@philo@astronomy.city
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philo

@philo@astronomy.city

G'day, Howdy!

I'm an Aussie-British chap living in Texas. I have my own observatory and also teach astronomy at another local observatory a few nights a week. Analyst of sorts by day.

My images (astro and other) have been published here and there including National Geographic, Texas Monthly, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, LA Times, The Weather Channel and others.

Feel free to connect! No snobbery here.

#astronomy #astrophotography #aviation #cars #photography #travel #weather

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philo, to Astro
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The M104 Sombrero Galaxy. 29 million light years away! I love side-on type galaxies. They somehow appear more vast.

Celestron C8 with F6.3 reducer.
ZWO183MC Camera
2.5 hours of 4-min exposures
Processed in DSS, PixInsight, Lightroom and Topaz Denoise.

philo, to Astro
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If you have a solar filter or glasses left over from the eclipse in North America and Canada, go check out the sun right now! Amazing cluster of sunspots visible!

Nikon D750
Sigma 150-500mm lens set to 500mm.

philo, to Astro
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NGC 488 is a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is at a distance of about 90 million light-years away from Earth. Its diameter is estimated to be 52,6 Kpc. The galaxy has a large central bulge, and is considered a prototype galaxy with multiple spiral arms. Its arms are tightly wound.

Extremely difficult to process this one. Took me weeks!

Celestron C8 OTA, CGEM mount, guided by Celestron Starsense. 30x4 min exposures.

philo, to Astro
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The M31 Andromed Galaxy.

Stars removed for effect, perhaps showing the view from outside of our galaxy. 2.5 million light years away, M31 will collide and merge with the Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years.

William Optics 61mm Zenithstar OTA, ZWO183MC camera, Celestron CGEM mount. About 40x4min exposures.

philo, to Astro
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Gemind meteor shower peak approaching! Peaks on the night of December 13th. Be sure to check it our from a safe, dark sky site if possible.

Here's one I captured last night streaking away from the Orion constellation, almost as if the Great Hunter had fired an arrow.

Good luck!

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #geminids #meteor

philo, to Astro
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The Copernicus Crater on the Moon

93 kilometers wide, the crater is named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Taken with a Celestron C8 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and ZWO183MC camera.
500/1000 frames captured at 70 frames a second.
Image processed in Astrosurface. (First time I've used this. Quite good!)

philo, to Astro
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The NGC891 Galaxy

NGC 891 is an edge-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 6, 1784. The galaxy is a member of the NGC 1023 group of galaxies in the Local Supercluster.

Celestron C8 8" telescope
Celestron CGEM mount
Celestron Starsense Autoguider
Processed in DSS, Pixinsight, Lightroom
30*5 min exposures

philo, to Astro
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The M1 Crab Nebula.

This is a supernova remnant. The Chinese recorded the supernova event in 1060AD, and even saw it during daylight hours for several days. It lies around 6,500 light years away.

About 3 hours of 4-minute exposures. Celestron C8 SCT, ZWO183MC camera.

One version is starless to better show off the nebula.

The M1 Crab Nebula. An explosive-looking nebula in a starfield, showing off white and red ripples and shockwaves. Stars removed.

philo, to Astro
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Managed to capture a lone Orionid meteor last night from central Texas. Visually, it was a nice fireball that swept across a decent part of the sky. That's the M45 Pleiades cluster to the right of it.

Taken with a Nikon D750 and Sigma 12-24mm lens (set to 14mm). 20-second exposure, ISO 6400 F4.

image/jpeg

philo, to Astro
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The M74 Galaxy. Beautiful spiral galaxy some 32 million light years away! Imaged with a Celestron C8 SCT, Celestron StarSense Autoguider and CGEM mount. About 2 hours of 4-min exposures.

philo, to Astro
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The Annular Solar Eclipse, taken from Junction, Texas.

80mm refractor, Nikon D750, home-made solar filter.

iangriffin, to Astronomy
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Thanks to a collaboration with my friend Stephen Voss, we present this composite image, taken over 3 nights last week. With Dunedin's Mount Cargill Tower as foreground, It shows the change in altitude of the sun over 3 nights caused by Earth's axial tilt and our motion around our parent star. It also shows the rotation of the sun over 3 Earth days (look at the sunspots and how they change position). Photos by me, processing by Stephen Voss. I love collaborations!

philo,
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@iangriffin That's outstanding!!

philo, to Astro
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The Helix Nebula.

The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is a planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae.650 light years away.

61mm William Optics Refractor
ZWO183MC camera
3 hrs of 7 minute exposures with a ZWO duo band filter

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #nebula #space #photogrqphy #nightsky

philo, to Astro
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Rho Ophiuchi complex and the Dark Horse Nebula.

This was taken with a Nikon D750 and Nikon 50mm prime lens, mounted onto my Celestron astrophotography rig. 20x2.5 min frames.

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #space #cosmos #nightsky

philo, to Astro
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Perseid Meteor near Cassiopeia. Taken from central Texas at around 4am, Central Time US.

Nikon D750, Nikon 24mm.

image/jpeg

philo, to Astro
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The Cygnus Wall, part of the North America Nebula. The nebula is about 2,200 light years away and the main wall structure in the image is about 20 light years across.

William Optics 61mm Zenithstar Refractor
ASI183MC camera
Two hours of 6 min exposures.

philo, to Astro
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The M45 Pleiades Cluster

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth.

  • William Optics 61mm Zenithstar and ZWO - - - - ASI183MC Pro camera
  • 15*4 min exposures with darks

philo, to Astronomy
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The M8 Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as an H II region. The Lagoon Nebula was discovered by Giovanni Hodierna before 1654 and is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the eye from mid-northern latitudes. The nebula lies around 4,077 light years away.

WO 61mm Zenithstar Refractor
ZWO183MC camera

philo, to Astronomy
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Tracking the Night

Two hours' worth of star trails images from last night from inside my observatory while I was imaging part of the sky in Cygnus. The lighter part of the sky on the right is the Milky Way. You can see my main scope at lower center tracking my target in wibbly, wobbly timey-wimey fashion.

Nikon D750
Sigma 12-12-24mm (set at 12mm)
ISO4000
Processed in Startrails.exe and Adobe Lightroom

philo, to Astro
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The M20 Trifid Nebula. About 5,200 light years away.

  • William Optics 61mm Zenthistar Refractor
  • ZWO183MC camera
  • 20x4 min exposures at 100 gain, autoguided.
  • DSS, Pixinsight, Lightroom and Topaz Denoise

mkwadee, to Astronomy
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The Double in
of the Day

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230707.html

philo,
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@mkwadee I had no idea it had so much hyrdogen (?) around it.

philo, to Astro
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Haven't posted in a while. Sorry.

Tonight's moon. Taken with a Nikon D750 and William Optics 61mm refractor.

philo, to space
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Mineral Moon

If you get a decent enough image, you can tease out its colors by using saturation layers in Photoshop.

The blue areas are rich with ilmenite, containing iron, titanium, and oxygen. Orange and purple-ish areas contain smaller amounts of titanium and iron.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-500mm lens.

philo,
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@spaceflight True!!

philo, to space
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Not the best shot, but here's a Lyrid meteor in the Cepheus constellation. Taken 4/22 at around 2:30am. Nikon D750, Sigma 12-24mm, 20 seconds @ ISO5000.

philo,
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@thomasfuchs Pretty much! I take a few test exposures, then set up the remote to capture as many pics as possible and hope for the best. At best, I get a decent meteor shot. At worst, a decent star trail inage when I combine all of the collected images. (I'll post one here shortly).

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