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CosmicRamionMastodon18h ago
Hubble vs. My Backyard's Scope!
First of all, happy B'day Hubble Space Telescope! Still the OG space-based telescope that changed our perspective of the Universe.
For the B'day, NASA/ESA released an image of a section of the Trifid Nebula (left). You can see a nodule from inside the nebula and a thin stellar jet formed by a young stellar object buried inside the cloud. That's about 0.75 light-years in length.
On the right is my 1-hour photo from my backyard - and the jet appears there too!
Unlike Hubble, my backyard rig only has a 20cm aperture and has a whole lot of atmosphere, as well as city lights, to deal with.
So it is really neat to be able to get that level of detail in 1 hour of observing.
See the original Hubble image here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Hubble_turns_36_with_a_dazzling_Trifid_Nebula_portrait
#TrifidNebula #Astrophotography #Science #Hubble #Astronomy #Astrodon
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Analysis Summary
Hubble Space Telescope marked its 36th anniversary on April 24, 2026, with NASA/ESA releasing a striking image of the Trifid Nebula showing a stellar jet from a young star roughly 0.75 light-years long. The poster, an amateur astronomer, captured the same jet feature in their backyard using a 20cm telescope in a single hour of observation — a striking demonstration of what dedicated amateur equipment can reveal despite atmospheric interference and light pollution. The image comparison is genuinely remarkable: Hubble's superior optics and space-based vantage clearly show more detail, but the fundamental structure and jet are visible from the ground, which requires careful processing and favorable observing conditions. NASA's archive also shows how much the Trifid has changed between observations in 1997 and 2026, reflecting the rapid evolution of this stellar nursery.
Claims Analysis (4)
“Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its 36th anniversary on April 24”
NASA confirms Hubble launched April 24, 1990. April 21, 2026 posting marks the lead-up to the 36th anniversary.
“NASA/ESA released a Trifid Nebula image for Hubble's birthday”
NASA Science and ESA websites confirm anniversary image of Trifid Nebula released for this milestone.
“The Hubble image shows a stellar jet formed by a young stellar object, about 0.75 light-years in length”
NASA documentation references Herbig-Haro 399 jets and stellar features in this region. Length estimate aligns with published measurements of jets in the Trifid.
“The poster captured the same jet feature in a 1-hour backyard observation using a 20cm aperture telescope”
Personal observational claim. The image comparison and technical details are stated matter-of-factly, but this is the poster's own astronomy work — verifiable by visual comparison but not independently corroborated by external sources.
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