visual art Planets, Astrophotography, and UV/IR Photography

[Phosphor 11,522]

Some craters near the Moon's terminator. It's been forever since I looked at the Moon thru one of my telescopes.

[Props Valroa 26,013]

Oh wow, that's absolutely amazing! I just love the amount of detail I am able to see on the moon!

[Phosphor 11,522]

Not a bad night at all, however, I think this will conclude imaging season for Jupiter and Saturn. These 2 are well past their oppositions for this year. Enjoy everypony!

[Phosphor 11,522]

Last night's humidity level was underwater. I kept the hair dryer close by as my optics were fogging up pretty bad. Aside from that, another good night. 

Mars polar ice cap and clouds reflect nicely in UV. Last item is an animation I made of Mars rotation.

[Phosphor 11,522]

Clouds cleared out last night. Thank you Rainbow Dash for that.

Atmospheric turbulence was quite low, which allowed me to exceed the optical limit of my Celestron C8. I'd say the dust on the red planet is completely settled. The animation I made of Mars rotation covers a period of 1 hour. I hope to do an even longer animation.

And just for fun, I have included some thermal infrared pics of clouds from earlier today. Imaged with a midwave infrared camera (2-5 microns).

[Dabmanz 2,128]

Awesome Saturn is the only planet to go anti clockwise around the sun right?

So rebel.

[Phosphor 11,522]

2 hours ago, Dabmanz said:

Awesome Saturn is the only planet to go anti clockwise around the sun right?

So rebel.

Thank you!

Saturn and the rest of the planets orbit in the same direction around the sun. However, Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction of their orbit, known as retrograde rotation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrograde_and_prograde_motion.

[Dabmanz 2,128]

1 hour ago, Phosphor270 said:

Thank you!

Saturn and the rest of the planets orbit in the same direction around the sun. However, Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction of their orbit, known as retrograde rotation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrograde_and_prograde_motion.

That makes sense retrograde huh? I guess it is a retro thing they have been doing since the 80's

[Phosphor 11,522]

Last night, I got my 1st image of Neptune for the 2018 apparition. The planet doesn't show much detail, since it's nearly 2.8 billion miles away from Earth. The disk and color are clearly visible. I'm hoping I can image more details with my larger Skywatcher 16 telescope. I've seen images of a storm on Neptune captured with a Celestron C14 on one of the astronomy forums, so it's possible.

Venus is now in its crescent phase. Cloud details in UV will likely be impossible to image from this point on, as the planet becomes a thin crescent in the coming weeks. This year's apparition is not favorable for northern latitudes, which means, I have to image the planet several hours before sunset. It's bright enough to be seen with the naked eye during the afternoon.

Saturn is still looking good. Mars is rapidly moving away from Earth, so it's apparent size and brightness will continue to diminish. 

Jupiter will soon disappear into the evening twilight sky as it goes around the Sun. See ya next year, Jupiter! 

[Phosphor 11,522]

I am going to add more photography stuff to this topic. In addition to astrophotography, I do also enjoy taking pictures of objects in UV and Infrared light. I find the comparisons to be pretty neat. Things don't always appear the same when viewed outside the visible spectrum.

The photos below show a Red Spider Lily in UV, Visible, and Near Infrared light. If there are any questions about the topic, go for it. I don't mind at all. Hope y'all enjoy.

 

[Phosphor 11,522]

Photographing light bulbs sounds incredibly mundane, but I'll make an exception for this light bulb. It's a mercury vapor lamp with quartz tubes, which allow UV-A, B and C to pass thru. UV-C light (aka shortwave UV) is lethal to microorganisms and can cause severe damage to eyes and skin.

The 1st two images are UV photographs. The violet glow around the tubes is possibly the interaction of UV-C light and oxygen, which creates Ozone gas.

The last two images are in the visible spectrum. Enjoy everypony!  

 

The obligatory: "Don't try this at home. I'm what you call a professional." 

[Phosphor 11,522]

M31, also known as The Andromeda Galaxy.

Unlike planetary imaging, the setup for long exposure astrophotography is a bit different. Tracking accuracy becomes much more crucial, in order to avoid egg-shaped stars. Lightweight, short, fast refractors really shine here as they lighten the load on the tracking mount. Enjoy everypony!

Exposure: 50 x 30s (total time of 25min); ISO 3200; f/5.5

Telescope: 90mm Achromat Refractor

[Shadow Beam 1,179]

I cannot put in words how much I appreciate your work. Both fascinating and humbling.

[Phosphor 11,522]

20 hours ago, Shadow Beam said:

I cannot put in words how much I appreciate your work. Both fascinating and humbling.

Thank you very much! 

More to come as long exposure astrophotography and ice giant planet season kicks in.

[Phosphor 11,522]

I imaged Uranus last night with the Celestron C8 telescope. I am looking forward to imaging the planet with the 16 inch telescope. 

Mars is steadily appearing smaller and dimmer. One thing that has recently stood out is the polar ice cap. It is shrinking rapidly!

Lastly, a long exposure of the Triangulum Galaxy. Same camera settings as the Andromeda image. Enjoy!

[Diamond Shimmer 7]

Wow great job. Keep them going.

[Phosphor 11,522]

Venus as a crescent... my favorite. In a bout a week, the planet will disappear into the evening twilight sky as it passes between the Earth and Sun. This is known as Inferior Conjunction. Luckily, this period is brief and the planet will appear in the morning sky around the 1st week of November or so. The crescent phase will then be on the opposite side of the planet.

I imaged the planet in broad daylight, which gives me an altitude advantage. I also imaged in the Near IR spectrum. This eliminates the problem of atmospheric dispersion and the sky becomes black; otherwise, the background would be bright blue. Shining at -4.5 magnitude, Venus is bright enough to be seen in the afternoon without optical aid. It's pretty neat! 

[Usager 431]

woah, this is awesome, thanks for sharing. i love planet and stars stuff

[Phosphor 11,522]

Hey everypony! I have some bad news .The shutter died on my modified DSLR camera. This means,no astrophotography or UV/IR photography for a little while. 

I plan to box up the camera and ship it out to a repair facility sometime next week. This won't affect planetary imaging since those are different cameras.

On to today's subject: 

I'm not a fan of spiders, but Argiope spiders are pretty cool looking! I figured it would be neat to see what the spider looked like in different light. It was mostly cloudy today, so my usual UV source (the Sun) was blocked. Infrared and visible light get thru just fine. I used a 365nm UV-A flashlight to illuminate the spider for the UV photograph. She didn't seem to mind at all.  Enjoy!

1st image: Near Infrared

2nd image: Visible

3rd Image: UV-A (365nm)

[Phosphor 11,522]

I was supposed to image Uranus last night, but I totally misjudged the Moon's position. 

The Moonlight made it impossible to find. I did manage to grab some video of Mars, so I didn't leave empty handed. Mars is a lot smaller than it was several months ago.

Telescope: Skywatcher 16

Camera: ZWO ASI178MM w/ Near IR filter

Focal Ratio: f/9

[Phosphor 11,522]

Found Uranus with no problem last night. I used my C8 instead of the Skywatcher 16, due to time constraints. I plan to try again Thursday night (need sleep, lol). I am looking for banding near the equatorial region, which is only visible in Near IR light and in large telescopes.

Enjoy everypony!

[Phosphor 11,522]

An update with good news! I got my camera back from the repair facility yesterday. I'm back in business! Just need to weather to clear up.  

I managed to score a Germanium telephoto lens for my thermal infrared camera. Germanium is used because it is transparent in the Midwave and Longwave Infrared regions. Glass is transparent in Near and Shortwave Infrared and becomes opaque beyond 2 microns. In the 1st picture, you can see how much larger it is compared to the factory lens on the left. The factory lens has a 20° field of view, vs 7° for the telephoto lens.

The rest are test images of a candle. The flames are tiny, as viewed with the eyes; but appear nearly a foot long in the thermal camera. I can definitely see an improvement in resolution with the 7° lens, but will do a side by side comparison later on.

Last image is with the camera switched to its "flame filter". It came with one installed in the filter wheel. I guess for studying flames. I'll have to do some reading on how to properly utilize it. 

[Phosphor 11,522]

Today was sunny, cool, and breezy. Great time to test my camera after being repaired. The mirror box containing the shutter assembly had to be replaced. My wallet is thinner, but it was worth it!  

I photographed some flowers that were blooming on my bushes in the back yard. I have no idea what they are. lol

Each photograph is labeled. The first 2 are UV, 3rd is Visible, and remaining pics are Near Infrared. If there are any questions, ask away. I could talk about this stuff all day long. Enjoy everypony!  

[Phosphor 11,522]

This weekend has been wonderful for imaging! This is my first time to successfully image a cloud band on Uranus. It is shown in the 2nd image. 

At just 10 arcseconds in diameter, Mars still shows some detail in the 16inch telescope. 

Enjoy!

[Odyssey 5,713]

Your stuff is really beautiful and shows that you really love what you do, I do hope you keep up with your photography here. 

I've always kinda wanted to take on a bit of a hobby in astronomy, is there anything I should get to start like telescopes or lens?