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Is this Ursa Major (Great Bear)?

Emperork

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Emperork

Emperork

Posted
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Hi guys, new user, and first time post. Was in my garden in London, UK last night at about 6am jsut before sunrise and snapped a few photos. I want to get my bearings though and this was the most prominent constellation. At just after 6am (I think), it was pretty much directly overhead. I think I may have snapped most of Ursa major but cut off a bit of the top....

....or I may be completely wrong!

Thanks for any help!

dsc69662.jpg
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mwalke36

mwalke36

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How can you see so many stars in your garden when I can count them all using both hands in my garden??? :)

Where are you located in london?

Here's hoping for a clear sky and a power cut for a few hours:cool:

Cool picture.

thanks

Mark

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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Yep, it's Ursa Major! Here's a poorly drawn diagram for you :) I hope you don't mind me pinching the photo to show you

post-16040-133877414308_thumb.jpg

I've flipped it 180 degrees - follow the arrow up and you get to Polaris, the pole star. In the circle (or there abouts) are twogalaxies, M81 and M82 - easily seen with a beginner's scope. The star second in from the left of the body of Ursa Major is a double - Mizar and Alcor, look at it for long enough and you'll see the double easily with your naked eyes - you've also picked it up on the photo :icon_eek: nice work :eek:

HTH

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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Wow you can see so many stars if you adjust curves a little! How long was the exposure? I've roughly marked out Ursa Major for you although it's upside down.

[ATTACH]30047[/ATTACH]

I've been playing around with curves and levels today for the first time. It really is amazing how many more stars you can see by tweaking levels etc.

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Emperork

Emperork

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Right, using my dad's video camera tripod, I stuck on my Nikon D40x, Sigma 17-70mm lens, set at f/2.8, 17mm, 800 ISO, 30 seconds exposure, spot metering but auto white balance. I know that anything ebyond 6 seconds or so blurs due to the stars moving so fast but I can't really get the exposure otherwise, (unless I had a pro level DSLR for shorter exposure at higher less noisy ISO or a tracking mount).

The original picture is actually extremely orange though you can see about 90% of the stars as you do in the edited picture.

The edited picture was created by taking the original into photoshop, duplicating the layer, then applying a dust and scratches filter on the duplicated layer to a point where the whole thing became a sheet of orange, and finally changing the mode to difference blending which essentially only shows the difference between the two layers leaving everything else black, (i.e. the stars were different, and all the orange cancelled each other out between the two layers). Ended up with a few extra stars that you can't quite see with the naked eye.

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Emperork

Emperork

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OK thanks very much guys! I just got back in just now and had a few more photos. Now this time I spotted Queen and Perseus. I hope to eventually get an image of Andromeda but I believe at this point it was stuck behind the tree, and judging from the way Great Bear had moved since last night, it was only going to move away from me....

so 1: Do I need to go out about 2 hours after it gets dark? (These were taken at about 1.30am) to spot Andromeda overhead, and

2: I tried hard to identify what is going on in this photo, but I just can't recognise anything. I think it's somewhere around the Aries area but I'm not sure. I'm using an A4 sheet as a reference and have no idea what lies much to the 'left' of Aries/Taurus really. I also had a look at Astrometry but I need to request the program. Any help once again guys?

dsc7004.jpg

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Wiltshiresaint

Wiltshiresaint

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These are some great photos you're taking. I've taken a couple with my Canon DSLR but don't have your Photoshop skills and they're not a patch on yours.

Stellarium is a great freebie, and it's helped me a lot. I'm not sure if your aware but it has a red light mode which if you use it outside helps you keep your night vision.

Oh, and you're right about Andromeda, it was behind the tree but it'll be overhead(ish) around 8pm I think. I got it in one of my photos as a hazy smudge.

Happy snapping!

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Emperork

Emperork

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thanks for the compliments everyone about the photoshopping but I must say it's not that hard. I wrote it all out before in one big chunk but I'll list it, and I assure you, assuming you have taken a decent photo which most likely will have a strong orange glow, the photo taking stage will take all of a few minutes and the photoshopping, UNDER a minute!

Photo:

On tripod

25 seconds

ISO 800

Spot Metering

Auto white balance

Biggest aperture (lowest f number)

Zoom out as far as possible

Shoot in highest quality (raw usually)

Photoshop:

Duplicate the background layer

With the duplicate layer selected: Filter-> Noise-> Dust and scratches

Set Pixel thingy setting to max and threshold to min

Once it renders, change the opacity (little drop down box above the layers list) to Difference (near the bottom)

That's it!

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