Astrophotography anyone?

[FakeMountainMan]

I'm very amateur but I love astronomy and astrophotography is something I practice from time to time. Haven't done much recently, but here's an image I captured a few years back that came out ok. It's Messier 8, the Lagoon nebula.

Anyone else do any astro stuff? Any telescopes in the closet?

 

[Fenster]

I have never tried that, but it looks cool.

 

[Spider]

That's a cool pic! I used to have a telescope, but it wasn't what I wanted and was a pain to use so I sold it. I live in the country so my night sky is usually pretty dark and clear. I do use binoculars to find some of the Messier objects.

 

[FakeMountainMan]

A lot of telescopes marketed as for beginners are horrible, we lovingly call them hobby killers. If you want something easy to use and will show you a lot, you can't go wrong with an 8" reflector on a dobsonian mount. Even a 5 inch is pretty good. But a lot of people are attracted to wobbly equatorial mounted refractors because they look more like telescopes should I guess.

 

[BarberDave]

Here’s a couple from our camping trip a few years ago not bad for a long exposure on an iPhone

 

[FakeMountainMan]

Here’s a couple from our camping trip a few years ago not bad for a long exposure on an iPhone

It's amazing what some phones are capable of these days. I was surprised to be able to shoot the northern lights with my cheap Samsung here in the Ozarks.

 

[GearNoir]

One of the most amazing night skies I saw was my last trip to Hawaii. We were staying out on land moderately far from the cities…and we could see absolutely everything! I sure wished I had something to document it then!

 

[FakeMountainMan]

Going through some of my images to look for anything good, here's a gif of Jupiter rotating from 2018



Jupiter and a couple of moons


Saturn


Here's some cool solar activity from 2021


Let me know if this is obnoxious

 

[FakeMountainMan]

One of the most amazing night skies I saw was my last trip to Hawaii. We were staying out on land moderately far from the cities…and we could see absolutely everything! I sure wished I had something to document it then!

There's nothing like seeing the milky way from a dark location

 

[Spider]

Let me know if this is obnoxious

Never, I love this stuff.

There's nothing like seeing the milky way from a dark location

True. The best I ever saw was at Walnut Canyon National Monument outside of Flagstaff, AZ. I had a girlfriend that worked there, and I stayed overnight with her one weekend. There was zero light pollution. It was incredible. Just mesmerizing to look at.

 

[Sara-s]

Ooh, those are some spectacular photos! My telescope is a 5" refractor. Though I have a camera adapter, I haven't really had much success with it.

 

[FakeMountainMan]

Here is M57, the ring nebula. This is one of the first objects I saw through a telescope when I was young that I remember. The guy that showed it to me told me to look for the thing that looked like a dirty Cheerio, and that's pretty much what it looks like.