The dense star regions of the Milky Way

Finally! --- The sky conditions improved this weekend and I was blessed with two clear nights of astrophotography.

Got the scope setup on Friday afternoon and it was left up through Saturday evening/early Sunday.  Using the Hyperstar wide field camera I was able to image a few interesting areas in the dense galactic arm in Sagittarius.  Most of us have probably never seen the Milky Way because of light pollution.

First up is the star cluster M11 (NGC 6705), which is right in the midst of a dense star cloud. Known as the Wild Duck Cluster it is an open cluster in the constellation Scutum. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue in 1764.  The dark areas scattered about in the image are regions of gas and dust that are between  us and the background stars obscuring the vision.

M11 - EdgeHD11/Hyperstar  10x300sec subs
August 26, 2016

Next is the Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24.  Approximately 600 light years wide, it was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. The stars, clusters and other objects comprising M24 are part of the Sagittarius or Sagittarius-Carina arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Messier described M24 as a "large nebulosity containing many stars" and gave its dimensions as being some 1.5° across.

M24 - Sagittarius Star Cloud
EdgHD11 w/Hyperstar  13x180sec subs
August 26, 2016

Saturn

It's been over 6 weeks since the night skies here in Maryland have been clear enough to image anything at all.  Finally, tonight I was able to get the scope out for just a little while to capture the planet Saturn before it moves too close to the sun and low in the west.

I acquired a new Barlow lens which is of much better quality than the one I had and magnifies by 2.5x vs. 2x.  The atmosphere was rather turbulent and I had only a little bit of time to capture the image before the planet goes behind my treeline. Not thinking, I decided not to attach the dew heaters and shield, and of course, I ended up with dew on the front corrector plate while imaging the planet.  But by the time I set up for a retake Saturn was already in the trees.  Yet, even with the dew I was able to get a fairly decent image.

Saturn - August 19, 2016
EdgeHD 11 w/2.5x Barlow
ASI120MC Camera - 1000 frames stacked in AutoStakkert and processed in Registax

Next week promises some nice clear nights, so I plan on doing some wide field imaging.

Bottom quarks misbehave in LHC experiment

Data suggest need to revise calculations or reexamine understanding of protons

QUARK QUIRK  New data from the Large Hadron Collider’s higher-energy proton collisions show that particles made of b quarks flew off at angles more often than expected. Scientists from the LHCb experiment, which observes the aftermath of proton collisions in its detector (visualization shown), reported the result August 4.          CERN

Theoretical physicists are scratching their heads after scientists presented surprising new studies of a particle known as the bottom quark.  At the new, higher energies recently reached at the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator, particles containing bottom quarks flew off at an angle more often than expected. Scientists reported the result August 4 at the International Conference on High Energy Physics.

For the full story see Science News.

Students Discover a Galactic Eye of Horus

Eye of Horus in pseudo color. Enlarged image to the right. The yellow object at the center is a galaxy about 7 billion light-years away and bends the light from two background galaxies.
NAOJ

Undergraduate students in Japan stumbled on a rare lensing of two distinct background galaxies.

See article at SkyAndTelescope

Farthest Known Object Orbiting the Sun

Observers calculate that Kuiper Belt object 2015 RR₂₄₅ has an elliptical path that takes 733 years to go around the Sun and carries it from near Neptune's orbit out to 129 astronomical units.
Alex Parker / OSSOS team

First spied last year, an object designated 2015 RR245 turns out to be one of the largest and most distant objects yet found orbiting the Sun.

Complete story at Astronomy

NASA’s Juno Probe Successfully Reaches Jupiter

An artist's conception of Juno performing a 35-minute-long engine firing to enter orbit around Jupiter.
NASA / JPL

NASA's Jupiter probe, Juno, has completed a critical braking maneuver and has entered orbit around the gas giant.  Juno carried out a scheduled 35-minute-long burn that slowed its velocity by 542 meters per second (1,212 mph), enough to become a captured satellite of Jupiter with an initial 53.5-day orbital period. Arriving at 58 km per second (129,742 mph) with respect to the planet, Juno also performed the fastest orbital insertion to date.

Full details can be found at Astronomy.com

Juno arrives at Jupiter today

NASA’s Juno spacecraft enters Jupiter’s orbit: how to watch and what to expect here .

NASA Link

Space.Com

Astronomy.com

 

A Middle Aged Sun?

(Photo credit YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images)

The Sun has likely already entered into a new unpredicted long-term phase of its evolution as a hydrogen-burning main sequence star — one characterized by magnetic sputtering indicative of a more quiescent middle-age. What this means for us astro-photographers is that there may be fewer and fewer sunspots and flares.  But I don't think we need to worry yet ...

See Forbes for the complete story.

Time Travel Not Likely - Pear Shaped Nucleus Says So! Maybe!

Physicists have confirmed the existence of a new form of atomic nuclei, and the fact that it’s not symmetrical challenges the fundamental theories of physics that explain our Universe.  For one, it means that time travel into the past is not possible.  However, the good news is that the discovery could help scientists solve one of the biggest mysteries in theoretical physics - where is all the dark matter?

Read the full story at Science Alert.

An ocean for Pluto and a thinner ice shell on Enceladus

NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI

Once, we thought Earth was the only planet with oceans. But now, we’re seemingly finding them everywhere in our solar system.

Complete story on Astronomy.com

Astronomy Photos on Flickr

Don't know why I didn't do this earlier ... to make it easier for everyone to view my Astronomy photos I've created a number of albums on Flickr so you can see them all without having to load each one separately on Astrobin.  Astrobin is the preferred site if you want detailed information about the images, but if you're just interested in viewing the loveliness, then Flickr is best.

Not all my photos have been uploaded yet.  The Messier Objects are the first set.  I'll be uploading the NGC (Nebulae, Galaxies), Comets and Planets in the coming days.

Photos on Flickr