Protoplanetry Disc on Webcam Image

[Rob1961]

Just came across this and thought it was amazing

Backyard astronomer snaps Beta Pictoris dust disk ? The Register

Rob

[Ags]

Wow - a completely brilliant image!

[E621Keith]

Amazing.

Adds a whole new meaning to planetary imaging.

[Quark]

I bet he's one happy chap for imaging that, superb is not the word.

[staryeyes]

Would be nice to see someone on here get a simalar image

[Hypernova]

Using a humble webcam to produce that sort of result is astonishing!

Is the modified webcam crucial to this or can any other CCD camera be used do you think?

Although I do notice that it is orientated slightly differently to the image below using the triangle of three stars as a reference.

[E621Keith]

I don't think the images are the same scale. The three triangle stars in the pro image may be the fainter background stars in the webcam. They are not the triangle stars in the right hand side of the webcam image because that triangle is the wrong shape.

[rocketandroll]

That's cool...

Though I don't think it's a first?

Whilst looking through (and reading the descriptions of) various Hubble images I came across this one a few months back of an area next to the trapezium in M42. The fuzzy blob marked with an arrow is (according to NASA) a protoplanetary disk forming around a young star.

I then went back and had a look at my first ever astro image, of M42, taken back in March... sure enough, zooming in... that blob was visible on there.

Ok, so it's only visible as the whole thing is illuminated as it's inside a nebula... but it's still the disk itself in the image, not the star.

I'm not saying I'm clever for having achieved this I hasten to add :-) It's almost certainly visible in any reasonable resolution pic of M42.

I also think imaging it on a lone star by itself is pretty incredible... just that this may be a case of over-enthusiastic journalism ;-)

Ben

[Hypernova]

I don't think the images are the same scale. The three triangle stars in the pro image may be the fainter background stars in the webcam. They are not the triangle stars in the right hand side of the webcam image because that triangle is the wrong shape.

Yes I am referring to the fainter stars on the top-left being the same as grouping in the bottom-left of the pro-image. Here is an ESO image of the same region, the group lies on the diffraction spike on the right of the image.