Beautiful pics: Comet Neowise taken in NH and a breathtaking Saturn shot from Hubble

a reply to: carewemust

You should try to get a chance to look at Saturn through a telescope.

It actually does look like a cheesy special effect.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: carewemust

You should try to get a chance to look at Saturn through a telescope.

It actually does look like a cheesy special effect.

Santa brought me a Tasco 300x refractor telescope when I was 12. It was fascinating to see Saturn the same way it looked in astronomy books.

a reply to: carewemust

There's no such thing as Santa.
You believed when you were 12?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Macenroe82

You poet, you.

He's indeed a poet,
And he don't even know it.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: carewemust

There's no such thing as Santa.
You believed when you were 12?

I'm REALLY gonna miss you, Phage. ***sniff***

a reply to: carewemust

Yes it's beautiful isn't it🤗
Ok so we understand if you look at Saturn close up, the image is on Saturn and awesome. But only Saturn is captured. Tight shot and quick exposure.

You said you could look up.
I sit outside and rest mentally and look up. I start after sundown and will stare in peace sometimes till 2 or 3 am. But it depends on ambient city lights cloud cover. Winter is best here.. oh yes winter I'm out back dressed up and rocking away in my chair.
Here's 2 stars or galaxies I've never seen till i got long exposures of Neowise.
When i lived in Reno Nevada, it was a hop skip and jump. I saw what i thought was every steller object as i looked up at night. Literally every grain of sand on earth.

Now I'm in Pittsburgh pa and the city lights are like smog. Humidity too.

Again i couldn't see those 2 stars ever. For 3 nights i wanted to see and capture Neowise dunking between the 2. 🤗

Edit:
My best visuals of the night sky were in Hawaii with the naked eye. Northern Africa I'm told is steller. But friends are begging me to get to Australia.

a reply to: Bigburgh

My best visuals of the night sky were in Hawaii with the naked eye.

Only a few places on Oahu anymore, out on the north shore.
Hawaii island has dark sky rules though, because of Mauna Kea.

a reply to: Phage

Damn, is it getting overcrowded and lit up?
I'm particular to Kona and Lahaina. Been awhile.
Maui has an observatory too.

a reply to: Bigburgh

Kona proper (Kailua) is pretty well developed but they are subject to the rules. Seeing has improved a lot since Pele had her grand finale.

Lahaina/Kaanapali, forget it. East side, the more east the better, is good.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: carewemust

There's no such thing as Santa.
You believed when you were 12?

As you know, the Universe is HUGE. Santa is real. You just haven't found him yet.

a reply to: carewemust

And yet you think he gave you a telescope.
When you were 12.

a reply to: Bigburgh
Here in the Chicago area, there are never hundreds of stars visible in the sky either. I vacationed on a small Island by Tahiti a few year ago, and was stunned to see with my own eyes the "thick" view of our galaxy....thousands of stars that looked like a cloud in some sections, arcing directly overhead. Lots of man-made satellites were visible too. The more Coladas I drank, the more things I saw!

a reply to: carewemust

So, define "a lot."

I see a lot of stars immediately when I look up at the sky. That's a short exposure isn't it?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: carewemust

And yet you think he gave you a telescope.
When you were 12.

YES! My Dad transformed himself into Santa every December. Out of respect for the thread-starter, no more on this subject. Bye.

a reply to: carewemust

Your dad was a shapeshifter?
That explains a lot.

a reply to: Phage

Thanks for the heads up. Like i said it's been awhile. The coffee trees took a long time to recover from a fungus or discrepancy that lasted years. No beans but the property is still valuable. Great skies last i visited though.

The Lahaina spot also I've not been to in a long time is a rental spot with beach included. While the rest of Hawaii closes, they close the beach. So somewhere off 30, crabs emerging from the sand and tickling my feet as I gazed at the night sky.

a reply to: Bigburgh

Coffee borers. Nasty little critters that hatch in the berries and ruin them. Somewhat manageable though.
I think Kona coffee is sort of over-rated though. Kenyan, that's good stuff.

No actual private beaches in Hawaii and access cannot be denied. But some are more isolated than others.

originally posted by: carewemust
That's weird. I see a lot of stars immediately when I look up at the sky. That's a short exposure isn't it?

Planets are very bright, stars are not. Your eyes are not a camera. Even looking through a telescope doesn't always reveal details without filters, that's how bright they are.

This is Jupiter taken with a normal camera:

No stars, not details, as short an exposure as I could get away with.

a reply to: Riffrafter

I recently had a fantastic night out with a bunch of friends up on the islands north coast to witness this, it was absolutely mindblowing, the whole evening.

Even though we took my telescope and digital camera, I didn't manage any shots as my telescope cam is no longer compatible with my laptop (haven't used it in years, it's lapsed ), and there was no memory card in the camera (was in a hurry and didn't check, I'll try to remember next time, lol).

We viewed from a beautiful spot on the Northwest coast of Jersey, known as Grosnez Castle, from 21:00 until about 01:00.

I did manage however a few shots from my phone around sunset from our vantage point.

The arch in the images are part of the castle ruins, the island in the distance to the left is Guernsey, and the island on the right just visible is Sark (my apologies if the images aren't the right-way-up, this phone hates me),







Here's a photo of Neowise taken from the same vantage point, captured by local photographer Grzegorz Kaminski,



As well as viewing the comet, we all (I mean everyone there, not just our small group) had fantastic viewing of Jupiter with her moons through my telescope, meteors, the ISS twice (still with a Crew Dragon docked, cool ), many satellites, and the Milky Way, damn, I don't think I've ever seen it so clear and bright.

Oh, and I found a glow worm too, lol

All in all, for someone who doesn't get out too much these days due to injury, it was an incredible evening that I'll never forget.

originally posted by: OneBigMonkeyToo

originally posted by: carewemust
That's weird. I see a lot of stars immediately when I look up at the sky. That's a short exposure isn't it?

Planets are very bright, stars are not. Your eyes are not a camera. Even looking through a telescope doesn't always reveal details without filters, that's how bright they are.

This is Jupiter taken with a normal camera:

No stars, not details, as short an exposure as I could get away with.

If you zoom in on your photo, you can see two moons on the upper-left and one on the bottom right, I really wish my telescope camera was working, I need to get a new one, the viewing was sick

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

I actually have a slightly better one with more moons but couldn't find it. That one is with a Panasonic Lumix, braced against a tree on holiday in Vietnam