Tag Archives: astrophotography

A test of the Eagle Nebula from Sydney

Posted on July 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

This is my first test image of the Eagle Nebula (M 16) using my amateur equipment from my backyard, 15 km North from Sydney’s city center, on 1st July 2020.

This image compiles 32 x 300s images (2 hours 40 minutes total integration time) obtained with my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, an Orion X0.8 focal reducer (f/6), the ZWO ASI178MC camera and an OPTOLONG L-Pro filter.

I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope).

Flats and darks included. Data processed with Siril software. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop.

Full resolution image in my Flickr.

Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).

Video: Understanding the colours of nebulae

Posted on July 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

Today I’ve released in my YouTube Channel the very first video of a series that seeks to connect professional astrophysics with amateur astronomy and outreach. This video, is entitled “Understanding the colours of the nebulae“, or why square brackets are important when naming metallic transitions in nebulae.

Do you know how profesional astrophysicists and amateur astronomers get vibrant colour images of nebulae? In this video I provide insights of the Physics behind these images. I emphasise why the ionic transitions of metallic elements (i.e., any element that is not hydrogen or helium) in nebulae must be written with brackets, as they are not recombination lines but collisional excited lines, that is, a kind of forbidden lines that only appear in extreme low-density gases because of the collision of ions with free electrons in the gas.

The video includes my subtitles in both English and Spanish.

An extended article about the video will be added here soon.

I hope you like it! And remember:

The Pearl Cluster from Sydney

The Pearl Cluster (NGC 3766, Caldwell 97), in Centaurus, from my backyard, 15 km North from Sydney’s city center, on 4th June 2020.

This image compiles 30 x 180s images (1.5 hours total integration time) obtained with my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, an Orion X0.8 focal reducer (f/6), the ZWO ASI178MC camera and an OPTOLONG L-Pro filter.

I used the ZWO ASIAir to control the camera, the mount (Skywatcher AZ-EQ6) and the guiding system (ASI120MM + Orion 50mm finderscope).

Flats and darks included. Data processed with Siril software. Color / saturation / levels / contrast / smart sharpen with Photoshop.

Full resolution image in my Flickr.

Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).

Astrophotos and Seasons in Macquarie University’s “The Lighthouse”

Posted on June 23, 2020 | 1 comment

Yes, I know this is another auto-publicity post, but that is also a way for me to keep track of all my appearances in media / news.

Today I’m very happy to share that my images and my… comments about the real (astronomical) beginning of the seasons have appeared in this article of Macquarie University’s online newsletter “The Lighthouse”.

“The Lighthouse” is the online Macquarie University‘s Newsletter that aims to showcase of world-changing research news, expert comment and data-backed opinion.

I want to thank Virginia Tressider for preparing this beautiful article in a very short time. I hope that many of these articles will come in the nearby feature.

1 Comment

Posted in Astrophotography, Outreach

Tagged 2020, astronomy, astrophotography, Macquarie University, Outreach, seasons, Sosltices, The Lighthouse

My astro photos in ABC Breakfast News

Posted on June 22, 2020 | 2 comments

Following the citizen science project aiming to raise consciousness of the increasing problem of the light pollution, as well as performing the Guinness World Records ™ Official Attempt for “Most users to take an online environmental sustainability lesson in 24 hours”, meteorologist, science communicator and TV presenter Nate Byrne has shared this morning some of my astronomical images in the ABC Breakfast Show.

Nate Byrne talking about my astronomical images in today’s ABC Breakfast News. You can see the high-resolution image Nate is showing on my webpage and on my Flickr.

I’m extremely excited about all of this, and I really want to thank Nate for showing my images.

Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t watch the show, and it is not available on iView. I’m trying to get the screenshots of the other images that Nate shared today to include them here.

2 Comments

Posted in Astrophotography, Outreach

Tagged 2020, Amateur Astronomy, astronomy, astrophotography, Outreach, TV