Agree with Freddy, that last one Snowy posted looks great, to me, one of the best so far.

I had never seen any wallpapers for 3 monitors before yours Dave, it's a novel idea.

How long would it take to make something like that 1280x1024 one, creation and rendering?

It varies greatly, depending on the complexity of the scene. Usually, the scenes take between 2 and 6 hours to set up, and about twice that to render, with max detail and just my box doing the rendering. I can usually cut 2/3 of the render time off, if I set all the local computers (there are 6 of them) to be rendering nodes, but that's a real hassle. That scene actually took less time to render than it did to set up, but that's only because I had to do a LOT of research and tweaking to get the dimensions to be perfect.

This dark tower is designated NGC 6231 with an image of the whole area here. This image is from APOD. Cropped and rotated by me.



Available in 16:9 and 16:10.

Both full res.

If you would like to find the original pictures of what I make then check out Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) and Hubble's archive websites. And this link to the forum.
And of course, the Gallery.

Found this pic via the Bad Astronomy website and is image data from the Messenger probe.



Available in 16:9 and 16:10.

Both full res.

Great stuff, Snowy! Thanks. Gotta love Dr. Phil Plait!

By the way, I'm making good use of those planetary surface maps. I'll be posting a few planets in the coming days.

This is a recent image from APOD. Another cool nebula. Also know as M16 and NGC6611. There's loadsa good pics in this nebula. Wiki here.



Available in 16:9 and 16:10.

Both full res.

This is the image I want to take with my own hand. I'm not sure where I got this image. This link shows the image annotated. Most close up images show the M42 bit. And lots of info on Wiki.



Available in 16:9 and 16:10.

That makes two of us, Snowy. It's just past 5AM here, and Orion is simply lovely, just east of zenith, with the moon just west, and Jupiter hovering nearby. Too bad I don't have a camera that's capable of taking the shot.

Not posted a wallpaper for ages. Here's a nice one of the Earth I found on APOD a while ago.



Available in 16:9 and 16:10.

Wow. I haven't posted in here for over a year.
Found this on Hubble site with additional info from BABlog.



Available in almost 16:9 (1208x680) not full 1080.

My Google homepage has a "NASA Image of the Day", which is somewhat like APOD, and that image was showcased yesterday. Lovely image.

On a side-note, I tried to use the telescope to view the Horsehead Nebula last night, but I just don't have an eyepiece that will allow enough magnification. I also think that there's too much light pollution in that direction to allow for a good enough image of it this time of year (Orion is too far west, and several light sources in that direction wash out the sky). More details in The Day Today, shortly.

Invest in a 2x mag Barlow eyepiece, if you haven't one already. As always, the more $$ the better the quality.

And something I've never tried, an eyepiece filter with a sodium filter in place. Most street lamps (orange) being sodium lamps. Not sure how effective this will be seeing as you'll be cutting down the light through a filter but allowing more of the light you want through than the light you don't want.

I've always wanted to do shots of the sun with a H-alpha filter but you need to put this over the 8" part of the 'scope and they are mucho $$$.

If I get to the point where I want to do some sun gazing, I'll probably invest in a refracter that's purpose-built for the task. Those are far less expensive than an 8" Ha filter for the big scope, and while the magnification won't be as great, it would do nicely for cataloging sunspots, or viewing Mercury transits (Venus/ISS, too, but if I remember right, there won't be another Venus transit in my lifetime, and the ISS is a tricky beast to catch, given it's orbital speed).

As for the Barlow lens, I've a 1.25" 3x and a 2" 2x on the way. The camera seems to do better when mounted as a 2". I actually have three options for mounting the scope: 1.25", 2" and T-ring (just like how an SLR camera would be mounted). According to the paperwork, the T-ring installation is the most stable, and therefor takes the best quality images, but it's a major chore to set up, and forget swapping out the eyepiece to make sure the scope is looking the right direction. I'd love to find a "flip splitter", where I could mount both the camera and the eyepiece at the same time, but so far, no luck.

Most of the streetlights here aren't Sodium, actually, They're Mercury Vapor or Halogen, so a Sodium filter wouldn't do much good. And where I live there isn't a "streetlight" for well over a mile. the problem is that there's a huge shopping center (well, huge for me) just over the hill to the South-Southwest (right where Jupiter and Orion sit, early evenings this time of year) that fills the "local air" with a dim blue-white haze. If I wait till after 1AM, about a third of that light goes away, but by then, so have Orion and Jupiter. Oh well. There's always next year, and by then, I'll have more experience, and should get some really cool images.

This is a new Hubble picture of M57, the Ring Nebula with new information of it's actual shape. More info from BABlog.



Available in 16:9 full 1080.

very nice image there. looks like a big eye