Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

ajamesmccarthy OP t1_j984bb8 wrote

When we think of space, we generally think of just stars. But our sky is actually quite crowded, very seldom is that empty space between stars actually "empty". When you look at the orion constellation, for example, you would never know that this is hidden in that area. It's surprisingly large, too. Look at it compared to the full moon!

Captured using a 12" telescope on an equatorial mount, this was done over several nights. The mount is designed to compensate for Earth's rotation, and is the sum of hundreds of 2-5 minute exposures captured over the course of 2 months.

The colors are actually real (although a bit saturated for taste). If you were to float out in space in front of this with your phone and take a long exposure, these colors would show up just fine. However, if you were to just look at this area with your naked eyeballs you'd see mostly black space with a gray haze where the "flame" is. That's not because this area isn't incredibly vibrant, but because your eyes can't resolve color when things are this faint. It's like trying to see the color in flowers in moonlight, you can't.

55

goatharper t1_j986fw5 wrote

Thanks for posting this. I do some very casual stargazing myself, and love to see what's possible for a dedicated enthusiast.

I pointed my little 60-power scope at Jupiter during closest approach recently and watched the four moons Galileo saw, as they moved about from night to night. Very exciting! That's about as serious as I get....

8

PrimalZed t1_j98qurj wrote

> That's not because this area isn't incredibly vibrant, but because your eyes can't resolve color when things are this faint. It's like trying to see the color in flowers in moonlight, you can't.

Is that to say that the red haze here is stuff reflecting light, not emanating it? If so, what is the light it's reflecting emanated from?

3

ajamesmccarthy OP t1_j98sd1x wrote

The blue stuff is reflecting starlight, the red stuff is actually glowing fluorescent. The nearby stars ionize the hydrogen and make it glow.

9

PhilosophyEconomy873 t1_j99wulv wrote

Would love to see this prior to editing! Gorgeous image

2

Snoo_39873 t1_j9ae2k4 wrote

You probably wouldn’t see much of anything prior to editing. I’ve photographed the same thing and prior to editing, I can just barely make out the flame nebula in the original image, the entire image is grey. It takes a lot of good processing to bring these details out

2

ajamesmccarthy OP t1_j9bbvwr wrote

If you mean before “processing” (different than editing) My raw images look entirely black with a couple stars visible.

2

PhilosophyEconomy873 t1_j9bdxsm wrote

Thank you, it blows my mind! I will look further into it and how different element signatures are visible, lots of reading for me.

1

WreckitWrecksy t1_j9fi1op wrote

Honestly saddens me that space doesn't look like this for us.

1

ajamesmccarthy OP t1_j9geikv wrote

I’m thankful we live in a time where cameras exist so we CAN see this stuff. It’s like we have cybernetic eyeballs :)

1

FullyStacked92 t1_j98js0u wrote

I dont want to alarm anyone but in the middle of this photo and slightly to the right there seems to be a galactic being thats almost fully formed. Looks like its about to put on its head. I hope it hasn't seen us.

17

Klondike2022 t1_j98l98b wrote

Wow that’s weird to think about. Be nice if someone made a sky map the showed all these and they’re size

5

Huge_Discipline6395 t1_j99vulc wrote

Anyone else seeing a giant spooky wizard? Beautiful work thank you

4

outer_fucking_space t1_j98kf2w wrote

That is an absolutely stunning photograph. You should be proud.

3

Parking_Resolution63 t1_j98vrcd wrote

This is one of the most beautiful images I have ever seen. Thank you

3

M1K3jr t1_j987pfn wrote

Fantastic, really. Looks like an artists' rendering or AI. Great post and explanation

2

benqueviej1 t1_j98s8ag wrote

Amazing detail! It's disconcerting how vascular it appears in some areas.

2

wookie616 t1_j99uelj wrote

Dang! You ain’t kidding about that zoom… nice job

1

T-Buch t1_j9amf1s wrote

Stunning image! Thanks for sharing this with us.

1

McTheoran t1_j9bu9um wrote

I mean it's space, it can't be that surprisingly large compared to the rest of space hahahhah

Amazing shot

Stealing for background. Thanks!

1

zeeblecroid t1_j9cmqfs wrote

Your images are consistently great but this one is just stunning.

1