Diamonds in the sky

[Daniel Sheets 11]

Here are two astrophotos that I took. The beauty in the night sky goes unrealized my most.

[Charles dP 496]

Beautiful. Excuse the ignorance but how did you take these?

[Alan Longmire 2,822]

I recognize the Horsehead nebula (former astronomy TA), nice shot.  What's the other one?

[Brian Dougherty 1,210]

Beautiful.

 

At one time I hade to memorize the name of every start in the southern sky brighter that magnitude +1  (or maybe it was -1)  However in my light polluted zone, I can't see much anymore.  I've never been able to see anything like that.  Is it possible with the naked eye?

 

[Adam Weller 332]

Seems to be current trend in our photography section to get first (and only) time posts, not sure what this means...

 

I have been visiting two websites on a daily basis for the better part of 15 years (roughly): This one (bladesmithsforum) and https://apod.nasa.gov/ which is a single daily picture/video related to space with short and typically concise description. I am not into amateur astronomy, I don't even own a telescope, but these pictures fascinate me and to be honest puts my life into perspective.  I live in a fairly dark part of the country, and have grown up seeing the milky way overhead and finding familiar constellations. I cannot wait for the James Webb space telescope to blast off.

 

 

Edited April 1 by Adam Weller

[Alan Longmire 2,822]

2 hours ago, Adam Weller said:

Seems to be current trend in our photography section to get first (and only) time posts, not sure what this means..

 

The last guy turned out to be trolling for text to use as reviews on Amazon or Ebay.  You may notice he's not here anymore.

 

I have my suspicions about this one as well, since it's really tough to get a good pic like that and there are literally thousands of images readily available online, but I give everyone the benefit of doubt.  I must say really good clock drives and computerized positioning/tracking for medium-sized telescopes have come a LONG way since I was playing with them in the late 1980s (daaaaaaang, it's been over thirty years? ).  Back then we used film, color was next to impossible, the CCD camera chip had just been invented and one a few pixels wide would set you back several thousand bucks and required liquid nitrogen to operate.  Now I could mount my DSLR to the back of a 12" SCT and get images like this if I had the cash and the location to set it up.  With film, exposure time was measured in minutes to hours. I don't have a clue what it's down to now with a really good CCD, but I'd guess a matter of seconds.

[Brian Dougherty 1,210]

I think I still have a T-mount for a Pentax K-1000 somewhere in my camera bag.  Lots of cold nights in the early '90's with the roof rolled back on the observatory...

 

Our biggest scope (12") was mounted ever so slightly wrong so you would get drift on exposures over a few minutes.  Student club with no funding, and to my knowledge it never got fixed until someone funded an all new digital observatory about 20 years ago.  Then the poor little student club became a big player in finding asteroids.

Edited April 1 by Brian Dougherty

[Garry Keown 989]

Whoever took these and for whatever reason, it shows Gods Glory in the Heavens.

[Daniel Sheets 11]

Sorry folks. Apparently I hadn't subscribed to the thread.

The top one is indeed the Horsehead Nebula. The bottom one is the Flame Nebula. It's also in the HH photo on the left side of the image. Several years ago I was an astrophotographer. Capturing the night sky one photon at a time. These are long exposure images taken through a telescope with a Canon DSLR.

[Daniel Sheets 11]

This was my first post here but it definitely won't be my last.

 

"I have my suspicions about this one as well, since it's really tough to get a good pic like that and there are literally thousands of images readily available online, but I give everyone the benefit of doubt."

 

You can rest assured that I am here for forging. I just came across the photo section and thought I'd post these. I have many more of other nebulae and several galaxies.

 

"With film, exposure time was measured in minutes to hours. I don't have a clue what it's down to now with a really good CCD, but I'd guess a matter of seconds. "

 

It's still minutes to hours. The image of the HH above is a total of two hours exposure.

Edited April 5 by Daniel Sheets

[Alan Longmire 2,822]

Glad you're a real person!  I saw your other post and figured it out, but I'm still glad you responded here. I will repeat, those are some good shots.  

 

2 hours ago, Daniel Sheets said:

You can rest assured that I am here for forging.

 

Speaking of forging, depending on where in SW VA you are, my guild (State of Franklin Blacksmith's Guild) is having our first real meeting since this time last year on Sunday April 11.  We meet at Rocky Mount State Historic Site in Piney Flats/Bluff City/Johnson City TN.  Official start time is 1:30 PM, but we're usually there at 12:30.  Come in the back gate and drive the wrong way up the one-lane exit road to the barn.  You'll see us.  COVID protocol still applies, Sullivan County has a mask mandate.  If you're close enough, come on down! We have folks from Castlewood, Big Stone Gap, Abingdon, and so forth in VA, some from northwestern NC, and so on.  

[johnbaz 5]

Those pics are superb!!

I bought a 200mm Orion reflector scope off fleabay, It came with a few lenses and an equatorial mount, I looked at the moon not knowing that the filter that said 'Moon' should have been fitted, It almost blinded me!! 

I bought a T ring adaptor to connect my dslr and then it got put away in the loft!! 

 

I tried taking a few pics of the moon but as it has to be set to manual, I have to focus but can never tell whether I have the focus correct, I have to take twenty shots moving the focus slightly each time!! 

 

I bought the 500mm lens cheaply from the bootsale but it has the 42mm thread, I bought an adaptor to fit it to my camera!

 

I also have a 2x multiplier to make it effectively a 1000mm lens (Again, From the bootsale!)

 

It's fitted in this pic..

 

Not the best focus i'm afraid!

 

The Orion..

 

I love things with lenses and have around 50 binoculars, Loads of spotting scopes and three astral scopes!

Now i've unofficially retired i'll be able to start getting in to the night sky a little more! 

 

 

John 

[Daniel Sheets 11]

1 minute ago, johnbaz said:

Those pics are superb!!

I bought a 200mm Orion reflector scope off fleabay, It came with a few lenses and an equatorial mount, I looked at the moon not knowing that the filter that said 'Moon' should have been fitted, It almost blinded me!! 

I bought a T ring adaptor to connect my dslr and then it got put away in the loft!! 

 

I tried taking a few pics of the moon but as it has to be set to manual, I have to focus but can never tell whether I have the focus correct, I have to take twenty shots moving the focus slightly each time!! 

 

I bought the 500mm lens cheaply from the bootsale but it has the 42mm thread, I bought an adaptor to fit it to my camera!

 

I also have a 2x multiplier to make it effectively a 1000mm lens (Again, From the bootsale!)

 

It's fitted in this pic..

 

Not the best focus i'm afraid!

 

The Orion..

 

I love things with lenses and have around 50 binoculars, Loads of spotting scopes and three astral scopes!

Now i've unofficially retired i'll be able to start getting in to the night sky a little more! 

 

 

John 

I *love* moon photos!

 

An advantage to having a DSLR with lenses is that you can get wide field shots.

5 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

Glad you're a real person!  I saw your other post and figured it out, but I'm still glad you responded here. I will repeat, those are some good shots.  

 

 

Speaking of forging, depending on where in SW VA you are, my guild (State of Franklin Blacksmith's Guild) is having our first real meeting since this time last year on Sunday April 11.  We meet at Rocky Mount State Historic Site in Piney Flats/Bluff City/Johnson City TN.  Official start time is 1:30 PM, but we're usually there at 12:30.  Come in the back gate and drive the wrong way up the one-lane exit road to the barn.  You'll see us.  COVID protocol still applies, Sullivan County has a mask mandate.  If you're close enough, come on down! We have folks from Castlewood, Big Stone Gap, Abingdon, and so forth in VA, some from northwestern NC, and so on.  

I am close enough. I have a friend that attends y'all's events.

[Alan Longmire 2,822]

19 minutes ago, johnbaz said:

bought a 200mm Orion reflector scope off fleabay, It came with a few lenses and an equatorial mount, I looked at the moon not knowing that the filter that said 'Moon' should have been fitted, It almost blinded me!! 

 

Nice little scope!  I have a 260mm F4.5 Dobsonian reflector (about 1.5 meters long!), a real light bucket.  No good for photography since it doesn't move, but it was cheap and it's fun.  Haven't used it in 20 years, though...

 

19 minutes ago, Daniel Sheets said:

I am close enough. I have a friend that attends y'all's events.

 

In that case, come on down if you want.  We're relatively harmless, for the most part. 

[billyO 246]

23 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

Speaking of forging...

ahhh....just the 'in' I was looking for....

(Pardon me while I de-rail this thread for just a bit... )

 

I'm getting ready to start on a slight change in my pattern welding path, trying to mimic the night sky in steel.  My plan is to use canisters and 1084 powder with a little 15N20 swarf from cutting pieces down with a hacksaw.  I'm just not sure what would be a good starting ratio.  I was going to try starting with a teaspoon of 15N20 for about 1 Cup of 1084.  

 

Any suggestions on what ratios to try?

[Daniel Sheets 11]

16 minutes ago, billyO said:

ahhh....just the 'in' I was looking for....

(Pardon me while I de-rail this thread for just a bit... )

 

I'm getting ready to start on a slight change in my pattern welding path, trying to mimic the night sky in steel.  My plan is to use canisters and 1084 powder with a little 15N20 swarf from cutting pieces down with a hacksaw.  I'm just not sure what would be a good starting ratio.  I was going to try starting with a teaspoon of 15N20 for about 1 Cup of 1084.  

 

Any suggestions on what ratios to try?

No suggestions from me but I'm very interested in seeing your results.

[Alan Longmire 2,822]

I've never done the cannister/powder thing, but I doubt you'd see much with that plan.  The few cannister mosaics I've seen demo'd start with a rather large cookie-cutter-looking insert, and you fill that with one steel and fill outside with another, then weld, squish 'til it's tiny, tile, and repeat.  I know you're thinking of dots of bright floating in a sea of dark, but I think by the time you get it forged down the 15n20 dots would be pretty much invisible.  If you could get 15n20 BBs, now, that would do it!

[billyO 246]

37 minutes ago, Alan Longmire said:

but I think by the time you get it forged down the 15n20 dots would be pretty much invisible.

I've thought about this, but I'm hoping not because forging tends to spread out material, which is why I'm using chips from the hacksaw instead of file shavings.   But I like the idea of BBs...

 

40 minutes ago, Daniel Sheets said:

I'm very interested in seeing your results.

I will post pictures, you can count on it...especially if it turns out like I'm hoping .

 

Ok, back to the topic at hand.. Thanks for letting me wander a little.

[Welsh joel 23]

I could see some 15n20.... twinkles?

Take a piece of stock, and ground it to a four pointed star shape- cut thin wafers off it, and stack in your powder parallel to the blade bevels.

 

Something like the blue one in your bottom picture in your first post?

 

Edited April 6 by Welsh joel

[dragoncutlery 52]

nickle rods?

[Brian Dougherty 1,210]

<slight thread distraction>

The title of this thread makes me say "with Lucy" in my head every time I see it pop up on my unread posts list.  I am weird.

<return to normal thread traffic>

 

[billyO 246]

Edited Thursday at 12:11 AM by billyO

[Brian Dougherty 1,210]

Bwaa haa haa haa haa!