Astronomy Vehicle at the Bryan Lawrence Benefit Car Show

I decided that it would be a good idea for me to expand my astronomy outreach by taking my Astronomy Mobile Outreach Vehicle (AMOV) to the car show being held to benefit Bryan Lawrence, the Roanoke Police Officer recently paralyzed in an attack.
Although, not "high-end" show quality, the AMOV looks nice, and usually attracts a crowd. It gives people something to look at besides autos and trucks. At this show, I managed to talk to hundreds of visitors, and allow them to observe the sun through several telescopes equipped with solar filters for safe viewing. I stayed very busy all day, and although the sun had no activity to look at on its surface, people still enjoyed the chance to safely look at the sun. I would have to say that it was a successful event. Below are some images that I managed to take while talking astronomy with the masses.

Here is the Astronomy Mobile Outreach Vehicle (AMOV). It was a 21 passenger bus before I saved it from the scrap yard and started using it to teach astronomy. I also use it as a base of operations when I am involved in astronomy outreach with members of the local astronomy group, Star City Astronomy Network (SCAN).

The Astronomy Mobile Outreach Vehicle (AMOV), from the back.. The large telescope toward the back of the vehicle is a 15" Dobsonian Reflector, built by StarGazer Telescopes.
The telescopes with the solar filters were mounted on the tripod near the front of the vehicle.

A little Andromeda for ya

I was out the other evening and managed to get some photons of the Andromeda Galaxy, rising in the east. This galaxy is the closest galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Designated as Messier 31 (M31), it is visible as a bright, fuzzy patch in the sky, and lies about 2.5 million light years away.
Of course, you need to get away from the light pollution of the Roanoke Valley to get a sky dark enough to see it with the naked eye. This is an excellent object for binoculars, as well as telescopes.

The image above is the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, in the constellation Andromeda. It is located near the "Great Square of Pegasus", and asterism of starts that forms a large square.

Camera - Canon EOS 40D
Lens - Sigma 300 MM f2.8 Lens, set at f2.8 - ISO 800
27 Minutes of exposure (9 x3 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

Finally another photo night

It was partly cloudy when I left for the mountains Saturday evening, but the skies cleared not long after I arrived at my imaging site. The humidity in the air made the seeing very stable, and a cool breeze made the evening very pleasant. I did not have much problem with condensation on my optics, even with the higher humidity, and I would say that the gentle breeze helped in that regard. I did manage to get about 2 hours of imaging in before the high clouds and fog stopped the astrophotography.

The image above is the constellation, Sagittarius. It is located in the south, and it's stars form a recognizable "Teapot" shape. In the bright area, just above and right of the teapot's spout is the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The bright star on the left is not a star at all. It is our planet neighbor, Jupiter, which is easily spotted in the southern skies all evening.

Camera - Canon EOS 40D

Lens - Tamron 18-50 MM f2.8 Zoom Lens, set at 50MM f2.8 - ISO 800
22 Minutes of exposure (11x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is a widefield area in the constellation, Sagittarius, containing the nebulae, M8 (lower nebula) and M20 (upper nebula). Above and to the left of M20, the Trifid Nebula, is the open cluster, M21. Below and to the left of M8, the Lagoon Nebula, is the globular cluster, NGC 6544.

Camera - Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 70-200MM f2.8 Zoom Lens, set at 200MM f2.8 - ISO 800
6 Minutes of exposure (3x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

Moon is up. It's hard to do Astrophotography

Ahhhh. The skies clear up, and of course it happens when the moon is up in the evenings. Astrophotography is difficult, but not impossible, when the moon is glaring in the sky. That is why I usually avoid planning astro shoots when the moons is up. However, I am not one to miss a clear night sky, so I think I might head into the mountains tonight to do some observing. Trade the cameras for the big telescopes and work on my Astronomical League Double Star list. Maybe work on the Globular Cluster list as well. I highly recommend get out in the evening, find a dark site, kick back and enjoy the stars. Rejuvenating, it is.

More Image Processing

The weird thing about astrophotography is that as much time you spend shooting images, you spend at least an equal amount of time processing them. I decided to combine some images taken with two different cameras of the same subject. The idea is that the more digital data you capture, the better your overall image. So, I shot M8 and M20 in Sagittarius with my Canon EOS 40D and my Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D. By using a scaling procedure, I was able to align the images with two stars that were visible in all the images, even though the images were made with different cameras, with different fields of view. The result is below.

The Image above is M8 and M20 in the constellation, Sagittarius.

Cameras - Canon EOS 40D and Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
54 Minutes of exposure (27x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

Latest Images of the Night Skies

We finally had a good night for astrophotography on July 1, 2008. I went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway with my imaging gear and started shooting. I ended up with about 4 hours of exposures. Below, I have put together some examples of what I shot the other night. With each image, I will list the gear I used to make the shot, as well as the exposure totals.

The Image above is a wide field shot of the Milky Way. The bright star above the trees is not a star. That is our neighbor planet, Jupiter.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Tamron 11-18MM f4.5 Lens, set at 11MM f4.5 - ISO 800
12 Minutes of exposure (6x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is an area shot in the constellation, Sagittarius. There are two bright nebulae in this image, and one fainter nebula. The larger, bright nebula on the right is Messier 8 (M8) (NGC 6523), the Lagoon Nebula. The smaller, bright nebula is Messier 20 (M20) (NGC 6514), The Trifid Nebula. Above M8, and slightly to the right, near the top of this image is a fainter star forming region designated NCG6559. These Nebulae are located along the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
28 Minutes of exposure (14x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is an area shot in the constellation, Ophiuchus. This area has very faint nebulosity, and it takes plenty of exposure to get the nebula to show in an image. The triple, "Mickey Mouse", looking star is Rho Ophiuchi. This is called the Rho Ophiuchi nebula. What is unusual about this area is the array of colors displayed in a relatively small area of the sky. This area can be found just above alpha Scorpii, Antares, the bright red star in the constellation, Scorpius.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
60 Minutes (1 Hour) of exposure (30x2 minutes)

AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

High clouds abound

I made the trip to the Parkway to image the Rho Ophiuchi region of the sky. In case you are wondering where that is, if you look to the south, you will see a bright, red star. That star is Antares, or alpha Scorpii. Just above and east of Antares is a triple star system called Rho Ophiuchi. You will need a telescope to see all three stars, but they kind of look like Mickey Mouse. A large star, and two smaller stars above it that look like mouse ears. I images the other night for thirty minutes, and upon checking the results, before I continued, I realized that there were high clouds corrupting my exposures. It was pointless to continue imaging, so I packed up and headed home. Hopefully, I will get a decent imaging opportunity soon.

This is the Rho Ophiuchi region, and Rho Ophiuchi, the "Mickey Mouse" looking triple star system. You can see some nebulosity around the triple star system in this relatively short exposure of 30 minutes. To really bring out the colors, exposures around 90 minutes are best.

Looking for Fair Skies

Well, the Roanoke area definitely needed the rain, but the clouds make observing exponentially more difficult. We have just had a passage of a cold front, and the air is cooler and drier. With a waning moon, I might be able to get some good astrophotography time in the next few nights, if the skies cooperate. If I do, the photos will be up here soon. The images I shot of the Rho Ophiuchi region were a bit out of focus, so that night was wasted. Must try not to waste another night relying on the focus of one camera body to work with another camera body. Evidently, the camera bodies are not exactly the same distance to focus, even with the same lens. Lesson learned.

We had a clear. weekend night

Well, It finally happened. Tonight it was clear, and I took advantage of the skies and headed up on the Parkway to do some astrophotography. I bunch of my friends were up there as well, and we spent a bit of time checking out the wonders in the spring constellations. Once I saw that my target, Rho Ophiuchi, had risen from the crap and light pollution on the horizon, I started shooting the area. I shot about an hour of exposures when some clouds started rolling in from the southeast. That pretty much stopped the imaging, so I packed up and headed home. I hope the images are workable, and if so, I will post the image here soon.

Astronomy Weather

Well, what is good for the grass, flowers, and the water supply is not too great for observing. Every once in a while we hit a stretch when the weather does not provide us with good viewing opportunities. Such has been the case lately. I went up to our regular observing spot the first decent clear evening we have had in a while. Once I got to the site, the stars were twinkling like mad, making it a poor night for astrophotography. I kicked back for a few minutes while I was up there and took in the dark, starry sky. Then, I headed back to Roanoke Valley. I am hoping that the cycle of weather will align to give us some good observing nights soon. Till then, I will continue to work on other projects.