Spacefarer's Guide to Getting off this Planet

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Since I dragged my butt and my scope out to a dark sky location I also got the chance to photograph other deep sky objects like these two photos of the Andromeda galaxy which is roughly 2.5 million light years away from earth and on a colisión course with our own milky way galaxy. But no need to worry, the colision will happen in approximately 4.5 billion years from now and even if the earth hasn’t yet been swallowed by the dying expanding sun, we wouldn’t notice much of an effect as the distance between the stars in each galaxy are so far apart. But I bet the sky views would be amazing!

These two photos I actually did not use my telescopes but my camera with a 100-400 mm lens mounted on my telescope’s tripod which tracks the sky. The exposures where around 2.5 minutes long at iso4000.

Ps I added a third photo taken the same night of Saturn with my telescope. :)
 

Attachments

  • C7FF1ACA-1BFB-4040-B8BA-E61F226329A6.jpg
    C7FF1ACA-1BFB-4040-B8BA-E61F226329A6.jpg
    98.3 KB · Views: 6
  • 93B0D0E9-2A5A-497A-AFF3-CE192E9B1805.jpg
    93B0D0E9-2A5A-497A-AFF3-CE192E9B1805.jpg
    101.6 KB · Views: 7
  • 9CD5E608-5F29-4E0A-BFDB-4B7B56A7A7D9.jpeg
    9CD5E608-5F29-4E0A-BFDB-4B7B56A7A7D9.jpeg
    10.1 KB · Views: 5
Since I dragged my butt and my scope out to a dark sky location I also got the chance to photograph other deep sky objects like these two photos of the Andromeda galaxy which is roughly 2.5 million light years away from earth and on a colisión course with our own milky way galaxy. But no need to worry, the colision will happen in approximately 4.5 billion years from now and even if the earth hasn’t yet been swallowed by the dying expanding sun, we wouldn’t notice much of an effect as the distance between the stars in each galaxy are so far apart. But I bet the sky views would be amazing!



These two photos I actually did not use my telescopes but my camera with a 100-400 mm lens mounted on my telescope’s tripod which tracks the sky. The exposures where around 2.5 minutes long at iso4000.



Ps I added a third photo taken the same night of Saturn with my telescope. :)



Looks like you got yourself a wee transiter there. Better start capturing your beautiful astrophotography fast, because you’ll be seeing a lot more of this in the future!!
 
Oh woah!!!
Look at Andromeda! :heart: Beautiful!!!

And Saturn. So cool!
My cuz saw Saturn at about 50% smaller than your image like about 40 years ago. (envy, yes. :lol:)

Mars ice caps, next? Jupiter - Red spot? :D
(I know - has be right timing as to compatible appearing in x part of the sky ) :wink:

Thanks for these! :applaud:
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for the amazing comments!!

Lucky, Thank you very much!! indeed, you wouldn’t believe how many photos I took with those pesky things streaking across my photos!! Even the comet one I show you guys has a very faint one! I hate to have to photoshop them out as it is a bit of a pain!

Cobl, thanks so much for the great comments! Yes it is a very awesome and rewarding hobby! If you ever have any questions if you are one day thinking of getting into it, just feel free to ask and I can try and help :)

Dazzle, thank you very much! Yes I actually got the Great Red Spot on a jupiter shot that night! Still not happy with the end result after editing so I will attempt to edit again this weekend! I’ll add a crappy iPhone pic of my computer screen for you guys to see! I’ll show you a better pic when I have it all done and processed. Mars’ icecap was looking great too and it’s getting closer to earth and higher up in the sky! It’s going to be a great Mars season! Sadly I regret not taking a pic on Saturday of it! I guess I was too busy with so many objects to photograph hahaha. However I’ll add here a very old
Mars shot I took like 14 years ago!
 
The first photo of Jupiter is just a screen shot of one I am processing (sorry for the bad quality!) I’ll post a better one next weekend if I can get it processed nicely. The Great Red Spot was in a perfect position!

The second and third photos of Mars and Saturn are really old pictures I took many years ago!

Ps: the Saturn and mars one was taken with my 10” Schmidt cassegrain scope at my parents home back in Ontario. I miss and love that scope but just too big for my condo here in bc :( the Saturn and Jupiter pics from now were taken with a 6” mak cassegrain scope I have here.
 

Attachments

  • 3FD40844-B735-4BB8-A756-37201EAD7787.jpg
    3FD40844-B735-4BB8-A756-37201EAD7787.jpg
    117 KB · Views: 7
  • A1C897E0-082C-48E6-A5A1-52FE993D90E4.jpeg
    A1C897E0-082C-48E6-A5A1-52FE993D90E4.jpeg
    7.2 KB · Views: 7
  • 4ED23B87-6BA4-4347-9C2E-16CD2E30A9D0.jpeg
    4ED23B87-6BA4-4347-9C2E-16CD2E30A9D0.jpeg
    13.5 KB · Views: 5
Last edited:
Wonderful! I look forward to your next round.

Somewhen in this Comet Neowise time I vaguely mused on a telescope buy (I've done this on rare occasions for decades). However with no ability to drive leaving NYC for a suitable darker sky etc it's not so feasible. Plus there's other things I need to get first (a new tablet, a new TV).

The NYC Amateur Astronomy Club offers free viewings once a month (pre cv19). I've gone a few times.
 
Have you caught the ISS? Depending on it's orbit?


I’ve seen the ISS a handful of times. Fun one to catch - just need to know when it’s out there. Much like a planet, you can sort of tell that it’s a proper object and not just a moving point due to the relative size and speed. Not very likely for a picture like that of dabiggestu2fan’s to be the ISS though - could be anything.

I’ve got a whole video of the ISS transiting during my time living in Italy. I believe the term “space boner” was captured by one of my friends in the video.
 
I believe the term “space boner” was captured by one of my friends in the video.

i don't know that just because you were looking up at the stars at the same time that it really counts as a "space boner" but to each their own, i won't kinkshame.
 
Last edited:
Perseverance (and Ingenuity) is/are on it's way to Mars!
:applaud: :hyper: :applaud:

Signal acquisition occurred from the separated launch veichal after it cleared Earth's shadow about 30 mins ago.

Now about 7 month journey to Mars - landing date:
February 18, 2021! :heart:
 
Last edited:
Hey, dab

Thought you'd get a chuckle out of this. Nothing as fancy as Mars, Saturn or further out there...

So some years ago I got a Cannon Power Shot with a optical ?12x zoom (and a 40x digital zoom). It dawned on me at some point to take a photo of the full moon.

I thought I would swoon when I was able to get genuine Moon photos - where you could see the cast shadows inside a crater from it craggy edges, and the cast shadows from same but opposite side craggy edges on to the outside landscape of the craters. Craters intersecting with other craters and the darker plains.
Somewhat sharp, not completely but still it's The Moon, and didn't even need to have a telescope to actually see something that represented 'Space'.
 
Hi Dazzle and all! Here is my new toy! Now if only I could get the weather and smoke to cooperate and I can get a decent day to
Use it :)

Oops I guess it will not let me post a video of my new scope I’ll try uploading it on YouTube later and send you the link. Here is a picture of it though! Hopefully this works! :)
 

Attachments

  • 0AB758A4-459B-4446-AC39-6D03FF76D225.jpg
    0AB758A4-459B-4446-AC39-6D03FF76D225.jpg
    93.5 KB · Views: 17
Hey, dab

Thought you'd get a chuckle out of this. Nothing as fancy as Mars, Saturn or further out there...

So some years ago I got a Cannon Power Shot with a optical ?12x zoom (and a 40x digital zoom). It dawned on me at some point to take a photo of the full moon.

I thought I would swoon when I was able to get genuine Moon photos - where you could see the cast shadows inside a crater from it craggy edges, and the cast shadows from same but opposite side craggy edges on to the outside landscape of the craters. Craters intersecting with other craters and the darker plains.
Somewhat sharp, not completely but still it's The Moon, and didn't even need to have a telescope to actually see something that represented 'Space'.

That is awesome! 12x optical zoom is awesome (or was back in the day, not sure how much zoom the new camera have now a days!) I remember also getting a PowerShot with only 4x zoom and was amazed hahaha. Yes between the 12x and 40 digital you must have seen some pretty awesome views of the moonscape! Isn’t it awesome looking at the moon? When I look through the telescope, I imagine myself being there hiking through those mountains and craters hahaha
 
Yes, sooo cool to have the 12x opt and 40x Digi !
And back in the day the 4x! :D

As for your new toy - swoon, looks real capable!
*Many years ahead of more star gazing, and astrophotography!*

Also keep your eyes out for Aurora Borealis warnings now that the Sun is entering the active cycle phase!

www.gi.alaska.edu

Great Aurora forcasting site - very cool visual maps! The do both Borealis and Australius. :D

After looking back to Sept 28, 29 North America Map when it was High Activity = #6 looks like the viewing edge gets close to
Vancouver. A #7 would really get viewing going. Plenty of opportunities in the future. :up:
 
Last edited:
182c.gif
 
Back
Top Bottom