[HN Gopher] Ultra Deep look at Messier 81 and 82
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       Ultra Deep look at Messier 81 and 82
        
       Author : sohkamyung
       Score  : 168 points
       Date   : 2023-05-08 10:44 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (theuberger.ch)
 (TXT) w3m dump (theuberger.ch)
        
       | mnw21cam wrote:
       | See also: https://www.astrobin.com/7ez0pl/ and
       | https://www.astrobin.com/hhegwl/ They were also taken by a group
       | of amateurs across the world collaborating.
        
         | jebarker wrote:
         | If think the astrobiscuit collaboration images in these links
         | were captured using lucky imaging, so a different process to
         | the traditional long integration used in the M81/M82 image the
         | OP shared. There's a video about it:
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/5s9xbZ5G-wk
        
           | mnw21cam wrote:
           | They were a combination of lucky imaging to get the very
           | centre of the galaxies in high resolution, and traditional
           | long integration for the rest of it. I know, because I
           | participated.
        
             | jebarker wrote:
             | Oh, good to know, great project. Do you think that lucky
             | imaging is going to be more important in the future of
             | amateur astrophotography?
        
               | mnw21cam wrote:
               | It depends. Thing is, there's plenty to take pictures of
               | out there that is big and dim. A camera with a decent
               | camera lens (or even a not decent camera lens, at a push)
               | on a tripod will get you good results, as long as you can
               | collect light for long enough.
               | 
               | By far the greatest thing that improves astrophotography
               | is the ability to collect light for a long time, and this
               | implies tracking the movement of the stars across the
               | sky. I'd say that this is more important than having a
               | telescope. Without it, you're limited to taking pictures
               | short enough that the stars don't move more than a pixel
               | or two in that time, which is typically between a tenth
               | of a second and ten seconds, depending on the zoom level
               | of your lens. However, you can take multiple pictures and
               | combine them. With a tracker, you can easily take
               | exposures that are minutes long.
               | 
               | Lucky imaging is useful for things that are very bright,
               | and it allows you to sharpen up the image. It works for
               | the moon, and the brightest parts of some galaxies or
               | nebulae. But the normal things that make spectacular
               | astrophotography images aren't really helped by it.
               | Mostly, the best thing to make images better is just to
               | collect more light. Lucky imaging is great, but it's a
               | niche.
        
       | zkirill wrote:
       | Is it realistic/practical for amateurs to collaborate on sending
       | up a telescope on a balloon so as to elimine the lack of dark sky
       | as a factor?
        
         | generalizations wrote:
         | At current prices, it might be simpler/easier to send it up as
         | a satellite. IIRC, it'd be less than $10k for a 2lb telescope.
        
         | PetitPrince wrote:
         | Deep sky astrophotography rely on very long exposure and
         | motorized tripod in order to take into account the Earth
         | rotation. You can probably put your instrument on a balloon
         | (... can you ? telescopes are heavy and voluminous !), but then
         | you'll need to track the position of the balloon so that the
         | instrument can still point in the right direction. Wind is
         | chaotic, so it's probably a nightmare to compensate.
        
           | Eduard wrote:
           | Balloon-Borne SuperBIT Telescope Releases 1st Research Images
           | 
           | https://blogs.nasa.gov/superpressureballoon/2023/04/20/ballo.
           | ..
        
             | gliptic wrote:
             | > To achieve high-precision measurements from a balloon-
             | borne environment, the SuperBIT gondola - at roughly 3500
             | lbs - stabilizes its telescope to sub-arcsecond precision
             | (akin to a three degree-of-freedom Steadicam) while
             | sophisticated optics further stabilize the SuperBIT camera
             | to < 50 milliarcseconds.
             | 
             | Amazing.
        
       | causi wrote:
       | Either there's something wrong with my browser or the site is
       | setup so there's no way to view at 100%, just 92% or 110%.
        
       | NKosmatos wrote:
       | Total exposure time: 393h 28min, just wow! More info over at
       | https://theastroenthusiast.com/collab-processing/
        
         | CosmicShadow wrote:
         | That is massive! I feel like I've got a lot when I hit like
         | 28h.
        
       | dmreedy wrote:
       | 'With grave joy we, the cosmical explorers, who were already
       | gathered up into the communal mind of our own galaxy, now found
       | ourselves in intimate union with a score of other galactic minds,
       | We, or rather I, now experienced the slow drift of the galaxies
       | much as a man feels the swing of his own limbs. From my score of
       | viewpoints I observed the great snow-storm of many millions of
       | galaxies, streaming and circling, and ever withdrawing farther
       | apart from one another with the relentless "expansion" of space.
       | But though the vastness of space was increasing in relation to
       | the size of galaxies and stars and worlds, to me, with my
       | composite, scattered body, space seemed no bigger than a great
       | vaulted hall.'
       | 
       | - Olaf Stapledon, _Star Maker_
       | 
       | Not much inspires a sense of meaning in me these days like the
       | sheer scope and scale and depth of creation.
       | 
       | Beautiful work.
        
       | _joel wrote:
       | As a (very) amateur astronomer I'm blown away by the dedication
       | of some of these people
        
       | bitL wrote:
       | Is there any way to download the whole image to use it as a
       | wallpaper?
        
         | eXpl0it3r wrote:
         | You seem to be able to download it from here:
         | https://www.astrobin.com/tb0sou/
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/LaObmWwdGWXn_16536x0_ieTZ0IN...
         | (6000 x 4200 pixels, ~17 MB)
        
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