Most beautiful space image !

[JoPo]

Don't know if there are a lot people interested in astronomy on Z but since I've found that picture which is now on my screen, I wanted to share it. On a 4k monitor, it's spectacular !
I'm an astronomy amateur and I've got a nice heavy telescope and sometimes, my son and I go to make some observation during the night. But don't think that we took the picture ! It shows gas clouds in our galaxy. Alas, there is no explanation about which telescope made the picture either where in the sky.



You can get the full size picture here : http://higher-resolution-photo.com/wp-c ... otos_8.jpg
Amongst other from here : http://higher-resolution-photo.com/high ... ce-images/

If anyone knows where to find pictures of space as beautiful and amazing as that one, with a great resolution, don't refrain yourself to pass the link !

[faxinadu]

really cool

[jksuperstar]

The photos from NASA/Lockheed Martin's Juno mission are nothing short of spectacular.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno ... index.html

[astroman]

@JoPo nice one
as a schoolboy I tried to build a Newton mirror telescope from scratch, starting with 2 disks of 6" diameter, 1" thick.
Took weaks to sand the curve into the glass and polish the disk - when I was ready a student from the neighbourhood sold his telescope of same type an size... for less than it would cost to alu-plate the glass and turn it into a mirror. Oops.
I used to carry that 'cannon' for about half a mile into a dark area to enjoy starry nights and planetz, great times

[JoPo]

Wow I already saw some of those Jupiter pictures but not all of them. They are fantastic !

A Newton telescope from scratch ! People who have the courage to build their own telescope buy at least the mirror ! It's perhaps from that telescope adventure that your pseudo comes from !?

It's very hard to find a dark area for having a perfect sky, here, in Europe. But I've got the chance to live in a small village where public lighting is turn off at 23h00. So just by going outside my house, I can see stars easily. I remember the first time we catch Saturne and its rings in the telescope, we were in the middle of fields, an enormous mosquito meal and started to scream and dance !

[astroman]

Money was really short those years and (non-toy) telescopes were hard to buy anyway in pre-internet days.
Today it's much easier and you can boost your rig with image sensors and use all the digital processing tools.
But the view by eye has a strange beauty on it's own.
My nick is in fact influenced by that former hobby, but mostly from the band 'Man or Astroman', I probably inspired by a cover in the local record store
(but I'm still reading whatever pops up from the astronomy domain in news)

[jksuperstar]

www.darksitefinder.com

A map of low-light areas. Yes, Europe is a brightly lit place, but zoom in and you'll find the best available spot!

I happened to work on deep space exploration missions, and have a large place in my heart for remote photos and sounds. NASA and the EU both released large amounts of audio taken as radio samples converted to audio. Now NASA's Insight lander recorded direct audio (wind) from the surface of Mars, and the next Rover heading to Mars is to have true stereo microphones!

[JoPo]

--> Astroman --> Yes ! That's right : I've seen thousands of Saturne pictures before but when I saw it by myself in the telescope, an one billion time more ugly Saturne than on space book pictures, I had much more emotion ! The first time my son and I went to look at the night sky, the moon was on its first 1/4. And when we looked at it, it was the same amazing emotion, like we saw the moon for the first time in our life ! It was so huge and luminous ! The craters, mountains were enormous especially on the sun/night line !
After, I bought a moon filter that allows to have less light going in your eyes. And indeed, thanks to internet ! And it's also internet that allowed me to learn how to use that damn telescope ! It has got a "goto" feature and one needs some hours of study for using it correctly.

--> JKsuperstar --> Your pseudo is also about space stuff ?!
I already went to listen to Mars wind ! I receive a science newsletter about all subjects.
I use that site http://www.astrometeo.ca/ for finding most dark places. One can see that in France, there is no absolutly dark place ! But I discovered a guy who makes amazing photo and wan some prestigious amateur prices and lives and takes his pictures in the middle of Paris urban area.
The first guy who took the ISS in front of the sun is an amateur !


Anyway, I don't make any photo, it looks like a full time hobby ! And I already have got one : musica ! And our dobson telescope is not able to take deep sky pictures with hous of exposure time : an equatorial mount is needed. But never mind ! It's just for our eyes !

[astroman]

@JpPo you would have thought 'wtf is that dude about...???' if you'd seen me lugging the telescope out of suburb
It was a 2 step procedure: first the 'stand' which was a flat wooden chair with a rotatable wrench bolted to the top as a 'telescope mount'. Left it half a mile away in a field. Went back to fetch the telescope. Fixed it's iron ground plate in the wrench and started observing. Angle adjustment by friction - it sucked...
After the session the whole procedure in reverse order. First the precious scope, then the chair. LoL. 4 miles per night...

[jksuperstar]

[JoPo]

Damn ! An expedition worthy of the greatest explorers ! At least, even if our observation site is at 1km, we take the car ! And my son takes his bike : not enough space in the car. By foot, it would not be possible.

I'd enjoy to see a picture of your telescope ! Was the image of what you were observing clear ? Anyway, I guess you were proud to have made this telescope !

I happened to work on deep space exploration missions, and have a large place in my heart for remote photos and sounds.

I just realized that I didn't ask you what was your part on a deep space mission ??! What kind of job do you do ? Cause if you have a little place on the ISS for one or two weeks, I'm a good cook !

[jksuperstar]

I design the electronics. My feet never leave the ground

[astroman]

Sorry @JoPo there are no pictures of the telescope - it looked quite like this one (except the tripod)
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/5329 ... try7157147

But I didn't build it myself - that was the original plan and I finished to sand and polish the mirror glass successfully.
Next step was to send the glass disk to a factory to put aluminium on it to make it 'mirror', prictag of $150 back then.
By pure chance someone nearby sold his telecope (same type and size) for exactly that amount, so I picked it up.
Dunno how may hours I wasted, but hand-sanding the glass was a challenge in patience and endurance ... and quite meditative, too - I didn't regret the exercise

[JoPo]

--> JKsuperstar --> Wow ! So you're an electronics engineer ? And not any engineer, I guess that for devices that go in a space mission, the mission boss choose the best in their speciality ! Congratulation ! It was certainly an amazing experience !
In electronics, I'm almost illiterate ! I just build up eurorack kit modules... Without understanding how they work...

--> Astroman --> That telescope looks like a normal one ! I imagined something completly different !

Dunno how may hours I wasted, but hand-sanding the glass was a challenge in patience and endurance ... and quite meditative, too - I didn't regret the exercise

I think I see what you mean. That explains why many people love to make things in wich a huge meticulousness is needed such as polishing mirrors, Eiffel tower in matches, ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or models perfectly reproducing the original. So many things are going through the mind by doing that kind of activity !

[dawman]

juno has some great pics of Jupiter’s storms.
I’d love to get a view of a probe on Jupiter’s surface looking up through the atmosphere.

[JoPo]

I think nobody knows if Jupiter has a surface ! It may be just gas. And more you go down toward its center, more the pressure increase until the probe is destroyed.
I believe the gravity is so huge that once a probe goes to close to Jupiter, it can't anymore go away.

But you can at least watch that : https://www.futura-sciences.com/science ... juno-5580/ (In french but pictures have no language.)

[Warp69]

It shows gas clouds in our galaxy. Alas, there is no explanation about which telescope made the picture either where in the sky.

It is the Mystic Mountain in the Carina nebular. It's taken by the Hubble telescope with various infrared filters. It located in the Southern Hemisphere.

[t_tangent]

There was a superb 2 part documentary series on BBC in UK recently which should be of interest to any budding astronomers, episode 2 in particular although both are worth watching. You need to be able to access BBC iplayer but if you cant view it from your location you should be able to find it on youtube.

Light and Dark
Episode 1 & 2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01k4y ... des/player

The narrator, Professor Jim Al-Khalili is a theoretical physicist who lectures at University of Surrey in UK. Some other documentaries he has done that should be of interest are as follows, although just about all his programmes make for really excellent viewing.

Order and Disorder
Episode 1
https://youtu.be/9_zrKyLemfg
Episode 2
https://youtu.be/ioP0N4zYJeA

Atom
https://youtu.be/Y-AiqCp7Vlc?list=PLdEY ... 5fKmm4Ln2B
https://youtu.be/LtOWYQBQdoY?list=PLdEY ... 5fKmm4Ln2B
https://youtu.be/QGnrv5wFUcE?list=PLdEY ... 5fKmm4Ln2B

Shock and Awe - The Story of Electricity
All 3 episodes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtp51eZkwoI

[JoPo]

Thanks ! I already watched Jim Al-Khalili series you mention about science history. After music, my other passion is science history. If I could re-born and re-live, I would go at school for a much longer time and study science history. His documentaries are excellent ! And I didn't know the 'Dark and light' one ! Gonna watch it !

[JoPo]

--> Warp69 --> Wow ! Did you already know the picture ? Indeed ! That's it ! Thanks !