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[smr]

Hi all,

Been a while since I imaged anything, last imaging session was in March, been busy moving house and lost some motivation with the long days as well, but I've got my mojo back. I decided to image the Andromeda Galaxy after looking at DSO Browser earlier, clouds permitting. The reason for this is that I should be able to image this more successfully with my unmodified DSLR. I've not been happy with Ha rich targets with the equipment I have probably because of the lack of total imaging time and UK weather but moreso that my camera isn't Ha modified, so I'm going to save those emission nebula etc. for when I get a dedicated astronomy camera. M31 is an easier target to image having said that. 

Funnily enough I then stumbled across this article which says that Andromeda will be nearer to Earth for the first time in 150 million years (!) than it has ever been before in August.... so it won't have been this close since mankind didn't exist!

http://www.scienceinfo.news/in-august-the-andromeda-galaxy-will-move-closer-to-earth-a-cosmic-event-that-only-happens-once-every-150-million-years/

On a technical note I am wondering whether I should ditch my cheap OVL light pollution filter. With it, I am able to expose for 3-5 minutes therefore gathering more light during each exposure. Without the filter I am not able to expose for nearly as long, probably a minute at ISO 200/400 which is the recommended ISO setting for my DSLR.

I have no sodium lamps near me, the village is 95 percent LED and what's also good is that where I live now the LED lights turn off after 12am. But from my back garden there are no direct lights visible ( it backs onto a field )... so I am wondering whether I should remove the filter and shoot without it, shorter subs, or keep it on as they claim to help with 'general skyglow light pollution' ... any advice welcome.

[MattJenko]

if you find that your imaging time without the filter is being saturated with andromeda light, then just take lots of shorter exposures of strong andromeda signal images without the filter. if, however, the background is being saturated without the filter, keep the filter in.

[vlaiv]

19 hours ago, smr said:

Funnily enough I then stumbled across this article which says that Andromeda will be nearer to Earth for the first time in 150 million years (!) than it has ever been before in August.... so it won't have been this close since mankind didn't exist!

http://www.scienceinfo.news/in-august-the-andromeda-galaxy-will-move-closer-to-earth-a-cosmic-event-that-only-happens-once-every-150-million-years/

Sorry to say - that article is full of BS (pardon my french).

I'm not saying that to deter you from imaging M31 - I'm just saying for the greater good of readers.

Due to motions of two galaxies and motion of our solar system inside our galaxy (orbiting galactic core), actual "distance" is changing every second (if we assume distance to be a distance between earth and single point in Andromeda - like galaxy core or center of mass or whatever). Speed of change is such that that you won't notice anything on wast time scales because total distance is huge and any small change will be very small fraction of total distance.

M31 is about 2.5-3 degrees so it is about 5-6 times full moon.

I do encourage people to read the article to have a laugh, as some seriously funny language constructs were used, like this:

Quote

The particularity of this recurring phenomenon (commonly called “circumstellar elliptical conjunction of coercive muscle elongation” in top athletes) is to allow our sun to be projected into the telluric zone of solar attraction like a projectile launched from a slingshot, every 150 million years exactly!

 

[vlaiv]

Ah sorry, this is even better:

Quote

For astronomy enthusiasts eager for practical details, the galaxy’s heliocentric viscous perineum will occur this summer (in August to be precise) at a ridiculous distance of only 64 million light years with an amplitude of -3.14 at the most for an arc of 1687 seconds in length. As a result, the Andromeda galaxy will, at this precise time, appear in the sky even larger than the full moon!

 

[Mognet]

I think the About page says it all for the scientific reliability of that site! http://www.scienceinfo.news/about/

[JamesF]

12 minutes ago, Mognet said:

I think the About page says it all for the scientific reliability of that site! http://www.scienceinfo.news/about/

I love this line:

"this ... site publishes totally false ... information, which is, moreover, not true at all."

Totally false and not true at all, eh?  That's a whole new kind of made up.

James

[upahill]

34 minutes ago, Mognet said:

I think the About page says it all for the scientific reliability of that site! http://www.scienceinfo.news/about/

Some of the other articles on the site are very informative though:

Paris Mayor Announces Vin Diesel Will Be Banned From Entering City Starting 2022
Geologists discover a natural mineral spring of Coca-Cola in Yellowstone National Park
But the one about everyone leaving their fridge doors open to combat global warming was the gem 😂

 

[david_taurus83]

Theres some belters on that site! I'm gonna bookmark it for a laugh every now and again!

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

There are some belters there!

The last viscous perineum I saw required surgery...

Edited July 26, 2019 by ScouseSpaceCadet