Behold the best amateur space pictures of the year.

Check out this incredible picture of the Great Orion Nebula. It's not from the Hubble Space Telescope. It's the work of amateur astrophotographer Marcus Davies, and it just one of the finalists for this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year

The Great Orion Nebula photographed by Marcus Davies. This amazing image captures the superheated gas and dust of the closest star-forming region to Earth, 1350 light years away.

Check out more of his picture's here.

This one is my favorite.

Rosette Narrowband 2010 crop by Endosidney

Source

Also, you can check out the entrys here.
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Yeah, these were amateurs. It's amazing. I wouldn't mind saving up and buying a good telescope, and trying to take images like this. This is real art-work created by our universe.

Enjoy.

[edit on 9-8-2010 by Oozii]

Those are fantastic! I really wish I had equipment to do this type of photography. Tonight the persiads shower has begun, I have seen a fireball, I would love to have taken a picture of it! Thanks for posting, and kudos to the photographer, great job!

Originally posted by space cadet
Those are fantastic! I really wish I had equipment to do this type of photography. Tonight the persiads shower has begun, I have seen a fireball, I would love to have taken a picture of it! Thanks for posting, and kudos to the photographer, great job!

They are, aren't they? You and me both, im very fortunate that I do not live in or near the city. Im on the outskirts of town, and the star's are always easy to see.

We don't always gotta goto NASA, to see beautiful photo's of our universe.

I've always wondered if space actually looks like that.

I mean if you got in spaceship and looked out of a window would it look like that or does it only look that spectacular from Earth ?

reply to post by Discotech


Nope. It doesn't. Space photography is done over long periods. Very few photons come from those distant objects, so digital cameras have to stay open to receive them for long periods.

Many of the colors are enhanced by the astronomy buffs. Filters are used for different exposures, and then the results are colored in photoshop.

If you looked through a telescope at night, you would likely see gray objects in most cases. Some are blue, like the blue snowball, due to their concentration. Most objects are very faint. For example, the Whirlpool Galaxy is so faint that you have to aim your telescope at it and hope you hit it. Then, you have to hold your camera open for five minutes to get an image. If you consider how long five minutes can be, and you realize you can get star streaks in that time frame, you also realize that you have to keep your telescope perfectly aligned on the object being photographed to prevent smearing or blurring. You don't want your stars to come out looking like footballs.

[edit on 8/9/2010 by Jim Scott]

reply to post by Discotech


Jim Scott is correct, the 2nd picture I posted was a 20 hour exposure. I don't get it really, but it's pretty cool what comes out at the end.

reply to post by Jim Scott


So what does space look like to the naked eye ? Exactly what we see from Earth ? Could we not get close enough to one of these amazing photographic sights and see something similar ?

Those pictures are astounding. For those that have not yet seen it I recommned Hubble 3D if you want to see more amazing pics of deep space.

yup really astouding pics

Stunning pics- thanks for sharing.

I don't get the whole "colored in photoshop" statement that another member made.... I have seen various different photo's of the 'Pillars of Creation" and colors are always the same... Are you saying that space is not colorful at all?

I'm having a hard time understanding what this means...

Originally posted by Tripple_Helix
Stunning pics- thanks for sharing.

I don't get the whole "colored in photoshop" statement that another member made.... I have seen various different photo's of the 'Pillars of Creation" and colors are always the same... Are you saying that space is not colorful at all?

I'm having a hard time understanding what this means...

It's confusing for me too, but under different methods of taking a photo of event's like this, some will you x-ray, infared, and other's to get the final photo. Some lights we cannot see with out naked eye alone, so using these different photographing method's it allows us to view them.

I think I made sense.

Just found this video that explains how hubble images are made.

blogs.myspace.com...

It should explain alot. You learn something new everyday.