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Brian

@bsastro85

3.1K

followers

4480

following

I Love Space 🔭 and Music 🤘🏼
So that’s mostly what I’ll be posting about.
Seattle, WA
Full resolution Astro images on PicAstro

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Cosmic Whirlpool 🌌

The Whirlpool Galaxy is one of the most popular galaxies in the night sky, and it’s easy to see why. Its massive spiral arms and close companion galaxy make for a beautiful image and a stunning view at the eyepiece.

Astrophotographer Brian Sams did an excellent job revealing the glowing hydrogen and star-forming regions, pulling out some incredible detail in the galaxy’s arms! Swipe to see Brian's setup for this shot, and follow @bsastro85 for more gorgeous views! 🔭 ✨

Ready to explore the skies for yourself? Visit AgenaAstro.com for the gear you’ll need to start your own deep-sky adventure.
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🔭 @stellarvue_telescopes SVX102T
📷 @zwoastro 2600MC Pro
⚙️ @celestronuniverse AVX Mount
🎨 Antlia ALP-T Filter by @bsastro85

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3 months ago

+++++Picastro images of the week+++++

And boy, do we have some crackers!

First place going to Brian @bsastro85 for his wonderful image of the North American nebula! Check out the details here and even more details on the app. You know there’s 100% NO COMPRESSION, right?!

2nd place going to this incredible image from Nick @astro_fritz for his insanely detailed image of the DNA nebula (adding this to our imaging list)

3rd place also going to Brian @bsastro85 for his cracking image of IC1318 for this wonderfully artful take on this area of our night skies.

Well done everyone. As always incredible commitment and dedication to your craft!

#space #cosmos #community by @bsastro85

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5 months ago

On a bank holiday here’s some dust and gas around the Iris nebula. What an incredible image. Superb work, Brian.

Of course this dark dust isn’t actually just ‘dust’.

Around the Iris Nebula, it’s mostly cold interstellar dust mixed with gas, sitting in a larger molecular cloud. The dust is made from tiny solid grains, far smaller than household dust and often carbon-rich or silicate-like material, sometimes with complex carbon molecules mixed in.

ESA/Hubble describes NGC 7023 as a “dust laboratory” and says that cosmic dust can block visible light, while also being part of the raw material from which stars eventually form.

Of course it’s dark because it’s blocking out the light behind it. by @bsastro85

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5 months ago

This is the latest data drop from @picastroapp and @spacetime.pictures
This data set is aptly named “Sea of Stars,” its Data set SP_0315. And it literally is a sea of stars. The central star cluster is M22. To the right is a smaller cluster, NGC6642. But behind all of that is an absolute sea of stars that never really dissipates. 61 megapixels of never ending stars 🤯 Not sure I quite did this one justice. I was hoping to have the Ha contribute more to the final image. But I only got halfway through processing it. Then the next day came to finish it. But I didn’t like some of the choices I had made the previous day. So I’m gonna try it again in a few days or something when I have more time. And see if I can’t bring out some more details.
“Processed from Spacetime Pictures Dataset SP_0315 Original astronomical data by Spacetime Pictures.”
This Dataset came from Obstech, Chile.
The 2nd image is screenshot of location from SkySafari.
Gear:
🔭 Takahashi Epsilon 160ed
📷 Zwo asi 6200mm Pro
🎨 Astronomik Deep Sky RGB, Astronomik MaxFR 6nm Ha
🔴 178x120sec
🟢 143x120sec
🔵 125x120sec
🔴 Ha: 193x180sec
Total 24 hours 31 minutes

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#astro #stars #nightsky #space #astronomy by @bsastro85

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3 days ago

So this is the M16 the “Eagle Nebula.” In SHO color palette. I’ve been holding off on this one because I was hoping to capture some more images with the sulfur/oxygen filter. It only has half the amount of integration time as the hydrogen/oxygen filter. But it’s gone into the light pollution dome and the trees. So it will have to wait until next year to add anything to this.
This version here was my 2nd try at processing this. It’s kinda a more subdued version. I’m gonna make a more punchy/aggressive version as well when I have a bit more time. I’ll probably make a crop of the Pillars of Creation from that; hopefully I can get a bit more contrast and detail out of it. But this object is very low on the horizon for me. Just clearing the tree tops and power lines. So looking through a lot of atmosphere. The second and third slides showing M16’s location to our own in our galaxy is screenshots from SkySafari.
🔭 Stellarvue SVX102T_f5.2
📷 ZWO Asi 2600mc Pro_temp 14F
⚙️ Celestron AVX
🎨 Antlia ALPT “Ha/OIII”
🎨Askar D2 “SII/OIII”
Details:⬇️
ALPT: 114x300sec. = 9hrs 30min
D2: 64x300sec. = 5hrs 30min
RGB (stars): 56x60sec. = 56min.
15 hours and 46 minutes for the total.
Captured from my light polluted backyard and processed in Pixinsight, Photoshop, and Lightroom by me.
High resolution image on PicAstro app 😉

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#astro #nebula #space #nightsky #astronomy taken in Seattle, Washington by @bsastro85

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9 days ago

Check this out! Hyunjung of Rolling Quartz guitar solo from Sub station in Seattle. She is so cool! 1 1/2 minutes of awesomeness 🔥🎸

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#RollingQuartz #guitarist #livemusic #krock taken in Substation by @bsastro85

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14 days ago

This is something I’ve been working on for a bit now. This is the Lion Nebula “Sh2-132” This object is so beautiful with its blue-ish oxygen dominating one side and red Hydrogen on the other side to create this striking image. I’ve actually wanted to image this object for a few years and just haven’t been able to. So I’m excited I was finally able to check that one off. It’s crazy that this is about twice the diameter of the full moon in the sky. It’s just incredibly faint. It’s located about 10,000 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. It’s powered by massive, incredibly hot stars, including Wolf-Rayet stars, whose intense ultraviolet radiation causes the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow. And shapes the gas around them with their stellar wind.
By the way, the infographic images were screenshots from SkySafari, showing the position of our Sun and the Lion Nebula within our galaxy.
This was a blend of my first and second tries at processing this image. And I’m sure there will be more edit to come 😈😉
I’ve been experimenting lately with this vertical framing. I feel it better fills up a phone screen 🤷🏻‍♂️🤔
🔭 Stellarvue SVX102T_f5.2
📷 ZWO Asi 2600mc Pro_temp 14F
⚙️ Celestron AVX
🎨 Antlia ALPT “Ha/OIII”
Details:⬇️
ALPT: 148x300sec. = 12hrs 20min
RGB (stars): 59x60sec. = 59min.
13 hours 19 minutes for the total
Captured from my light-polluted backyard and processed in Pixinsight, Photoshop, and Lightroom by me.
As always, high-resolution image on PicAstro app 😉

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#astro #space #nebula #astronomy #nightsky taken in Seattle, Washington by @bsastro85

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16 days ago

Let’s zoom around and look at my image of the Propeller Nebula. This new feature with @astrofly_app is awesome! I can see a lot of potential with this. I was able to make this within just a few minutes just by experimenting. And I love how u can make sure objects have their true depth behind the stars and scientificly accurate star distances. It just keeps continuing to get better. Now I’m gonna have to try more of the labeling of objects in the videos. 🤔

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#astro #space #nebula #nightsky #astronomy by @bsastro85

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20 days ago

Check this out! I finally had some time to stack some images and do a bit of a 1st run through it. 23 hours of exposure time across 15 nights. And this is what I got! This is the Cave Nebula “Sh2-155” done in SHO color palette. This was a bit of a rough draft as I plan on doing it again. But with more time to process it. But it looked super cool already. So I figured I would share it. It has some really cool features in it that I want to try and bring out a bit more so they are more noticeable. But that’s for another day.
Gear:⬇️
🔭 Stellarvue SVX102T_f5.2
📷 ZWO Asi 2600mc Pro_temp 14F
⚙️ Celestron AVX
🎨 Antlia ALPT “Ha/OIII”
🎨Askar D2 “SII/OIII”
Details:⬇️ ⏱️
ALPT: 112x300sec. = 9hrs 20min
D2: 155x300sec. = 12hrs 55min
RGB (stars): 50x60sec. = 50min.
23 hours and 5 minutes for the total. Over a total of 15 nights during July and August
Captured from my light-polluted backyard and processed in Pixinsight, Photoshop, and Lightroom by me.
As always, high-resolution image on PicAstro app 😉

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#astro #photography #space #nightsky #astronomy taken in Seattle, Washington by @bsastro85

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24 days ago

This is NGC 7380 “The Wizard Nebula.” I took this back in 2023 during an absolute full moon. With my smaller William Optics Zenithstar 73mm. I’m surprised how well it turned out regardless. I have been super busy lately. And haven’t had time to pre-process any of my new data or anything. So I gave this old image a second try real fast. I would love to image this again but in SHO with my new Stellarvue.
Gear:
🔭 William Optics Zenithstar 73mm
📷 ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
🎨 Antlia ALPT
Details:
ALPT filter 130x300sec = 10 hrs 50 min.
Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.

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#astro #space #wizard #nightsky #astronomy taken in Seattle, Washington by @bsastro85

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a month ago

It’s the moon from 8/25/26… Not much else to say. lol
and yes, this was the actual color of the moon that night.
It was very low on the horizon, and there was haze from smoke and clouds. This was made from just 8 single images to stack instead of a video stream.
🔭 Stellarvue SVX102T
📷 ZWO asi 2600mc pro
⚙️ Celestron AVX

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#moon #lunar #nightsky #astrophotography taken in Seattle, Washington by @bsastro85

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a month ago

Check this out. This is a portion of IREE’s solo from the #RollingQuartz concert at substation on Saturday taken in Substation by @bsastro85

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a month ago