RIP ISON

Well it looks like in the battle of Fire vs. ISON, the fire won.  Apparently the sun's corona was just too much for the small nucleus of the fragile comet. NASA announced earlier this evening that ISON has most likely disintegrated under the high heat and gravitational stress of the Sun on Nov. 28, 2013. It is not visible in Solar Dynamics Observatory footage and NASA scientists confirmed that they do not see it. You can see the video at Space.com.

In other news, SpaceX aborted the launch of the Dragon9 due to engine malfunction at T-1 second. Next available launch window is tomorrow.

Astronomy News

Birth of black hole witnessed, marking watershed moment for astronomy

This week a momentous event occurred somewhere in the universe ... and an “armada of instruments” from all over the world saw it produce a gamma ray burst more powerful than what many researchers believed theoretically possible. Many think this was the collapse of a giant star and the birth of a black hole, something that has never been observed while the event is taking place! This will go down in history as a “Rosetta stone moment” for astronomy.  Check out the full story here.

See Comet ISON Slingshot Around Sun: Live SOHO Spacecraft Views

Astronomers all over the world are training their eyes and telescopes on Comet ISON as it approaches its closest distance to the sun on Thursday (Nov. 28), with several unblinking space telescopes offering live views of the comet's solar encounter. Live coverage of the event can be viewed from http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html

Comet ISON vs. the Solar Storm - Wow

Check the video on the website below - just plain awesome!
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/24nov_isoncme/

Comet ISON peaks as it rounds the Sun

Comet ISON continues on its way to the Sun. Recent observations have hinted at a possible breakup of the comet and it is still uncertain as to whether or not ISON will survive it's trip around the Sun. Only a few weeks ago astronomers measured ISON's diameter to be about 3 miles - large enough to take the intense heat and extreme pull of the Sun's gravity. But new data shows ISON at only 3/4 to 1 mile wide.

Viewing ISON is getting to be really difficult. Although the comet has brightened twice in the last few days and is now recorded at magnitude 4.0 - 4.5 she is also very close to the Sun and hence low to the horizon in the pre-dawn glow. ISON may shine at magnitude -4.0 at perihelion which occurs about midday on Thanksgiving day (about as bright as Venus). Under optimum conditions (and very careful observation techniques!) ISON could be visible to the naked eye.

But the best views of perihelion likely will come from a trio of solar telescopes located outside Earth’s atmosphere. The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) each supply different perspectives.

More details on this and a really cool photo of ISON is available on the Astronomy Magazine's website. Sky&Telescope has some suggestions if you really want to try to see ISON at perihelion.

ORS-3 Launch

Earlier this evening Joan and I watched the launch of ORS-3 from our home in Reisterstown, MD. Photo is a composite of two images, 94 seconds and the other 82 seconds taken with a Canon 50D, 18mm f8.0 ASA400.

ISON Viewing

Comet ISON is rapidly moving lower and lower in the eastern horizon on it's way to a rendezvous with the Sun on Thanksgiving day. If you want to catch a glimpse of ISON the comet should be visible to the naked eye (and certainly in binoculars) during the early part of this week. Head out about an hour before sunrise and look toward the east-southest. As the week goes on ISON gets lower and lower in the sky. Check out the video on SkyAndTelescope.com for some tips on when and where to look. Here's a finder chart for locating ISON early Tuesday through Thursday mornings, November 19-21, at about 5:30 AM.

Comet ISON Update

ISON Brightens

ISON has brightened considerably, by as much as 10x brighter since mid-week. Experienced observers have estimated the comet's magntitude at +5.5 on Nov. 16th. My own observation on November 14 put it at magnitude 6.5. Why the sudden burst? It could be that the nucleus has broken apart into multiple pieces, but that can not be confirmed until later this month. For more details see the November 17th article in SpaceWeather.com.

Rare Double Comet Flyby of Mercury

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is about to get a close-up view of Comet ISON's outburst. On Nov. 18-19 Comet ISON and Comet Encke both will fly by Mercury, the planet MESSENGER is orbiting. You can learn more about this rare double-comet flyby and what MESSENGER might see in a video from Science@NASA.

ISON Brightens

ISON, now about 60 million miles from Sol, is rapidly approaching the sun for rendezvous on Thanksgiving Day. On Thursday morning I viewed ISON with my 11" SCT. Visually, ISON had a brighter, more well defined nucleus and extended coma than it did just a few days ago. I imaged ISON with my Canon 50D piggyback on the SCT but the exposures were too short to bring out the detail of the tail. And since ISON is getting lower in the sky this is only going to get worse. Of course, ISON should be brightening even more as she gets closer to the sun. If the weather here in MD doesn't clear up soon I'll have to move the scope to another location to get a better view of the SSE horizon.

The photo below, taken by Damian Peach of Selsey, England, on November 10 thru a 4.3-inch refractor, is one of the best I've seen thus far from an amateur astronomer.

Red Glare Date Set

Well the folks at MDRA finally got a date for this Fall's Red Glare.  Red Glare XV will be at Higg's Farm on December (that's right, December) 13th - 15th, 2013.  Details will be forthcoming on the MDRA site.

MDRA Launch

The next MDRA launch (ESL 186) is November 16-17, 2013 at the Central Sod Farm in Centerville, MD.  A date for Red Glare XV has still not been set.

More images of ISON and Lovejoy

Both comet ISON and Lovejoy were imaged at prime focus of my Celestron 11" telescope on November 10, 2013. Both images were processed in Nebulosity 3.1 with the final touches applied in Paint Shop Pro.

Comet ISON 6.5 min EdgeHD-11 Prime Focus

Comet Lovejoy 7.5 min Edge-HD Prime Focus

ISON Observed!

Well, after a couple of previous attempts to locate comet ISON, with the sky cooperating and my ability to use my new equipment gaining ground every time I go out, I can finally report that I actually observed this elusive comet for the first time. For what was being hailed as the "Comet of the Century" (I know, high hopes; after all, comets are fickle – they’re like cats, they do what they want) I was a bit disappointed in how dim ISON was, as I had expected it to be close to naked-eye visibility by now. Shining at magnitude 8 (maybe!) it was fairly easy to pick out in the field of view of my 23mm (125x) eyepiece. The CGEM-DX mount really makes astronomy a fun time for us ‘old’ guys as you just dial-in the coordinates and off you go. That is, of course, as long as the mount is aligned properly to north and the coordinates you have for the object are correct. Mount aligned, check – coordinates good, oops! Turns out that Stellarium gave me the wrong info as I hadn’t updated the dataset in a while. Once I corrected that problem and entered the updated coordinates, ISON was right there in the field of the eyepiece.

Displaying a faint, diffuse coma and just a hint of a nucleus, I was not able to make out any tail. Before the twilight started to take over I quickly took a set of exposures using my Canon 50D mounted piggyback on the scope. Results were as expected – fair at best. The sky was definitely getting a bit bright and I think there were a few high cirrus clouds gathering about. After processing the ten images with Nebulosity (30sec images; f6.3, FL=200mm) I got the 5 minute photo seen below.

Comet C/2012 S1 - ISON
5 min 200mm F6.3

Comet ISON wasn’t the only visitor to the early morning sky this day. Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) was well placed high in the south-east sky, and it turns out was much brighter than ISON and easy to see in the 23mm Luminous ocular. Sporting a rather large coma with a well-defined nucleus and a short thin tail, Lovejoy was a ‘joy’ to observe.

Comet C/2013 R1 - Lovejoy
6 min 200mm f6.3

I’m still holding out hope that ISON will brighten more before too long. As long as the weather holds up I’ll be at it again in the next days and later this month. With the moon entering the picture and ISON getting lower in the eastern sky it will be more challenging to get that great photo.

Skunk Works reveals Successor to the Black Bird

Details at Gizmag

First Astrophoto Attempt

The plan for tonight was to experiment with taking deep sky photos with my camera mounted piggyback on the Celestron and to learn how to use stacking software to process the images. I decided that the Andromeda galaxy would be a good choice.

The sky was clear at 5:00 PM  and temps were fairly warm. I decided to set up the telescope and planned a short period of observation while I waited for Andromeda to rise a bit. At 7:00 PM, the clouds came in and lingered off and on. But there were breaks and I was able to observe a couple of globular clusters (M15 and M2) and an open cluster, M29.

At about 10:30 PM I decided to get the Canon 50D attached to the scope to try to photograph the Andromeda Galaxy. By then, the scope was covered in dew, but I didn't need the scope's optics as I was only interested in the guiding of the camera. I took 10 images, each 30 seconds in duration (270mm, f6.3) for a 5 minute exposure. I then processed the images using DeepSkyStacker (DSS) a freeware image stacking software package. The results, although not great, is shown in the image below.

The detail is not as good as I would have liked, but this was a quick and dirty session just to see how the camera, lens, mount and DSS worked. The halo of light in the image is of some concern - I'm not sure how, or why, that happened. At a minimum, I need to increase the individual exposure times and then take more images. I didn't apply dark frames or anything else (for those interested in what dark frames are, I point you to the DSS site). Much more to come as I learn and experiment more in the near future.