Astronomy shots

Awesome shots! Down here in central Texas it is just a glow.

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From my old man’s phone. It’s embarrassing that it put my DSLR to shame. :joy:








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Awesome Auroras!

There is a lot of red in those, which I am not used to at all. Our Auroras are predominantly green. Are these red Auroras common sight for you?

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Aurora Australis, which on a few occasions has been visible a far North as here (about -35 degrees) is the same pink(ish) glow in the sky as Paul’s photo.

But it is caused by the same physics as the Borealis and all I can guess is that the closer you get to the Equator and have a visible aurora then refraction shifts it more from the green to the red end of the spectrum?

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Yes, and Googling told the color depends on the altitude where the Aurora is formed.

blue < green < red (greatest altitude)

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That explains why I can only pick up red down here at a latitude of 30.74º N.

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I found this on the interwebthingy…

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Those atoms sure look excited!

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Nice, no aurora down here this evening.

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Nice capture, @PaulRix! I like yours better than those from the link you posted. The weaker image makes it more haunting. It’s as if we’re seeing ghost from the very edge of the universe.

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Thanks Eric, it came out better than I anticipated. I now have two more night’s worth of data which I need to process. We will see if it makes a difference.

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Now at 19 hours worth of data, we are starting to see some more detail and with a less aggressive histogram stretch, which means a smoother, less noisy image.

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I like the original better. But then I am viewing with a phone and unable to see the lack of detail. The starfield overly obscures the nebula in my opinion. That’s just my aesthetic. If the reality is that there happens to be a bunch of stars between us and it then an honest capture dictates that they should be there.

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It’s amazing how disruptive the starfield can become…

Here is the same image with the stars completely removed.

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I prefer it with the stars, but was only reading an article a few days ago about the observation of a supernova ‘shockwave’ and it’s shape - not completely spherical, and described as like an olive.

That looks just like a walnut?

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off-the-wall-nut :slight_smile:

great pics btw !

I got its name from looking a wee bit like a brain with a portion of the stem attached.

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So, I did a thing…again.

Just before Christmas I saw a classified ad on an astronomy forum I occasionally participate on. About an hour away from my home and the seller was willing to bring it to me (for a quite reasonable additional fee)…. So, I have an observatory again. I got it for about half the price of a new one, so I’m pretty happy. It’s seen some use but is in pretty good shape. It’s not completely assembled yet, but it should be usable after tomorrow.

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