Cosmic Pursuits

Basic astronomy and night sky information

Astronomy Images and Video

Beautiful and interesting images and video of the night sky including stars, planets, the Milky Way, and deep-sky objects taken through a camera lens or through a telescope.

The Pleasures of Ugly Astrophotography

by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

An untracked snapshot of the North America nebula taken with a ZWO ASI385MC camera and Nikon 28mm manual camera lens at f/2.8.

A thread on the astronomy forum Cloudy Nights a couple of years ago explored the possibility of capturing quick ‘snapshot’ astrophotos with small but sensitive monochrome cameras and inexpensive, small-aperture lenses of less than 25mm (!) aperture. Even better, this approach used no astronomy mount or tracking at all, just a fixed camera tripod and a PC to capture and stack each image over the course of a minute or two. Lightweight, cheap, simple.

It seemed like a preposterous idea. So of course I had to try it!

[Read more…] about The Pleasures of Ugly Astrophotography

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Galaxy Hunting with a 60 mm Telescope

by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video, Stargazing

The face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 lies near the handle of the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. It lies at a distance of 21 million light years. Click to open in a new window.

While awaiting the appearance of the Milky Way, not to mention astronomical darkness which won’t come again until July at my northerly latitude, I’ve been having fun snapping photos of galaxies with a 50 mm smart scope and other instruments of modest aperture. I recently tested another diminutive telescope, the Takahashi FOA-60 to see what it could do. While primarily intended to be a visual instrument, this telescope features superb optical quality, but it has a relatively slow focal ratio of f/8.8 which is not ideal for astrophotography. Nevertheless, I hooked up a small camera, the monochrome and highly sensitive ZWO ASI533MM-Pro and a Tele Vue 0.8x focal reducer to coax the optics of this little telescope down to a more reasonable f/7. Then I aimed it up out of the plane of the Milky Way into intergalactic space and snapped some photos of galaxies in and around Ursa Major to see what I could capture [Read more…] about Galaxy Hunting with a 60 mm Telescope

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Galaxy Hopping with a 2-Inch Telescope

by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video, Deep Sky

Messier 81 (left) and Messier 82 (right), the largest two galaxy in the M81 Group. Imaged with a Seestar 50 smart telescope, 174x20s, with the telescope in EQ mode, stacked and processed in PixInsight. Slightly cropped to frame the galaxies better.

While star clusters and many nebulae are relatively large and bright objects for visual observing, galaxies are a different matter. A side from the Magellanic Clouds, only two shine bright enough to see without optics, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, and most are far fainter. But with a little optical aid, dozens of galaxies pop into view. Charles Messier, who mostly observed with a 4″ refractor in 18th century France, catalogued 40 galaxies in his original list of 103 deep-sky objects, although he had no idea as to their great distance and nature as distinct ‘island universes’. [Read more…] about Galaxy Hopping with a 2-Inch Telescope

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Ten Favorite Night Sky Images of 2024

by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

In this last article of 2024, I share with you ten of my favorite images of the night sky that I captured this year. I hoped to do more visual observing over the past 12 months, and I did manage to work through my lists of double stars and carbon stars in the winter and spring. But I also wanted to record images specific objects as well as interesting regions of the night sky as part of a lifelong goal to understand the layout of our own galaxy. Also, in my line of work, I need to keep up some technical skills and an understanding of astrophotography. So, I figured as I learn I might as well capture images of something good. Here are some interesting vistas and events from 2024, most captured from my suburban backyard in Calgary… [Read more…] about Ten Favorite Night Sky Images of 2024

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The Eta Carinae Nebula

by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video, Deep Sky

The Eta Carinae Nebula, just above center, seen in this wide nightscape image of the southern Milky Way in 2023 from the Rio Hurtado region of northern Chile. Image credit: Brian Ventrudo

The Eta Carinae Nebula, the jewel of the southern-hemisphere constellation Carina, the Keel, is the most spectacular example of an active star factory in all the heavens. The nebula is about 260 light years across, some seven times larger than the Orion Nebula. And while 7,500 light years away, five times farther away than Orion, it’s still easily visible to the even the most casual stargazer as a large frosty patch three times as wide as the full Moon in the Milky Way west of the constellation Crux, the Southern Cross [Read more…] about The Eta Carinae Nebula

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