scotty1

During the last two nights I've tried to see the Orionids. Alot of cloud around and very humid, a few short clear spells also. Managed to see three Orionids, one of them falling in the west was orange and visible through gaps in the clouds. The Orionids have never been very bright, or prolific from my experience.

Mars is a nice hue now that reminds me of an orange boiled sweet, or tree sap.

On BBC 4 now programme about Aurora 

I'm quite surprised to get into the top three. 

Well done Naxatras and Penumbrella 

Thankyou to the judges

On 29/09/2022 at 19:27, Stephen_M said:

Here's a pic of some cloud iridescence on a random Saturday when I happened to look up. Amazing to think before I got into astronomy last year I probably wouldn't have even noticed this.

17th September, 11:53am, no editing, iPhone 2020 SE

Also a sundog on the right.

59 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

Nice image,  Mars really stands out

It was very humid and close to lakes, and a river valley (Lark). There were mist patches floating across, and a hint of high clouds. The conditions bloomed Mars up. 

You must have a dark sky bottle 2-3 ? 

Really nice from the phone! 

I was trying to find the Aurora (no luck), but this view of a village church about 01.30 was quite nice. I had to balance the tripod on the churchyard wall, luckily there was calm conditions. It's around bortle 4+ here. 

Pixel 4a on mini tripod, processed with Snapseed. 

On the Glendale app it's been picked up again tonight in North Norfolk. I'm trying to learn how the readings on that app, play out in real time.  The sub storm was -560nt. -BZ ,  Only KP4 on most indicators! 

It's quite an illusive beast, I think I missed the display by about 20mins on Sunday.

Anyone looking north out to sea has a better chance. It's nearly two hours to a north facing coast from here, I just tried very local area. The humidity and mist was blooming village lights up, despite being north of town.  

There's several photos from Northern England, and Scotland on the Glendale app now 

Also the Norfolk coast 

Only mist and LP here 👍

Hi I don't know if this is any help, I'm a beginner with regards to stacking.

There are several tutorials about combining HA and RGB on YouTube that might help.

This one is how to get colour in DSS. It says convert the RAW files to tiff before stacking. 

I've been in the garden for an hour or, and had a go with my pixel 4a. I got similar shots to yours, I think it's about bortle 5+ here in town. I'd like to try this from a bortle 1 location! 

I was also keeping an eye on Aurora strength, no luck but tomorrow is cloudy, so I bet it arrives then 🤬 

August 6th 04.40 

Pixel 4a in astro mode on tripod pointing overhead with a totem pole and milky way. Edited in phone with polish photo editor.

From an aesthetic view the first image would be great if it were desaturated particularly the stars. 

As I don't know have a benchmark of how M31 is actually  supposed to look. Any of these versions is good to my eyes. I don't have the knowledge, or experience of the folks doing these DSO.

As mentioned above AP can be more of an artist's interpretation, rather than an accurate account of the target. 

Perhaps the distances needed to travel to discover other lifeforms are too great. It may take many generations of people to travel such huge distances. 

I think it's going to take thousands of years, to get to the stage ware we able to travel so far. Even if we can discover new ways of propulsion and technology.  

Not sure humans will be around long enough to find out.

I found this on wikipedia about Samyang.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samyang_Optics#:~:text=Samyang products are also sold,%2C Vivitar%2C Phoenix and Quantaray.

It says their lenses are sold under these brands.

Rokinon, Bower, Opteka, Vivitar, Phoenix and Quantaray.

I use my Pentax DSLR and camera lenses for basic wide field astrophotography, and occasionally to photograph comets. I use a a standard tripod without any tracking,  although I can use the astrotracer GPS on my camera for longer exposures. 

This is one of the lightest and simplest setups for astrophotography. 

I think you will either use a DSLR and camera lenses. Or a telescope and astro camera. 

You can find good used lenses that fit straight onto your Nikon D5300. This is simpler than using lens adapters.

A fairly heavy sturdy tripod is essential also, as a lightweight tripod will not hold the equipment sill enough.

Winter constellations rising

August 31st 03.20 

Pixel 4a in astro mode on Slik mini dq tripod. Edited on phone using inbuilt editor. 

I was pleased with my cup that arrived today. The photo was reproduced nicely. 

Thanks

On the way home from photographing the Persieds on August 13th, pockets of  shallow mist forming in the fields with Venus rising. 

Pixel 4a on tripod, on the car roof with nightsight setting. Edited on pixel 4a with the inbuilt standard photo editor.

On the same morning In the west on the other side of the road, the moon was setting, also Jupiter is upper left. 

Pixel 4a in nightsight setting on Slik mini tripod

01.20 on the 19th of August a bright Persied tracked from the Cygnus area. 

I had gone out to check for Aurora, and took a few shots with my phone just before heading home as it was clouding up.

A lucky capture while taking a few shots in astro mode, i used my pixel 4a on a mini tripod.

I tried to pickup the Aurora last night, but no luck. Before I headed home I set my pixel 4a on a small tripod to take shots of the moon and Jupiter. Then just before it clouded up I pointed the phone towards the milky way. Luckily a bright Persied fell from the Cygnus area. I saw two other meteors not as bright as this one.

This was from early today 19th August 01.20 

14 hours ago, Shimrod said:

If you check the Glendale aurora alerts website, there were sightings south of your location at Stranraer, but very faint. The local area on a global scale) can also have an effect on the strength of the aurora and the alerts often cover a  period of time rather than an immediate point in time. The three day forecast on NOAA covers a 3 hour period. I've had the same experience of sitting in a car in the cold waiting for something to happen in the sky!

 

https://aurora-alerts.uk/

I've installed that Aurora App, will see how it goes. 

Alot of photos from Scotland and far north of England. Someone on the Glendale app reported the Aurora on camera from Northamptonshire?🤔 

My camera didn't pickup any Aurora, but it was ideal weather for astronomy.

As I walked home after parking the car, there was a young chap in the next street with 10 inches of Celestron dob in the middle of the road (it's a fairly quiet street especially at 4am). He let me take a peek and I saw Saturns rings, and two bands on Jupiter, it's the first time I've seen these details through a scope, it's the first time I've actually had the opportunity to look through a decent scope, I was impressed. 

Partly cloudy and the aurora site was on orange. I've taken some shots but there's nowt showing hereabouts. Seen a couple of Persieds, and moon rising.

A few more Persieds 

This one on the 10th of August 02.25 

From the 13th about 01.30 

And the 14th about 02.30