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.

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.

 

 

Can't see video (Flash not installed)? Click here to go directly to the video..

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.