Amateur Stargazer Stuns Worlds Astronomers

Thanks for this OP

The images are abolsutely stunning, and to think they produced quality equivalent to a 2.5 billion telescope makes this even more breathtaking!!


S & F for sharing this

Originally posted by SmokeandShadow
Yeah, NASA wastes money ... with current technology a giant scope array can be made that would photograph 30% or more of the of the sky at a time and capture it in a scalable resolution...damn expensive though

Uhhhuh..

So they waste money but you cant wait for it to get damn expensive.

I get the feeling ... I need a drink.

reply to post by OzWeatherman


Cheers Oz,

I never knew it was even possible to achieve such amazing Photos from a backyard set-up.

I think if this story stays in the MSM, telescope sales will go up this year!

g

WOW!!!!! Those pictures are out of this world man!!! I was using an 8 inch telescope the other night and it was sooooo hard to get a good image of Jupiter and it was hell just trying to see a couple of things, and goes to show how tough this kind of thing is.

Now, my first use of a telescope was with a 5 inch telescope (or around there, whatever it would be) and it ended up having no places to secure the telescope, so any little thing I did moved it and spoiled the whole entire thing. Then, when I finally did have it in place, I bumped it off literally 30 seconds after I had it perfect, and I wanted to scream.

So, I praise these pictures and the good job this guy did with them. It is truly a tough feat to accomplish and I give kudo's to him.

Beautiful pictures man!!!!! I admire the job you have done with the limited resources available to you...and the fact that you are in the Europe is even MORE impressive!!!

The guy has great shots for little money,but to use that as an excuse to say Nasa has trash.
Well, is ignorant.

Your not going to get this from a shed scope or even earth for that matter.
Mars.

Originally posted by deltaalphanovember
Stunning images. Thanks for posting this ... it just proves to me that there is still place in this world for individualists and explorers.

Imagine what this man could do if he had a NASA-sized budget to work with.

He probably would not be able to achieve anything better, because with a budget that size, you start to waste money on things that are unnecessary.

The fact he was on a limited budget of an individual in this case, forced him to spend wisely and not waste money on unnecessary things.

He must live in an area with low light pollution. Seriously good pictures though, and from something so low-tech.

Makes you wonder, where is all that damn money going being spent to 'fix and refix' the aging POS hubble. Honestly, since its inseption, I've thought that most of what it shot, was BS...to me, Hubble is watching something else...much closer and all those images came from something ground based here on Earth.

Your thoughts...

reply to post by flyingfish


NOT all images of Mars are like this. With the amount of money from US the TAX payers that is invested in Hubble, we all own ever inch of that thing and EVERYTHING it can do should be available publically. Especially since NASA is a public entity and not a government agency.

...and another tangent thought! Can someone get ahold of this guy and have him get a good picture of whatever it is 20 million miles off the south pole of Saturn?

Either its a ship, or a exo-plasmic discharge from Saturns magnetosphere...or something of the like. Lets figure this out.

Ah, there is stilll splendor in the World..

I always love looking up..

It is the biggest puzzle of all..


star and flag... Very impressed...



editted for laziness

[edit on 21-1-2010 by Bicent76]

That's very wonderful, an amateur impresses professionals. To me it makes so much more sense to try and explore the infinite, then to stay and revel here in the finite. Hopefully we will get to that point some day, till then we fight wars over oil

Jaw
Dropped

Wow. Its so real its unreal...

Totally agree with an earlier post in this thread that anything scientific that the government seems to get their hands on fails to impress compared to that which can be accomplished privately. It is impressive that an amateur in his garden shed could produce pictures of such spectacular quality, and a testament to the exponential growth of technology even today. The very suggestion of such a feat being possible 40 years ago would have made the foremost scientist of the day laugh in disbelief. It isn't a stretch of the imagination to suggest individuals can be using equipment far surpassing anything that NASA has up its sleeves within 30 years if the consumer demands it. My only worry that the over privatization of technology could have drastically negative consequences if it gets into the wrong hands.

Woah,. £20K!!! That's more than I earn in a year!

I think Mr Shah has done a great job here, but I'm glad he can afford it. I know I can't. Hell, after bills and taxes, I'm lucky if I can afford a pint in the pub with my mates.

Originally posted by RowenaMcQueen
He must live in an area with low light pollution. Seriously good pictures though, and from something so low-tech.

Yeah, the guy's from Wales. Other than a couple of cities, there's not much there other than sheep and hills. Even so, he must have had to wait a long time for the conditions to be right. We get a hell of a lot of cloud coverage here in the UK.

I hate to break everyones heart but there is nothing extremely special about this picture.There are many amateur astronomers who do as well or better.Look up tony hallas for one.Or look into one of the many star parties around the world where photos of equal quality or better are taken.I am not saying that his photos are not good,They are very good for the equipment he is using.Which by the way is not anything like most amateurs have.But quite a few of us do have the same or again better.I use a mountain instruments mi-250 mount with a meade sn10 f/4 mounted on it or a AP155 EDT refractor depending upon what I am shooting.What he is shooting is a very wide field of view.You can not even compare it to hubble.Even at hubbles widest view it would only be about a tenth of what he is shooting.The object is the cygnus loop.It is many moon widths wide and long.Hubble has shot the same portion of the sky and it is way beyond anything any of us can do on the ground,especially amateurs.The closest you can get would be the keck telescopes or similar which with adaptive optics they are starting to beat the hubble but not amateurs not even close.Without trying to flame some of you guys on here ,I just wish you would study a little more before ripping apart something you do not understand.The hubble has been one of our greatest achievments in (ASTRONOMY)-(NOT ASTROLOGY! as one poster put it).

reply to post by astro2724


You are very right. There are so many amazing astro photographers out there that achieve amazing results on even lower budgets. Nothing can be taken away from them or this wonderful picture and nothing can be taken away from the Hubble/Nasa.

They achieve different images - his scope (or any DIY land based scope) is not going to get the same detail, resolution as Nasa. He is imaging things his scope can 'see'.

And please remember - that's not hpw it actually looks. This is a case of many images captured and merged (stacked) and then processed through something like photoshop to bring in the colour etc. etc.

As I say amazing picture but dont knock hubble etc.

reply to post by astro2724


Thanks Astro, I'm sure there are many others out there but this guy grabbed the headline in the MSM and has got the attention of people like yourself that link to others, who I can then link to others to get inspired. Why the twinternet is so fantasitc.

As soon as I move out of London im buying a telescope.

Hi All

MINT thread! S&F Im really looking forward to all the tips on this thread.

This is making me itch for my new telescope badly. Totally Inspired! I cannot wait! I am a professional photographer fulltime and started dabbling with a quite small newtonian about a year ago. I have some pretty cool images so far and especially the moon in its natural colors. Not the quality Id want to share just yet but With the new one im getting I expect (and i ache) to be able to photograph galaxies as well.

Because we are moving soon Im going to wait as I currently live in a mining town and we have alot of particles in the air here which stuff my Nikon d90 up and also get my telescope filthy and affect visibilty. My Nikon D90 DLSR also does video so the plan is on the new one if i see something worth filming (or moving) while shooting stills I can switch it to video straight away.(Awesome!)

Stay tuned my dear fellow ATSers, its approx 3 months before i move from here but i promise to share all the good stuff with you and not be hiding anything. My hope is to capture some ATS discussion worthy images and vids of space and also those that will help us in the search of truth of what else is out there, for those non believers i add for you - yes IF there is anything else.

Perhaps there are astrophotogs here that can offer me some advice, Ive got a dobsonian waiting for me once i move a 12" (only cost $2500) I just dont want to ruin it up here in the dust, but does anyone have any other suggestions of something better? I will spend up to AU$4000 to start with on the next scope then I'll build on from there once i have more of a grasp of technology available and put more astronomy in practice and i'll get another if i have to. (love my toys) I have 3 nikon DSLRs currently and I think more than one scope will help get my mates into too. Im not sure about the digital scopes i know nothing about them so any info would be appreciated. Feel free to u2u me.

Have the best day or night everyone
themuse

btw im a girl, just before I get called a guy like i have on other threads.