So, What does Rosetta Have to Tell Us?

The Rosetta spacecraft is revealing Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as having a remarkable array of surface features and with many processes contributing to its activity, painting a complex picture of its evolution.Never before have we been able to examine comet terrain with such clarity and detail. In just a few weeks Rosetta has increased our knowledge of comets many times over, and, as most such discoveries do, added to our lack of understanding as well.

Astronomy Magazine has a nice article on the latest from Rosetta. You can read all about it there.

Rings Like Saturn’s, but Supersized

When the University of Rochester’s Eric Mamajek tells other astronomers about the object he and his colleagues discovered about 430 light-years from Earth, they tend to be skeptical—very skeptical. And no wonder: What he’s found is a giant ring system, sort of like Saturn’s, but some 200 times bigger, circling what may be an exoplanet between ten and 40 times the size of Jupiter.

For the complete story, go to Time.

Tiny lander lost and found

The University of Leicester announced that they have identified the remains of Beagle 2, a Mars lander presumed lost over a decade ago. Beagle 2 hitched a ride to the Red Planet on the European Space Agency's Mars Express (still in operation) back in 2003. It never communicated with earth and was presumed lost.

See the complete story at Astronomy.com.

Closer image of Lovejoy

Another clear night and so another opportunity to capture more of Lovejoy's tail.  It appears that Lovejoy is actually a little brighter now, possibly due to more transparent sky conditions, and because it continues to rise higher into the sky, now placed near the zenith in a darker sky.

After having some success with my Canon 50D and telephoto lens I decided to try and use my guidescope as an imaging scope (it is an 80mm x 400mm refractor afterall). So I attached the Canon and took 82 30 second images. Four were not processed because of image issues (bird flew around the scope!) leaving me with an effective exposure of 38 minutes at ISO1600. Processed in PixInsight and then PSP I removed as much of the noise and light pollution as I could. The result is rather good if I say so myself.

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2)
January 19, 2015 8:30PM
76x30sec ISO 1600 Orion ST80 Refractor  (80mmx400mm)

Lovejoy is now leaving the inner solar system, increasing it's distance to both sun and earth, and so will be dimming as the days go on. Soon the moon will make a reappearance and foil any more real attempts to image the comet and capture subtle details in the tail. We'll see if the weather cooperates in the later part of the week to try once more.

Comet Lovejoy

Here is the latest image I took of comet Lovejoy (C2014 Q2) on January 16, 2015.  Instead of at prime focus of my telescope, this image was taken with a Canon 50D and Tamron 18-270mm telephoto lens set at 200mm and f6.3.  Although the comet was high in the SSW sky, the light pollution and the fact that I wanted to be able to capture the faint tail conspired against me a bit.  I pushed the ISO value on the camera to 1600 which added significant noise to the image.  However, I processed it the best I could in PixInsight and PSP and managed to finally image the tail rather well.





Comet Lovejoy - January 16, 2015
Canon 50D 200mm f6.3 63x90sec at ISO 1600 (94.5 minutes)

 

More Lovejoy

I continue to process images of Comet Lovejoy.  After taking 81 subs on Jan 9, 2015, and processing them with Nebulosity, I was able to finally get the twin tail structure to show a bit. This was taken with a 270mm lens on a Canon 50D.

Comet Lovejoy - Jan 9, 2015
Canon 50D w/Tamron 270mm at f6.3
81x30sec ISO800

Comet Lovejoy continues to brighten

Comet Lovejoy continues to rise higher in the southern sky as well as brighten. Although the waxing moon is almost full and putting a damper on the comet imaging, I tried once more to see if I could capture a faint tail.

On the 31st of December, while waiting for the ball to fall and usher in the new year, I took 20-40 subs of the comet using my Canon 50D and Tamron 18-270mm telephoto set to 270mm (mounted and guided piggyback on my telescope rig) to see what I would get. After stacking and processing I was able to get a pretty good image with the tail, very faint, rising up to the left.

Comet Lovejoy
Canon 50D 270mm 20x30sec ISO 800

The large halo surrounding the image was probably due to moonlight entering the lens (need to put the lens hood on next time!)

With the moon nearing full on January 5th, I'll need to wait a bit before imaging Lovejoy again. By the 13-15th of January the moon should be out of the way, and Lovejoy will be much higher in the sky (and hence, light pollution will be lower as well). If Lovejoy continues to brighten during this time she should be sporting a much easier to see tail as well as become easy for binocular viewing. In very dark skies Lovejoy will probably be a naked eye object.

Comet Lovejoy - moving through Columba

Here is a 15 minute animation of the motion of Comet Lovejoy late on Christmas night taken with my EdgeHD-11 telescope. No tail visible as yet (probably because of the light polluted skies and low altitude here in Maryland.)

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