The Carina Nebula is one of the largest nebulae in the sky. Bigger than the Orion Nebula, so is an easy deep sky object to capture here in the Southern hemisphere.
Where stars are born
Category: Astrophotography
Finally, a clear sky
Two weeks of cloud and rain and even a few storms. No opportunity for peering into the universe until Saturday night, when I put out my wee smart scope to capture something, well, astronomically distant.
This faint smudge is the Sculptor Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 300, Caldwell 70). I’m sure with more time on target I can improve the definition of the image, but that’s not the point. This galaxy is 6 million light years away and those photons that hit my sensor started their journey to my backyard long before our species existed.
How many planets are in that image? How much life? How much intelligent life? Are there creatures there who are looking back at the Milky Way wondering the same thing?
These are grand questions to contemplate. I cannot offer any answer. But I do feel more of a part of the cosmos when my mind turns to them.
Yarr
Say hello to the Skull and Crossbones nebula. Also known as NGC 2467. I think it has proven to be a little too distant for a 150mm telescope to handle. I might have to revisit it with a longer lens sometime, but for now this will have to do.
Seven sisters
I took some more time to get to know my new bit of kit last night, particularly scheduled shoots. I am going to chalk it up to learning settings, because I had several target shots and none of them came out the best they could. I took a photo of the Pleiades and didn’t really get much of the associated nebulosity. But at least I can find targets and my alignment wasn’t askew.
I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe
I think it’s the law that a novice deep space object photographer must shoot the Orion nebula. And there were luckily some breaks in the cloud this evening. So here’s my photo. Not bad for a Bortle 5 sky, but the highlights are a little blown out. I think I have to shoot shorter subexposures when it comes to objects like this.
Things are looking up
Today I received a little Christmas present I bought myself – a Dwarf Mini Smart Telescope and I promptly took an image of the sun. After giving the clouds a chance to disperse a little.
It seems that we’re going to have cloudy nights for roughly the next week, so you can blame me for that. But you can expect more astrophotography from me.
