an egomaniac I'm certain he would travel to Brum. 

[sam]

Stacking is the way to go.  We get a guy called Nik Hart to give talks on city centre astrophotography down to mag 22.  Hard to believe isn't it?  Since he lives in Newport and is a bit of an egomaniac I'm certain he would travel to Brum. 

a little mag 22 does sound like something isn't quite right there - just the Liverpool Telescope struggles to get much past that....(I used it recently to try and find some high-z radio galaxies, no detection... which is just what I wanted to see, now I need to use a 4-8m telescope!!!)... still though with a bit of patience you would be surprised what you can do

[Clive]

no detection... which is just what I wanted to see, now I need to use a 4-8m telescope

   What bad luck Sam.   

[mistybear]

Whirlpool Galaxy, where do they get these names from......     

........ yes, I know it looks like a whirlpool. 


Are you sure the last one is Saturn, looks like a UFO to me.  ':|

[Clive]

Saturn's rings are nearly edge on at the moment so it looks a bit unusual.   

[captainhaddock]

Very nice