November 2023

[Bruno Schroder]

Season's mushrooms. iPhone snap

[Akira]

Orion.  SIGMA fp with 50/2.0.  f2.8, 5 sec., ISO1250.  Kenko Prosofton Clear filter.  Heavily processed in Photoshop CC.

[Øivind Tøien]

To celebrate that the site is up again and I am finally able to log in (password resets emails ended up in spam folder), here is my very first attempt and edit at Jupiter this season with the moons Europa and Io in a single video stack.
(Nikon 300mm f/4 PF with stacked TC-14E+TC-20E III on ZWO ASI678 astrocam, Stack of the 10% best of 60000 frames, 3x drizzle, resized down slightly) Jupiter is close to opposition these days and appears very large!
Edit: replaced with a less noisy version based on 20% of the frames and better alignment on Europa and Io.

[Ian Watson]

Akira and John, thank you for the kind words.

[Ian Watson]

The chemists pretty much stole the show during the science centre's open day. Here they are demonstrating the Meissner Effect. This is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor that has been cooled enough to enter the superconducting state.

Nikon Z6, 35mm f/1.8S.

[Akira]

To celebrate that the site is up again and I am finally able to log in (password resets emails ended up in spam folder), here is my very first attempt and edit at Jupiter this season with the moons Europa and Io in a single video stack.
(Nikon 300mm f/4 PF with stacked TC-14E+TC-20E III on ZWO ASI678 astrocam, Stack of the 10% best of 60000 frames, 3x drizzle, resized down slightly) Jupiter is close to opposition these days and appears very large!

Øivind, I'm enjoying your ever being improved images of stars and planets.  This Jupiter image accompanied by the major satellites is impressive!

[Bruno Schroder]

I totally concur with Akira. And 60.000 frames… waow …

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Akira and Bruno, I was very pleased to find that I could resolve details in Jupiter with the moons showing in a single take. Previously I had to combine different exposures for the same. Getting weather to cooperate at the time when the Great Red Spot is showing and Jupiter is in accessible position is also a bit of a challenge this season. Transparency was below average, but sometimes it seems that seeing is more acceptable during those occasions. I have more captures to process...

BTW, love your physics experiments, Bruno. Could you point us to where in the frame that the expulsed magnetic field is visualized?

Akira, it looks like somewhat limited transparency in your capture enhanced the display of the prominent stars by diffusing them a little.

[golunvolo]

Sunset through the trees. A tough decision for exposure.

  D5, 70-300 4.5-5.6 vr

[Ian Watson]

I think that you chose wisely 

[Ian Watson]

BTW, love your physics experiments, Bruno. Could you point us to where in the frame that the expulsed magnetic field is visualized?

I think that was me 

Look in the polystyrene cup. There is a small white object floating above a black base. A 35mm lens was not ideal; the modern 105mm Micro-Nikkor is making its way onto my wish list.

[golunvolo]

Thank you Ian

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Ian, yes I see it now - like in the Avatar movie 

[Akira]

Look in the polystyrene cup. There is a small white object floating above a black base. A 35mm lens was not ideal; the modern 105mm Micro-Nikkor is making its way onto my wish list.

I can see it now, too.  Thank you, Ian!

[Akira]

Thanks Akira and Bruno, I was very pleased to find that I could resolve details in Jupiter with the moons showing in a single take. Previously I had to combine different exposures for the same. Getting weather to cooperate at the time when the Great Red Spot is showing and Jupiter is in accessible position is also a bit of a challenge this season. Transparency was below average, but sometimes it seems that seeing is more acceptable during those occasions. I have more captures to process...

BTW, love your physics experiments, Bruno. Could you point us to where in the frame that the expulsed magnetic field is visualized?

Akira, it looks like somewhat limited transparency in your capture enhanced the display of the prominent stars by diffusing them a little.

Thank you for the details.  How long did it take to stack 60000 frames in your computer?  That's beyond my thought!

The Orion image was heavily manipulated with the contrast, black, highlight, clarity and dehaze sliders in the Photoshop PP.  The stars are diffused with the filter mentioned in my original post.  It makes the difference of the colors of each star more clearly.  I'm trying to capture the starry sky as landscape images rather than the astrophotography.

Kenko recently offered a combined light pollution eliminating / light diffusing filter.  The reduction of the light pollution with the filter may make the post-process a bit easier.