Something that has really changed my perspective of the night sky since getting into astronomy.

[pipnina]

I've always had a passing interest in astronomy but never really persued it or knew much about it until January this year when I had my "I'd like a telescope" moment (this then lead to dissapointment and regret but that's a different story). Since about then I've been on this forum looking through the different sections and generally enjoying myself on rare observing sessions. But if any topic section has caught my eye it's the imaging section purely because a handfull of images have really changed my perspective when I look at the sky.

The images I'm talking about in particular are ones like these:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/237263-the-400-hour-image/

Prior to seeing this image I had NO IDEA the red band was running from Rigel to Saiph to Bellatrix nor did I know how much gas and dust was there. I'll never look at that constellation the same way again.

http://ep.yimg.com/ay/skyimage/california-to-the-pleiades-16.jpg

This one also changed my perspective perminently. Although I'd read that plsiwadafdes M45 was moving through dust, causing the starlight to be reflected, I'd thought the dust cloud was... less omnipresent.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/244747-ifn-m81-m82-with-sony-a7s/

You can probably imagine where I'm going with this... But all three of these images have made me see the night sky differently... (In my imagination of course, my eyes still see orange)

To be honest, I'm sort of confused about these images as well as awed. A lot of the images of galaxies or nebulae that I've seen don't show any traces of those gas/dust clouds at all even if they are fairly well made and make the object look stunning. I'm rather curious as to how people like olly and sharkmelley manage to acheive that level of imaging without frying their CCDs.

Has anything had a huge impact on you guys since you started in astronomy like these images have had an impact on me? I'd love to know!

    ~pip

[kalasinman]

I suppose the Hubble "Pillars of Creation" has to be one that changed my views. Yes there are too many inspirational images on SGL to list.

It was this one , not because so great, but because I realized I could do it with my gear at home, that placed my feet firmly on the path.

[cotterless45]

For some of us simple minded folk (!) , just a bit of paper and a pencil can produce instant results. It never ceases to amaze how lucky we are to be able to observe,

Nick.

[Stu]

In the true sense of changing my perspective, I think the first time I saw a complete panoramic image of the Milky Way, I was stunned that it was basically possible to perceive the shape of the galaxy despite being in it!

This sort of thing....

EDIT: Just noticed you can clearly see Barnard's loop in the second image

[Dave Lloyd]

Images like these should always generate an emotional response. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved.

[pipnina]

In the true sense of changing my perspective, I think the first time I saw a complete panoramic image of the Milky Way, I was stunned that it was basically possible to perceive the shape of the galaxy despite being in it!

This sort of thing....

-snip-

-snip-

If there's anything that annoys me about the northern hemisphere it's that the magellanic clouds look so tantilizingly close when you look at where they are compared to orion. But you actually need to be at least 20 degrees south to see them I'm 70 degrees out!

[xtreemchaos]

+1 for the panoramic image of the Milky Way, i am allways moved by that fantastic image..charl..

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Lots of things for me, reading is essential but there is nothing quite like working through something yourself to gain a better appreciation. I've learned quite a bit from observing and taking my own images. A couple things that spring to mind:

- Seeing Jupiter's moons strung out in a line was a bit of a eureka moment, I realised I was seeing evidence that they formed from the same accretion disc.

- I didn't realise just how many large DSOs are out there until I started imaging, in reach of modest camera lenses. For example, this NA & Pelican nebulae was taken with a 135mm lens:

To be honest, I'm sort of confused about these images as well as awed. A lot of the images of galaxies or nebulae that I've seen don't show any traces of those gas/dust clouds at all even if they are fairly well made and make the object look stunning. I'm rather curious as to how people like olly and sharkmelley manage to acheive that level of imaging without frying their CCDs.

It's a perfect storm of long exposures, sensitive low-noise CCDs, fast optics and dark skies  - plus the processing skills to bring it all out in a single image. In some ways these deep images can be a little misleading, objects with vastly different brightness levels have to be squeezed into a range that the human eye can perceive. It takes a lot of skill to bring everything together into a pleasing scene - another case where my own dabbling has heightened my appreciation of other people's work.

[johnrt]

This image has somewhat changed my perspective of astronomy... 

[Dave Lloyd]

This image has somewhat changed my perspective of astronomy...

I knew it dob bins.

[laser_jock99]

Astronomy at any level can be amazing. Sometimes I happy enough just sitting outside with the MK1 eyeball, with a beer looking up.

[kalasinman]

Astronomy at any level can be amazing. Sometimes I happy enough just sitting outside with the MK1 eyeball, with a beer looking up.

Indeed.

[brantuk]

One of the things that really changed my perspective since taking up astronomy, is the vast amount of nothingness out there. Sure we can see loads of stunning beautiful stuff - the sky appears chocca block full in the dark of night - but the distances and nothingness between all those objects, is utterly huge, vast, expansive, and unfathomable.

Then when you watch the moon drift slowly past a medium power eyepiece in a non tracking scope, and you suddenly realise you're just standing on a small bit of rotating rock, slap bang in the middle of all that vast nothingness - makes you start to feel a bit vulnerable.

Then you see how much protection we have from that vast, cold, hostile, nothingness when looking at the thickness of Earths atmosphere from the window of a plane - all you see a thin layer of blue'ish sky - and you start to worry a bit.

Then you see a proportional diagram of Earth and Sun sat next to each other in space, like a frozen pea sitting next to a massive, bubbling, burning, furnace of a medicine ball, thousands of times larger, and who's only purpose is to explode at the end of it's life cycle in a massive maelstrom of apocolyptic size. One astronomical unit suddenly becomes very small.

It sure makes one wonder how we ever came about in the first place, ask why we ever came about, and then the realisation that it can all only end in tears, suddenly hits you. It really does put everything into perspective.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Apart from the Hubble telescope image 'The Pillars of Creation', 'The Hubble Deep Field' really puts astronomy into perspective for me, (an area less than the full Moon and it is galaxy's and DSO's everywhere)... 

[HD-AP]

It all

Started for me when i picked a copy of THE STORY OF THE HEAVENS ,by sir robert ball

This was a red cover 1st edition with gold leaf edges to the pages and the coloured illustrations were fantastic , Later reprints blue cover are very poor so if you pick up one of these they are a poor imitation of the origional .

the planets colours were magical ,and the moon like etchings on a steel engraving plate .

I was 10 at the time but this inspired me and led me to seek out the astronomy guru in my village and who set me on this rather stony path and was is an optical genius .

His telescopes were large relectors and refactors cosmetically challanged but and as he said it's for looking through not at were opitcaly perfect .

He was a very good telescope  maker ,but by happenstance bought a secondhand 6 inch refractor which blew his mind from an optical standpoint  ,saying i couldn't make a lens that came anywhere near to this one .

The maker of this telescope was  Roland christian  .and before he became world famous as astrophysics .

my first telescope was a 4 inch f8 newtonian mirror made and figured by myself age 11 i still have that mirror though the ota configurations have changed along with the passing decades fads.

second telescope which i still have is a prinz 660 it has a good objective which performs well above the standard magnification rule per inch of apeture .

since then i have sought out the best optics first and built a telescope around them unless i could buy a better complete telescope .Refracors come into this category.I am a visual observer not an imager best lunar and planetary views have been through my vixen 150 ED refractor bettered  only by my astrophysics 180 EDT refractor . 

I have  larger reflectors with exellent optics but the asthetic view is better in the refractors most of the time .

Anyway i digress ,it was the stunning images in a book that first inspired me .and it seems a theme that continues to this day......

[Paul M]

The late Sir Bernard Lovell wrote a book some time ago called " In The Center of Imensitites".

It wasn't a particularly brilliant book but I loved the title.

That's what gets, the scale of it all.

A bloke called Hoimar Von Ditfurth wrote the book that utterly astounded me. "Children of The Universe", it's an old book I read as a school boy and probably way out of date but it was the first book that told me that we are Star Dust. The product of ancient supernovae.

That, for me, was the single greatest revellation I ever learned from science.

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[ghostdance]

The illustrations of Chesley Bonestell (in Conquest of Space by Will Ley for example) were what took my breath (and imagination) away when I was a boy, and still do. Utterly wonderful...

If I had to name one person who set off that spark in me to look out into the universe in wonder, it would have to be CB.

[ollypenrice]

To be honest, I'm sort of confused about these images as well as awed. A lot of the images of galaxies or nebulae that I've seen don't show any traces of those gas/dust clouds at all even if they are fairly well made and make the object look stunning. I'm rather curious as to how people like olly and sharkmelley manage to acheive that level of imaging without frying their CCDs.

    ~pip

Getting the very faint stuff to show is all about catching enough of the faint light and separating it from the background. This means very long exposure times, fast optics (or, ideally, both!) and dark skies. It isn't really very mysterious. You just chip away at it. The sky has all that you're looking for...

Olly

[Dave Lloyd]

+1 for Chesley Bonestell. He also painted the first "real" interplanetary space craft I had seen i.e not a pointy nose and fins at the back.

[Paul M]

David Hardy's work used to illustrate a few books I owned over the years.

Some of it fanciful escapism and some of it more technical.

I seem to remember SPM having his work in some of his books.

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[SteveA]

I think my most recent "Holly Mosses" images must be of comet 67p taken from Rosetta and the Philaea lander. I still have trouble getting my head around what an amazing accomplishment this is. I can stare at some of the surface images for ages....just totally incredible, the surface of a comet....just how is it possible!!

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/rosetta/20141118/rosetta20141118-16.jpg

[Piero]

What has really changed my perspective of the night sky?

I love seeing amateur images and I think nowadays these are generally impressive if not superb!

Although I admire them, I am not in this hobby for this reason now. Possibly I got in when I started at 15, but things have changed since then. Now looking at the sky is a cathartic experience, a connection with the universe, a feeling of calm and loneliness. It is realising that you are less than a dot but you can see this huge engine evolving out there. It is realising that you are between the micro and the macro in terms of scales and thinking about how all of this has emerged and is changing. This to me has something of magic and beautiful.

Somehow is a deep sense of respect, admiration, and surprise.

Realising this has changed my view in amateur astronomy as anything else. You may have felt disappointed in the last months, but this is related to you view of things, not to your telescope or the sky. My telescope is less than half than yours and, with limits, still gives me the feelings mentioned above.

Take your time and you will gradually see more and more about the sky and yourself too

Best, Piero