Seeing things in a different light?

Info on the shot - 325x1m exposures, baader uv/ir cut filter, celestron edgehd11 at f10, 2800mm focal length, player one Zeus full-frame OSC camera
Bortle 7 skies from home.

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#astrophotography #space #stars #nebula #pixinsight #seestar #zwo #asiair

[lukomatico]

What inspires you and keeps you coming back to astro? What do you enjoy the most about it?

I'd love to know!
Clear skies 👍

[Atho]

What inspires me, is watching your videos Luke. It makes me want to get back into it. Just about to start building my observatory, and get back into it. Thanks for the inspiration Luke.

[JarrodMcKitterick]

Thank you for sharing. I have three inspirations that keep me going. First, I keep a rotating set of my images as wallpapers on my phone and tablet. It tickles me when I pop open my phone to see this nice looking wallpaper and to know I took that. It's not something I downloaded. Second, just a simplistic awe in the universe and this hobby gives me an avenue to share with my friends and family. Third, creators like yourself help demonstrate what else is possible when you explore tools, techniques, and collaborations.

[vornwend]

Hi Luke, Love your honesty mate. I think we all have slumps in this hobby cos it can be so hard and sometimes frustrating, not to say demoralising. Recently, I decided to set up a make shift platform at the bottom of the garden, which opened up a whole new part of the sky for me. Had a great night shooting the "Joker Nebula" (NGC 6995) and now I'm re-enthused. Keep the videos coming - you're one of the best out there.

[astronomywithclaire]

I love when the scopes are set up and they're preparing to start imagining, I take a long look at the 99% invisible Universe above our heads. Then the exciting countdown as a shot is taken, 1 min, 2, 5 before it loads up and shows something trillions of miles away, whose light took anything up to millions of years to reach us, appears. As a child I wanted to be an Archaeologist, but it's now come full circle as I year after year get to uncover this ancient light that is constantly surprising, learning new ways to see and experience it. Love it.

[robinhoward]

Thank you for your video Luke. Looking forward to the longer nights to capture some nebulae images for the first time. What keeps me coming back is that, thanks to massive improvements in technology now available to amateur astronomers for a relatively affordable costs, images can be produced that were only within the realm of professional astronomers not that long ago. It is fantastic and I look forward to learning more and trying to get better and better at this fantastic hobby. Clear skies!

[KevinRudd-ws]

I first got into astronomy sixty years ago when I was given a book (I still have it) called The Universe for Christmas. I spent hours reading it and was awestruck looking at the pictures of galaxies, nebulae, clusters etc, all in black and white of course. Currently I'm recreating these images in broadband and narrow band, I never believed back then that people would be able to image these objects in colour and in such detail from their own homes, even in the middle of large cities. One thing I do miss from those days was the lack of light pollution, the village where I live was only a quarter as big, no retail park and the council turned the not very bright street lights off at eleven o'clock. Even the nearby aerospace complex had very subdued lighting. Not now, still part of the fun for me is imagining when things are a bit difficult. I do have other interests which carry me through the many cloudy days and nights we get in the UK.
And not forgetting the inspiration I get from watching yourself and others on U Tube, keep it up, since watching these channels my interest in astro imaging has only increased.

[ldipenti]

Interesting topic! In my case, my interest in astronomy grew towards spectroscopy. I’m planning to enrich my astro images with additional data that we can get from the same light. It’s a really fascinating field that also allows us amateurs to even contribute to real science!

[litacatalin]

Broad band is my favorite way to shoot space too.Because it is as real as it gets out there if our eyes could "see longer exposures".
And almost nothing out there is without a touch of reflective shades of dim light scatered throughout the vast clouds of gas and dust.That I think gives it a soft and imersive/realistic look.

[jason-brown]

Hi Luke. You've really inspired me to adopt some new ideas with your videos. Especially with the broadband imaging. I saw you're first video when you started testing the idea of shooting targets this way. At the time I was doing a fair bit of my own experimenting and you've save me so many clear nights which I could use to get my head around other issues with my image-train. Keep up the great work and I promise the next time I see you at a show, I’ll say hello.

[peterwebster]

Lovely subtle image m8, its got me wondering how good this target would look merging the broadband image with NB, love to see that video, especially as in my mind adding NB to broadband would potentially give the best of both worlds! Thanks Luke, we all have slumps and not just in our hobbies, keep it up m8 you are an inspiration!

[callumvernon]

Got my first image on the Heart Nenula last night. Im amazed at how much detail I was able to pull out considering it was almost a full moon! I think it’s now my favourite target to image now too haha… Some dual narrowband filters are next on the cards for me, but I like you I can see myself coming back to broadband. Cheers mate!

[OldGirlPhotography]

I've only been in the hobby for 2 years but for me, it's what Claire said - the absolute miracle of revealing something so far away, so extraordinary and different from anything else in my day. And as with all things in photography, the delivery of the final image still fascinates me - that what comes in as an essentially black screen can reveal such things. So I guess I haven't reached the slump yet, but I would suggest there is always something new to discover - as you point out so well - just by seeing things in a different light. I've never tried mono narrowband - OSC and mono LRGB only. And I'm still learning how best to exploit my gear as well - so that keeps me entertained too.

[AndreHd]

I live in a Bortle 8-9 city, and started and quickly moved on to duo narrowband with dslr, when I bought my used asi183mc pro it came with an L-Pro filter, that first light was Orion and boy it is still my best astrophotography, it is beautiful in broadband!

[ziggyfrnds]

Saturn! I need to capture saturn every year, I love it to bits 😀

[Astro_Shed]

Great video Luke, and an interesting one, and food for thought….👍🏻

[AstroFarsography]

Man no joke I have struggled like heck recently about this hobby. Motivation at an all time low. Considered selling up and all that stuff. But I think there's certainly something to be said about the core of your message here about simplifying. Broadband is how most of us started and I reckon for some of us, staying with or going back to Broadband will be great for rekindling that love. I think I'm going to take a leaf out of your message here and just try some light pollution filtered imaging.

Definitely think the Heart Nebula looks amazing in broadband. If you want to, sure add a little bit of Ha into it to add some more structure. But I do agree I love that subtle detail you got out in your broadband shot of it. I think one reason why that little structure you spoke about didn't show up in SHO is it may be reflective, which wouldn't be picked up with narrowband details. All those little bloc globs and dark nebula details poking out in your image is fantastic. I love that image mate.

[curtisroos]

I grew up in an industrial town, smokey by day, cloudy by night. I never saw the Milky Way until I was 21. Fifty years later, I saw an article on the Dwarf II and the SeeStar S50. I bought them both and started imaging from my backyard in Florida, not even a year ago. They were like a gateway drug, now I have an Askar 120APO and an ASI2600MM Pro at the StarFront Observatory in Texas. I'm finally starting to scratch an itch that was dormant for a long time.

[simonlaverick]

Phew. I thought it was just me going through a slump. Knowing im not the only one has made me feel better about the hobby.

[jeremyphillips]

Another great video - thanks for your thoughts and honesty. Totally agree about broadband - it has more of a 'real, spacey' feel compared to Hubble Palette. Much of my imaging is from a London back garden though, so that's always going to be narrowband for me when I can't get out of town.