To be perfectly fair, every bit of astrophotography is looking back into time. Even the moon is over one light second away, the sun 8-ish light minutes. On average light (and radio) takes about 43 minutes to get from the Earth to Jupiter. On average radio signals travelling at the speed of light from Earth …
Myth: You cannot image from inside cities because the light pollution will make things impossible. TL;DR: Modern software and filter technology is game-changing for imaging in the city, even for broadband targets! Long form: Let’s take a bit of a deep dive into this. For many, many years it has been accepted truth that you …
Read more “Mythbusting: Broadband imaging from INSIDE city limits”
Ok, as galaxies go, Andromeda is right next door at only 2.5 million light years. Light that reached my 61mm telescope earlier this year left shortly after the earliest humans learned how to use fire. In playing with some new software that uses AI and machine learning to reduce deviation due to the atmosphere I …
I failed to post this when I imaged Rosette again back in January. This very, very wide field exposure from my very bright Bortle 9 back yard in Allen, Texas. To put it in scale, the full moon will fit inside the white-ish part of the nebula at the center of the image. Hydrogen gas …
The Great Orion Nebula is one of the first targets many astrophotographers image. I’m no different. Its also one that many revisit as they learn more. Again, I’m no different. This is my latest attempt at ending the insanity bred by this highly dynamic portion of the sky. From faint dust to naked-eye visible gas …
Winter time brings some big emission nebulae to the night sky in North America. A recent favorite of mine is the Heart Nebula, also known as IC1805 or Sharpless 2-190. This nebula is absolutely massive. If you could see it with the naked eye, it would be about 9 times bigger than the full moon. …
A couple of things I finally imaged from the bright, bright backyard in Allen, Texas. Veil Nebula
The North American Nebula (NGC 7000) is a heavily hydrogen rich emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, near the tail of the swan shaped constellation in the northern sky. It’s fairly bright with an apparent magnitude of 4 but it does span a huge amount of space, about 2 degrees wide. It covers an area …
The new moon ahead of the 4th of July is a great time to start imaging Messier 16, known as the Eagle Nebula. A portion of this nebula was made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope‘s image of the Pillars of Creation which they imaged in spectra associated with Hydrogen, Sulphur and Oxygen. The “Hubble” …
