On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
BillinGlendaleCA
While I can use filters here at the West Glendale Observatory, there is no substitute for dark skies. Fortunately my astro rig is quite portable and takes only a few minutes to setup. I’ve not been able to go to my dark places much since last October due to weather, money and auto issues. These were shot between early August and mid-October at a couple of dark sites in our local desert.
This is the Wizard Nebula, an emission nebula surrounding a open star cluster in the constellation Cepheus.
The Bubble Nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia, named for the bubble like object in the center. The lobster claw nebula is at the upper right.
Unlike the previous two shots, the Crab Nebula(M1), is not an emission nebula, but a supernova remnant that was observed on Earth in 1054.
This is the Great Orion Nebula(M42) which is visible to the naked eye. It is quite bright and easily photographed even in light polluted skies. What you need a dark place is to get the dust surrounding the nebula.
The Pacman Nebula, named for it’s shape similar to the video game, is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia.
The Andromeda Galaxy(M31) is a large spiral galaxy about 2.5 light years distant. It is the furthest object that can be seen with the naked eye
The Triangulum Galaxy(M33) is smaller than the Andromeda Galaxy and slightly further away from us.
My astro rig after a night of shooting with the Red Cliffs at Red Rock Canyon State Park.
Baud
Amazing, as always.
So much stuff out there. It’s hard to comprehend.
Ramalama
Gorgeous. I also love the last photo shows gorgeous behind the scenes.
Have you ever heard of glazing your photos to protect against bots? U of Chicago made an app for free.
JPL
Beautiful!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Thanks. I’m still shooting here at the West Glendale Observatory, last week was the Eagle Nebula and at its core the Pillars of Creation. I don’t think NASA has to worry about competition.
@Ramalama: I like the Red Cliffs, it is not the darkest place, but it is not bad in certain directions. Never heard of glazing.
@JPL: Thanks.
Winter Wren
Awesome photos!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Winter Wren: Thanks much.
Matt McIrvin
I need to figure out a nearby darkish-sky place I can go at night without being kicked out by the authorities, just to do simple stargazing. I have fond memories of a particularly good Leonid meteor shower that happened when were living in Arlington, Mass., which I watched just by walking over to the Mystic River Reservation, though I think it was technically closed at night (hadn’t occurred to me to worry about that) and there are a lot of trees around there.
Rachel Bakes
Amazing
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: Try http://www.lightpollutionmap.info.
@Rachel Bakes: Thanks.
DarbysMom
Spectacular pics Bill! Thanks for sharing.
Timill
Checks: Andromeda should be 2.5 million LY. 2.5 LY would be closer than any other star…
Spanky
@Matt McIrvin: Check out your local state parks for likely candidates, then see the Director or Education Coordinator and ask permission. They usually don’t have a problem with it if they see you’re not some sketchy dude. And it’s harder for them to say no in person.
Assuming you actually aren’t some sketchy dude.
AM in NC
Wow. Just amazing. I love that there is a Pacman Nebula. Thank you for sharing your work and your vast amount of info with us.
Spanky
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: You’ve come a long way since you first started, and I can see where you’re disposable income goes! Which scope did you pick?
Spanky
@AM in NC: The naming of nebulae didn’t really catch on until a: the proliferation of high quality photos by amateurs, and b: the creation of the internet made communication between them easy and, let us say, constant.
Pacman has always been known as NGC 281. Boring!
M31
those are great!
I’m ready for my closeup :-)
WaterGirl
Bill, I was so happy to see this from you when it came in!
Trivia Man
@M31: can we call you Andy? Andy Romeda?
stinger
Simply gorgeous. Thank you!
Trivia Man
Last year we were in Waterton Alberta, and they kept bragging about their dark skies. So i went iut to see the milky way. But in town (a tiny town) there were a LOT of lights. All pointing down, but in nearly every direction. I tried to walk to a dark spot but it was windy as hell plus i had no clue where i could see the sky. After trying to find a dark clearing for a couple hours i gave up. But i did get some spectacular views of the Prince of Wales hotel.
Miss Bianca
wow.
dat’s all I got.
Fair Economist
Such beautiful pictures! I hope you get to get out and enjoy the dark night skies again soon.
cope
These are wonderful, thank you. It must make you feel pretty good when you end up with these finished images. I assume you are taking multiple shots of each, stacking them and doing some post-imaging work. That’s a very enviable skill set. Thanks again.
Manyakitty
Magnificent
J.
Always love seeing your work. I miss seeing stars at night.
CaseyL
These are wonderful photos, but of even more interest to me is what it’s like, what it feels like, to look through the scope and see the nebulae, the galaxies, etc. “live and in person.”
Because I’ve never gotten over that experience, myself. Seeing the solar system through a telescope was…indescribable.
BigJimSlade
@Timill: “2.5 million LY”
This is why I think the biggest understatement possible is the word “space.”
BigJimSlade
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Great shots! I saw that first one and though, hm, it’s cloudy in outer space. :-)
I opened each file in a new window, and deleted the dimensions from the end of the file name that get appended on there when the small version of the image gets served so I could see a bigger version… you keep a lot of info in your file names, lol!
My trusty Olympus camera was lost, along with the house, in the Palisades fire, so on our Alps trip this year, I’ll be trying out my new Nikon Z50 with its 2 basic kit zoom lenses (they had a refurbished sale for just $600 – I couldn’t pass that up). I don’t do the night skies, though, just my flower close-ups and landscapes. So far, it’s nice and light.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@DarbysMom: Glad you like them.
@Timill: You are correct, too fast typing on my part.
@Spanky:
Well, he does comment here. Good advice on state parks, the Red Cliffs area is a day use area, but I’ve never had an issue. Another place to look is BLM land.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@AM in NC: Happy to share, lots of sky objects have been given interesting names; not just nebula, but galaxies as well.
@Spanky: Thanks, better equipment, more knowledge. I’m using the cheapest equipment I can find since that’s all I can barely afford. My OTA is a SVBONY SV48p.
@Spanky: There are some interesting names, the Monkeyhead nebula.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@M31: Late Summer and early Fall, I’ll be shooting you again.
@WaterGirl: I actually tried submitting this set last Fall, but it got eatened by FYWP. I finally got around to redoing it.
@Trivia Man: Galaxies are sometimes giving interesting names, like the Cigar Galaxy(M82).
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@stinger: You’re welcome.
@Trivia Man: Finding dark sites is not all that easy, even places that are “dark sites” sometimes aren’t all that dark.
@Miss Bianca: Thanks.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Fair Economist: I’ve got a week of vacation at the end of the month around the new Moon, I hope to get out and about.
@cope: Thanks, most of the time when I’m shooting deep sky objects, I’ll shoot multiple 3 minute exposures. Most of these shots were shot for a hour or two. I stack and process using free software(Siril) with some finishing work in Photoshop.
@Manyakitty: Thanks.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@J.: I can’t see much here in the city, I spent 2 1/2 hours finding the Rosette nebula 2 years ago. But I can get some pretty good shots with the proper filters and time.
@CaseyL: I don’t do visual, but what is similar is when I see the image slowly show up with each sub exposure getting stacked and resolving the target. Sort of like a Polaroid photo.
@BigJimSlade: I’ve managed to get a few fuzzy spots on my photos that turn out to be galaxies over 100 million light years distant.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@BigJimSlade: Lots of clouds of dust and gas in space.
Ah, you’ve decoded my naming convention. I add a suffix for each processing step. I use two pieces of software now and add that in as well. It helps keep track of what I’ve done and then maybe take another path if I’m not happy with one step.
Congrats on the new camera, though the circumstances making it necessary suck. With an APS-C sensor you can certainly shoot astro landscape with a wide angle lens, if you want to go to the “dark side”.
BigJimSlade
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Wow!
BigJimSlade
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I like your naming convention efforts – very useful!
No current plans to go to the dark side, though that could always change. I recall a Black Friday trip to Joshua Tree NP and, dang, it was cold out there late at night while trying to take a few pictures with a gorilla pod sitting on top of my car!
Sorry for the late responses… just hadn’t been back around to check.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@BigJimSlade: One of the processing apps I use has a feature called “what’s in my image”, I’ve not used it much on my images, but the program author has on his and found quasars that are billions of light years distant.
@BigJimSlade: I’ve shot in Owens Valley in December, when I got there it was a balmy 17 degrees and went down to 14. No worries on late replies, I was at work at the Orange.