20. Beautiful Clouds

March 12, 2016

August 2015

One evening....

19. Jupiter at Last

March 29, 2016  - 11:25 PM

It was a cold but clear night.  I packed up my big telescope (Celestron SCT) and  equipment and drove to “The Hill”  to try to image Jupiter.  I have been waiting for the Planets to become visible at a reasonable hour since i got the telescope last July 2015.  The skies have been so cloudy so far this year but I finally got my chance March 29th.  

I arrived on site and had a lot of trouble mounting my guidescope and red-dot guider.  The bracket that holds the guiders on the telescope does not seem to be lined up and I didn’t have enough adjustment in either of the guide scopes to be able to align them.  I finally got the guide scope and telescope eyepiece to center on the cell tower blinking light located on Leon/Cherry Creek hill.

Imaging Planets is different that imaging DSO’s (Deep Sky Objects.)  For DSO’s I take several single frame long exposures.  To image Jupiter, I needed to take a short video using a program called Backyard EOS.  The program works with my Canon Camera to take short avi videos.  Then, I used Registax to stack the individual frames in the video.  Registax also has tools to sharpen the image.  

Here is my first attempt at Planetary Imaging.  I should be able to get better results when “seeing” conditions are better.  As I began imaging Jupiter, I noticed a layer of frost all over my equipment cases and my car!  I think I imaged through a frosty-fog!  It was 27 degrees and a very damp cold night.  Even with hand warmers, in each mitten, I just about froze my hands when I had to take the mittens off.  haha.

18. The Pleiades

February 28, 2016

I had been waiting for skies to clear to image the Pleiades (Seven Sisters).  Beautiful!  

The Pleiades (aka Seven Sisters, M45) is an open star cluster containing hot B-type stars. (giant and super giant very luminous and blue.)  Dust around the stars causes the reflection nebulosity.  It is one of the closest star clusters to Earth and can be seen with the naked eye.  The Pleiades is located near the constellation Orion. (Draw a line through the sword of Orion to the right. Follow to a V-shape pattern of stars with one bright star (Aldebaran.)  That’s the face of Taurus The Bull.  A little past Aldebaran you will find The Pleiades.  As Orion sinks low in the Western Sky in springtime, so does The Pleiades but it is still visible into the month of April.

The Greek myth:  The Pleiades were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas.  Several of the male Olympian gods had affairs with the seven heavenly sisters.  After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars.  The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky.

* This picture was produced using six three minute exposures at ISO1600. (five “Darks” were used.)  Processed using Nebulosity.

17. Five Planet Line-up

 February 2, 2016

Finally, a clear morning to see five planets. Last night, Jupiter was the first to appear in the east at 8:45PM. Then Mars at about 1:15AM.  Saturn at about 3:45AM. Venus about 5:45AM. Finally Mercury appeared about 6:00AM. 

I could not fit Jupiter into the frame so the picture shows 4 of the 5 planets.

16. The SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope)

January 30, 2016

The weather this month has been cold and snowy.  There were no clear nights.                                                                     It’s been a good time of the year to hunker-down and try to keep warm.

I continued to study Astro-Imaging and what I will need to do to get good pictures.                                                                   There are Two kinds of Astro-Imaging:  1. Planetary and 2. Deep-Sky.                                                                            I intend to become proficient in both!

Planetary Imaging

Using computers and digital cameras, Amateur Astronomers are now able to capture and produce some excellent images of the planets.  A good technique is to take avi video and then “Stack” the individual frames.  

I plan to start out imaging Jupiter using my Canon 1100d DSLR and a program called: Backyard EOS.  This program simplifies the process.  You basically open Backyard EOS, connect the camera, set the exposure and number of frames you want to capture and the program uses the camera’s live-view to create an avi video.  

Then you stack the images. I plan to use a program called Registax for stacking my avi.   

I will be using my new Celestron Edge HD Telescope with Canon DSLR attached.  The large aperture (9.25” or 235mm) and long focal length (2350mm) will provide the narrow Field of View and excellent light gathering ability for looking at and imaging the planets.

15. De Maaran's Nebula

February 22, 2016

Finally got a clear night again.   I decided to take the SCT out and wanted to look at The Pleiades.  I will try to image it next time with the 80mm Refractor.  I decided to focus on M43 in the Constellation Orion.  I had already imaged M42 and figured I better give it a try before it sinks too low in the west during March.

M43 is part of the Orion Nebula complex and is seperated from M42 by a dust lane. I took 12 time exposures and 6 Darks to get this composite photo. M43 was named The De Mairan's Nebula after the Frenchman who discovered it in 1731. In 1771, Charles Messier added it to his list and     today it is know as M43. 

14. The Moon with Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT)

September 22, 2015

I forgot to add these pictures to the blog so this post is out of order.

I snapped a couple pictures of the moon with the new Celestron Edge 9.25 SCT.  It’s pretty tricky to focus this telescope.  To get a good fine focus, I had to play with the focus knob quite a bit but the result is spectacular, I think.  The long focal length of the SCT allows for great close-up views with the Prime Focus set-up and Panasonic GH2 DSLR.

13. Christmas Day - Full Cold Moon

December 24, 2015

"Full Cold Moon" to rise on Christmas Day 2015

On the way to Christmas Eve Church service in Gowanda, I could see the full moon in a nice clear sky.  I hoped that the sky would stay clear so I could get a picture after church.  On the way home, the moon had climbed higher in the sky and when I got home it was just right for setting up the telescope in the side yard.

          The Earth will be graced with a rare sight this Christmas.  The first full moon to rise on the holiday in almost 40 years.

According to NASA, the full moon will reach its peak at 6:11 a.m. EST on Dec. 25. Not since 1977 has Christmas been brightened by a full moon, and it won't happen again until 2034.

The final full moon of the year is also known as the “Full Cold Moon” since it coincides with the beginning of winter. The winter solstice, officially marking the change of seasons, actually comes a few days earlier, just before midnight on Dec. 21."As we look at the moon on such an occasion, it's worth remembering that the moon is more than just a celestial neighbor," John Keller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. "The geologic history of the moon and Earth are intimately tied together such that the Earth would be a dramatically different planet without the moon."

The Full Cold Moon on Christmas is a fitting way to wrap up a big year in lunar history. 2015 also featured a so-called Super Blood Moon Eclipse in September -- when a total lunar eclipse coincided with a Supermoon, a full moon at the closest point of its orbit to Earth. That was the last in a series of four total Lunar eclipses occurring over about 18 months, known as a tetrad.

12. The Dumbbell Nebula

November 9, 2015

The Dumbbell Nebula (M-27)was low in the NW.  I wasn’t sure what kind of picture I would get.  This was shot at ISO6400 @ 90 seconds.  A stack of 10 exposures with 5 Dark Frames.
Weather was mostly clear with a slight breeze and 39 degrees.  No snow yet.  

Can you see the Dumbbell?

11. The Orion Nebula

November 5th was a spectacular night for stargazing. I was able to image the Andromeda Galaxy, The Triangulum Galaxy and The Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion.. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky.  M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive starformation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astrono- mers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula. 

10. The Triangulum Galaxy

The Nearby Spiral Galaxy M33
The third largest galaxy in our own Local Group (after the Andromeda Nebula, M31, and our own Galaxy), M33 (NGC598) is over thirty thousand light-years across, and more than two million light-years away, appearing on the sky in the constellation Triangulum.
The Triangulum Galaxy (also known as M33) is about 3 million light-years away from Earth. While its mass is not well understood — One estimate puts it between 10 billion and 40 billion times the sun's mass — what is known is it's the third largest member of the Local Group, or the galaxies that are near the Milky Way. Triangulum also has a small satellite galaxy of its own, called the Pisces Dwarf Galaxy.
Under dark sky conditions, M33 is just barely visible with the naked eye in the constellation Triangulum, just west of Andromeda and Pisces. To spot the galaxy, look for the constellation at:

• Right ascension: 2.11 hours
  
• Declination: 32.03 degrees
  
• Visible between latitudes 90 degrees and -50 degrees
  Among the galaxy''s most distinctive features are ionized hydrogen clouds, also called H-II regions, which are massive regions of star birth. 
  
  
  
  

9. Andromeda Galaxy

November 5, 2015 

We have had unseasonably warm weather for the past few days and clear skies! I had two nights in a row to take the telescope and camera out to my new Dark Spot.

Using the Canon DSLR connected to my Laptop and a program called Nebulosity, I was able to take a sequence of photos. The first night, I experimented with different exposure settings and found that I could make the program work. The second night, I set up and took 20 exposures of the Andromeda Galaxy.
  

This picture of the Andromeda Galaxy was taken with the 80mm Refractor. 

8. Two Nice Pictures of the Super Moon

October 26, 2015 - Super Moon through Fog and Clouds

 

7. Three Planets Lined Up ... then Four!

October 11, 2015
This picture was taken about 6:15 A.M  It was a little cloudy but made for a cool picture. Venus, Mars and Jupiter are all visible and the crescent moon would have been in the lower left of the picture on a clear morning.
Camera settings : ISO 400 / 14mm / f4 / 8 sec 



Then there were four planets ....   (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury)

6. Total Eclipse of the Moon

September 27, 2015

A spectacular event happened tonight.
A Total Lunar Eclipse took place. This eclipse was special because it happened during a full moon during the closest lunar perigee of 2015. They say the moon appeared 13% bigger than it did during the last eclipse in April.
Our weather forecast was not good for Sunday 9/27. It was cloudy all day and I had given up hope of being able to view the eclipse. Then in late afternoon the sky cleared! I couldn’t believe it. I had been cutting firewood all day and finished at dusk. I hurried home and grabbed my ED80mm Refractor and camera equipment and drove to my favorite viewing site.
By then, the full moon had come up and was about at the tree line. I hurried and got the scope and camera set up and snapped a few pictures. This was truly a “Super Moon.” The moon was huge!

The eclipse began shortly after 10 pm and for the next 45 minutes I watched as more and more of the moon grew dark

SuperMoon
                                                      Eclipse Begins                        
.  


                         

The Blood Moon (Total Eclipse)

Then as the eclipse started to go the other way, clouds appear again and it was over for me. I took this last cool picture.
  
Tonight's combination of a Super Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse is a rare occurrence that hasn't happened for 30 years and will not happen again until 2033.

5. Following the Airplane

April - July 2015

Since my last entry back in March, I have been do- ing a lot of reading. It was very rainy and cool early in the summer and conditions were not good for viewing. When I was able to take the telescope out, I took more moon pictures (trying to get a good pic- ture of each moon phase.) I chased down Saturn with my 80mm refractor and realized that the view was really tiny. I remember the first time I saw Sat- urn years ago in my little 3” refractor and it was a spectacular sight. I will have to try it again with higher power.
I also was able to track an airplane (Picture below) at night through my finder scope and snap some pic- tures. That was pretty cool.
So, I decided that I would try to capture the International Space Station this way. I found a site online that gave me the days and times that the ISS could be seen here. I went out several times when the weather was good and saw the ISS. With prime focus set-up the ISS was too small (couldn’t see details.) Tried using the doubler but just didn’t work out. Exposure not right. More reading is necessary! 

Following the Airplane

4. A few more things ....

March 11, 2015 
I went down to my favorite observing location on Dredge Road. There is a snowplow turn-around about a half mile on the right. They it plowed and I can back my car in and work out of the Hatchback. Very good spot: Dark area with no obstructions for a nice 360 view.

I searched and found the Comet- Lovejoy near Cassiopeia. Too bad I waited so long to check it out. It was pretty dim and appeared as a blotch of light in my 80mm refrac- tor.
I didn’t take any pictures tonight. Finally was pretty cold and came home 11PM.

March 17, 2015
Now and then, I have been watching the International Space Station ISS as it passes over. My next project is to see if I can get a picture of it. My plan is to use my 18mm or a barlow lens and Prime Focus set-up. I will try to use the finder scope to center it and follow it as i snap my remote shutter release.
This will work best when the ISS is tracking high in the sky. There are no good nights in March to try this. Perhaps April will be better.
Suggested ISO is 6400. Exposure= 1/1600sec.
Test the remote shutter release on a star about the same as the ISS. (Magnitude -2 or -3)
Make sure star is centered in finder scope and in camera picture.

March 19, 2015
Yesterday, I came up with the idea of connecting my doubler to the 80mm telescope for more magnification for Prime Photography. Instead of a lens, I attached an extention adapter and then screwed a T-ring onto that to connect to the camera. I tried it out during daytime and it worked. I had just enough distance on my focuser to bring the image into focus. When I tried it on Jupiter last night, I did not have enough length on the focuser to bring Jupiter into focus. This is also a lot of weight on the telescope when the focuser is all the way out. Gotta rethink this one.
Next target will be Saturn. Right now, Saturn rises in the SE shortly after 1:00am,

I need to go out 4-5am to take my best shot. Saturn (magnitude +0.4 at the head of Scorpius) is highest in the south at dawn. Saturn’s rings are inclined about 25 degrees now. 

3. Jupiter and The Orion Nebula

January 23, 2015
The sky was cloudy During December and it was very cold outside. We finally got a clear night again and I took this picture.

  


March 9, 2015 
My first picture of Jupiter and three moons was taken with the prime set-up with my Panasonic GH2 DSLR through the 80mm Refractor Telescope.

The Orion Nebula- M42 was taken with the same prime focus set-up.
March 9, 2015
 

2. The Moon with 80mm Refractor

November 5, 2014

I took my first picture of the moon with the 80mm Refractor.  

The close-up pictures below were take with Lens Projection using the Explore Scientific 6.7mm lens and the Varimax adaptor. December 5, 2014

 

1. My Adventures in Amateur Astronomy

Hello and welcome to my Astronomy Blog.

I have had a lifelong interest in Astronomy.  My grandfather introduced me to the "Night Sky Wonders" in the 1950's.  I still remember how excited I was the first time I looked through his telescope at the moon!  He also taught me about the Constellations.  One night he pointed to the sky and said, "See that star right there that is moving across the sky?  That's Sputnik."  He went on to explain that the Russians had launched the first satellite into space and he said that someday, we would visit the moon!

Of course, from then on, I was hooked!

It wasn't until a couple years ago that I got into Astronomy in a serious way.  I bought a new 80mm Refractor Telescope and then a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT.)  I wanted to take pictures of what I saw and I started reading about what I would need to get started in Astrophotography.

This blog is a running account of my Astro-Adventures.
On the right side of the blog are my entries numbered chronologically from the bottom up.

Enjoy,
Tim