Next time you think "bird brain!", think again.

Check out how this crow 'thinks' his way through an elaborate eight-stage puzzle to get to the food. You won't believe it.

 

 

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Astronomers discover first asteroid with rings

Yep, that's right, an asteroid with rings. Read all about it on EarthSky.

ESO 137-001 - Galaxy Attack!!

Check out this picture from Hubble and this article about a galaxy that is being tugged at and torn apart. Really cool!!

Meteorite Crash on Moon - Largest Ever Recorded

Video footage of a record-breaking meteorite strike on the moon, which occurred on Sept. 11, 2013 and was unveiled today (Feb. 24), shows a long flash that was almost as bright as the North Star Polaris. Details can be found at Space.com.

Jupiter, again

With a little more fiddling with the software, here is the same image as earlier but I was able to bring out more of the detail.

Jupiter - imaged with new camera

Got my new planetary imaging camera for the telescope on Friday, and since the skies cleared out a bunch on Saturday, I decided to bear with the muddy ground and test it out on the planet Jupiter. Now mind you, this is a new camera (got to learn how to use it) a muddy backyard and the atmosphere, although clear, was extremely unsteady.

Jupiter - February 22, 2014 9:00 PM
400 frames processed in RegiStax -- 25ms/frame  - total Exposure 10sec
ASI120MC on EdgeHD-11 f/10

Update on Supernova 2014J

Since it's been cloudy, snowy, rainy, and just downright not conducive to astrophotography these past few days (actually, weeks!) I decided to improve on the processing of the images I took of M82 and 2014J on Feb 7, 2014. Here is the updated photo. The lower ISO (1600 vs. 3200) reduced the overall noise and the longer exposure allowed more of the actual color of the galaxy to come out.



M82 and SN2014J
11.25 minutes (15x45sec subs), ISO1600, EdgeHD-11 Prime Focus 

Recent observations have determined that the supernova is now starting to dim and is currently only half as bright as when this image was taken. When the skies clear I'll re-image and see how much SN2014J as dimmed.

Galileo's Optical Illusion

Why does a light-colored object on a dark background appear larger than a dark object on a light background?  It's true, and you might have had this experience yourself. In the photo above, the brighter Venus (lower dot) appears larger than the dimmer Jupiter (upper dot).
Well until recently, no one knew why. Now it seems that a neuroscientist at the State University of New York's College of Optometry may have the answer. Check out the article in LiveScience.

Venus in December

Just got around to checking out my first attempt at planetary photography. Since my DSLR couldn't be easily mounted to my eyepieces/scope, I tried my old Casio Exilim EX-Z700 mounted to a 30mm eyepiece with a Celestron camera mount. Here's the result of that effort, after throwing out about 30 images, I found one that was fairly reasonable.

Venus, 2:13 PM Dec 11, 2013

Supernova in M82 imaged

Well the skies finally cleared for me to attempt to photograph the new supernova in the Cigar Galaxy, M82. My equipment was acting a bit finicky - I had some trouble getting the new power cords and dew prevention heaters set-up and I couldn't get the balance on the scope correct to prevent image drifting. So with clouds starting to form just north and west I had to settle for short exposures. Here is the result. The greenish cast and the horizontal bands are artifacts of the noise in the image since I really stretched the light curves quite a bit to get the galaxy to come through with only 10 second subs.

M82 with Supernova 2014J marked
120 seconds (12x10sec subs), ISO3200, EdgeHD-11 Prime Focus 

It appears that the nova is about Mag 10.5 or 10.6 based on the examination of stars in the local vicinity. Not an accurate comparison since the camera sensor will make some stars appear brighter based on their color, but as a rough estimate, I'm probably in the ball park. 

Like the Energizer Bunny ... Opportunity keeps on going!

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Opportunity rover's exploration of Mars. With a planned mission of only 3 months, NASA, and the public, really got their money's worth. Full story here.