Aldebaran Occultation - January 19, 2016

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet

Well, Pluto may have been demoted, but look here - a possible new ninth planet!

Full story at Caltech

Big Explosion in Space ... Really Big!

What is 10 miles across, but powers an explosion brighter than the Milky Way?

Astronomers studying what may be the most powerful supernova ever seen ...

Supernovas are rare, but not uncommon.  Notable ones have occured a few times in the last 100 years or so.  But this one is big ... really big.  And it may require physical mechanisms that are currently beyond our understanding.  See Science Daily for the details. 

And Now For Something Really Beautiful

New Hubble Image of the Butterfly Nebula

Incredible new image of PN M2-9 shows extraordinary color and detail. Known variously as the Butterfly Nebula, Minkowski’s Butterfly, the Twin Jet Nebula, or PN M2-9, this is a striking example of a bipolar planetary nebula. It lies 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Complete story at AstronomyNow.

Pluto like a Lava Lamp!

New Horizons image shows where huge nitrogen ice blobs merged on Pluto's surface

The newest image of Pluto's ice fields offers a fascinating glimpse of what researchers believe is the movement of huge, solid nitrogen ice blobs on the surface of the distant dwarf planet.

For details and 17 new photos from the New Horizons spacecraft, click here.

First light QHY10 - M42

QHY10-OSC

Received my QHY10 astronomy camera last week and gave it a test run this past weekend.  Took a few more days to iron out the new software, camera settings, and post processing that needs to be done, but my first image (the Orion nebula - M42) came out rather well.

Orion Nebula (M42)
20x120sec subs - QHY10 - EdgeHD11 with Hyperstar

These cameras (CCDs) are designed specifically for astrophotography. Standard DSLR cameras (like the Canon 50D I had been using for the past 2 years) filters out the deep red and infrared light to make the pictures of standard subjects look proper.  But a lot of the nebulae in deep space consist of this 'red' light (actually a specific wavelength called the Hydrogen-Alpha (Ha) wavelength.)  Capturing the full spectrum of light is important in astrophotography, hence the need for a dedicated astro-camera like the QHY10.  And, astro cameras can collect a lot more signal before they saturate the image, hence, more detail in the final image.

Another problem with DSLRs is that the camera itself generates a lot of heat while taking many 2-3 minute exposures to stack. Heat generates noise in the sensor which shows up as a dull grey-green mottled effect across the darker regions of the final image. CCD cameras have a cooling system built in that keeps the sensor cool enough that temperature noise is almost non-existent. The QHY10 keeps the sensor at -15 degrees C (that's 5 degrees Fahrenheit) even in the heat of the summer!

Once I get all the details ironed out (there is still a lot to learn with this new camera) I'll be posting more images.  I'm still waiting on some additional camera adapters that are needed to mate the QHY10 to the prime focus of my telescope - needed to image galaxies and small deep space objects.

Occultation of Venus

Occultation of the planet Venus

With the weather cooperating with a nice clear blue sky I set up mytelescope equipment to capture the moon passing in front of the planet Venus.  This event known as an occultation occurs fairly frequently with stars, but planetary occultations are much less frequent, sometimes many years between them.  The last occultation of Venus was in September 2013 when the dark side blocked out Venus.  The occultation today was at approximately 12:39 PM and this time the bright side of the moon did the work.  The reappearance, about an hour later, was not seen as trees blocked my view to the west.

The video here is a 5x speed up from normal time, imaged with an ASI120MC planetary camera attached to my 3" Orion ST-80 guidescope while I watched visually through the EdgeHD11 main telescope.

Beautiful Full Moon yesterday

I've been waiting for a clear night with a full moon for the last three months.  Yesterday was payday ...

Full Moon - Orion ST80 Short Tube Refractor - November 25, 2015
200 Stacked images from 2000 frame video
Processed in Registax and Paint Shop Pro

Dark Skies - Part Deux

Friday was a great day in Luray.  Clear blue skies, some wind but not too bad. And the temperatures were a bit chilly, but warmed up in the afternoon.  Joan and I decided to stay the complete day in hopes that the evening skies would be good for astro-photography.

So, rather than spend the whole day at the B&B we decided to take in some sightseeing and headed over to the SkyLine Drive,  in particular, Stony Man Overlook.  The views were fantastic; much like I remembered them back a number of years ago when we drove the entire length of the drive, twice!  Things changed a bit - like the $20 entrance fee now.

After the great time of outdoor adventuring, we had a really good meal at the SpeakEasy in the Mimslyn Inn.

Arriving back at the cottage, the thin crescent moon was getting ready to set, and, as expected (as well as forecasted) the winds picked up - blowing at 20-35 MPH.  But I had hopes that the winds would die down after 6:00 or 7:00 so I set up the scope and waited inside in the warm cottage.

Eight o'clock came and went - winds howling outside. Nine o'clock arrived on schedule - still howling winds.  Ten o'clock, and time for tea and cake provided by our hosts - still the wind blew, but not as bad, as there were short periods of calmness.  Question is, would it be enough to capture a few 180 sec subs? 

Well I managed to get five fairly decent 3 minute subs to process at around 11:30 PM.  The stars aren't perfectly round, but the sky was crystal clear.  So here is the redo of the Pleiades from Wednesday night, minus the halos from high clouds.

M45 (Pleiades Star Cluster - the Seven Sisters)
EdgeHD11 w/Hyperstar
5x180sec ISO800 f/2

Finally, by 12:00AM the winds ceased - yep, nearly 0-5 MPH!  That was the good news.  The bad news?  The clouds started to roll in.  My sky conditions forecasting software indicated that clouds would thicken until 2:00 AM then scatter a bit.  So it looks like its going to be a long night.

At around 1:30 AM there was a clear spot to the area where the Andromeda galaxy was located. This is the closest galaxy to our own Milky Way at about 4 million light years distant.  In a clear dark sky you can see it with the naked eye extending out larger than the size of our moon.  So I set sights for Andromeda (M31) and captured eight 3 min subs before clouds interfered again.

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy
EdgeHD11 w/Hyperstar
8x180sec ISO800 f/2

I then set up the telescope in fully auto-mode to capture some other objects while I got some much needed shut-eye.  Need to process them yet, but, I was pleased that at last a really good outing in the darker skies of Virginia.  I will need to return here again to capture some other hard to image deep sky objects (DSOs as we Astrophotographers call them).

You can see all my astrophotos on Astrobin at:  http://www.astrobin.com/users/XCalRocketMan/

Vacation, B&B and Dark Skies

Well the wife and I finally got to go on a well deserved vacation to kick back and relax.  We ended up at the Piney Hill B&B outside of Luray Va, picked because 1) we love B&B's and 2) it is in a semi-dark site area, at least two to three Bortle numbers darker than at home, and I wanted to use my telescope in a dark sky.

So on Wednesday, November 11th, we drove the new Chrysler Town and Country, packed to the gills (well almost) with telescope and telescope gear (yeah - we took some clothes and other stuff too).

We rented one of the two cottages on the B&B property so I could have ample area to set up, and not bother the rest of the guests.  Site was great - ample views to the east, north and west, and to the south if I decided to set up on the other side of the cottage.

Wednesday night was a bit cloudy with high clouds but still seemed OK for setting up the scope and giving some photography a try. Thursday's forecast wasn't good, so I didn't want to pass up any opportunity. So soon after arriving I set up the scope. Boy what a chore!  New location meant new Lat and Long settings for the mount and software. Then I needed to set up the tripod with nearly correct North-South orientation so I wouldn't have to move the whole telescope after it was mounted.  That didn't work ... so I needed to re-orient the tripod and scope together a few degrees. That's about 200 lbs+ and at my age that's a good amount to be moving especially in the awkward position I needed to be in to get the thing to move.  By the time I got everything setup, the clouds were moving in.

I decided to install the Hyperstar lens on the scope and try imaging the Pleiades star cluster.  With the high clouds the final image shows some halos and is a bit diffuse all around, but compared to home, it was awesome.  I was able to image at least 120sec with the HS with no image fogging due to light pollution (back home, 60sec is about all can get).

M45 - Pleiades
120sec ISO800 EdgeHD11 w/Hyperstar

Next up would have been the Pinwheel galaxy, M33, but the clouds finally made it impossible to continue. I got one 2min sub and then had to pack up. But even the single sub showed quite a bit of detail.  A complete set of 20-30 subs would have made for a great final image - these dark sites really are nice.

M33 Pinwheel Galaxy

Although I couldn't image anymore this evening I did see a nice bright meteor streaking slowly across the sky - probably a Taurid, since the Taurid meteor shower was to peak this night.

Next day turned out to be much better than forecast, the rain ended soon in the morning and the rest of day was mild and sunny. We stayed at the cottage until about 1:00PM and then headed out to Dayton VA, to the Patch Work Plus quilt shop.  Both Joan and I purchased some goodies - Joan got a lot of cool material and I purchased a Dr. Who quilt kit.  After eating a late lunch at a local restaurant we headed back to the B&B.  The sky was clear and the forecast was for clear skies.  The only possible kicker would be the wind as the forecast was for some breezy conditions.

I set up the scope at about 5:00PM, in the wind, hoping that it would die down during the evening.  The forecasters said that would not be the case, but hey, I set up anyway.  Well, 30-40 MPH gusts and 25 MPH sustained winds does not make for a good night for observing, let alone photography.  Had to give up the attempt rather early as the winds were not going to subside.  All was not a total loss - I did get to see something I haven't seen in over 35 years - the Milky Way! It was wonderful.

I decided to leave the tripod outside. There is always a chance that tomorrow night might be better. Forecast is for 25MPH winds with 40+ gusts so I'm not expecting much.  We'll see.

Blue Skies on Pluto!

New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto

The first color images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue. Not only that, but water ice is on the planet as well.  Not what I would have expected.

For more details on this finding check out  NASA.gov