Update - M51

After the clouds rolled away late Saturday evening, and it was obvious that Sunday evening would be clear, I rushed home from church services to get the scope set up again and add some additional subs to the image of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) I captured last Sunday.

After a successful evening of imaging (got to bed way too late!) I was able to add another 19 subs (38 minutes). The detail in the inner dust lanes and the outer nebulosity is now starting to come out. The colors too are becoming more pronounced. This will be a continuing effort with plans to add at least another 2 hours of imaging before I'm done with this Deep Space Object (DSO).



M51, Whirlpool Galaxy
76 minutes ISO 800
Celestron EdgeHD-11 at prime focus

Finally, a clear sky!

With the skies not cooperating very much this year, getting a nice clear night with fairly steady atmosphere is rare, and you have to grab the opportunity when you can. Easter Sunday evening was one of those nights.

I had spent most of the good evenings, up to Sunday, adjusting my equipment and software and now I am ready for some serious astrophotography. This image of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is a 34 minute exposure taken as 17 x 120sec sub-frames (details can be found on my Astrobin page). In the next few weeks I plan on adding additional subs to bring out more detail.


Whirlpool Galaxy

Mars orbiter spies rover near martian butte

Scientists using NASA's Curiosity Mars rover are eyeing a rock layer surrounding the base of a small butte, called "Mount Remarkable," as a target for investigating with tools on the rover's robotic arm. You can see NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and tracks from its driving in this view from orbit. More details in the article on Astronomy Magazine.

Total Lunar Eclipse Coming Up

It's been awhile since the last time the earth's shadow crossed the full moon; back in 2011 to be exact. Well the wait is over and the first of four consecutive total lunar eclipses in 2014-2015 (an eclipse tetrad) occurs on tax-day, April 15th. Such eclipse tetrads are not common — the last one occurred a decade ago, but the next won't begin until 2032.

Lunar eclipses require no special equipment, and are safe to watch, although a pair of binoculars would really make the experience all that much better. Sky and Telescope has the details on this month's event. But you'll need to get up early, or plan to stay out all night - mid eclipse doesn't occur until 3:46 AM EDT.