First Jupiter of the Year

There are forces larger than myself conspiring against me. Here's the deal with planetary imaging. (Bear with me, it'll maybe make sense in the end.) I hope you already know that the Earth is tilted on its axis--that's why we have summer and winter. The plane of the solar system is called the ecliptic; it's the path that the sun and the planets appear to follow across the sky. In the summer, the sun is very high in the sky. The opposite side of that is that at night, when we're facing away from the sun, the planets are very low in the sky. That means that taking a picture of a planet in the summer requires shooting through miles and miles of turbulent atmosphere. It also means that from my back yard, shooting over the roof of my house, as it radiates heat like a blacktop road. All that to say I'm stunned this photo came out as well as it did. The moon to the right is Europa, and the black spot is Ganymede in front of the planet. The Great Red Spot is just visible on the lower right.




1000 frames each RGB with the DMK in the LX200 @ f/25. Processed with AstroIIDC.

M13, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules Revisited

A little tighter than last year's shot, and maybe nicer color.

10" LX200 @ f/6.3, 19 x 120 sec, EOS 350 D @ 800 ISO

Euwww

Came across this on a message board today, talking about measurements:

Up here in canada a metre is a metre and a foot is something you find in the ocean!

Final Night at TSP

I had already packed everything except my chair and binoculars for the last night at Texas Star Party, so I wasn't too upset when clouds started building up that afternoon. By 11:00, it was pretty obvious we weren't going to get any astronomical observing in that night. (Which is OK, since I was trying to leave by eight the next morning.)

First time I've seriously tried to shoot lightning. Man, it's hard to find focus in the dark!

NGC 6992 & NGC 6960, The Veil Nebula

NGC 6992, Veil Nebula (East), aka Network Nebula. The modified camera shows a lot more detail than my stock Rebel. The extra stars I attribute to the dark West Texas TSP skies.



NGC 6960, Veil Nebula (West), aka Witch's Broom. The bright star is 52 Cygni.

M20, The Trifid Nebulaand M8, The Lagoon Nebula

I went back and re-shot M20 (top) and M8 (bottom) together from TSP. One of my best deep sky photos.

Southern Milky Way

Looking back toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy from the Texas Star Party.

Earthshine

The Moon is 2.67 days old here. The bright star is 52 Geminorium, in Gemini.

Moonset From Texas Star Party

The 31-hour-old new moon sets over the trees at Texas Star Party on Wednesday:

Two More From Texas Star Party

First up is M20, the Trifid Nebula. A much nicer shot than the one from two years ago.



Next is M16, the Eagle Nebula. I really should have spent more time on the focus on this one. I may reshoot it if I have time. Definitely looks different with the modded camera than it does in this shot from last year.



Both shot with the AT80EDT on the LXD650 mount, guided with PHD. Modified Digital Rebel XT @ ISO 1600. The guiding on the mount seems to be dialed in just about right; I'm getting nice round stars, and as I flip through each exposure, it looks pretty much just like the previous one. Yay me!

Texas Star Party 2008

OK, so I'm a day late reporting. Send me a bill.

According to the GPS:
Avg Speed: 65.8
Max Speed: 77.3
Trip Time: 6:47
Total Distance: 447 miles

I didn't see a thermometer when I got here, but it was probably about 100°. I think the official term is "fookin' hot." Somehow managed to avoid passing out from the heat and the altitude while I got setup, and even managed to sneak in a nap before it got dark. Nothing special to report about Sunday night, except that it's really dark here. =)

Monday night was some of the best skies I've ever seen. The seeing was just so-so, maybe 3-4/5, but the transparency was just outstanding. Twilight ends about 10:00 p.m., so it takes a while to get started. Nice display of zodiacal light at sunset. I'll try to find the gegenschein tonight, but I'm not sure I'd recognize it if I saw it.

I finished the regular observing program, "Globular Glory" last night and got my pin. I was inspired by the folks observing next to me with a 20-inch dob, and decided to do the list without using goto. I almost made it, but there were 2 objects I needed a little help with. It was pretty rewarding though to use some skills to find things.

Meanwhile, I had the camera shooting away in the 80mm and made this photo of M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Just a little better than the first two times I've shot it. =)



AT80EDT on the LXD650 mount, guided with PHD. Modified Digital Rebel XT @ ISO 1600.

Another Look at the Landing

From the JPL web site:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera acquired this image of Phoenix hanging from its parachute as it descended to the Martian surface. Shown here is a 10 kilometer (6 mile) diameter crater informally called "Heimdall," and an improved full-resolution image of the parachute and lander. Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into the crater, it is actually about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) in front of the crater.

If You Didn't See It Already

This is by far one of the most amazing photos I think I've ever seen: 

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but correspond to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell.

I Can't Believe I Didn't Already Know This

Did you know you can sing "Amazing Grace" to the tune of Gilligan's Island?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see

Meanwhile, it's just over a week until the Texas Star Party, and I'm getting all excited. I think I have most of my gear together, except Ian broke one of my red flashlights. My fault, really, for leaving it in the back seat of the car. I'm planning on taking the LX200 and the the AT80EDT/LXD650, so I expect to have a full car. Oh, and I got a rack to put the bike on the roof. It had better be a good trip, 'cause if gas keeps going the way it is, it may e a while until we make the trip again.

A Useful Astronomical Accessory

I have a little 7 amp-hour 12-volt battery that I use to power a red neon light out in the observatory--the battery is a "jump starter" from Radio Shack. Turns out it's also useful for when your child plays in your car and leaves the headlights on and you find it dead the next morning on your way to work. Imagine, using a jump-start battery to start your car!

Voter I.D.

There's been a bunch of talk recently about requiring a government-issued photo I.D. along with a voter registration card at a polling place, and the various problems associated with doing so. I see a solution, and it's so simple I can't be the only person thinking this: 

Make the voter registration card a photo I.D. 

How hard can that be? Hell, my Sam's Club card has my picture on it, surely the State of Texas can figure it out. And you want to go one better? Engineer it in such a way that residents of a border state can use it as I.D. to leave and enter the country from their home state instead of a passport.

Fourth Saturn of the Year

First halfway decent seeing in weeks--3/5 according to CSC. Compare this one to the one I shot when Saturn was at opposition. The rings aren't nearly as bright as they were with the sun falling directly on them.

Sadly, This Describes My Job

Nation Demands Easier Instructions

WASHINGTON, DC-Decrying needlessly confusing directions for the use and assembly of countless products, citizens across the nation are organizing advocacy groups to demand that American manufacturers simplify the instructions they place on packaging.

No joke. I did a 4-page instruction for a pair of pliers.

The Furminator

This was after the second session; we're maybe a third of the way done.

A Sort of Small Bigness

Jenna Bush discussing her upcoming wedding on Larry King Live:

"[It will be] outdoors, very small wedding, you 'know, very small, all relatives, our families, really, kind of big," Jenna Bush said.

I guess she gets it from her dad.

A Modest Proposal

Now that spring is fully here, it's time to think about baseball.

Baseball has simple rules: Nine players, not ten. A grass field. A wooden bat. That's all.

So what the deuce is the deal with college baseball? They can't get even one of those things right. "The designated hitter digs in; here's the pitch--tink! It's a screaming grounder up the middle as it takes a fast hop off the artificial surface..."

So I hereby propose that college "baseball" be re-labeled as college "baseball-flavored sport," just like "chocolate" milk and American "cheese."

Messier Marathon: The Movie

Ralph Menga and Frank Boecker put together this wonderful video highlighting their Messier Marathon this year. That's a lot of shooting in one night--my hat's off to these two fellow Mac astronomers for giving it a go!

A Joke To Pass The Time

Until there's something more interesting to say, enjoy this funny bit:

A man goes to a shrink and says, "Doctor, my wife is unfaithful to me. Every evening, she goes to Larry's bar and picks up men. In fact, she sleeps with anybody who asks her! I'm going crazy. What do you think I should do?"

"Relax," says the doctor. "Take a deep breath and calm down. Now, tell me, exactly where is Larry's bar?"

100 Objects

The family & I took advantage of that great weather and went to Canyon of the Eagles an the Eagle Eye Observatory last night. This is the time of year for staying up late for a Messier Marathon, and I nearly made it. I managed to view 100 out of the 110, not a bad night's work. I really should have tried last month, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so there were a couple already below the horizon at sunset. I pooped out about 4:00 a.m., so I missed some early morning ones, but in between I saw a trove of goodies. I didn't make notes, but I recall the Sombrero Galaxy (M104), the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and Bode's & Cigar Galaxies (M81/82) as particularly stunning.

Something I Haven't Seen Nearly Enough Of

Guess where we're going tonight? =)

Just For Comparison, Part II

The Associated Press writes today, "Scientists plan to put one of the twin Mars rovers to sleep and limit the activities of the other robot to fulfill a NASA order to cut $4 million from the program's budget, mission team members said Monday."

The story continues, "Both rovers were originally planned for three-month missions at a cost of $820 million, but are now in their fourth year of exploration. It costs NASA about $20 million annually to keep the rovers running."

Remember that number: $20 million a year.

Meanwhile, MSNBC is reporting on the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's report on the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The Pentagon is spending about $6 billion a month on the war in Iraq, or about $200 million a day, according to the CBO."

Two. Hundred. Million. Dollars. A day.

That means in just under two and a half hours, the Pentagon has spent the entire annual budget for the Mars Exploration Rovers. What a waste.

What a senseless, stupid, fucking waste.

Just For Comparison

Project Apollo:
Cost (in 2006 dollars): $135 billion
Lives Lost: 3 (Apollo 1: Grissom, White & Chaffee)

Operation Iraqi Freedom:
Cost: $406 billion (White House estimate through 12/07)
Lives Lost: 3998 US Military fatalities (as of 3/17/08), 82,249 – 89,760 Iraqi civilian deaths (as of 2/16/08)

Montes Apenninus, Montes Caucasus & Montes Alpes

I didn't really set out to make this mosaic--it just sort of happened. Could have used one more frame on the southern end, but oh well. 12,500 frames total. 10" LX200 @ f/10.

Rima Hadley (Apollo 15) is just visible near the northern end of the Apennines. The rille in Vallis Alpes is almost there; I'm not convinced it's not a processing artifact.

Rupes Recta, The Straight Wall

9-day-old moon. Ran off 2500 frames with the DMK21AF04/green filter in the 10" LX200 @ f/10 in lousy 2/5 seeing. Used 15 alignment points in Registax. NO WAVELETS. Brought the stacked image over to Lynkeos 2 on the Mac and ran 40 iterations of Richardson-Lucy deconvolution, and then a mild unsharp mask. Levels adjusted in Photoshop.

First time I've tried RL deconvolution--I like it. Very smooth.

Info from Wikipedia:

Rupes Recta is a linear fault on the Moon, in the southeastern part of the Mare Nubium at 22.1° S 7.8° W. The name is latin for "Straight Fault", although it is more commonly called the Straight Wall. This is the most well-known escarpment feature on the Moon, and is a popular target for amateur astronomers.
When the sun illuminates the feature at an oblique angle at about day 8 of the lunar orbit, the Rupes Recta casts a wide shadow that gives it the appearance of a steep cliff. The fault has a length of 110 km, a typical width of 2-3 km, and a height of 240-300 m. Thus although it appears to be a vertical cliff in the lunar surface, in actuality the grade of the slope is relatively shallow.
To the west of this escarpment is the Birt crater, which is about 10.5 miles in diameter. Also to the west is the Rima Birt rille. At the southern end is a group of hills often called the "Stag's-Horn Mountains", although this name is not officially recognized by the IAU.

Crater Langrenus

North is to the left in this shot of Crater Langrenus on the eastern shore of Mare Fecunditatis. Noisier than I would have wanted, but the seeing was maybe 2/5 with a very rapid ripple. DMK21AF in the LX200 @ f/10.

NGC 2903, A Spiral Galaxy in Leo

No way was I going to let such a beautiful night as last night go by. A little sliver of moon, but not enough to wash out this galaxy. I shot this last year--I'm glad I went back and shot it again. Experience shows. =)

25 x 180 sec, EOS350D, 10" LX200 @ f/6.3, guided with PHD/DSI/ST80

Orion

Here's a quickie wide-field shot of the Orion constellation. I piggybacked the Canon on top of the LDX650 mount and snapped a half-dozen or so shots. Focus was a bit off--I was just eyeballing it--but not a terrible shot in the end.

WorldWide Telescope

M44, The Beehive Cluster

I have tried, but am still not totally enchanted with most open clusters. But if you like 'em, here's a shot of M44, the Beehive Cluster through the AT80EDT with the unmodded 350D for your enjoyment. 25 x 120 sec (out of 40 in the blowing wind!) @ ISO 800. Spikes from Astronomy Tools PS.

This famous cluster, Messier 44 (M44, NGC 2632), is also called Praesepe (Latin for "manger"), or the Beehive cluster. It is also one of the objects easily visible to the naked eye, and thus known since prehistoric times. Some ancient lore is associated with it: Greeks and Romans saw this "nebula" as the manger (Greek: Phatne) associated with two asses who eat from it, Asellus Borealis, the Northern Ass (Gamma Cnc; Spectral type A1 V, mag 4.7, distance 155 ly) and Asellus Australis, the Southern Ass (Delta Cnc; Spectrum K0 III, mag 3.9, distance 155 ly). Erathosthenes reported that these were the asses on which the gods Dionysos and Silenus rode into the battle against the Titans, who were frightened by the animals' braying so that the gods won. As a reward, the asses were put in sky together with Phatne. Aratos (260 B.C.) mentioned this object as "Little Mist", Hipparchus (130 B.C.) included this object in his star catalog and called it "Little Cloud" or "Cloudy Star." Ptolemy mentions it as one of seven "nebulae" he noted in his Almagest, and describes it as "The Nebulous Mass in the Breast (of Cancer)". According to Burnham, it appeared on Johann Bayer's chart (about 1600 A.D.) as "Nubilum" ("Cloudy" Object).

Stargazing Tips From the Onion

Stargazing tips from the Onion.

Some may scoff at the hobby of astronomy, but sitting in an empty field in the middle of winter is a great way to see tiny little dots.

Third Saturn of the Year

This one's a keeper. 2000 frames LRGB in the DMK in the LX200 @ f/25.

Eleventh Mars of the Year

Same scope setup, and shot just minutes after the tenth Mars, but this time in LRGB with the DMK21AF firewire camera. Much cleaner. Both were 2000 frames and processed in Astro IIDC. Sure, LRGB takes a little longer, but the results speak for themselves. I'm very happy with this Mars shot.

Tenth Mars of the Year

Getting much smaller and distinctly gibbous two months after opposition. Shot with the SPC900NC at f/25 under pretty steady seeing, 3/5.

M81 & M82, Bode's Galaxy & Cigar Galaxy

Shot this from the Eagle Eye Observatory in the AT80EDT on the LXD650, guided with the ST80. 25 x 150 seconds. That's the irregular galaxy NGC3077 in the lower right.

A little nicer than last time, but shooting with the moon just three days past full didn't help.

Plato and the Alps

(Sounds like a 60s band.)

Not quite as nice as the last couple, but still better than anything I've shot until now. This is the last of an imaging session last week. 3 x 3000 @ 60 fps in the 10" LX200.

Is It 2009 Yet?

We interrupt the lunar imaging for another political observation:

Speaking in Kigali, Rwanda, President Bush said Tuesday that the resignation of Fidel Castro “ought to be a period of democratic transition” for Cuba, and said the country must hold free and fair elections to pick a successor after half a century of Communist rule.

“And I mean free and I mean fair,” Mr. Bush added, “not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy.”

Mr. Bush continued, "Cuban elections should be more like American elections, where your Dad seats members of the Supreme Court, which then decides that you win the contested election in the state where your brother is the governor."

Tycho to Clavius

I may have surpassed my previous best.

Gassendi Again

This may very well be the nicest shot I've made of the Moon. Compare with this version from a year ago.

650/3000 frames with the DMK @ 60 fps, green filter, 10" LX200 @ f/10. CSC said 2/5 and the wind was moving things around. Used 26 alignment points in Registax.

Theophilus to Tranquility Base

Three-shot mosaic from Theophilus to Tranquility Base. 2000 frames each, stacked in Registax with 10-20 alignment points each. Assembled in PS CS3 and high-pass sharpened. Not quite Alan Friedman quality, but I'm pretty happy with my progress.

Atlas & Hercules

21 alignment points in Registax. Still not as smooth as I'd like.

Apollo 17

More of that 2/5 seeing. Aligned in Registax using 9 alignment points. 2000 frames at 60 fps with the DMK21AF04 and a green filter. 10" LX200 at f/10.

Linus & Lucy

Second Saturn of the Year

FInally some better seeing, maybe 3/5. Not perfect, but it'll do. Still trying to learn all about LRGB imaging, but I think I'm making progress.

M42, The Orion Nebula (Modified Camera)

My buddy Daniel brought his new EOS 350D over last night. His camera is different from mine in that on his, the IR cutoff filter has been removed, so the camera is much more sensitive to the red colors in many nebula. Here's a stack of 20 (10 x 30 sec, 10 x 90 sec, 10 darks) of M42, the Orion Nebula with the AT80EDT. Compare the color to this version with my unmodified camera. This was also my first attempt at auto-guiding the LXD650 mount, and it looks like I need to adjust the settings a bit.

Water Treatment Plant

Drawing in progress for work.

"We can't show that to the client! The labels are in the wrong font!"

How Fights Start

I rear-ended a car this morning.

So there we are alongside the road and slowly the driver gets out of the car, and you know how you just-get-sooo-stressed and life-stuff seems to get funny?

Yeah, well, I could NOT believe it . . . he was a DWARF!

He storms over to my car,looks up at me and says, "I AM NOT HAPPY!"

So, I look down at him and say, "Well, which one are you then?"


The doctor assures me the swelling will go down in a couple of days, and my voice will return to normal at the same time.

Eighth, Ninth Mars of the Year

First light through the DMK21AF04.US using the Orion LRGB filters. All I can say is, it ain't the same as the SPC900NC! Getting the color balance is trick-ee. I'm driving the camera and processing with Astro IIDC.

We're on the back side of a cold front right now--temperature's dropped 15 degrees since sunset so you can imagine what the seeing is like.


This second stack is a little better. It's noiser--I kept the shutter fast to try to "freeze" the poor seeing, and so had to boost the gain. It's a trade-off, I know, and I'm not sure which is the better way to go.

A Picture That's Just Begging To Be Altered

The Photoshop possibilities just boggle the mind. Especially if your mind is in the gutter.

The Central Texas Nebula

Shot this last night, but it could have been anytime during the last two weeks. This nebula is huge--no way can I fit in the field-of-view of any of my scopes.

Dartmoor Pony

Ian made the front page of the Dartmoor Pony Registry of America web site! I'm sure it didn't hurt that his Aunt Linda runs the site. =)

Aristarchus

One of my favorite lunar features, but I still haven't made a decent picture of it.

Seventh Mars of the Year

Or as Linda calls it, The Martian Chronicles.

First Saturn of the Year

Shot this while Saturn was just 33° above the horizon. I was freezing and the scope was frosty, so I didn't try to wait until it rose higher. Notice how much the rings have closed since last March.

An Astronomical Commercial

This ad has generated a lot of discussion over on CloudyNights.com, mostly positive: