Photographing the Deep Sky: Images in Space and Time

By Chris Baker

Spectacular nebulae where stars are born, beautiful star clusters from the early formation of the Milky Way, and galaxies as far as a billion light years away, all feature in this book of stunning images from astrophotographer Chris Baker.The author takes the reader on a journey through time and space to the Deep Sky, far beyond our Solar System. It is a pictorial description of the awe-inspiring wondrous objects that exist out there."The images are of objects from hundreds to many millions of light years away; distances of such enormity are hard for our minds to grasp. The book presents fascinating information on what the Earth was like when the light started its earth-bound journey through space.For example, as the light left the Andromeda Galaxy 2.5 million years ago on its interstellar journey to Chriss telescope, the Himalayas are still being raised and Polar Bears roam Britain.Chapters are included describing the basics of astrophotography, as modern telescopes and cameras make this a rewarding hobby well within reach of the amateur astronomer. Chris describes his observatory in the mountains of Spain along with practical guidance on how to get started in astrophotography.With a concise, clear discussion on the background of astronomical science, this is above all, a book to celebrate the beauty and fascination of space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781526715548

Chris Baker

Professor Chris Baker graduated from his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, before beginning a Research Fellowship there at St Catharine’s College and the Department of Engineering. In the early 1980s he worked in the Aerodynamics Unit of British Rail Research in Derby, before moving to an academic position in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nottingham. He remained there till 1998 where he was a lecturer, reader and professor with research interests in vehicle aerodynamics, wind engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and agricultural aerodynamics. In 1998 he moved to the University of Birmingham as Professor of Environmental Fluid Mechanics in the School of Civil Engineering. In the early years of the present century he was Director of Teaching in the newly formed School of Engineering and Deputy Head of School. From 2003 to 2008 he was Head of Civil Engineering and in 2008 served for a short time as Acting Head of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. He was the Director of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education 2005-2014. He undertook a 30% secondment to the Transport Systems Catapult Centre in Milton Keynes, as Science Director from 2014 to 2016. He retired at the end of 2017 and took up an Emeritus position.

Book preview

Preface

Have you ever wondered what is in deep space far beyond our Solar System? Do you consider just how far away things in space really are? Did you know that as we look deep into space we are looking back in time, sometimes hundreds of millions of years? What was the Earth like that long ago as the light travelled through deep space on its interstellar journey to Earth?

I’ll take you on a journey through time and space, far beyond our Solar System. This book is a pictorial description of the awe-inspiring wondrous objects that exist ‘out there’. You will see spectacular nebulae where stars are born, images of beautiful star clusters formed in the young Universe, and galaxies a billion light years away. All here in this book of stunning photographs taken by myself and other astro photographers.

The distances and time involved are of such enormity that they are hard for our minds to grasp. For example, as the light was travelling from the Andromeda Galaxy 2.5 million years ago on its journey to my telescope, the Himalayas were still being raised and the North Sea didn’t exist.

The book includes fascinating information on what the Earth was like when the light started its journey through space. The section ‘Images beyond our Galaxy’ includes photographs taken by colleagues and me of objects of such distance that the light has taken tens or hundreds of millions of years to arrive at Earth.

The book explains how these photographs were taken. Modern telescopes and cameras make this a rewarding hobby, with advanced photography well within the reach of the amateur astronomer. I describe my observatory in the mountains of Spain along with practical guidance on how to get started in observing and photographing deep space.

With a concise, clear discussion of the background astronomical science, this is above all, a book to celebrate the fascination of time and beauty of space.

SPACE, TIME AND PLACE

Where are the objects you will see in this book? How far away are they from Earth? How long does it take light from these objects to reach Earth? How does distance relate to time? To answer these questions and to put these deep space objects into perspective, I will give you some background to space and time.

Let us start by looking much closer to Earth than the deep space objects in the book and then we will work outwards into space.

The Solar System

The Earth exists within what we call the Solar System. A collection of rocky and gas planets and their moons, intermingled with other rock-like objects, such as comets and asteroids, all orbiting a star we call the Sun.

In terms of distances, our moon is approximately 239,000 miles away from Earth. Its orbit is not exactly circular; therefore, the distance does vary. So, this is the average distance. The Earth is on average 93 million miles from the Sun. This distance is often referred to as 1 Astronomical Unit (AU). So, the Sun and Earth are separated by 1 AU. This is a useful way to describe distances within the Solar System as it saves writing and counting large numbers of zeros.

What is the size of the Solar System? The answer requires agreement on where the Solar System ends and this is open to interpretation. For example, is it at the orbit of the farthest planet, Neptune? Is it at the farthest minor planet, Sedna which wanders out 3 times the distance of Neptune? Is it where the Sun’s gravitational influence is minimal? Perhaps we should include the cloud of icy rocks known as the Oort Cloud? For the sake of argument let’s say that the radius of the Solar System is 100,000 AU. This sounds like a big number, a significant distance and of course in many ways it is. But it is tiny when considering the distances involved for most of the objects in this book. Therefore, when expressing distances between objects in deep space, beyond our Solar System, we use Light Years and not the smaller unit of measurement, AU.

Diagram showing distance in Astronomical Units for the Solar System.

Credit: Nasa

How far is a LY? Well light has a finite speed, which in the vacuum of space is 186,000 miles per second. A light year is simply the distance light has travelled in one year. This equates to 5.89 trillion miles or expressed fully, 5,878,499,810,000 miles. It is easier to write 1 LY. Now we have a unit to better express distances on a galactic scale.

The Milky Way Galaxy

Our Solar System exists in a galaxy, a huge collection of stars, maybe 400 billion, some larger than the Sun, some smaller, some more energetic, others almost dead. Many of these stars, as we are discovering, have their own planetary systems. In addition, the galaxy hosts plenty of dust, gas and lots of energy. Our galaxy would look like a Catherine Wheel with a slightly elongated centre if we could see it from the outside. We call this The Milky Way.

Diagram showing the spiral arms and position of the Sun in the Milky Way.

Courtesy of www.thinkastronomy.com

Several questions arise; where are the Sun and Solar System in the Milky Way and what size is the Milky Way? Our Sun and the Solar System are positioned on one of the spiral arms of the galaxy known as the ‘Orion Spur’ about 26,000 LY from the galactic centre; 26,000 x 5,878,499,810,000 miles! The Milky Way has an estimated diameter of 100,000 LY.

Beyond the Milky Way

What’s beyond the Milky Way? If we ignore some complex physics and focus just on the chunky visible things out there, then there are simply vast distances of pretty much nothing until you come to the next galaxy. Therefore, galaxies are sometimes called