A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Astronomy pics

I was playing around with my camera tonight and after stepping outside and noticing how bright the constellation Orion was, decided to see if I could get a pic. my first attempts failed, but after reading the manual for my camera, I figured out how to do it.



This next one is a neighboring constellation: Canis majoris (the big dog) The bright star is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky (also called The Dog Star). It's a little over 11 light years from Earth.

WOW - I can see Orion clearly in your picture - great job!

I can even make out a bit of the Orion Nebula!

Your NEXT assignment Figure out the meaning of the word, "Subaru" and get a picture of it (hint, It's NOT a car but a big clue is on the emblem of the car).

I've tried many ways to get pictures of stars some come out decent enough to tell what it is,, ,, most not Great work with your camera Terry I can see it clearly too

Wow!! That's what I wish my camera could do!! Great pics!!

I see you are a Star Wars fan! So am I....also a Trekkie, and I love watching the Power Rangers with my grandkids!!

Thanks guys!

Shirley, my license plate says 4SBWTU

Great pictures!

Did you know that Chubacca's voice was based on the "talking" that George Lucas' Alaskan Malamute did???? I didn't know that until just a couple weeks ago, but have always said that our big Malamute (Kina) sounded like Chewwie...come to find out, it is the other way around! Chewie sounds like my Malamute!

thank you for sharing terry. i'm loving these photos!


(and jenn, no, i didn't know it but i know it now :wink: )

My family and I went to Sirius on vacation when I was a kid. Lovely place but the light was just WAY to BRIGHT!!!!

I'm SERIOUS!

According to the Mayans, Sirius is one of the 12 (or is it 13?) star systems in the galaxy where humans exist.

No, the idea DIDN'T originate with Battlestar Galactica!!

I took pictures tonight terry,, But they weren't near as good as yours; so I deleted them,, it did show a red dot near the moon tho,,

Yes, I zoomed in on Orion's dagger to see it. You could defintely see the nebulosity.

Aha! Subaru means "unite" but it also means The Pleiades! The 6 stars in the emblem represent the 6 brightest, more visible, stars in the Pleiades cluster.

DING!, DING!, DING!, DING!, DING! You win a Prize, Obywan......I don't know WHAT prize, butyou WIN IT!!!

Celestial Show Set for New Year's Eve

Robert Roy Britt
Editorial Director
SPACE.com robert Roy Britt
editorial Director
space.com – Tue Dec 30, 11:47 am ET

A delightful display of planets and the moon will occur on New Year's Eve for anyone wishing to step outside and look up just after sunset.

Venus, brighter than all other planets and stars, will dangle just below the thin crescent moon in the southwestern sky. It'll be visible -- impossible to miss, in fact -- just as the sun goes down, assuming skies are cloud-free.

Soon thereafter, Mercury and Jupiter will show up hugging the south-southwestern horizon (just above where the sun went down) and extremely close to each other. Jupiter is very bright and easy to spot; Mercury is faint and harder to see, but it'll be apparent by its location just to the left of Jupiter.

Jupiter and Mercury will set less than an hour after the sun, so timing your viewing just after sunset is crucial. You'll also need a location with a clear view of the western horizon, unobstructed by buildings, trees or mountains.

All the planets, along with the moon and sun, traverse an arc across our sky called the ecliptic, which corresponds to the plane in space that they all roughly share. For this reason, you could draw an imaginary line from the general location of Venus and the moon, down through the other two planets, and the line would point to where the sun went down. This line could also initially help you find Jupiter and Mercury.

Weather permitting, you can get a preview of the sky show on Tuesday, Dec. 30. On this evening, the planets will be in nearly the same place they'll be on Dec. 31, but the moon will be midway between Venus and the Mercury-Jupiter pairing.

Got it!!! At least the Moon and Venus.

Heres mine taken about 15 minutes ago MOON



VENUS

I used a Canon Eos Rebel XSi with an EF 75-300 mm Zoom lense on manual 1/80 of a second exposure with a delayed, timed shutter trip to eliminate shake in the pictures. Then I processed the picture through Photoshop CS4 with a Noise Ninja Plug-in.

memosa, we are going to have to talk more about where in fl you are. that sunset made me homesick for just a minute.

Memosa I have a Fuji Fine Pix A345
These are my best two tonight

Nice shots everybody!

No pics for me tonight. I had to work. I did get to see the show though. Spectacular I thought, though not as good as the planetary conjunction earlier in the month.

doesn't it seem weird to see the moon in the middle of the day?

I took this picture on afternoon break at work,, it was 3:00 .

Diane you're taking some pretty great pictures with that new camera.

I LOVE that shot, Diane!

I often see the moon during the day here - always thought it was very odd, but now I like seeing it whenever I can - it usually means it's a nice clear day here then.

Thanks Sheri,, Right Now I'm just testing out different settings ,, Fun to learn but frustrating at times,, I've already had to recharge the battery cuz I've taken so many pictures : 95% got deleted

delete is my friend too.

Yeah It was certainly a clear day for sure,,! But to see the moon midday like that is just Not right for me somehow, I guess it's better than seeing two moons midday, , then I'd be scared,,

Angelblossom, I tweaked the moon photo you took today using Photoshop and got some surprising and cool results. Here ya go!

Angelblossoms 3 o'clock Mooning

neat!

Diane I just love that daytime moon shot!! And Thornius, I love what you did with it!!

WOW Thornius,, Coooool!!!!!!! * okay Next on my list// get Photoshop*

I love the brighter Hue circling the moon!!!!!! and it really showed the craters, or is that cheese??

Actually the dark areas are the MARES. (Yes, there are LOTS of black horses on the Moon)......(I lied......MARES is pronounced [Mar-Rays] and means SEAS, not female horses) Mares are ancient lava flows from the time when the moon was volcanically active and suffered MAJOR meteor strikes.

I wasn't expecting the bullseye effect. That came as a total surprise to me. I just followed my usual standard techniques and got it. I suspect it may be something to do with your new camera and/or settings. Whatever it is, I really like the effect.

Try GIMP first....it is free and you can do just about everything on it that you can do with Photoshop. I LOVE the GIMP!

Diane ''

Do yourself a favor and get the eneloop Battery charger an batteries.
they are white batterys . Any my goodness last for hours.

Check if they work in yours..

Hey I'll check that out for sure Jenn thanks!!!


~
Dodge I do have a white flat battery I have to put on a charger dock,, This time it is fully charged so Now I'll see how long the battery last,

tonight the sky was soooooo pretty it looked a velvet dark sapphire back ground to the moon,,




Almost a full moon but not quite