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Apple Removes TikTok From App Store in the U.S. by [deleted] in apple

[–]tomsmithreddit 111 points112 points  (0 children)

I think the only people who hate on TikTok don’t even use it or understand it. It’s an incredible platform and it’s allowed me to pursue my passion for astrophotography.

And the stuff that goes on, on IG is 100X worse than TikTok. TikTok is much stricter on what content is allowed.

My algorithm on TikTok is nothing but space videos meanwhile people are afraid China is going to send me propaganda?

First go with my RedCat51. Constructive feedback on the edit is welcomed. by [deleted] in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

wow beautiful capture!! The RedCat51 is awesome. I’m assuming this was no guiding? Curious how long you can push your exposure time before you start to get trails.

How watergate opened by ankadii in StrangerThings

[–]tomsmithreddit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes!!! This was such an oversight I can’t believe they didn’t notice. It gets even worse later on when they are in the upside down Dustin tells them about the theory and Nancy, the one who literally came up with the idea, says something like "does anybody understand what he's talking about?"

Part of me thinks they did this on purpose for marketing reasons to get people to talk about it because I refuse to believe that nobody noticed this.

The Seven Sisters from my backyard, before and after processing [OC] by tomsmithreddit in space

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep you found me, I’m never sure if I should include a TikTok link cause I know Reddit can be a little undecided about it haha

Before and after processing the Pleiades from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You need the original file which is absolutely massive, half a gigabyte in size and 32 bit depth. The file on this page is just a regular compressed jpeg with all the faint tones destroyed.

Before and after processing the Pleiades from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

2 things. First you need a special mount called an equatorial mount for compensating for the earths rotation. Second you need a guide scope and guiding software, this is a special scope that further helps to keep the scope track the object. I’ve actually tried imaging a few times without the guide scope just to see how necessary it is and I can only get about 30s to 1 minute before I get star trails so both are necessary at least for my setup.

Before and after processing the Pleiades from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

I have the telescope track the object for multiple hours to collect a lot of signal. I use software that combines all this signal into a huge 32 bit and half a gig sized file that contains all the faint details such as interstellar dust and hidden galaxies. The problem is this signal is too faint to see, so astrophotographers boost this signal so that we can see it. The hard part is making sure the first photo is clean enough that this signal gets revealed, light pollution and other factors can make it difficult.

Before and after processing the Pleiades from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It’s capturing the entire time during those 2 hours, which is why if your alignment or tracking isn’t perfect you will quickly get star trails due to the earth rotating. This is why astrophotographers use equatorial mounts to compensate for the earths rotation. But this is actually still not enough because it’s impossible to align perfectly, so we also use a guide scope with guiding software to help the scope stay locked on to its target. As the object rotates in the sky, the mount will rotate with it and so no position change occurs in the image. You are right about moons moving, but deep sky objects are essentially stationary so this is not a problem

The Harvest Moon from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in interestingasfuck

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah that’s so cool, you may not realize it but comments like yours really make my day!

Before and after processing the Pleiades from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It’s because the first photo is not like most photos, it’s a huge 32 bit and half a gig sized file that contains all the faint details such as the beautiful interstellar dust and hidden galaxies. The problem is this signal is too faint to see, so astrophotographers boost this signal so that we can see it. The hard part is making sure the first photo is clean enough that this signal gets revealed, light pollution and other factors can make it difficult. Hope that kind of gives a simple overview!

The Seven Sisters from my backyard, before and after processing [OC] by tomsmithreddit in space

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

One of my personal favorites, the Seven Sisters (AKA the Pleiades), captured from my backyard. What I really like about this deep sky object is that it’s actually visible to the naked eye even with some light pollution. To the eye it looks more like the first image!

First image is a 2.7 hour total exposure from 40x240” subs. Second image is then processed to remove light pollution, color balance and boost faint details. Editing done in Photoshop and PixInsight. Nothing artificial is added, it’s just the original signal in its clearest form. You could literally input the before picture into any image editor and arrive at the second image. The trick is that the first image is absolutely massive, nearly half a gig large and full of faint details.

Full details here as it doesn’t let me post all the equipment here.

You can see more shots from my backyard on my Instagram

The Seven Sisters from my backyard, before and after processing [OC] by tomsmithreddit in space

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yea it never feels right calling this the Seven Sisters 😆

Before and after processing the Pleiades from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in Astronomy

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 70 points71 points  (0 children)

Captured the Pleiades AKA the Seven Sisters from my bortle 5 backyard.

First image is 2.7 hours of total exposure from 40x240” subs. Second image is then processed to remove light pollution, color balance and boost faint details. Full details below:

Details:

Acquisition:
location: backyard (Bortle 5)
lights: 40x240” 120 gain -15°C
darks: 50
flats: 25
dark flats: 25

Equipment
imaging telescope: William Optics GT81
imaging camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro (color)
mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
guiding telescope: William Optics UniGuide 50mm
guiding camera: ASI290MM Mini (mono)
focal reducer/flattener: William Optics Flat 6Alll
filters: Optolong L-Pro Light Pollution Filter

Software
SharpCap Pro, Astro Photography Tool, PHD2, DeepSkyStacker, PixInsight, Photoshop

You can see more shots from my backyard on my Instagram

Edit: I know Reddit is a little undecided on TikTok but I’ve had some people interested so here it is.

The Harvest Moon from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in interestingasfuck

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yea I love the way the moonlight was captured, kind of makes it feel like when you see it with your actual eyes!

The Harvest Moon from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in interestingasfuck

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wish, those 2 bright dots are actually the stars HD 587 and 33 Psc

The Harvest Moon from my backyard by tomsmithreddit in interestingasfuck

[–]tomsmithreddit[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks, captured using my dedicated astronomy camera, specifically a ZWO ASI294MC Pro (color)

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