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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

Surprise Autumn Shiitake Storm! Usually, these have been appearing within 1-2 days of the Autumnal Equinox -- but this year they are a tiny bit early; stimulated by the first cool night since springtime, along with the waxing new moon! #mushrooms #mycology

A pair of oak logs, dotted with at least 13 young shiitake mushrooms, rest in a shady backyard space, along with a host of native plants.

An oak log, adorned with green oakleaf vines, stands upright against the northern face of a dwelling. Multiple shiitake mushrooms sprout from the log!

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

Split the night between the Pelican nebula and Stephan's quintet. When I came back outside just before dawn to take flats, fog had appeared in the backyard observatory. There was a faint haze of dew on the secondary mirror, and the resulting (sky) flat […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

A portion of the Pelican Nebula, a glowing cloud of gas and dust in the plane of the Milky Way. It's rendered here in the classic Hubble palette, with the ionic emissions of Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen mapped to the Red, Green, and Blue channels of the color image -- creating a rainbow-hued rendition of the celestial structures. A faint red track wiggles its way across the right-hand side of the picture frame -- the imprint of a passing satellite.

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

Cocoon Nebula in LRGB + RGB stars. I collected a couple of hours of H-alpha during my imaging session, but no matter how i mixed it, the resulting "enhanced" LHRGB nebula had a weird artificial-looking appearance, compared with the less saturated […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

The Cocoon Nebula, a reflection and emission nebula. It appears as a fluffly, luminous pink cloud, like diffuse cotton candy. A modest bubble-like void surrounds the bright central star, and an almost imperceptible broad lane of darkened sky extends across the picture frame, which is peppered with many yellow- and red-hued stars.

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026

I took a picture of the Milky Way from a high overlook in the Smoky Mountains last week. One hour total exposure time with encroaching misty mountain fog and a light dome on the horizon, but clear and dark skies overhead! Zoom-in! 20 * 180 sec 12mm f/2 […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

A high-resolution photograph of our home galaxy, taken with a wide-angle lens whose field of view extends from the horizon to zenith. Cloud-like nebulosity and dark lanes of gas and dust extend diagonally across the tall and thin picture frame. A pool of light from a nearby town washes-out the stars in the lower right-hand corner of the photo. Zooming in reveals thousands upon thousands of stars.

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/07/2026

Trying out the new 8" RC @ f/5.6 (with focal reducer) on some smaller targets. Cat's Eye nebula in narrow band! The Blue-hued, diffuse, outer nebula shows the emission from doubly-ionized oxygen atoms, interspersed with a few wisps of glowing red hydrogen […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

The Cat's Eye nebula, a planetary nebula in the direction of the north celestial pole. A wispy, diffuse, roughly spherical shell of gas glows with the characteristic blue glow of doubly-ionized oxygen, along with a few threads of glowing-red hydrogen. This shell surrounds a compact, almond-shaped nucleus whose inner structure is just barely made apparent; appearing like overlapping oblong bubbles surrounding the nebula's central star. Off to the right, a very small galaxy with a bright central bar and diffuse, wispy spiral arms shares the frame, which is otherwise dotted with a variety of colorful stars.

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

"Probably fabricated — judge existence confidence 30/100." 🙄

ZEROTENSOR
Unidentified online alias
>90 strength<
GPT-5.5 says
1/3

Online alias associated with technical or developer-focused content; specific real-world identity is not clearly established.

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2026

First Light on my new 8" carbon fiber Ritchey-Chretien telescope last night! Conditions were far from ideal -- no clouds, but the air was hot, humid, and hazy. Regardless, I was able to capture three and a half hours of narrowband (7 nm SHO) data towards M16 […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

A glittering cluster of stars is nestled within intricate clouds of interstellar gas and dust whose glow is rendered in rainbow-like colors -- which illuminate the composition and structure of this stellar nursery in the plane of the Milky Way. Dramatic columns which appear almost like geological formations dominate the center of the frame, partly glowing with their own light and partly blocking and reflecting light against the colorful, luminous background.

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Reposted by zerotensor

zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/06/2026

Three targets which are a bit small in my current workhorse 150mm f/4 Newtonian + IMX585 mono: About three hours of RGB on M63 and M13. 4 hours total HOO towards CatEye nebula. Looking forward to imaging these targets soon using the same camera on my new […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

The Sunflower Galaxy M63! it's a grand spiral galaxy with a lot of star formation.
The intersecting lanes of dust and stars, peppered with the characteristic pink glow of hydrogen in the star-forming complexes appears almost like the alternating yellow and black of a sunflower bloom. All of this situated atop a sparse field of stars of various colors and magnitudes.

The Cat Eye nebula.

A turbulent, spherical, faint shell of gas and dust glows in the OIII and H bands outside a hot, highly luminous, structured core. The confetti-like threads of aquamarine oxygen and red hydrogen appear similar to the iris of a mammalian eye.

$M13, the great star cluster in Hercules. It's a cluster of stars with approximately spherical symmetry at the center of the picture frame. Many hundreds of individual stars are discernible within the bright central core. A few bright stars frame the cluster, most notably a yellow star on the right, and a blue-ish star to the top-left. Those bright stars exhibit diffraction spikes which are an artifact of the vanes used to hold the secondary mirror on the telescope with witch the image was captured, A rainbow spectrum is evident on the four spikes which emanate from these bright stars.$

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/06/2026

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

Only a few hours of clear skies over the last month. It's galaxies this time of year, so here ya go: M101, M106, and "The Silver Needle", aka NGC4244. About 3 hours of RGB each. 150mm f/4 Newt IMX585 mono

M106 It is a slightly irregular spiral galaxy. There are a couple of more distant galaxies visible within the frame.

M101 "the pinwheel galaxy". It's a grand design spiral galaxy taking up about 1/9 of the frame, against a backdrop of colorful stars and dark sky.

A thin, needle-shaped nebulosity occupies the center 1/9th of the frame. It's NGC 4244, the "Silver Needle" galaxy. It's a spiral galaxy, and we see it edge-on. There is evidence of a core, dust lanes, and spiral arms.

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Reposted by zerotensor

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

Currently reading a draft of a reply comment a group I'm in is writing to the FCC's Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking on Spectrum Abundance for Weird Space Stuff (yes, that's fucking actually what it's called) and I'm just going to congratulate myself on not throwing my laptop out the window. The […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/03/2026

After months of cloudy nights, finally caught a glimpse of clear skies last week. To kick-off galaxy season, here's the result of collecting about 3 hours of RGB photons towards M81 and M82! #astrophotography #astronomy

Bode's galaxy and the nearby Cigar galaxy -- also known as M81 & M82 -- shine against a backdrop of colorful stars. Bode's galaxy exhibits a classical spiral structure, as viewed from an an angle about halfway between face and edge, while the cigar galaxy presents itself to us edge-on, obscuring its spiral form. Both are adorned with pink and red features which are the hallmark of regions of intense star formation; triggered by their mutual gravitational interaction.

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/12/2025

The last couple of months have been cloudy here, but skies were clear all night on the solstice. I tried and failed to catch a glimpse of 3I (ATLAS), -- but all was not lost! While waiting for the comet to emerge from behind a tree, I captured a couple of […] [Original post on kolektiva.social]

A rainbow-colored cloud of glowing gas and absorbing dust upon a field of colorful stars. It's NGC 2174, the "Monkey Head Nebula". The nebula is rendered using the classic Hubble palette, wherein the light emitted by sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen are mapped onto the color image's red, green, and blue channels (respectively). The stars are presented in calibrated RGB. I think it looks a bit like Jerry Garcia.

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Reposted by zerotensor

henk ✅ @henk.waag.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/11/2025

"Qualcomm-owned #Arduino quietly pushed a sweeping rewrite of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and the changes mark a clear break from the open-hardware ethos that built the platform." (source: Adafruit […] [Original post on waag.social]

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zerotensor @zerotensor.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/11/2025

The Ghost of Cassiopeia 150mm f/4 Newt S: 18 x 300sec H: 17 x 300sec O: 18 x 300sec #astrophotography #astronomy

$Emission and reflection nebulae are illuminated by the star, Navi -- the middle star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Navi sits in the top left, and outshines the thousands of other stars that populate the photograph. The nebulae are rendered using a muted Hubble palette; wherein the light emitted from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen ions are mapped onto the red, green, and blue channels of the color image. The central feature is a wispy off-white cloud of ghostly semi-transparent nebulosity. The bright star, Navi, displays prominent diffraction spikes in the form of a cross, along with a large blue halo -- both artifacts of the optical system used to capture the image.$

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