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Archive 2015 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillio...

  
 
StarNut
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


My latest astroimage.

This is a combination reflection nebula (VdB99; the blue stuff) and emission nebula (Sh2-1; the red stuff), visually located in the constellation Scorpius. It's also visually in the plane of our Milky Way, so it appears to be (only appears to be) in the midst of a dense star field, since we're looking through 600 light years of Milky Way at the molecular cloud (and so much more beyond). That also explains why the "background" isn't very dark--all that colorful gas out there, between here and there (and beyond)! Both the blue and the red owe their existence to the hot young blue stars in their midst, and shown in this frame.

This field, at 600 light years distant, is about 30 light years across; that's a lot of gas!

This frame is a two-panel mosaic, stitched in Photoshop. The two together represent over 40 hours of light-frame data, over many, many nights.

Camera: Santa Barbara Instruments Group STL11000M
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106 (quadruplet fluorite apochromatic f/5 refractor, with 106mm aperture)
Mount: Paramount ME

Enjoy!

Mark

http://www.de-regt.com/Astronomy/VdB99.40.jpg

Edited on Feb 01, 2015 at 12:44 PM · View previous versions



Feb 01, 2015 at 01:13 AM
Scott Kroeker
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Incredible work.


Feb 01, 2015 at 01:54 AM
Ton Hung
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


very nice


Feb 01, 2015 at 07:24 AM
Colin Giersberg
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Sweet shots of Mother Nature's beauty.


Feb 01, 2015 at 08:29 AM
harshaj1
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Your hard work paid off. Absolutely incredible stuff. Wish I had the ability to do this.
Harsha



Feb 01, 2015 at 09:50 AM
Etherton
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Well done Sir! Well done.


Feb 01, 2015 at 11:06 AM
Justin Grimm
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Very cool, and extremely clean and detailed. Im sure this is old news to you by now, but have to watched the video of Hubbles new super detailed view of the Andromeda Galaxy? It is mind blowing, and your photo reminds me of it.


Feb 01, 2015 at 11:54 AM
mullysr
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


This is stunning work. Thank you for sharing.


Feb 01, 2015 at 12:05 PM
andrew perkins
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Stunning image. I'll sit here and stare at it for quite some time


Feb 01, 2015 at 12:08 PM
Alan Brock
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Spot on astrophotography work here! There seems to be some lines going through the image about a third of the way up from the bottom. Any idea what caused those?


Feb 01, 2015 at 12:24 PM
StarNut
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Wow, thanks so much for all the kind words!

To answer the two questions asked!

Yes, I am aware of the new M31 work; the guy who spearheaded that effort is a well known amateur astrophotographer, with whom I have occasional email conversations. And my other imaging scope, a 14.5" Ritchey-Chretien, used to be owned by him (and was used to create an incredible high-resolution mosaic of M31 in 2002, a large print of which I bought for one of our children--and which still has a place of honor on the ceiling of her bedroom in her apartment)/

Those lines on the image appear in the raw data, so I'm pretty sure they're real (not a processing artifact). In all likelihood, they're wispy "dark nebulae," which are gas clouds that aren't emitting or reflecting light, so they just sit there being somewhat--or completely--opaque, showing up only because of a lack of stars in that area. That's just a guess, but probably a pretty good one. Sharp eyes you have, sir!



Feb 01, 2015 at 12:52 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


More great dso's
Thanks for sharing.

David



Feb 01, 2015 at 09:10 PM
Doug C
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Stunning, and humbling work. Makes one think of their place in the universe.


Feb 03, 2015 at 03:00 AM
PickledEyes
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Lots of dust on your sensor... As others stated, I wish I could capture these kinds of excellent shots.


Feb 03, 2015 at 09:16 AM
StarNut
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Thanks again for all the nice replies.

I do know that I'm a very fortunate guy to have the opportunity to take these sorts of photos; they comprise a great deal of time and energy, and the learning curve is steep and long, but I love it, and still get excited by each image as it comes together.

Mark



Feb 03, 2015 at 02:40 PM
Sunny Sra
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


1 day i'll take a shot like this


Feb 03, 2015 at 08:00 PM
Tom In Arizona
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Hundreds of Stars, Thousands of Stars, Millions and Billions and Trillions of Stars!


Hi Mark...

I think a little more aggressive sharpening and noise reduction would improve this shot quite a bit...

Seriously though, this is a truly remarkable photograph that shows just how insignificant our little tiny speck called Earth really is.

Thanks
Tom



Feb 03, 2015 at 08:29 PM





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