Tom Narwid
Well-Known Member
11 x 300 seconds@ -10 degrees F
NGC 1977-The Running Man Nebula
- Thread starter Tom Narwid
- Start date
Unusual to see the star cross effect on deep space images. Nice image.
Mike Lewis
Staff Member
I have always loved this object, you got great colors on this one! And I always like scopes that produce those diffraction spikes too - very cool result.
Tom,
Do you recall the camera and scope for this image?
ML
Tom,
Do you recall the camera and scope for this image?
ML
Hey Ben, it's actually not that unusual to have the star spikes, it's just most of us don't do it, but lot's of people do. So it's actually cool that Tom has since we don't do it much as a group here.
AlanLichty
Moderator
I'd say Cool Shot but -10F is goes well beyond cool 
Beautiful shot.
Beautiful shot.
Mike Lewis
Staff Member
While in this day and age of digital processing star spikes can be artificially added to any image, they occur naturally as a result of the front mirror or lens support structure present on certain designs of telescopes like Newtonian reflectors and a number of high end Dall-Kirkham and Richey-Chretien designs. If I am not mistaken the Hubble has one of these designs. They show up more prominently the brighter the stars are. I think they are somewhat similar to the star diffraction spikes shown with a stopped down camera lens on bright point sources, although the physical structure that causes that is somewhat different. I'm betting the one's in Tom's image are naturally made - that is one of the reasons I inquired on the type of scope.
I had a refractor that created this effect for a short period of time. I like the effect myself, although I personally have not ever added it in to an image that did not have it naturally (nothing wrong with that though IMHO).
ML
I had a refractor that created this effect for a short period of time. I like the effect myself, although I personally have not ever added it in to an image that did not have it naturally (nothing wrong with that though IMHO).
ML
Tom Narwid
Well-Known Member
Jim...the star spikes are a result of the type of telescope used. As far as I know all reflector scopes with the secondary mirror being held with the "spider"
arrangement at the top of the scope will produce these "spikes". There are also software programs which will take them out.
Douglas Sherman
Staff
Nice one, Tom. I sure enjoyed those nights with you in your observatory. Fun stuff.