Feebo`s Astro Thread

[Feebo]

I`ve been doing astrophotography for a good few years now. Some of these shots are with old kit and aren`t very clear, others are with newer kit and are much better. I`ve actually got thousands and thousands of quids worth of equipment now, including a dirty great big computerised scope :)
I`ll add to this each time I`m here.....
An old Jupiter...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/jupiter3.jpg
Mars and two moons, over exposed but a nice shot...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/001.jpg
The moon....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/sssssmoon.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/sssssssssssssssmoon.jpg

[Feebo]

Venus, I was chuffed to get a bit of cloud contrast in this shot. Won a prize for this one...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/VenusAVIfinalx2.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/VenusAVI2goodone-3.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/MoonAVIthreemuchbetter.jpg

[emseeKAY]

those are amazing! thats so cool, p.s. i wonder how different the moon looks over in the UK, or does the rotational axis of the earth make it stay relatively the same (as in am i seeing the same part of the moon you do lol)

[Feebo]

Aaaaw that`s one of my first Saturns that is. Even that was after a whole load of patience was needed, drove me half mad that did! It became an obsession. Got the bugger in the end though, I`ll show you my best effort soon...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/T001-068.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/ssmoon.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/sssmoon.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/ssssmoon.jpg

[Feebo]

Everyone on the Earth always sees the same part of the moon because it doesn`t ratate. it`s in what`s called geosycrinous orbit, it turns at the same rate it goes around the Earth so the same side always faces us....

[Feebo]

Slightly better Saturn, starting to learn some serious lessons now (about four years ago that)
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/Saturn4xBarlowraw.jpg
My scope...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/slug009.jpg
Saturn getting MUCH better by this point... (yes these are true life colours)
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/ISaturnRaw.jpg

[Feebo]

I think this is my best Saturn yet, I may be wrong but I think this is it...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/7wkSaturnRaw.jpg
Many lessons learned and experienced gained by this point. Moons getting much better, I was looking at the landing sites here...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/TackleMoon2Raw2.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/TackleMoonRaw.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/Ballsmoon3better.jpg
Around about this point I bought a load of new equipment. Planetary imaging kit mainly. I`ve not done masses of work with my new stuff yet so watch this space! I have done some nice shots of Mars though which are to follow...

[.: Laura :.]

Some absolutely incredible pictures there! Time for Neptune!

[Feebo]

Lots of moons but hey, they`re amazing, it`s like flying over in a plane and taking photos. I can see INTO large craters or look at rocks the size of cars with my scope. Pretty cool stuff...
A slightly different approach here, long exposure photography for DEEP sky. This is the Dumbell nebula. At the centre of it is the hotest star we know of....(Apart from Kylie)
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/FinishedDumbbellnebuleJPEG.jpg
This again is long exposure, M15 a globular cluster. Each one of those dots is a SUN, probably much bigger than ours. It takes a whole lot of experience to bring out the detail of the ones at the centre without blowing the lot out exposure wise. There`s barely any memory left on my brains hard drive after learning all this stuff lol
A half finished Andromeda galaxy. It needed more exposures but I never finished it because of a few flaws....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/Andromeda11initialJPEG.jpg
A whole galaxy in one photo, not bad eh?

[Feebo]

Alas, I`ve only attempted Neptune once and I missed it by two degrees :(

[Feebo]

The Ring nebula...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/FinalRingnebula11111.jpg
I`ve enever looked at the night sky in the same way after seeing all this colour up there, coming from.... somewhere else. It`s so mad to think about. When i`m out there at three in the morning, I really feel like a tiny being stood on a little rock looking at the vast everything....
An over cooked Vega, I just liked the effect so I kept it...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/madstar001.jpg
My very first Mars...
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/MyfirstMarsinitstack.jpg
Getting better....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/NewMars3initstack.jpg
Bit better again, starting to see the landmass now....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/FinalLRGBMARS-Copycopy.jpg

[Feebo]

My best Mars yet, complete with polar ice cap. I`m only just getting to know my new kit and there`s a LOT of room for improvement. I`m looking forward to getting out again soon....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/BesteffortsofarMars.jpg
Right, i`m off to bed. I`ll upload some more soon..... :)

[marvelfreak]

Wow! Good work can't wait to see more.

[percey39]

Wow those are insane mate, i can understand being out there at 3 in the morning now.
Now for the question i have been dying to ask, have you ever captured vision of a black hole or any other space phenomenon

[Freebody]

thay are some amazing pics! plz post more. i love looking up at the star and would die to have that gear you have but like you said its big $ have you ever been looking and seen somthing you cant explain fly by? i just cant help but to wonder how many other life forms are out their.

[Grimleo]

Wow, yet again some things I have never even seen before and I am amazed. O_O

Would absolutely love to see more. :D

[infernalis]

Amazing photos!! keep them coming.

[Feebo]

Ooooh yes I`ve seen all sorts of weird stuff. I often see space junk. That usually takes the form of tumbling and spinning bits of metal that flash as they turn and catch the sun. Even in the middle of the night! If it`s far enough up, it can still catch the sun at three in the morning. I often see the international space station go over my house. That goes from horizon to horizon in a few minutes so there`s plenty of time to get a good look at it, although I`ve yet to track and image it. I have equpment that can lock onto it`s GPS reciever though so I will do it one day. I`ve seen lots and lots of meteors of varying sizes. The best ever was a daytime fireball over my house, that was mad! A bit worrying too, my wife and I were waiting for the bang, it was that big we thought it would hit the Earth. I once sat on a roof top and watched the most spectacular meteor shower i`ve ever seen. It was just like it was raining burning magnesium. It was that mad it just felt like I was tripping or something ! lol They had smoke trails too because most of them were making it well inside the atmosphere. Have I ever seen something that looked like it was a craft of some sort? No. I`m still waiting for that one! I see satelites all the time and I`m always waiting for them to do a mad turn or something but nothing yet! lol I think one of the most breath taking things I`ve seen, and this is a tuff call when I`m alway looking closely at other planets, is Mars. It`s so similar to Earth that looking at it`s clouds, it`s polar cap and a very thin atmosphere which I can see as a thin blue line is just amazing. It makes me shiver looking at that, it`s a truely awsome sight. Now take note here anyone that uses the word "awesome" for anything from a burger to a skateboard trick. Beholding a planet from millions of miles away while all on your own in the middle of the night, AWSOME. Jumping a skateboard over a park bench? Just COOL. lol :)

[infernalis]

Somewhere I saw a photo that was taken of the space station passing in front of the sun. It was awesome.

Found it......

http://www.reptard.info/532/sun.jpg


I agree with you, the cosmos is mind boggling awesome!

[Will0W783]

Wow Feebs, those are amazing! You should sell prints of them.

[Feebo]

Naaaah there are far more experienced astrophotographers than me that produce much better work.... That photo above was taken with a Hydrogen Alpha scope that you can image the sun with. One day, one christmas morning, I`ll open a prezzy and dribble all over my first Hydrogen Alpha scope :) All five thousand quids worth of it.....

[infernalis]

Right, The whole reason that photo is so nice, it's a photographer like you who took it.

Sure NASA can take better ones ;)

[Freebody]

ya i agree you should try to sell them, sure their is better ones from better equipment but those are some of the nicest ones i have seen so.... sell them :P pay for that hydrogen alpha and get some more pics for us all to drool over :) 5k thier is close to 10k here lol ouch thats costly equipment. space junk sound pretty cool to catch but wait for one day when you see a little green man waving at you lol ill buy that photo. more pics when you get them would rock!!after looking at your pics yesterday i could not help but to walk out last night and look up in the sky for a few minutes.

[Feebo]

I`ll post more soon and when I get myself out there again I`ll keep them coming :) I tell you what.... I hear this from loads of people. "Oh you just don`t see many stars these days because of the cities" Rubbish. If you want to see something amazing, no kit needed, just the old Mark 1 Eyeball. Go outside late at night, and stay out there for an hour or so, let your eyes adjust you`ll be amazed at what you can see! Last year when I was out, I was looking at the Milky way strestching out across the sky and once my eyes had adjusted, I swear, it was sooooo three dimensional looking!! It was just like at the beggining of Star trek! I`m always humbled when I look at the stars but that time especially, I took a mental photograph for use in future dark times. That was THE single most beautiful thing I have EVER seen........

[shaunyboy]

Everyone on the Earth always sees the same part of the moon because it doesn`t ratate. it`s in what`s called geosycrinous orbit, it turns at the same rate it goes around the Earth so the same side always faces us....


and no doubt those crazy nasa guys parked their moon buggy on the side we cant see.:shocked:

i heard that china will be launching a sattelitte soon that will map the moon down to a square inch.

i'm thinking we'll find out if the americans have been telling a few whopping great big lies for all those years.

i will be the first to put my hands up to being wrong if they get a shot of their wee moon buggy,but some how i think it wont be there.

great pic's feebo,keep them coming

cheers shaun

[Feebo]

I`ve seen images of footprints and equipment on the moon mate, I`ll see if I can find it for you.....

..... Here you go :)
Apollo Landing Sites Photographed - NASA Science (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/17jul_lroc.htm?list987402)

There`s a laser reflector on the Moon too, that returns laser beam fired at it so they can measure the distance between Earth and the Moon. All the equipment is sat there to look at. I don`t think man has ever set foot on the dark side, it`s very very rocky so landing wouldn`t really be safe. That and it`s all the more inhospitable on the dark side generally....

[Lankyrob]

Don't want to go to the darkside........use the Force, Luke

[shaunyboy]

i dont know if you'd have had the neccessary equiptment mate so please excuse my ignorance in asking.

did you get any pictures of the hale bopp comet when it was passing us ?

its just after dark i could see it quite well from my back garden.awsome looking thing it was...!!


thanks for explaining all this to us mate
cheers shaun

[Feebo]

I didn`t have the kit back then unfortunatly. I did see it though, that was really beautiful wasn`t it! For the firstfew nights I thought it was a planes head lights! lol I`d love to have had the chance to image that with the equipment I have now....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/bopp.jpg
I was helping on a milk round when it passed Earth so I saw it a lot with some very good conditions. :)

[shaunyboy]

I didn`t have the kit back then unfortunatly. I did see it though, that was really beautiful wasn`t it! For the firstfew nights I thought it was a planes head lights! lol I`d love to have had the chance to image that with the equipment I have now....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/bopp.jpg
I was helping on a milk round when it passed Earth so I saw it a lot with some very good conditions. :)


thats the best picture yet mate.

what i noticed is when i looked at the comet it always ran left to right.

what i mean is the tail was to the left and the comet to the right.

if it was on a tv screen,it appeared to be moving from the left side of the screen to the right

in your picture you appear to be behind it and its moving away from you

hope that all makes sense mate.

i'm thinking its because im further north ?

i saw it at various times of the night,7,8,9,pm etc also 1,2,3am it was always roughly in the same place heading the same way

maybe you could throw some light on why this is feebs

cheers shaun

[Feebo]

That`s not my photo mate, I just put it up as we were talking about it. I didn`t actually have the equipment to do it back then unfortunatly. As for the direction of movement, consider this... In space there is no air which means no friction and no wind. Therefore the direction of the comet cannot possibly be ascertained by merely observing that the tail is behind, therefore the comet is moving away from the tail. The comet could just as likely be moving in the direction of it`s tail. The tail is caused by the Sun heating up the comet and causing it to lose particles, those particles move away from the Sun, in the direction of the solar wind (particles leaving the Sun at great speed and traveling across space) Imagine a globe, a globe which blows air outward in every direction with quite a bit of force. As a long haired person walks past that globe, thier hair would always point away from the globe wouldn`t it, same thing. :) See what I mean? It just goes to show how vast the distances are doesn`t it, that comet was moving at insane speed yet it wasn`t visably moving at all and took ages to traverse the night sky and finally disappear. Sorry lol Get me started on astronomy or astrophysics and I`ll be talking all night ! lol :)

[Feebo]

I went out and captured some incredible footage last night. Over five hundred thousand frames of stunning Jupiter data! I`m processing it as we speak, this ones going to take a few days but it`s looking like it`s going to be amazing. My best work yet for sure. It looks like I might even have detail on some moons aswell, so watch this space, if you`ll pardon the pun....

[percey39]

I cant wait mate, loving your photo's so far.

[Feebo]

As I say it`s going to take a little while but just looking at a small section of it now, it`s jawdropping and I`m dead pleased :) This is the big step forward I`ve been working toward. I`ve had to sort out some problems with my tracking since buying a planetatary imaging camera worthy of NASA lol But I seem to be working now, I`m tracking properly and can pinpoint my targets with relative ease. Now the fun part begins! Winter is great for astronomy, I hope to have lots of cool stuff to show off soon. Right.... back to the grindstone, I can see some serious hours going into this one but it`s definitely well worth it! Just twenty years ago, only NASA could do images like this, how bloody cool is that?! :)

[Feebo]

Here we go ;D I`m still working on improving those moons (Io and Ganemede) but the image is pretty much finished now....
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/JUPITERfirstfinalIMPROVED-Copy.jpg
I did quite a few sets while I was out there so I`ll have a few more soon :) This is my best work yet by faaaar....

[infernalis]

Brilliant!!! Bravo. That is one awesome photo.

http://www.jestparty.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/clapping.gif

[Feebo]

LOL Aye thenk you :) Hopefully this`ll set the standard from now on....

[Freebody]

thats a sweet pic, everytime i see this thread come up i look right away hoping for more pics just like that one :) and i love the congrats avatar, I started lauphing right away lol

[Feebo]

Aw cheers Freebody :) I`ve just finished an image of Jupiter at less mag and with three moons so I`ll post that soon. I`m off out on a mission to capture Uranus and Pluto soon too, although those will seem far less impressive to the layman lol Blue dots to be exact :) But a very difficult target to capture....

[marvelfreak]

Sweet pics can't wait to see more. Awesome work!

[Freebody]

im excited to see them already, i read it would take us 100 years or somthing like that with are technology to reach pluto if we tried. thats crazy if you think about the fact are solor system is just a pin prick in the universe.

[Lankyrob]

Was reading about hte solar system today, seems that the sun alone makes up 99.8% of the solar system! Something like that makes you feel pretty insignificant!! lol

[Feebo]

I did some Lunar stuff the other week. Conditions weren`t great but I`m bored so I`ve just processed it. Not too bad either... :)
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/LoonAGAINfinal.jpg

[Feebo]

Here`s another... I`ll get much much sharper images once I can get out in some decent weather. Sitting and looking at the live feed is just soooo cool!! It just feels like flying over the moon in an aeroplane :)
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/feebix/CRATERMOONfinal.jpg
Much better to follow soon hopefully.....

[Freebody]

not to bad either? THey look Great to me :) :Wow: keep them coming, i hate to say it but i hope your bord more often lol

[marvelfreak]

Super sweet pics!

[TylerWortman]

Wow!!!!!!!!

[Feebo]

Cheers :) Oh don`t get me wrong they`re still impressive, I`d have been amazed by these when I first started out. It`s just that I`m working to a totally different standard these days and those moons shots aren`t really keepers. You`ll see what I mean when I show you some stuff I`m happier with :)

[percey39]

Great shots mate, if they are not that great by your standards i look forward to seeing your favourites!!!

[Freebody]

sound great, i love seeing these pics you take :)

[Feebo]

It`s nice to know someone else is interested :) I don`t often get to show anyone my astronomy images...

[marvelfreak]

I for one can't wait to see more.

[Reptile_Reptile]

um he didnt take that picture im pretty sure

lol sorry i got caught in the thread and posted on a post thats way old XD it was the pic of haley's comet i think

[Feebo]

Hale Bopp :) No I just posted that because we were talking about it, that`s not one of mine. I`ve got problems with my planetary imaging kit at the moment so I`ve switched over to deep sky stuff. You`ll like that stuff. :) There are some perfect nights coming up too so I`ll see if I can image some nice galaxies.... :)

[Reptile_Reptile]

sweet im looking forward to it GL