Monday, 24 May 2010

The black serpent from space

Here is the Snake nebula in Ophiuchus (Barnard 72). I snapped it Saturday night (may 22-3) at about 1 am. It is awesome to see what look from a distance like vast clouds of stars that stop abruptly at some mysterious black boundary. And what's more it's in the shape of a snake! And here the snake is slithering across the heavens towards another even blacker shape. For this picture it was useful to have my remote shutter control timer, so I could go off and drink tea while about 30 x 15" shots were being taken on the 20" scope at f/3. Thanks Keith!
at

3 comments:

  1. Dr Dan26 May 2010 at 17:36

    (當身處逆境時，要能忍一時之氣，吃一時之苦，並及早確立自己的目標，總有一天，你會嘗到那甘美的果實) - 去地獄，你骯髒的私生子。

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous29 May 2010 at 11:12

    I find the Barnard's intriguing and they make really spectacular photographs. I've had my eye on this one with a view to imaging it for sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr Dan2 June 2010 at 17:10

    Thanks -it's probably the most eyecatching Barnard object + there are some really dark ones just S of the field & over in Sag. Needs a reasonable horizon. Several things to work on with the scope - just about to improve drive system + collimate (hand made - so great difficulty here) so watch this space.

    ReplyDelete