Team visual here. I understand that people may be excited about all the work and the skills required to take good astro pictures, but for me nothing beats seeing DSOs live in person. Two different sports for sure
I'm mostly excited about sharing an experience... I sweep across a region of the sky and then I'm always like: Hmm... can I capture and share this? And I assume it takes skills visually observe any celestial body, as well. Like you said: two different sport fields. Clear skies!! Chris
This episode really is the gem of this series (so far :) ). While I want to get into astrophotography, it is so reliant on the computerized mounts which is a rough entry-level purchase to make. However besides the expense, the way you've described the connection is really what its about for me. This is the first time I've seen a video that helps a visual learner like myself (heh) understand the commitment of astrophotography. Really glad I found this channel and tutorial, will definitely wait till I'm caught up before I make a decision. I think for now I'll stick to team visual as I grow into the hobby and maybe after the kids are out of the house and/or a nice promotion I'll swap teams.
Thanks for your kind words! Visual sounds like a great idea as it doesn't require a motorized mount and stuff. Besides: maybe go for a smartphone holder and a better Barlow and then capture some nice planets with your phone as planetary is one big main domain (especially for beginners) anyway. And so you can view the planets and the moon (or even the sun) and casually take some images for family and friends. Deep sky (galaxies and stuff) is pretty hard to do visually and you'll need a heavy duty Dobson or something to gather enough light to even barely see any of the deep sky targets visually. This is not necessary for planets! Cheers mate!!
Team visual from 🇦🇺 here. Whilst not looking like Hubble images the visual views through a telescope are beautiful and unique; something that is difficult to portray on RU-vid. Even through a modest 80mm refractor the Orion Nebula (M42) is a much more graceful and beautiful object visually than what this video portrayed it to be.
OMG, I much prefer Visual Astro, but I can't stop laughing. What a cool video, well done. :) To be fair though, pitting a $40 Walmart Scope against all your cool gear that's gotta clock in at a cpl grand isn't a very even match lol. I think we should do it all again, but with a 16" Go-to Dobsonian for team visual. ... and some Pink Floyd in our part's soundtrack lol
I like very much the discrepancy of music and ambiance between both parts of the video. It reflects quite well what visual astronomy is about and eventually the essence of it : contemplation.
How much of the setup process can be handled via script? Seems like acquisition of darks, flats, etc. could all be done via a few scripts interfacing with the camera, mount, and a small Raspberry Pi.
Probably true. I tend to do things the manual way, often because I started fully manual and gradually shifted to automatic mode. But there are superb software tools out there, NINA being one of my favorite ones (open source and free).
Friends and family will always be more impressed looking at Jupiter through your Walmart telescope than looking at the pics you took through your $5k Astrophotography rig. Been there, done that. Great comparison though. Forums for visual astronomy are reminiscent of that SNL skit about Blue Oyster Cult " We need more Eyepiece...."
You left so much out on both. There is more crossover between the two than you listed. A lot more. Even in astrophotography there is some visual. And a lot of pretty photographs? Boring. And it helps if you are visual observer using a motorized mount, especially, if you are using high-power eyepieces to follow the Moon, the Sun, the Planets, and the Deep-sky Objects. Also some draw these objects not just for art's sake, but for reporting their observations to solar system groups who do serious solar-system work. Same with variable stars. Visual observations are still used in the the databases. Same with astrophotography doing astrometric and photometric work on solar system objects and deep-sky work.
Thanks for your insights! You are very correct about your points. Please be aware that video-length is somewhat limited. But I appreciate any additional information about my topics here in the comment section. Cheers!
first thing I ever saw through my telescope was jupiter... and since then I am capturing many planets, the moon, and deep sky objects like the orion nebula with nothing more than a 60mm refractor and a smartphone adapter. my profile picture is one of the examples of my astrophotos and I post many on youtube as well as on instagram
Easy entrance setups are great! It's amazing what you can achieve with a smartphone and a small scope. See my Andromeda galaxy taken only (!) with a LG G4 smartphone and a tripod without any other lens or telescope: catchingphotons.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-08-07_M31_Andromeda_G6_iso1600_20sec_15C_WEB.jpeg Clear skies!
If the universe were 8 billion years old it wouldn't be possible to see stars 9 billion light years away BUT the universe is roughly 14 billion years old. The farthest we can see is the uniform microwave background originating from the moment after the big bang where the universe turned from opaque to transparent. Cheers!
Thanks so much Subhaprasad, comments like yours keep me going! It's a joy to be able to do and share such a hobby and a pleasure to have such an audience. Clear skies to you! -Chris
Hi just thanks for the help with this stuff, I've been watching all your videos and I've learned a lot so just for you and everyone else I wanna return the favour. I found a website with all the stars in the night sky and their names and it shows different planets and where they are and everything, all you gotta do is enter in where you are then it shows you where to look there! Cheers!
@@catchingphotons Yeah I've recently found this, www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/new-york, you can change it to any place you want and it's got the rise times, set times of stars and planets as well as what time they shine the brightest. Cheers!
You forget there is also EAA, inbetween both, not as good as astrophotography, but miles easier, less technical, its better than visual. I do EAA, use sharpcap for live stacking on. EAA can be done more successfully on an alt alz mount than trying to do astrophotography. I do EAA on my EQ6 pro, SCT 9.25, with .63x reducer and a QHY163C cooled camera
Thanks for the heads up. Never did something like that but will dig into and maybe add an extra video about the possibilities of that field. Clear skies!
Nice video! How about a video on where EAA fits in between visual and astrophotography. Even a meme video would work. Just my 2cents (oh wait, can I have that back...I need to spend it on astrophotography...)
Astrophotography is expensive, time consuming, and difficult. Whereas, I can set up a 102mm AZ refractor visual telescope and be observing in less than five minutes, see many objects available in the sky in 70 minutes and then go to bed. If I want to look at nebulae they can been seen at NASA images for free.
Hey there, I have a question, I was intending on doing visual astronomy as a hobby, mostly to view DSOs but was disappointed when I heard that all you would see (of most DSOs) is black and white, I would want to know if I could use a UV or IR sensitive lens to spot them in that color, would that be possible?
Hey mate! No sry, visual (DSO) is grey-scale. Your colour cells in your retina are just not sensitive enough for colour seeing. Adding filters would only further decrease the luminosity, so... My advice: replace your eyes with a proper camera ;-) Cheers and clear skies!
