Stuff in the Sky

Ok. Might have asked it before, but would like recommendations for a sky gazing starter kit. I want to support my 8 yro's interests.

Would like to keep it around $1300 or less. At that price point, would the telescope interface with either a laptop or tablet for larger veiwing, etc?
 
wanderingrichard said:
Ok. Might have asked it before, but would like recommendations for a sky gazing starter kit. I want to support my 8 yro's interests.

Would like to keep it around $1300 or less. At that price point, would the telescope interface with either a laptop or tablet for larger veiwing, etc?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you mostly for direct viewing, not photography, either way, since I see you are in Federal Way, check out Cloud Break Optics - can get a pretty good viewing setup at that budget - but be aware, much like fly fishing, things can escalate and get out of hand quite rapidly:)

cloudbreakoptics.com

Cloud Break Optics

Located in Seattle Washington, Cloud Break Optics is your telescope retail store. Whether an astronomy beginner or experienced astrophotographer, we have it all
cloudbreakoptics.com cloudbreakoptics.com

Their website will be very helpful and if you can make it into their shop, even better - Heed the advice on mounts, can quickly become a limit factor

Cheers
 
Canuck from Kansas said:
Sounds like you mostly for direct viewing, not photography, either way, since I see you are in Federal Way, check out Cloud Break Optics - can get a pretty good viewing setup at that budget - but be aware, much like fly fishing, things can escalate and get out of hand quite rapidly:)

cloudbreakoptics.com

Cloud Break Optics

Located in Seattle Washington, Cloud Break Optics is your telescope retail store. Whether an astronomy beginner or experienced astrophotographer, we have it all
cloudbreakoptics.com cloudbreakoptics.com

Their website will be very helpful and if you can make it into their shop, even better - Heed the advice on mounts, can quickly become a limit factor

Cheers
Click to expand...
Thanks for that link. Wow, they have a lot going on there.
Direct viewing to get started. Photography later , though she has her own, kids oriented, DSLR, now. Trying to avoid "mission creep" if I can.
 
If you're up early Saturday or Sunday morning (before sunrise) and have clear skies and a low horizon to the east-south-east, check out the Venus and Jupiter in conjunction, almost kissing - we're maybe going to have a clear window Sunday AM.

Screen Shot 2022-04-29 at 1.42.38 PM.png

earthsky.org

| EarthSky

earthsky.org earthsky.org

cheers
 
Well, as we wrap up Galaxy season, I had 2 relatively clear and moonless nights. Took the opportunity to visit a new galaxy (Sunflower) that I hadn't visited before, and a revisit to the Whirlpool Galaxy, which I hadn't been to with the new rig.

The Sunflower Galaxy (M 63, NGC 5055), is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain, Charles Messier's friend, on June 14, 1779. On the same day, Messier included it as the 63rd object in his catalog. Lord Rosse listed M 63 as one of the fourteen "spiral nebulae" known up to 1850. The distance to M 63 is about 37 million light years, and it has a diameter of some 90,000 light years. Although it appears 6° south of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51), it apparently forms a physical group with that galaxy and several others, known as the M 51 Group.

The Sunflower Galaxy (20 x 240 second light exposures, 20 darks):

Sunflower Galaxy-rotated-cropped-vibrance copy.jpg

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51, NGC 5194), which we have visited previously with the older setup ( #22 ), is also in the constellation Canes Venatici. The Whirlpool's spiral pattern was not seen until 1845, when Lord Rosse discerned it in his 6-foot reflector at Parsonstown, Ireland. Lord Rosse made a very accurate painting of M 51; hence M 51 is sometimes referred to as Rosse's Galaxy or Lord Rosse's "Question Mark". Halton Arp included M 51 as No. 85 in his Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies and described it as a "Spiral with Large High-Surface-Brightness Companion".

The Whirlpool Galaxy (30 x 240 second light exposures, 30 darks):

Whirlpool - PS-cropped-Vibrance copy.jpg

Information from SkySafari 6 Pro.

Now we start into the Milky Way season. Hoping for clear skies.

Cheers
 
Canuck from Kansas said:
Sounds like you mostly for direct viewing, not photography, either way, since I see you are in Federal Way, check out Cloud Break Optics - can get a pretty good viewing setup at that budget - but be aware, much like fly fishing, things can escalate and get out of hand quite rapidly:)

cloudbreakoptics.com

Cloud Break Optics

Located in Seattle Washington, Cloud Break Optics is your telescope retail store. Whether an astronomy beginner or experienced astrophotographer, we have it all
cloudbreakoptics.com cloudbreakoptics.com

Their website will be very helpful and if you can make it into their shop, even better - Heed the advice on mounts, can quickly become a limit factor

Cheers
Click to expand...
If I didn't say it before, thank you for the recommendations.

BTW, any luck with viewing the current meteor showers? Been a bit socked in here lately
 
I'm camped in a remote part of the state at a higher altitude for a few days. Very little light around where I am.

I stepped outside the camper the other night to take a piss and was blown away by the night sky. Stars, milky way, the clarity was absolutely perfect.

I thought about grabbing a camera but in the moment it seemed like a lot a work as I haven't shot much in the dark.

Maybe I should start experimenting as that could've turned into something cool.
 
wanderingrichard said:
If I didn't say it before, thank you for the recommendations.

BTW, any luck with viewing the current meteor showers? Been a bit socked in here lately
Click to expand...

Nope, we were socked in that night, haven't heard if it turned out a bust or was good. I didn't see any the nights I was out. Suspect if it had been "stellar", we would have heard.

Have you made any decision soon a setup for your daughter?

Cheers
 
Last edited:
swimmy said:
I'm camped in a remote part of the state at a higher altitude for a few days. Very little light around where I am.

I stepped outside the camper the other night to take a piss and was blown away by the night sky. Stars, milky way, the clarity was absolutely perfect.

I thought about grabbing a camera but in the moment it seemed like a lot a work as I haven't shot much in the dark.

Maybe I should start experimenting as that could've turned into something cool.
Click to expand...

You should get out! Do you have a good tripod? With your setup you could get some really nice shots, both wide angle and deep sky with your telephoto, though without tracking with your telephoto (500 mm) you would be limited to about 2 second exposures - wide angle (16 to 50 mm) you could go 15 to 25 seconds or so without star trailing; you can get great Milky Way shots at that, far beyond what you saw with the naked eye.

cheers
 
Last edited:
Canuck from Kansas said:
You should get out! Do you have a good tripod? With your setup you could get some really nice shots, both wide angle and deep sky with your telephoto, though without tracking with your telephoto (500 mm) you would be limited to about 2 second exposures - wide angle (16 to 50 mm) you could go 15 to 25 seconds or so without star trailing; you can get great Milky Way shots at that, far beyond what you saw with the naked eye.

cheers
Click to expand...

I do have a tripod, a wide angle, and a few zoom lenses. Guess I'm confused about metering and which settings to use.

Sounds like shutter speed can vary so just mess around with it.

What about aperture?
 
swimmy said:
I do have a tripod, a wide angle, and a few zoom lenses. Guess I'm confused about metering and which settings to use.

Sounds like shutter speed can vary so just mess around with it.

What about aperture?
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, aperture wide open. My usual starting point is a 25 second exposure at f/2.8, with ISO at 3200. This varies depending upon how dark the sky is. If your lenses are not as fast you can compensate with higher ISO, or longer exposures. Beware that beyond 30 seconds or so the stars will start to look oblong. This varies with the focal length of your lens though. Cranking the ISO introduces noise, so there's always a trade-off.

Finding focus can also be a challenge as many lenses focus past infinity. This is where knowing your gear and messing around during the day (when you can see shit) is important. I am not yet at the point where I can just set up and go with confidence - a lot or trial and error, mostly error.

Lots of good articles and youtube videos out there.
 
swimmy said:
I do have a tripod, a wide angle, and a few zoom lenses. Guess I'm confused about metering and which settings to use.

Sounds like shutter speed can vary so just mess around with it.

What about aperture?
Click to expand...
creekx said:
View attachment 16612
Not a great image (too dark, a little out of focus) but had fun shooting it. Painted light on the Jeep with a flashlight. Had to turn the lights in the tent to their lowest level or they overpowered the image.
Click to expand...

Yup, What @creekx said, though I usually start with the lowest ISO I can get away with, in the complete dark with @ 20 second exposures, usually 1600. Be sure not to have on autofocus, everything should be manual.

As mentioned, focusing can be a challenge if you have a foreground, if just the sky, focus to the point where stars are the smallest they can be. If you do have a foreground, you may need to step down a few stops, depending on how close your foreground is, this will oof course mean you need a longer exposure - Nikon's are pretty good for long exposure photos.

Ton of information on line, use the giggle machine and search for photographing the night sky.

Cheers
 
As we transition out of Galaxy Season and into the Milky Way season, I have been waiting for clear skies. Finally had a few hours last night, so set up to try and capture the Eagle nebula, a spectacular nebula in the great rift of the Milky Way, but alas, it is still relatively low on the horizon (about 25 degrees) and the Eagle Nebula was in the trees (how fitting). As a result, went to plan B, the Cresent Nebula.

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. You can see a multitude of Milky Way stars. It was formed by the stellar wind from a Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136 (HD 192163) at the center of the nebula, colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, moving in opposite directions (outward and inward). The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures. It is thought that WR 136 will probably undergo a supernova explosion sometime in the next million years. I'll likely miss that, but then, being "one with the universe", I may well be part of it.

The Crescent Nebula: 35 x 240 second exposures; 30 darks, OIII/H-alpha duo-narrowband filter. Red in the upper right and lower right is the Gamma Cygni nebula (SH 2-108), a large diffuse nebula:

Crescent Nebula-PS-Cropped-2-vibrance copy.jpg


Cheers
 
So, the other day I mentioned how the Eagle Nebula was in the trees when I went to go and visit. Well, last night I arose at 1:30 AM to set up, knowing that after transit at 2:14 AM, the Eagle should have emerged from the trees into some open southern sky. I set everything up, and at 02:14:33, trained the Zenithstar at the point in the sky where the Eagle should be (azimuth: 180° 02’ 56.9”; altitude: 32° 13' 29.8”). Sure enough, there she was in all her glory. I got about 1.5 hours of imaging.

The Eagle Nebula (M 16, sometimes referred to as the Star Queen nebula) is a giant cloud of interstellar gas and dust in the constellation Serpens Cauda. The Eagle Nebula was first discovered by Philippe Loys de Cheseaux in 1745, who apparently made no mention of it, so how we know he discovered it is a mystery to me. Charles Messier independently discovered the nebula in 1764 and described it as “enmeshed in a faint glow”. The Eagle is some 7000 light years away, in the Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy, the next arm inward from us.

Near the core of the Eagle Nebula are the so called “Pillars of Creation” (the shadowy clouds extending into the bright core). Hubble has produced magical images of the Pillars (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation). Sadly, in 2007, scientist using the Spitzer Telescope discovered evidence that the Pillars were destroyed by a supernova explosion about 6000 years ago; happily, that event has not yet reached us, so we still get to see them. The light showing their destruction and the new form of the nebula will not reach us for another thousand years, so once again, I will miss it.

The Eagle Nebula (M 16, Star Queen Nebula): 22 x 240 second light exposures; 20 darks, OIII/H-alpha duo-narrowband filter:

Eagle Nebula-PS-Rotat-Crop to 100% copy.jpg

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top