The all new Staff Photo of the Week : Week 29 (w/c. 15th July)

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This week's photo of the week goes to Sara for the fantastic image below.

Astro photography is a very specialised field and one that we don't see that much of on the forums.
This example from Sara sums it all up though. An amazing example of the power of photography to show us things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to see.
The technical skill and knowledge needed to produce astro shots of this quality is abundantly clear to anyone looking and reading Sara's explanations.

Well done Sara!
Original thread here

swag72 said:
This is a nebula called Sharpless 2-132 (A catalogue completed by Stuart Sharpless in 1959). Sh2-132 is an emission nebula in the constellation of Cepheus located approximately 10,300 light years away and spans 272 light years across.

This image is a combination of 24 exposures, all at a 30 minute shutter speed.

A couple of folks said that they wanted to see a colour image - So here you go!! Hope you like it!


Sh2-132 in Bi colour by swag72, on Flickr
Click to expand...
 
Thank you very much to the staff team for this photo of the week opportunity. I am always a liitle hesitant to post the astro pics as they are so hugely different in every respect from the daytime photography that is normally on view, it's almost like they don't fit the photography genre at all.

I shall continue to post them as they tend to be enjoyed by many :thumbs: When you've had enough, tell me and I'll stop :D
 
Admin said:
An amazing example of the power of photography to show us things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to see.
The technical skill and knowledge needed to produce astro shots of this quality is abundantly clear to anyone looking and reading Sara's explanations.
Click to expand...

Absolutely! It's just WOW! :clap:
 
swag72 said:
Thank you very much to the staff team for this photo of the week opportunity. I am always a liitle hesitant to post the astro pics as they are so hugely different in every respect from the daytime photography that is normally on view, it's almost like they don't fit the photography genre at all.

I shall continue to post them as they tend to be enjoyed by many :thumbs: When you've had enough, tell me and I'll stop :D
Click to expand...

It was very well deserved Sara :clap:

I never know quite how to comment on your astro shots - I'm woefully underequipped to give any sort of meaningful critique or suggestions on them.
All I can say is that I love looking at them, I think they're amazing in all sorts of ways and please, please keep sharing them with us.
 
As long as people enjoy the shots I'll keep posting them. If people don't feel equipped or confident to give crit or suggestions then I totally get that as it's quite a specialist subject. If I don't get any comments I don't mind, but I enjoy sharing the wonders of the universe with others!
 
Triffic shot! Would you mind going into a bit more detail of the technique & kit? I'm guessing this wasn't done on a phone cam.
 
Thanks Jon.

Kit wise - I use a mount that is able to track the sky, a guiding system that keeps the mount in the exact same place all night so that I get no trailing as the sky 'moves', a telescope and an astro mono camera connected to the scope. Only 2.3MP, this is a cooled camera to -27 degrees below ambient as this cooling helps reduce noise. To create a colour image there's a number of coloured filters. so you take exposures with each filter.

Each image is a 30 minute shutter speed .... yes you read that right! and I take a number of them then combine them to increase the signal.

Then into processing to make a pretty picture!

That's the bones of it - I make it sound so easy!!!!
 
Ta, Sara. Plenty of clear nights down that way which must help a bit. We go to Nice for a winter break when we can. Fantastic light often happens.
 
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