So, those pictures you took......

[Ande]

.... What will you do with them? All of those wonderful images of nebulae and far-flung galaxies. Wide angle Milky Way shots, and star clusters etc. Do you put in all of the blood, sweat and tears and then just let them reside on your hard drive, or do they see the light of day in some form or other? Maybe get turned into posters, or postcards, or maybe home-crafted birthday cards etc?  
 

I am just getting an imaging rig together, and hope to put any pictures I am lucky enough to create to good use. Of course, there will be the obligatory wallpaper and screen-saver for the computer. And, at the very least, a poster or two on the wall. Be interesting to hear what fate awaits the images of other members on here.

[Nigella Bryant]

I send all my relevant solar imaging data to the BAA solar section. As do my planetary image's to the various BAA sections. Variable nebula data goes to the BAA deepsky section in the past but not done any this season, but I hope to and that's where they'll be sent. I'm of the mindset that I don't want to take pretty pictures just for the sake of it. 

[Debo]

Turn them into jigsaws 🙂. Haven't tried it myself yet but think I will.

https://www.my-picture.co.uk/photo-gifts/personalised-photo-puzzle.jsf

Edited December 30, 2020 by Debo

[Ande]

7 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I send all my relevant solar imaging data to the BAA solar section. As do my planetary image's to the various BAA sections. Variable nebula data goes to the BAA deepsky section in the past but not done any this season, but I hope to and that's where they'll be sent. I'm of the mindset that I don't want to take pretty pictures just for the sake of it. 

That sounds very commendable, and worthwhile. I very much doubt I’ll be able to do anything of a sufficient quality to catapult it into the realms of useful. So I’ll be hovering around the “pretty pictures” stage for the foreseeable. In fact, I can only hope to aspire to pretty pictures, if my last few attempts are anything to go by 😀

Edited December 30, 2020 by Ande
Typo

[Ande]

2 minutes ago, Debo said:

Turn them into jigsaws 🙂. Haven't tried it myself yet but think I will.

https://www.my-picture.co.uk/photo-gifts/personalised-photo-puzzle.jsf

Some of those wide-field shots may prove a bit, um, challenging in the jigsaw department. You must be quite the masochist. Unless, of course, you are gonna hand them out as gifts. Then that would be just plain cruel 😂. 

[nephilim]

1 hour ago, Ande said:

.... What will you do with them? All of those wonderful images of nebulae and far-flung galaxies. Wide angle Milky Way shots, and star clusters etc. Do you put in all of the blood, sweat and tears and then just let them reside on your hard drive, or do they see the light of day in some form or other? Maybe get turned into posters, or postcards, or maybe home-crafted birthday cards etc?  
 

I am just getting an imaging rig together, and hope to put any pictures I am lucky enough to create to good use. Of course, there will be the obligatory wallpaper and screen-saver for the computer. And, at the very least, a poster or two on the wall. Be interesting to hear what fate awaits the images of other members on here.

As you know, I'm at the same stage as you more or less & finally nearing the end of getting the gear needed to start (I dont think i'll ever be at near the end of everything i'll want to get though 🤣).

For me, taking the images isn't just about how beautiful these objects are, its also to do with the challenges of taking them. I also love the idea that the photons of light needed for these images to be made  will have set out many many years ago & travelled through space to finally arrive on my cameras sensor. I find that fact quite mind blowing. 

So to answer your question, these images are for me really 🙂

[Moonshed]

9 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I send all my relevant solar imaging data to the BAA solar section. As do my planetary image's to the various BAA sections. Variable nebula data goes to the BAA deepsky section in the past but not done any this season, but I hope to and that's where they'll be sent. I'm of the mindset that I don't want to take pretty pictures just for the sake of it. 

That is such a helpful and useful thing to do, putting your efforts to good use at the BAA. Better than just storing all those lovely images so they barely see the light of day again. 

[JeremyS]

18 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I send all my relevant solar imaging data to the BAA solar section. As do my planetary image's to the various BAA sections. Variable nebula data goes to the BAA deepsky section in the past but not done any this season, but I hope to and that's where they'll be sent. I'm of the mindset that I don't want to take pretty pictures just for the sake of it. 

You are setting an excellent example, Nigella. One that I hope many others will follow. The BAA observing sections would be delighted to receive observations.

[JeremyS]

18 hours ago, Ande said:

That sounds very commendable, and worthwhile. I very much doubt I’ll be able to do anything of a sufficient quality to catapult it into the realms of useful. So I’ll be hovering around the “pretty pictures” stage for the foreseeable. In fact, I can only hope to aspire to pretty pictures, if my last few attempts are anything to go by 😀

I never mastered pretty pictures 😂

Partly as I didn’t have the patience for all the post processing.

That is why I turned to Measuring variable stars with my telescope and CCD. Much easier to do and it generates useful data for researchers to use. This is a plot of a star I followed for 5 hours last night. The processing took about 10 mins: https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20201231_094245_152c541a9aa610a7

This star was only recently discovered and my data gives info about its orbital period (it’s actually a binary star). The 2 “humps” in the plot reveal this info.

[markse68]

12 hours ago, JeremyS said:

This star was only recently discovered and my data gives info about its orbital period (it’s actually a binary star). The 2 “humps” in the plot reveal this info.

That’s a really cool geeky thing to do Jeremy 😉 What’s the scale on the x-axis? 5hrs? that a crazy orbital period! 

I’ve decided this year i’m going to sort out an imaging rig. It’ll be nice to try to make some pretty images but I’m mainly hoping to contribute data to the HOYS project. Haven’t quite worked out the logistics of this yet- an observatory would be really handy!

Mark

[Ande]

20 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I never mastered pretty pictures 😂

Partly as I didn’t have the patience for all the post processing.

That is why I turned to Measuring variable stars with my telescope and CCD. Much easier to do and it generates useful data for researchers to use. This is a plot of a star I followed for 5 hours last night. The processing took about 10 mins: https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20201231_094245_152c541a9aa610a7

This star was only recently discovered and my data gives info about its orbital period (it’s actually a binary star). The 2 “humps” in the plot reveal this info.

Yes, this does sound an incredibly cool thing to be doing with one’s time and data. What it also manages to drive home is just how unbelievably thick I am compared to the majority of boffins on here.  I highly doubt I shall ever get past the “pretty pictures” stage, as much as I may aspire to doing so 😂. 

[nephilim]

2 hours ago, Ande said:

Yes, this does sound an incredibly cool thing to be doing with one’s time and data. What it also manages to drive home is just how unbelievably thick I am compared to the majority of boffins on here.  I highly doubt I shall ever get past the “pretty pictures” stage, as much as I may aspire to doing so 😂. 

Your not on your own mate 😒😂

[Hughsie]

With my IT skills they usually end up deleted!

In all serious though it is a good question and as others here may have already mentioned I do the following;

• Post on the BAA website, especially solar images.
• Post here. I always want to get better and there is some good honest feedback available here.
• All go on my account with Astrobin as a semi permanent backup to what I have at home. I say semi permanent as some got deleted last year by the site but they look to have sorted that now.
• I have my small wordpress website that I am building up. Here is where I talk more about the object and method, not because I know anything but quite the opposite, so I get a better understanding of what I am looking at and how I did it.
• Friends have asked me to take images as a present for others.....now that’s a bit scary but a nice thing to do and a different sort of challenge.
• Then there are those I print for myself, though I am thinking about acquiring a digital photo frame to show them at home.

[JeremyS]

13 hours ago, markse68 said:

That’s a really cool geeky thing to do Jeremy 😉 What’s the scale on the x-axis? 5hrs? that a crazy orbital period!

Thanks Mark. X-axis is days. So the total time I ran for was indeed ~4.5 hours.

The time between the superhumps is about 2 hours. This is close to the orbital period of the red dwarf going round the white dwarf primary star. As you say, these speeds are incredible!

Edited January 1, 2021 by JeremyS

[Nigella Bryant]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Thanks Mark. X-axis is days. So the total time I ran for was indeed ~4.5 hours.

The time between the superhumps is about 2 hours. This is close to the orbital period of the red dwarf going round the white dwarf primary star. As you say, these speeds are incredible!

Brilliant Jeremy, actually fascinating. 

[markse68]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

The time between the superhumps is about 2 hours. This is close to the orbital period of the red dwarf going round the white dwarf primary star. As you say, these speeds are incredible!

Mind boggling! 🤯

[Luke]

I love processing, so a lot of the fun for me is in processing the image. Also, processing lets me have a good look at the subject and makes me feel closer to it, all from the comfort of my chair and the warmth indoors.

Sure, you can buy some books with beautiful images, but I like playing around with the data. I make the images for me but do submit a few to galleries on Flickr.