*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

Should have realised there would be a topic like this here. But rarely in GD, so I never.

Anyway, the wife bought me a cheap telescope for Christmas. I upgraded the whole thing. Took first picture of Jupiter...



Also took first picture of the Moon...



Picture of original scope :



Picture of upgrades :

 
It was pretty much all second hand.

NEQ6 Pro - £500
Skywatcher Explorer 130p-ds - £100

I did buy a few other bits and pieces too though, such as a Revelation eyepiece kit at £120, a second hand Canon 600D at £200, a second hand QHY5 guide camera at £110 and a 9x50 findercope at £30. And various other adaptors and barlows and stuff. Current spend must be somewhere around £1300 or so I figure.

AstroPhotography is an expensive game, and it's mostly about the mount when it comes to equipment, hence having a belter of a mount, and not much scope, lol. That being said, there has been some AMAZING images taken with this scope too. There is a thread over on Stargazers Lounge dedicated to this scope, and the amazing results that can be achieved. But I aint ready for a dedicated AP camera yet. Plus I need to modify the focusser and it currently struggles to hold the 600D.

And even after all that, I am a LONG way away from having the skill to take decent images either.
 
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New montage of Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko photos taken by Rosetta shows gas and dust erupting from the comet:

Z1oWaqO.jpg

The activity shown is between January 31 (top left) and March 25 (bottom right). At the time, Comet 67P was between 226 million and 186 million miles from the sun.
 
New montage of Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko photos taken by Rosetta shows gas and dust erupting from the comet:

Z1oWaqO.jpg
OR If you are sufficiently unconvinced by the mainstream explanation, it is electrical arcing jet's of charged particles, the comet reacting to moving through the electrically charged solar wind, producing a very easily modelled complex set of chemical reactions that produce a wide range of the observed volatile & organic molecules inside the coma (inc. water and OH), aka. the origins of life, nothing more than a simple electrochemical reaction.

It look's far too rocky and dry in all the close up pictures i've seen to explain it's current jet's source as sub-surface ice, the measurements of it's density are anomalous indeed for a huge chunk of rock, and the explanations of it's interior being akin to deep fried ice-cream are laughable, I have not see any on-the-surface behaviour that would indicate subsurface off-gassing either.
 
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The beautiful Lyrid meteor shower.


Looked nothing like that last night.....I was out imaging until 0115 and saw nothing. Now have 180 odd 1 min subs to sift through and stack to see if anything shows up.

Was thinking of trying again tonight but is proper blowing a hoolie down here today, so will retire to my bed early tonight.
 
The beautiful Lyrid meteor shower.


Anyone been out over the past few nights?

I was considering getting up at 1-2am for an hour or so tomorrow morning, but I suspect I'll end up only seeing 2-3 meteors, which is nothing I haven't seen before, so I'll probably give it a miss... :confused:
 
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