Happy New Year from the Astronomy Dude

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Be safe.

What a nice night for wind

The Clear Sky Clocks (www.clearskyclock.com) were showing a clear sky for last night. I decided to prep the Astronomy Vehicle and head up on the mountain. As soon as I hit the top of the mountain, the wind became very notable, and slightly angry. I decided to proceed to the observing site, hoping that the wind would not be as bad on that side of the elevation. Upon arrival it did seem to be a bit protected, so I started to set up. I had the heat going and several tripods set when the first big gust came through. I figured it would be an occasional thing, so I continued to set up under dark skies, while the thin crescent moon continued to set. Suddenly, in the distance, I heard a truck driving down a nearby highway. It was odd because I have never heard a truck driving down that highway before tonight. Then, as the trees started to rustle and bow, I realized it wasn't a truck but a large gust front heading my way. I ducked inside the warm bus just in time as the massive gust of cold wind slammed into the vehicle and rocked it steadily for almost a minute. That gave me all the time I needed to decide that I wasn't going to be able to do any astrophotography in these conditions and observing would be in question as well. So I loaded the tripods back up into the vehicle, turned off the heat, and headed back down the mountain. That wasn't the first time that happened, and it certainly won't be the last. But, nevertheless, it is hard to leave clear skies, especially when they are hard to come by in this area.

Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you all have a great holiday season, and you take some time to gaze at the heavens.

I was awarded an Astronomy Grant

In case no one noticed, it has been rather cloudy lately, so the astrophotography opportunities have been very slim. I fully intend on taking advantage of any opportunities as they come available. I received great news this month. I received a grant from a group in California, called the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference (RTMC). It is called the Clifford W. Holmes Grant, and it is given to people who are actively involved in astronomy outreach. My submission for the grant was through my use of my Astronomy Mobile Outreach Vehicle (AMOV). I use the vehicle to help me carry telescopes and equipment to astronomy outreach programs in the area. I will be purchasing a solar telescope with this grant so I can expand my solar programs. I am pleased that this group has recognized my efforts, and I thank them for their assistance in helping me bring astronomy to the Roanoke Valley. The solar telescope will also be used at outreach events held by the Star City Astronomy Network, a local group of astronomers dedicated to observational astronomy, and astronomy outreach.
Keep hitting the blog for new images as I shoot the night skies.

Images from Late November

The stars and deep sky objects of winter are starting to make their way into the night sky. Among some of these objects are the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, or alpha Canis Majoris. Also, one of the few naked eye nebulae, M42, the Orion Nebula, is prominent as the center star in the sword of the constellation Orion, the Hunter.
Of course, the beautiful open cluster, Pleiades (M45), is prominent in the zodiacal constellation, Taurus, the Bull.
Still in the sky is the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, overhead and working its way into the western sky late in the evening. Below are some images I shot on November 26, 2008.

This image is of the Double Cluster in the constellation, Perseus. You can see the two distinct clusters in this image.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D
Lens - Sigma 300 MM f2.8 Lens, set at f3.5 - ISO 800 - (480MM effective focal length)
15 Minutes of exposure (15 x1 minutes)

AstroTrac TT320X Astrophotography mount for tracking

This image is of M45, the Pleiades Cluster in the constellation Taurus. The gases around the stars reflect the starlight. Therefore, the nebulosity around the stars are called a reflection nebula.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D
Lens - Sigma 300 MM f2.8 Lens, set at f3.5 - ISO 800 - (480MM effective focal length)
30 Minutes of exposure (10 x3 minutes)

AstroTrac TT320X Astrophotography mount for tracking

The center of this image is M42, the Orion Nebula in the constellation Orion. The gases around the stars are excited by the radiation from the embedded stars, and glow. Therefore, the nebulosity around the stars are called an emission nebula. It is a stellar nursery, and the bright stars in the center of the nebula are "baby stars".The Orion Nebula is to the right, and the "Running Man" Nebula is to the left. Notice the difference in the colors of these two nebulae. The "Running Man" Nebula is a reflection nebula, usually indicated by the bluish color.
Camera - Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 300 MM f2.8 Lens, with a matched 1.4x Teleconvertor, set at f4 - ISO 800 - (672MM effective focal length)
5 Minutes of exposure (10 x30 seconds) +
20 Minutes of exposure (10 x2 minutes) +
27 Minutes of exposure (9 x3minutes)
Total of 52 munites of exposure
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

This image is of IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula in the constellation Eridanus. This is also a reflection nebula, with the dust reflecting the light from the bright, supergiant star, Rigel (Beta Orionis), the lower-right star in the constellation Orion. This reflecting dust lies 40 light years from Rigel, and about 700 light years from us.
Camera - Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 70-200MM f2.8 zoom lens, set at 200MM, f4 - ISO 800 - (320MM effective focal length)
30 Minutes of exposure (10 x3 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

A Good Night on the Mountain

Ahhhhh. Finally the clouds had cleared, the moon was close to new, and the sky was rather stable. It turned out to be a good night for astrophotography last night. I started shooting around 6PM and shot constantly for six hours, until the winds started to kick up enough to possibly buffet the cameras and ruin exposures. No two ways about it, it was cold, but stable nights any time of the year in this area should be taken for all they are worth.
No, I do not have the images ready. It takes one to several hours per image to stack, process, and finalize each photo. So, I hope to have them here, on this blog, soon.

Windy Night on the Mountain

The skies were to be clear Saturday Night, so I took the AMOV onto the mountain for some astrophotography. Once I arrived, the skies were, indeed, clear, but the wind was fierce, gusting to well over 30mph at times. I decided that I did not want to waste the trip, so I set up the two AstroTrac mounts, and placed my cameras on the mounts. I decided to use my older Olympus lenses instead of my larger Canon lenses to reduce the profile of the cameras to the wind. Wind buffeting against the cameras would surely introduce motion to the images, so I wanted to reduce the chance of that happening. I guess it did pretty good in some instances, but not in others. As long as I was shooting with the wind hitting the side of the camera, no induced motions was visible in the images. However, when I photographed areas here the wind was hitting the back of the camera, I noticed alot of wind induced blurring in the images. Lesson learned. Here are a couple of the images that I have processed from last night.

In the image above, you can see a wider field image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). If you look within the disk of the main galaxy, below and right of the bright center, you can see a small satellite galaxy of M31, called M32. Above and left of the bright center, just outside of the main galaxy disk, you can see another satellite galaxy, M110. These galaxies are gravitationally interacting, and are located about 2.5 million light years away from us, and heading in our direction.

Camera - Canon EOS 40D
Lens - Olympus 200 MM f4 Lens, set at f5.6 - ISO 800 - (320MM effective focal length)
63 Minutes of exposure (21 x3 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

In this image above, you can see a wide field image of the tail and wing area of the constellation Cygnus. In this image, the bright star in the upper right is Deneb. Above it, and to the left is the North American Nebula (because it resembles the North American continent). Just below that, and slightly fainter is the Pelican Nebula. Directly above the North American Nebula, and at the edge of the image is the open cluster of stars, NGC7039. If you look below and left of Deneb, the next bright star you see is Sadr. You will notice the Sadr Nebula around that star, as well as the upper left of the star.
Now, if you move from Sadr toward the left of the image, you will see another bright star. Just past that star you can see an arch of nebulosity. This is the western part of the Veil Nebula. If you make an imaginary circle completeing that arch, you will see the rest of the Veil Nebula. The eastern portion of the nebula passes through the brighter star below the arch, called 52 Cygni. To the right side of the imaginary circle is an area of the Veil Nebula called the Waterfall.
If you look between the veil nebula and the bottom of the image, you can see another open cluster of stars called NGC 6940.

Camera - Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Olympus 50 MM f1.8 Lens, set at f2.8 - ISO 800 - (80MM effective focal length)
45 Minutes of exposure (15 x3 minutes)
Imaged using an IDAS LPS Light Pollution Filter
AstroTrac TT320X Astrophotography mount for tracking

Astronomy at Mountain Lake

I had the pleasure of teaching some astronomy at Mountain Lake last night. When I arrived at the hotel, the skies were mostly cloudy. I set up a couple of telescopes, snapped a few pictures, and then headed in to the hotel to talk with the participants in the astronomy program. The attendees came out a bit later to observe the night sky. The clouds had dispersed, and the sky was clear. However, seeing was less than normal, and the objects did not hold their clarity as they would on a more still evening. We observed Jupiter and it's moons with a 6 inch ARO custom Maksutov Cassegrain telescope on a Mountain Instruments MI-250 mount. We took in the Ring Nebula (M57) in the constellation Lyra, The Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and the Double Cluster open cluster in Perseus in a StarGazer Scopes 15 inch truss dobsonian reflector. In the 8 inch Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain telescope on a Celestron CGE mount, we observed the Hercules globular cluster (M13) in the constellation Hercules, and the beautiful double star, Albireo, in the constellation Cygnus.

This was a great group of people, and I really had a good time showing them around the night sky. If you have a group that would like an astronomy talk, please let me know.

Here is the Astronomy Mobile Outreach Vehicle (AMOV) near the area where we set up the scopes. We set up near the hotel to minimize the distance to walk, given the cold temperatures that evening.

Another shot, this time showing the nearly dry Mountain Lake bed, as well as some beautiful fall foliage. That is one dry lake. Hopefully, it will fill up again soon.

Here is the Astronomy Mobile Outreach Vehicle (AMOV) with the Mountain Lake Hotel in the background. Clearly visible in this photo is the Audiotronics logo on the side of the vehicle. Audiotronics has been a big help in supporting our effort to take science and astronomy to the youth and general public. I highly recommend their business.

Cool, Nice, Sunday Night

The Clear Sky Clock ( www.clearskyclock.com ) said that the skies would be good last night, so I headed up for a night of astrophotography, and testing some astronomy gear. I had a chance to finally try out the new AstroTrac TT320X mount. I trained my modified Canon DSLR on the Pleiades, which was rising in the east. Using a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 APO zoom lens, I shot the open cluster for 30 minutes, trying to bring out the subtle nebulosity around the starts in the cluster, without blowing out (overexposing) the stars. The image and info is below.

Camera - Hap Griffin Modified Canon EOS 350D
Lens - Sigma 70-200 MM f2.8 Lens, set at 200MM - f2.8 - ISO 800 - (320MM effective focal length)
30 Minutes of exposure (10 x3 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320X Astrophotography mount for tracking

First Image with the Notatakahashi

I have been working on a prototype Maksutov Newtonian reflector telescope (Mak-Newt) that I bought recently in disassembled form, in an attempt to bring it back to life. Now called the "Notatakahashi Mak-Newt Astrograph", it is a 152mm aperture, 600mm, f4 wonder. I have been working to figure the optimum configuration for the front menicus lens, the position of the spherical primary, and the ideal point of prime focus outside the tube. I believe I am getting close, as I was able to shoot an image of the moon through the hole where the focuser will be installed. This image was shot hand held, without the help of the focuser. The colors and contrast look pretty good, so I am pleased with this configuration.

This image of the full moon was taken with the Notatakahashi Astrograph.
Focal Length - 600mm
f Ratio - f4
Aperture - 152mm (6 inches)
Camera - Canon 40D
ISO - 800
Shutter Speed - 1/2000 sec.