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M42, never at rest.

ollypenrice

By ollypenrice
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Hope this isn't too forthright, but why aren't you a Mod Olly? :D

'I wouldn't care to belong to any kind of club or society which would accept me as a member.' Groucho Marx. :blob1: (All time great quote, no?) Seriously, I've never been asked and I've never been moderate (and I'm not going to start now) so I guess that's two good reasons. :grin: :grin:

Olly

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badgerchap

badgerchap

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Fair enough! I wonder if they have some kind of honorary position :) Seriously though, I always thought you were one until recently. You have a massive number of posts and are clearly one of the most capable astronomers on here, and your knowledge and expertise are a lifesaver for many, if not most of us on here!

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Gina

Gina

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'I wouldn't care to belong to any kind of club or society which would accept me as a member.' Groucho Marx. :blob1: (All time great quote, no?) Seriously, I've never been asked and I've never been moderate (and I'm not going to start now) so I guess that's two good reasons. :grin: :grin:

Olly

Moderating a message board is hard work - I know, I've done it and still do on one board. Many consider it an honour to be asked and no doubt it is - to be considered responsible enough for the job. Personally, I have had various positions of responsibility in my time but prefer a quieter life now. I admin a small social board and that's enough.
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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I'd rather talk about how to get that M42 to the next level. If we can get the 11 meg camera to work and a flattener for the TEC it might be possible to up the resolution, particularly in the Running Man where there are some blown stars. I really like chipping away at a project over the years.

Olly

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badgerchap

badgerchap

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In all seriousness, does an image like this have some scientific merit? I've not seen a Hubble image of this region in a while, but surely your data has the added bonus of time between successive exposures? When I was doing my first OU Astronomy course, we used 2 images of the Crab over a 20 year period to determine the date of the event. If you keep going for long enough, do you think we might see a change in the geometry of M42? I think you would probably need images of this level of detail to discern any movement at our distance, but I really do think this image would be an excellent place to start?

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Shibby

Shibby

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Gorgeous image Olly; I too like adding to images over time. Indeed, it's a necessity back here in the UK ;)

In all seriousness, does an image like this have some scientific merit? I've not seen a Hubble image of this region in a while, but surely your data has the added bonus of time between successive exposures? When I was doing my first OU Astronomy course, we used 2 images of the Crab over a 20 year period to determine the date of the event. If you keep going for long enough, do you think we might see a change in the geometry of M42? I think you would probably need images of this level of detail to discern any movement at our distance, but I really do think this image would be an excellent place to start?

I have wondered this in the past. I compared an 1883 (by Andrew Ainslie Common) image of M42 with my own (2010) image. It's hard to see much difference at this resolution, other than some proper motion of (presumably foreground) stars. Remember that the Crab nebula is expanding at an impressive rate whereas the Orion star forming region is probably a fair bit less dynamic!

Orion Nebula: Then (1883) and now (2010)

Edit: 2010 on the left, 1883 on the right

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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One important scientific merit is that this kind of image draws people into science!

I don't mean to blow this particular image's trumpet but I wholeheardedly agree with the sentiment. Science as I was taught it at school was unnutterably tedious and incoherent nonesense (and at a school which liked to consider itself to be in Britain's top ten. Lord spare us.) I began reading science in my late forties after looking through a small telescope at a dark site. That is science. Like any adventure of the mind it has to begin with excitement.

Olly

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badgerchap

badgerchap

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I don't mean to blow this particular image's trumpet but I wholeheardedly agree with the sentiment. Science as I was taught it at school was unnutterably tedious and incoherent nonesense (and at a school which liked to consider itself to be in Britain's top ten. Lord spare us.) I began reading science in my late forties after looking through a small telescope at a dark site. That is science. Like any adventure of the mind it has to begin with excitement.

Olly

Yes I agree. I hated Physics in school. It was taught as a method of finding out how long a spring will be when you put a weight on the end and other such fundamentals. Whilst they are intrinsically interesting to me now, they were the epitome of tedium to a child! I think that as an adult it's easier to be interested in the 'duller' aspects of science, but there's not much that compares to an awesome astronomical vista like this!

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