Comet Lovejoy brightens - visible in the S-SW Sky

Another Bright Comet Visible from the Baltimore Area

Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy is the 5th comet discovered by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Brisbane, Australia. Discovered on August 17, 2014, Lovejoy is brightening nicely and should be visible in binoculars and small telescopes late December and January. The comet is currently low in the South but will be steadily climbing throughout late December and January.  Although the waxing moon will interfere some, Lovejoy is expected to reach magnitude 4.4 on January 10, 2015, bright enough to be visible even with the full moon which occurs on January 4, 2015.

Here is a chart for the Reisterstown, MD area (Mikey's Observatory) with positions at 10:00PM local time from Dec 27th through Jan 17th.

Interesting data, observation and interactive orbital charts can be found at In-The-Sky.org and more details about the comet can be found at Astronomy.com

NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft awakens for encounter with Pluto

The New Horizon's spacecraft will begin observing the distant dwarf planet January 15 and fly by Pluto in July. Full story at Astronomy Magazine.

Orion Blasts Off

On December 5th, NASA successfully launched the first test flight of its Orion capsule. Scheduled to carry astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit in the 2020s, the spacecraft is NASA’s first deep-space people transporter since the Apollo days. - See more at: Sky and Telescope

NASA scrubs Orion launch after multiple delays

NASA's first attempt to launch Orion, a new exploration capsule, was scrubbed Thursday after numerous delays. The ultimate goal for Orion is to take astronauts to Mars, but that won't happen until at least the 2030s.

Orion is the Apollo-like capsule NASA is developing to fly astronauts to an asteroid by the 2020s, and potentially Mars by the 2030s.

For the full story see the USAToday article.

M1 - The Crab Nebula

Although the images drifted a bit in the field (guiding error on the mount) they were apparently good enough to get a reasonable final stack. So here is M1, the Crab Nebula, the most famous example of a supernova remnant.



M1 - Crab Nebula
EdgeHD-11 Prime Focus - November 21,2014
45 Minutes (15x180sec) ISO800

M81 - Bodes Galaxy

With the new Starizona CGEM Landing Pad installed on my mount, and the guiding issues mostly resolved I took advantage of the clear skies last evening and early this morning to image a number of deep space objects (DSOs). 

M81 - taken with EdgeHD-11
16x180sec ISO 800

This is a 48 minute exposure (16x180sec subs) of M81, or Bodes Galaxy; a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

This is the initial set of subs. More image data will be added at a later date and a set of flats will be taken to help remove the vignette effect.

All in all the new equipment and adjustments to the some parameters in the guiding software have worked out well. In the next few days I will be processing images taken of M1 (Crab Nebula) and M110.

"Touchdown! My new address: 67P!"

The ESA spacecraft Rosetta released the Philae lander which appears to have successfully landed on comet 67P. Quite an achievement! But there were some problems.

Comet 67P has a very weak gravity, so anchoring harpoons were designed to shoot into the comet to fix the spacecraft to the surface. They failed to fire and Philae is not firmly secure, ESA says.
 

Philae lander manager Stephan Ulamec said the probe may have lifted off again and turned. "So maybe we didn't land once -- we landed twice," he told a news conference.

The complete up-to-date story can be found on the CNN web site.

Rosetta Spacecraft to land the Philea lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Space fans around the world are waiting excitedly for Wednesday of this week, when the ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft will attempt a first-ever soft landing of a robotic probe on a comet. The Philae (fee-LAY) lander is scheduled to touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014 at 10:35 a.m. EST (7:35 a.m PST/15:35 UTC).

For details on this event, visit EarthSky.

Landing Pad

No, not a rocket-related item. This is really a telescope attachment.  The Landing Pad (from Starizona) allows for precise polar alignment for my Celestron CGEM-DX mount.

One big complaint I have with the CGEM mount is that when making azimuth adjustments to the mount during polar alignment, the adjustment screws have a lot of backlash and tend to be jerky, making precise alignment very difficult and frustrating. Add this to the fact that the mount cannot be tightened to the tripod head completely because it needs to move while making the azimuth adjustments. Then if you try to tighten it up, the whole mount shifts and you're out of alignment again.

The CGEM Landing Pad from Starizona eliminates the frustration. By using a very robust, incredibly smooth bearing system, the Landing Pad allows fine, precision adjustment of the mount for polar alignment. The mount now moves instantly and smoothly in response to turns of the adjustment knobs, with no backlash.

I received my Landing Pad today, and even though it came late (was getting dark outside) I decided to install it anyway. After all, it was nice outside, temperature in the upper 60's.

Took only about 20 minutes to complete the job. Now all I have to do is wait for the skies to clear and give her a go!

Philae gets "Green Light" for comet landing

The decision to try to land a robot on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November has been confirmed.

Last month, planners on Europe's Rosetta mission announced a preference for a touch-down location on the head of the icy, rubber-duck-shaped object.

A detailed follow-up analysis, informed by new high-resolution pictures, has found no reason to rescind the choice.

Details of this exciting encounter can be found HERE.

Hypertune Success

The tune-up of my telescope mount was a success.  Both axes now operate "silky" smooth and the backlash is gone!  Now all I have to do is wait for the skies to clear.  Prospects for the total eclipse of the moon is about 20% chance of clear skies.