ajamesmccarthy

Mars tonight

As a bonus- here's how it looks as I'm capturing it:

https://gfycat.com/chubbylikablearcticseal

This is the "Red" channel, it is captured in R,G,B with thousands of frames each, which are then aligned, stacked, and integrated to form the image you see here. The fine details are resolved through a proc...

Andromeda

What if we flew around the moon?

This was done using a combination of my images, weather satellite data, and NASA/JPL data from the LRO (to render the backside of the moon). 

If you want to see it in high resolution, the Attachment is HD!

Ask me anything!

This is an open-ended AMA. Ask me anything you like about space, astronomy, astrophotography, moon landings or other missions, etc! I am keeping this open ended so anyone is welcome to chime in if you think of a new question in the future. 

EDIT: Apparently you do have to pay to comment, although the post itself is public (sending feedback to Patreon on this). My bad guys. Ask me a q...

Reprocessed an older Venus shot in light of the current news

Apparently there may be life on Venus, in the form of Phosphine-emitting microbes! Unfortunately I couldn't take a new picture thanks to the smoke here in California, so here's an older one I reprocessed. 

Jupiter and Saturn in Methane

 Jupiter and Saturn look completely different when you filter out everything but the light emitted by certain gasses. Brighter areas are regions with strong methane presence. On Jupiter you can see how this methane is present in specific cloud bands, and on the great red spot. For Saturn, the Methane in the atmosphere is insignificant compared to the rings! While shooting in these waveleng...

Our Moon and Our Sun

Two of my older works blended together, to show the contrast between the two brightest celestial objects over our heads. 

Warhol's Pillars, an astrophotography pop art tribute

The Pac Man Nebula. A flame in space.

One of my highest clarity lunar images ever with vivid color

Mars is getting closer! Here's how it looked tonight.

A blend of many deep sky objects, All set to scale.

This is approximately how large these objects are in relation to each other. Nebulas are all on a very similar scale. Stars and planets would be smaller than a pixel at this scale. Galaxies would be so large the image would be thousands of times larger. 

Look closely- this isn't a view of the moon you've seen before

This is not a photo. This is a view of the moon as if it were it completely flipped around. I took data from NASA and JPL of the LRO- height map data and color data, and mapped it to a sphere in blender, creating a fairly accurate model of our moon. I then simulated our sun's light, positioned in a way that accurately reflects how the moon looks as it hangs in space in an accurate phase. This r...

Tonight's moon in 81 megapixels, a sneak peek at tomorrow's post

Thought I'd do another big one for you guys. This is the 96% illuminated waxing moon from tonight. Brought out a hint of color, but otherwise tried to get it as close to how it looks through my telescope eyepiece as possible.

Celestial events in September- and an image Poll

Here's a quick rundown of celestial events happening in September, and a bit of background on what to expect from each. A relatively quiet month from a celestial event happening, so barring a surprise comet or Betelguese going boom I'll be focused on emission nebulae, planets, and the moon mostly this month. 

September 2nd- Full Moon
Known as the "Corn Moon" due t...

Unedited image and Simulated True Color of My last post, plus an explanation of colors

I get a lot of questions when I post False color images, basically "What does it look like to my eyes" and "Do you just paint colors in?"

Basically, astrophotgraphy is so different from regular photography, that the same conventions do not apply whatsoever. I'm essentially taking pictures of a shadow. Here is a crash course in how color with astrophotography works. 

Let...