I absolutely need a telescope! These are amazing! Via IG: Starxxkitten 1st pic is Bubble Nebula 2nd pic is Rosette Nebula - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

southsideofheaven.bsky.social • 21 hours ago

I absolutely need a telescope! These are amazing!

Via IG: Starxxkitten

1st pic is Bubble Nebula
2nd pic is Rosette Nebula

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Comments

tastromo.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Rosette is a decent target for beginners too! I recommend picking up a small ED80 if you’re just starting out (don’t get anything too powerful when you’re learning — powerful usually = wobbly and difficult).

Here’s my best Rosette shot on my ED80

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tastromo.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Some other comments suggested it takes hours and hours to get shots like this…

… FYI my image is from only about 20mins of light.

You certainly need to take long exposures but you get hugely diminishing returns after a while, on bright targets

(Plus I shoot in RGB which is why mine is mostly red)

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Thank you!! This is so beautiful! I’m def a grasshopper lol i only know what I’ve occasionally came across & looked into here and there but i will def take this down🫶🏽

steve-adams.me•15 hours ago

Although the naked eye can’t see this I can’t recommend getting a scope enough. Even looking at the moon on a bad night can be mesmerizing. Seeing galaxies in real time will change you, I promise. Seeing dense, deep star fields, planets. It’s all so incredible, even if it’s isn’t as vivid as this is

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I believe you! I often have night walks and love the moon & stars. It’s where i feel most present and reflect. I can only imagine how it would make me feel to get a scope and see more than i can now.

steve-adams.me•15 hours ago

I’m sure there are tons of awesome options now but I went with a heritage 150p and it was a great starter that I don’t regret.

I’ve since put it on a tripod but the tabletop base works well too.

Great light capturing capability, compact, and affordable!

https://all-startelescope.com/products/sky-watcher-heritage-150mm-collapsible

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•15 hours ago

I’ll def take that down! Thank you✨

legendarrius93.bsky.social•21 hours ago

Man I'm thinking about getting one for my birthday. I need these kinda visuals!

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•21 hours ago

Same! I hate I’ll be moving soon from the area I’m in bc my night walks are the best to see the sky & Moon! I’d be out all night and right before the sun comes up if i had one.

legendarrius93.bsky.social•21 hours ago

You might get lucky and have an even better view lol

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•20 hours ago

I’m hoping i can get one before i leave! I bet it would look amazing!

legendarrius93.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Do it! Worthy investment

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•18 hours ago

@sangregrande.bsky.social

sangregrande.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Rosette might be my favorite! I wanna go play with my telescope now, but it’s cold outside lol

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Have a time when you do lol😌👌🏽✨

sangregrande.bsky.social•18 hours ago

For sure!

vladimirmorrigan.bsky.social•16 hours ago

I'd start crying if I got to see this kind of thing, just so pretty..😭

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•16 hours ago

Really puts things into perspective🙂‍↕️🙌🏾

vladimirmorrigan.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Frrr

jsbpdx.bsky.social•16 hours ago

You’re gonna need a pretty nice setup to get close to photos like this…and it doesn’t look like this to the human eye through even high-end consumer telescopes…

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•16 hours ago

A couple of comments have gave me some nice beginner info on it. The person i credited listed her tools and how long it took to capture as well.

bryan-i-photo.bsky.social•21 hours ago

Not sure how familiar you are with astronomy or astrophotography but just so you know, these and most nebula are not visible to the naked eye. They're taken over the course of hours, often multiple nights in order to pull out that much detail

tastromo.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Here’s my Rosette from about 20 mins of light on my small affordable ED80

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tastromo.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Limitations here are that im shooting in RGB so it’s difficult to pull out much colour detail and certainly not with only 20mins. But its more enjoyable for me this way without spending hours and hours out there and having to mess around with multiple filters and much more time in post processing

tastromo.bsky.social•19 hours ago

Mind you I do still manage to get good colour sometimes!

Here’s one of Thor’s Helmet on the same setup

I think this is more like 40 mins

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tastromo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Trifid Nebula in a very populous part of the sky.

The blues in particular are challenging to capture in RGB with short exposure.

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tastromo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

One of my favourites; the Southern pinwheel galaxy. IIRC this is about 1hour in RGB and I was really pleased to get so much colour detail from the yellow core to the blue arms to subtle purple dots

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southsideofheaven.bsky.social•18 hours ago

This is a very nice shot! How long have you been doing this style of photography?

tastromo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Only about 5 years but the telescope has been collecting dust over the last year or so. Completely self taught with a little help emailing a couple of nice helpful staff members from the local telescope shop. I’m also using an ASIAIR which comes with an iPad app that simplifies things somewhat.

bryan-i-photo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Pixinsight has a great process called narrowband normalization that does a pretty good job of converting RGB to HOO.

tastromo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Ah yeah I gave that a go a few years back but it seemed to have a pretty steep learning curve as far as astronomy apps go. My process is pretty lean these days. I struggle the most with colour balance (notice my sky looks a different colour cast in every image? …yucky I reckon)

bryan-i-photo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

It is a steep curve for sure but processing is such a big part of astro it's worth the effort imo

bryan-i-photo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Well done! I really want to do Thor's helmet but it only gets to about 36° here so I wouldn't get much time in before it went behind the trees. Here are som examples of what narrowband Normalization can do

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tastromo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Those look great, love the colour scheme too

bryan-i-photo.bsky.social•18 hours ago

Thank you

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•20 hours ago

I’m not too familiar but thank you for the reminder. I have read a bit on astrophotography and the account i credited for the images gave her description of what she used. It’s amazing😌✨

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bryan-i-photo.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Ok, glad you have some knowledge. I didn't want you buying a telescope only to be disappointed.

southsideofheaven.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Thank you!