leece

leece, 6 days ago to Astro

While we were all oohing and aahing over the Southern Lights on Saturday night I had my trusty Dwarfii with me. We'd been joined by a middle aged lady with a cellphone and enthusiasm but no knowledge, so between Aurora visits I cast about for an interesting galaxy to show her.

Rob suggested Centaurus A. This amazing celestial spectacle might be a spiral galaxy colliding with a larger elliptical galaxy, and there's a relativistic jet emitting from the supermassive black hole in the middle of it - heady stuff.

What is known for certain, from the party observing on Saturday night was that it looks a lot more like a hamburger than the galaxy nicknamed the Hamburger Galaxy ( NGC 3628 looks more like a hotdog to me) - specifically something from the Hungry Jack's / Burger King stable.

So I'm going to call it the Aussieburger Galaxy. It's possible that the supermassive black hole is the beetroot. We could definitely see the sesame seeds and the pickles.

This image is less than 200 frames, but with a bit of tweaking in Google photos it's acceptable viewing, and a bit of fun. I think the cloud coming in might have halted my stacking. I'd like to revisit this one again soon.

And the nice lady who'd wandered down to get a shot of the aurora with her old iphone? With the help of some advice and my monopod she caught it, and apparently is all fired up to get a Dwarfii of her own, and we have already set a stardate with her this week. Lovely!

#Astrodon #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Dwarfii

timrichards, 6 days ago to comicbooks

I'd forgotten about this. Probably for the best.

Superman: Why DC Gave the Man of Steel a Mullet

#Superman #ComicBooks https://www.cbr.com/why-superman-had-a-mullet/

leece, 9 days ago to astrophotography

One of the more intense patches of colour from the Aurora Australis I observed a couple of hours ago or so.

A huge event to show so well so far north, and in the light pollution. Could make it out with the naked eye, and my Pixel picked it up just fine in astrophotography mode.

I got some time lapse with moving sheets, but they're a bit artifacty. Do you want to see them or just enjoy all the better shots that people have been getting?

#PerthWesternAustralia
#AuroraAustralis #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Astrodon

leece, 13 days ago to astrophotography

After the comet had set last night I did about 100 frames of Eta Carina.

This morning I hit a couple of buttons in Google photos and here we are.

#Astrophotography #Astronomy #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #Astrodon #DwarfII

timrichards, 14 days ago to Trains

Lunch aboard the Spirit of the Outback. What would you choose?

#Train #Trains #Lunch #Food cc @diningcar

image/jpeg

leece, 14 days ago to astrophotography

A revisit of Antares, from a night or too ago, which I'd previously visited in dark sky country in March. But this is from my driveway. One with, and one without post processing. Post processing care of me thrusting my tablet at @rdm and saying "Have some fun with this" while I was doing something else. Probably Snapseed and Google Photos.

Thank you @rdm

Not much comet luck for me last night. Bit cloudy for supernova too. Maybe tonight.

#Astrophotography #BackYardAstronomy #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography
#DwarfII

Antares, very prominent, in nearly monochrome, straight out of camera, and the reflection nebula near it.

timrichards, 17 days ago to Birds

Mad birds making mad sounds in the park opposite the Longreach train station. I wonder what kind of cockatoo these are – I can't see a sulphur crest. #Birds #Longreach

video/mp4

leece, 20 days ago to Astro

So, I bet you're all wondering whether the stars were right for me yesterday - or rather were the clouds right?
So last night I wandered out onto the driveway after dinner and looked West, and there was a definite band of cloud smudging there. But it seemed thin, and there were gaps, so I said, oh well, let's go down there [personal profile] rdm and give it a burl.

So like any astrophotographer seduced by what I'm told is called a Sucker Hole (that gap in the clouds just big enough to get you to get all your gear out that then closes up on you just when you're ready) we drove on down to Brighton Beach where there's a grassy sward, and close parking.

And there was cloud, but only close to the horizon. We couldn't see Comet Pons Brooks with the naked eye, but the DwarfII's were picking it up just fine once we got them calibrated. The wind was making things tricky, and I was sweating bullets for a few minutes as the calibration needed a couple of goes.

But I got a few shots! I'm so pleased, I didn't want to have to do this all again 71 years from now.

Check it out! There's some satellites or space junk photobombing here and there. These photos aren't cropped or have had any work. The comet is apparently about 1/4 the size of the moon in apparent size - but I had difficulty spotting it with the binoculars, car lights behind me and watering eyes. This is why I really appreciate the Dwarfii. I'll have to try again, because I would like to see it. Don't think it'll happen until perhaps the weekend when the rain is said to perhaps stop for a bit. But we'll see.

Later when I tried to get my usual shot of SN 2024ggi the stacking was really playing up so only about half of the 224 frames stacked properly. All 224 frames are there, though, so I should be able to use Siril to get it to stack later.
And here's the attempt at the Supernova. No post prod, but it's there. Still.

We had settled next to a bunch of Chilean expatriots who were very interested so we talked to them for a bit before I gave up on trying to shoot the supernova at the windy beach and departed for my somewhat less windy driveway. Still had the stacking problem but not quite as bad.
Luckily the comet only needed about 10 frames.

So I'm a very pleased leece, yesterday I finally got the comet, and today I got rain! I'd been feeling a bit down yesterday, but I felt quite uplifted paying my respects to this 71 year infrequent flyer, and talking to the Chilean folks, and wrapping myself around a nice thermos of chai [personal profile] rdm made us and a couple of chocolate biscuits.

I'm having a problem loading the other images, but you can see them over here at Dreamwidth if you want more.
https://leecetheartist.dreamwidth.org/557806.html

#Astrodon I guess? Hi!
#BackYardAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography
#Astrophotography
#PerthWesternAustralia
#SouthernHemisphereAstronomy

dgar, 1 month ago to Bloomscrolling

These plants sprouted in the garden after the eclipse. They grow really quick and have the most spectacular flower!

Anyone know what they are?

#bloomscrolling

dgar, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

What’s the scariest Australian animal?
(Set 1/2)

dgar, 1 month ago to random

#Dgar just emailed their upcoming track to a bunch of radio stations.

Dgar is now anxious.

dgar, 1 month ago to random

Okay, so it turns our concreting isn't my thing.

I can't even.

dgar, 1 month ago to music

We headed to the beach
And we chased the tide
We watched the sea
And the sun collide
We put some dolphin stickers
On the sides
Of our little black hatchback
And go for ride.

Little Black Hatchback
~ Dgar

https://songwhip.com/dgar/little-black-hatchback

#DgarMusic #Dgar #Music #SingerSongwriter #Indie #MusiciansOfMastodon

leece, 1 month ago to random

#Astrphotography #Dwarfii #Galaxy

So after I did my moon shots I thought I would target something else. I am aware that photographing during a full moon in the well lit suburbs is not the purist Astro thing but I like to see what I can get under the circumstances. Plus I don't have a pedigree in Astrophotography, I'm just someone with a smart telescope having fun.

It was getting towards bed time so only a hundred frames, no filters. Little bit of Snapseed and I think the Southern Pinwheel didn't put up too bad a show.

leece, 1 month ago to astrophotography

#Astrophotography #Dwarfii #Moon

I took this last night. Coupla hundred frames, 1/4000 shutter speed settling it all down a bit. Gain 0.Processed it a little in Snapseed.

It certainly is fun playing with this smart telescope.

boardgamebreakdown, 1 month ago to boardgames

These bad boys just showed up. Not sure if I will get a chance to try Wayfarers tonight, but I will definitely bust into the box to read the rulebook.

Anyone have a favorite between these two? How about when playing #solo?

#BoardGames #BoardGame #TableTop #TableTopGames #TableTopGaming #Gaming #Games #GarphillGames

paezha, 1 month ago to Perth

#Fensterfreitag

#WinthropHall #UWA #Perth #WesternAustralia

leece, 2 months ago to Anime

#anime Delicious in Dungeon is proving funny and pretty good. Don't watch it hungry though.

leece, 2 months ago to random

#DriveIn Well Madame Web wasn't as awful as I had been led to believe. It could have been better, but it was no Wild, Wild World of Batwoman.

leece, 2 months ago to Birds

https://theconversation.com/a-brief-guide-to-birdwatching-in-the-age-of-dinosaurs-225286

#birds #birdwatching #palaeontology #science

dgar, 2 months ago to random

timrichards, 2 months ago to food

Partial to a Mint Slice myself. Tim Tams are too sweet.

Tim Tam, Mint Slice, Wagon Wheel: Arnott’s chocolate biscuits put to the taste test

(maybe paywalled) #Food https://www.smh.com.au/goodfood/tips-and-advice/tim-tam-v-teddy-the-definitive-ranking-of-arnott-s-chocolate-covered-biscuits-20240228-p5f8gd.html

timrichards, 2 months ago to random

The meteorologists seem particularly baffled this summer. I keep noticing days (like today) when the temperature only gets to 5° or so below the forecast maximum. Also it's raining, which I think it wasn't supposed to.