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leeceleece@aus.social
2025-05-02

So continuing with my ramble about the Gingin trip we had to take some astrophotos. So you're sitting in the siding, next an open paddock as your photos stack, and suddenly a loud noise starts up and continues for quite some time.

inaturalist.ala.org.au/observa

It sounded like a fox to me, I've never heard one that close before, so see what you think.

A couple of Gingin policemen helpfully drove over with all their spotties on high beam, but turned them off apologetically when they realised we were not the droids they were looking for and then got very interested, and received a quick course in astronomy.

So things can be quite eventful when you're just sitting around, getting those frames stacked.

Here's a couple of photos that @rdm took of me on the last night, where we just set up behind our accomodation just to do a little. You can see I have Sandqvist 149 there, and the other photo I'm sharing with you today.

For your viewing pleasure I fed it into nova.astrometry.net so you can see what's what. But the simple answer is the Tarantula Nebula and friends. I accidentally stopped part way through - even the new long press required isn't foolproof, but with the new mega stack function I was able to start it again and squish the two sessions together so it turned out very nicely.

#DwarfII #DwarfIII
#WesternAustralia
#Astrodon #Astronomy #Astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy

A woman is sitting on the red gravelly ground of a caravan park with some parched grass behind her. Her head is cocked up at the camera and she is smiling with her mouth closed. Her hair is unkempt, blond and contained by a woolly beanie which is brown striped with a pompom. She has a blue coat on, glasses and a reddish shirt with a Swancon logo and planet on. She's nursing two Android tablets controlling her telescopes. One has the Tarantula nebula showing, the other Sandqvist 149.In the foreground a woman is sitting on the red gravelly ground of a caravan park Her head is cocked up at the camera and she is smiling with her mouth closed. Her hair is unkempt, blond and contained by a woolly beanie which is brown striped with a pompom. She has a blue coat on, glasses and nursing two Android tablets controlling her telescopes. One has the Tarantula nebula showing, the other Sandqvist 149. In the mid ground two Dwarf Smart telescopes can be seen on tripods. The closest is set straight on the tripod and is a Dwarfii, the furthest is set in Equitorial Mode and is a Dwarfiii. In the back ground large eucalyptus trees are illuminated.The Tarantula Nebula is on the right and on the left a spray of stars and small nebula.Densely annotated overlay of the Tarantula Nebula and surrounds.
leeceleece@aus.social
2025-05-01

So to continue with highlights from our #astrophotography expedition to Gingin, another subject I had some fun with was Sandqvist 149.

Yes, I'm aware of its other, more popular name but let's let the discoverer have some kudos, huh?

This is a dark nebula, a star-blotting-out mass of dust that looks like a crack in the sky. You can see some stars in front of it which gives me a sense of three dimensionality to the usual flatness that I get of looking into the infinity of the night sky, and gives perhaps the sense that it is a dust cloud there, not a crack in reality.

The image on the left I took with the #dwarfiii - 60 second exposure, with a gain of 80, and stacked 40 of them.

That's coming to us straight out of camera, and I'll do some post to it sometime.

The image on the right was taken with the #DwarfII with shutter 15 and gain 80, for about 330 frames - and is the first time I've used a stellation mask.

I think that they look a bit silly - because stars don't look like that and it's a really artificial sort of prettiness that's a bit kitsch to me. Sorry to everyone who uses them - I mean they can look pretty, I admit...but for me they're usually meh.

I thought it would be funny to use one for a dark object.

#Astrodon #AstroPhotograhy #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DarkNebula #Sandquist149

A densly packed starfield with numerous tiny stars. On the right and in the top third a large blue white star is the brightest object. Stretching in a diagonal line from the top mid left to the lower mid right is a dark line, with very, very few stars. This is Sandqvist 149 - a dark dust nebula.A densly packed starfield with numerous tiny stars. From the right and in the the top third a large blue white star is the brightest object. To the right of that a golden globular cluster can be observed. All the stars have stellarisation points as if in a child's illustration - a stellation mask has been used. Stretching in a line from the left to the right is a dark line, with very, very few stars. This is Sandqvist 149 - a dark dust nebula.
leeceleece@aus.social
2025-03-31

Hello folks, it's been a little while so lets get some sky happening down here in #PerthWesternAustralia

I've been enjoying my Dwarf3 telescope, so let me share with you the unicorn's nostril (true, you look at Monoceras and that's where it is!), the Rosette Nebula, or Caldwell 49.

We also have IC 2944 another great Nebula, but one I'm in extreme doubt about its popular name to the extent that I'm going to use my own name for it, so let me introduce you to the Rising Phoenix Nebula. If you want to use the other name that's fine but lalalalala I can't hear you.

Both those images are straight out of camera. I think at least 400 frames but I'd have to check my records as it was a week or two ago.

The next subject is a bit small, I've cropped it a bit to make up for it somewhat. It's NGC 2997, a spiral galaxy in Antlia the Bellows. Why have I bothered given that I like an apparent size of 20 or so minutes, and this doesn't even get to 10? Well, it's one of these rare, to my view, straight on spiral galaxies, it's not edge on, so it gets a pass. And this got a good couple of hours last night, and turned out really well, I dickered a little with Snapseed. We had some rain, and wow, the sky was very clean and clear, and this object shows it. I really want to do a longer exposure, even if it's little.

And the last one is one that did get that longer treatment - it's the notorious Centaurus A, commonly known as the Hamburger Galaxy. I left this one on the roof overnight preprogrammed for a good few hours and this comes to you also from straight out of camera. It really is a peculiar galaxy, and sports a couple of supernovae and a dust cloud that gives it that split look.

#astronomy #BackYardAstronomy #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #DwarfIII #DwarfLab #Astrodon

There's a fair few stars in the view, some big blue white ones amongst them, but dominating the centre of the frame is a pinky red nebula that has a rather floral aspect. Light pink in the middle, but there's a dark patch there with big blue white stars there in the centre. Petal like pink and red gas plumes complet the flower like illusion.A dense starfield with pink and red nebulae, mostly in the middle. There are a few distinctly larger, bluer stars, and the main nebula mass looks a bit like a rising phoenix.A medium dense starfield, some larger stars blue and gold, and in the middle a classic spiral galaxy, pretty small though.A starfield of mostly tiny stars, and also a couple of galaxies that can just be made out. The main subject is a strange galaxy, a golden radiating glow, but it is split in half by a dark dust field and does look a bit like a hamburger.

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