Paul M

I think they stole my idea!😂

Folk that know a thing or two about supernovae, aren't watching Betelgeuse with a telescope. No, they'll be like me, running their own neutrino detector. Because, while you're all waiting for the energy of core collapse to propagate outwards and disrupt Betelgeuse's outer layers, thus starting the optical flare, I'll be watching the neutrino storm. Some hours ahead of y'all. Those neutrinos aren't hindered by the maelstrom that created them and escape at near light speed. It's easy to build. Just a glass of water, an old ASI 120mm camera and Ras Pi. I'm just working on the live stream. Of course, it's non directional, so I expect to detect a lot of non Betelgeuseian neutrino swarms.

I'm a Libra, so you'll find me sitting on the fence. But yeah, define "soon" in astronomical times scales?

Every now and again a YouTube channel rocks up on my feed supposedly showing some comet or other in real time. Usually click bait, a loop of some other comet from some time ago. The purveyors have no shame. Still, comentors talk excitedly as though it real and live. Who'd have thunk it..?

Power glitch caused by overhead cable/transformer fault? An autorecloser can arc and flash and things like routers go south. Domestic alarms can see a power outage as a tamper and start sounding. So power outage is my guess.

Thats's nice. But if I had to criticise, the top left blank box isn't square. The r/h edge isn't vertical. Pretty much ruins it for me.. Oops, nearly forgot the 🤣🤣 On a serious note, I don't think I've ever seen that set of objects presented quite so spectacularly. Their symbiotic relationship is not generally so clear.

You sound like my old teachers! 🤣

Me too! There are a few things I take seriously in life, and they are all in the death and taxes categories. Astronomy has been, perhaps, the only constant in my life. I first became aware of the stars at about 7 years old. By aware I mean inquisitive. Since then I've dipped in and dropped out as life dictated, but always looked up and gazed at the stars when opportunity presented itself. Just gazing and wondering. No depth of thought beyond "Hi Orion, nice to see you again". I do much more stargazing than I do astronomy. Does anyone else talk to the constellations, or is it just me?

It was a dismal year for me and the only "showcasey" image I produced is perhaps my best to date. It's actually an animation of Comet C/2020 V2 (ZTF). It seems so long ago now... The story of its capture:

I agree with much of the sentiment above, film is a craft, a craft I never mastered beyond a few home processed rolls of slide film. My father had a dark room and processed his own colour prints. So I have a childhood fondness of film photography. And looking through @Nightfly's Flickr content, it doesn't get old. I almost get dewy eyed looking over images such as this one of Orion. It just delivers, whilst gently belying the effort that went into producing it!

Until a commercial interest, say BlackRock, find a way to monetise Mars, there'll be no incentive. The technology is all fantasy right now so, I don't see any gold rush in the offing. The technology is ikely beyond the life expectancy of existing technological civilisation on Earth.

Planetary nebula indeed! On my phone it looks like a low contrast image of Mars with a prominent polar cap 😀 It's astonishing too see these ultra deep sky objects being fished out by amateur equipment ( and not a little operator skill!). Well done!

There are a lot of tiny fuzzies showing through on the second image! Surely worth keeping going on this as a project? I haven't looked at the Hubble image, You didn't bother to post a link! 😁

You have a few books that used to own, I have very few books now, mostly "pretty picture" types that passing children might embrace. Of note, though, Chaos by James Gleick. I've mentioned it here a few times. It's one of those books that opened up a whole new way of thinking to my educationally challenged brain. It's quite an old book now I think. It shares a place on my mind's bookshelf alongside Asimov's Guide to Science, "Children of The Universe"; Hoimar von Ditfurth and, another one from your own shelf, Catalogue Of the Universe, David Malin's images being the best images I'd seen to date. Chaos introduced me to the algorithm for the Mandelbrot Set, from which I formulated a program in BBC Basic which worked like magic. On deeper "zooms" it took days to render a 16 colour BBC Model B screen. Fond memories of both my brain cells talking to each other...🤪

Wow! some intro! If you know how to drive that monster behind you, you'll be ok with most amateur offerings... maybe! 🤣

I've got all the components for a RasPi based allsky camera that I'll be siting in rural Cumbria, eventually. Unfortunately it's delayed due to a family upset and I've not yet been able to collect the RasPi (currently working as an IP camera server up there) to get the project moving. Your project motivates me to make a quick, sameday dash to get the Pi home, 150 mile round trip, without an evening at the village hostelry to make it worthwhile!!

It looks like a galaxy, but as you say not identified in SIMBAD, while fainter objects are: Anyway, not to be beaten, I looked with HNSky, a highly configurable, if a little glitchy, planetarium I use mostly nowdays. I got the area, downloaded the DSS imagery to confirm the spot then asked for Hyperleda annotation. I have the enhanced Hyperleda database installed for HNSky and it got an ID: It's a mag 16.5 galaxy, deal with it! 🤣

Thats a stunning foreground scene to frame the Aurora Cam, well actually it's even better in the All Sky Cam! Nice project!

I got 2 sessions in January. My problem is currency. I'm not using my gear frequently enough get proficincy and when it is clear, all plans go out of the window as I scramble to grab some subs. I didn't even tweak my collimation last time as I'd be pomising myself I would, and it really showed in the subs. Then I forget some feature in APT or how to do something simple... Seriously, I'm already worrying about the nights getting shorter and the summer hiatus being upon us! 🤪

You see it all the time, new starter buys the right gear, uses the best software and within a couple of years or so, they're gone. Burnt out, nowhere to go. I'm a fast learner but much more enjoy the journey. Perfection and I aren't good bedfellows! So have a blast, have a laugh, enjoy!

I'm mesmerised by the this story. I saw a headline elsewhere on the Interweb about NASA predicting a small body impact just hours after its discovery. It all sounded a bit Daily Express so I didn't follow it up. But wow! It did happen. I'm not overly excited about the find, but imaging it as it heads imbound, and then the predicted meteor/bolide right on cue! Great stuff! To paraphrase on old joke, I couldnt't work out why that asteroid was just getting bigger, then, wham! it hit me!

I've given up looking for the 9th planet, I don't think it'll ever be found. So I've started looking for the 10th planet instead...

I was less than 3 years old when the crew of Apollo 1 perished, but I remember both Shuttle disasters, vividly, and frequently watch related documentaries and video footage on YouTube. My main interest in those is the human aspect. The causes and the legacy. I'm bored senseless with what currently passes a manned spaceflight - ferry flights to the great white elephant in the sky. The engineering is fascinating but until they find somewhere interesting and worthwhile to send astronauts, I'll continue to be bored by it.

Is updating the FITS header a selectable option, maybe?

Ah, ASTAP to the rescue. You can select the whole image as a search for Simbad and filter for object type. Here are the Quasars found. You seem to have a few pixels for most of them!