Astronomy: Stars, Comets, etc.

[Proud2baLaker]

Didn't know if we had a thread on this and couldn't find one. The other night, I was able to get out and get some ok photos of the comet Lemmon. It was at it's closest to earth on 10/21 and is now moving further away, but actually getting brighter. It will reach peak brightness on 10/31, then begin to fade until I think 11/8 at which point it won't be visible again for like 1300 years. I have been going out sporadically when I hear about visible comets and with my so-so digital camera, been trying to get pictures. They haven't actually been to bad. I also have gotten lucky and been able to get some decent photos of the night sky. Being out west and not to far of a drive to get into a good dark area has helped. Now, I am regularly looking up if any comets may be visible and watching for clear nights to see what else I might get. Thought I would share some of my photos form over the years (they have been enhanced a bit to make the colors pop:

This is the comet Neowise back in 2020:


The comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in 2024:



And Lemmon from 10/23/25:

 

[Proud2baLaker]

And a few photos of stars and stuff:

2020:

 

[Proud2baLaker]

This one above is the Western horizon on 10/23/25


And the one below is the Big Dipper and what not looking north above the lights of town:

 

[Kepler]

Excellent!

 

[St. Clown]

There are a few photographers who take time-lapse images of the night sky from various locations across the US western states. They are truly amazing. I show them to my daughter because we live a few blocks from St. Paul, and she doesn’t yet have an appreciation of the views she’s missing. We usually take a trip to northern MN each year. When she’s old enough, I’m making a point to get her outside to see even a fraction of what you’ve posted here.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

It never really hit me how much is out there until I took the photos myself. I mean I've seen the photos of others but it just never really struck a chord. There is also something about being out there in the still dark. The only sound being the faint rustle of the wind or a distant coyote call.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Tremendous work. Specs and settings?

 

[dxmnkd316]

There are a few photographers who take time-lapse images of the night sky from various locations across the US western states. They are truly amazing. I show them to my daughter because we live a few blocks from St. Paul, and she doesn’t yet have an appreciation of the views she’s missing. We usually take a trip to northern MN each year. When she’s old enough, I’m making a point to get her outside to see even a fraction of what you’ve posted here.

This was my attempt several several years ago.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Tremendous work. Specs and settings?

ISO was like 1600. And then I used an auto setting on my camera (Nikon CoolPix P950) that is shutter priority. It adjusted the aperture based on the zoom and ended up being like 1.4-2.8. Then I set a timer to avoid shake. The camera then took like a 15-20 second exposure. Maybe a bit longer. Took them in RAW format and then used Nikon's free software to convert since I don't have a good program for that.

I bought that camera back in 2020 specifically for its auto birding setting which adjusts things automatically and auto focuses to give you the best chance at a decent bird photo.

 

[Kepler]

This was my attempt several several years ago. View attachment 1104

My goodness this is lovely!

 

[Kepler]

Didn't know if we had a thread on this and couldn't find one. The other night, I was able to get out and get some ok photos of the comet Lemmon. It was at it's closest to earth on 10/21 and is now moving further away, but actually getting brighter. It will reach peak brightness on 10/31, then begin to fade until I think 11/8 at which point it won't be visible again for like 1300 years. I have been going out sporadically when I hear about visible comets and with my so-so digital camera, been trying to get pictures. They haven't actually been to bad. I also have gotten lucky and been able to get some decent photos of the night sky. Being out west and not to far of a drive to get into a good dark area has helped. Now, I am regularly looking up if any comets may be visible and watching for clear nights to see what else I might get. Thought I would share some of my photos form over the years (they have been enhanced a bit to make the colors pop:

This is the comet Neowise back in 2020:
View attachment 1048

The comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in 2024:

View attachment 1049

And Lemmon from 10/23/25:

View attachment 1050

These are remarkable. I have recently started to get into astrophotography in a very small way and I am overawed by what you accomplished!

 

[Kepler]

You've emboldened me to share a few of my children. I have only been at this for 3 weeks so please accept that they are the work of a tech toddler.

Taken with an ordinary iPhone mounted by bracket to my 8" Dobsonian reflector, using between 9-26mm eyepieces. For Jupiter I added a 5x Barlow to push the angular magnification well over 600x, and a red polarizing filter to cut glare. I was pleased to get not just the equatorial but also the temperate belts. The moons moving outward are Io, Europa, and Ganymede -- Callisto was well of out frame at this magnification. For Saturn that faint wisp to the left is Titan. For M42, that may actually be true color! It may also be chromatic distortion or just plain old lens flare.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

You've emboldened me to share a few of my children. I have only been at this for 3 weeks so please accept that they are the work of a tech toddler.

Taken with an ordinary iPhone mounted by bracket to my 8" Dobsonian reflector, using between 9-26mm eyepieces. For Jupiter I added a 5x Barlow to push the angular magnification well over 600x, and a red polarizing filter to cut glare. I was pleased to get not just the equatorial but also the temperate belts. The moons moving outward are Io, Europa, and Ganymede -- Callisto was well of out frame at this magnification. For Saturn that faint wisp to the left is Titan. For M42, that may actually be true color! It may also be chromatic distortion or just plain old lens flare.

Good stuff. I have never really considered getting a good telescope. But I have been definitely been considering it more recently. High on the list for sure

 

[Kepler]

Good stuff. I have never really considered getting a good telescope. But I have been definitely been considering it more recently. High on the list for sure

It depends on your object. You can do a lot with just binocs on a tripod to be honest. The Pleiades for example is marvelous at 10-20x and loses all its interestingness at above 50x.

But if you have a really good camera you won't blink at the price of a midrange Dobson ($500-1000). You probably pay that in developer chemicals.

My reach telescope will cost about $25k. That won't happen for a long, long time and will be after I have a place to use it at lower than Bortle 3. I live right on the cusp of 8-9 -- essentially, Time Square. It's fine for the moon and planets. It makes almost everything else utterly impossible.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

It depends on your object. You can do a lot with just binocs on a tripod to be honest. The Pleiades for example is marvelous at 10-20x and loses all its interestingness at above 50x.

But if you have a really good camera you won't blink at the price of a midrange Dobson ($500-1000). You probably pay that in developer chemicals.

My reach telescope will cost about $25k. That won't happen for a long, long time and will be after I have a place to use it at lower than Bortle 3. I live right on the cusp of 8-9 -- essentially, Time Square. It's fine for the moon and planets. It makes almost everything else utterly impossible.

My camera was just under $1000 back in 2020 so that price on a telescope is really not bad. My digital camera looks fancy but it is a pretty simple point and click type thing. Sure, you can make some adjustments and still get some good shots, but you are limited on what you can manipulate and how much. I took some photography classes in high school but that was over 20 years ago so I have had to relearn what different settings accomplish. And those classes all used black and white film that we rolled and developed ourselves.

 

[MichVandal]

We got some decent Milky Way pictures earlier this year with just an iphone. Have to hold it reasonably smoothly, but it auto centers when you move a little.

And great pictures of aurora.