PANSTARRS Movies!

Here are a couple of movies I put together from tonight's images.

The first is composed of 1-second exposures at ISO-400. The tripod wasn't very steady, so there is some bouncing around because of the wind.

PANSTARRS Movie #1

The second move is composed of a few 4-second exposures at ISO-1600:

PANSTARRS Movie #2

Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)

Comet PANSTARRS is visible in the northern hemisphere! Naked-eye comets don't come along every day.  The last one I saw was Comet Holmes in 2007. Prior to that, the only other naked-eye comet I had seen was Hale-Bopp. I've seen a couple through telescopes, but that doesn't count. :o)

Here are a couple of images of PANSTARRS that I took from my yard this evening:

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); 300mm focal length at f/5.6; 1 second at ISO-400
Click here for the full-size image

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); 300mm focal length at f/5.6; 4 seconds at ISO-1600
Click here for the full-size image

Nebulae in Orion

My wife surprised me with an early Christmas present: a new lens for the DSLR. It's a 75mm-300mm zoom lens, so basically it is a small telescope in my view. It's not perfectly suited for the task, but that doesn't stop me from trying to use it for imaging. Below is my first attempt at using it for a wide-angle shot:

Nebulae in Orion

This is a composite of several exposures ranging from 10 seconds to two minutes.

The Sword of Orion is prominent in the upper-right. This complex of nebulae is composed of Messier 42, Messier 43, and the Running Man Nebula.

The Horsehead Nebula is located left of center. The horse's head is actually a molecular cloud, or dark nebula, situated in front of an emission nebula from our persepective.

The Flame Nebula, an emission nebula, is located to the left of the Horsehead.

The three bright stars that form a line from the Flame/Horsehead to the upper-left are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. They form the Belt of Orion.

Reflection nebulae Messier 78 is located in the lower-left of the image. I hope to get some better images of M78 in the near future.

Lightning!

Lightning, November 26, 2012

Wide-Angle Shots

I've been experimenting with taking wide-angle long exposures with the camera mounted on the Vixen SP. Here is an image made in September 2012 of the Milky Way, with the constellation Cygnus on the left, and the constellation Aquila on the right. Prominent features include:

• The North America Nebula, on the left.
• The Great Rift (the dark lane that stretches across the middle of the image from left to right).
• The Cygnus Star Cloud (the bright region just above the middle, from about the center of the image and extending to the left)

This image also encompasses part of the area that is being studied by the Kepler mission.

Note, too, that the Great Rift appears less dark on the right. This is due to light pollution from town.

Milky Way from Cygnus to Aquila; Canon EOS Rebel XS on Vixen SP mount; 15x240; click here for full size

The following was a test image made after focusing the camera on Jupiter during a brief imaging session in early November 2012. Jupiter is the bright star near the center of the image. The reddish star to the upper-right of Jupiter is Aldebaran, in the constellation Taurus. Also visible are star clusters NGC 1746 (which is actually an asterism partially composed of two open clusters), NGC 1647 and the Hyades cluster. The vertical streak is the light trail made by an airplane.

Jupiter; Canon EOS Rebels XS on Vixen SP mount; 1x30

After focusing the camera, I pointed it at Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy:

Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy; Canon EOS Rebel XS on Vixen SP mount; 6x150

My primary goal was to image the area surrounding the constellation Perseus. My time was running short and Perseus had just cleared the trees, so I pointed the camera in that direction and got enough subs for the image below. Some of the items visible here are the Double Cluster (above and right of center), and the Heart and Soul nebulae (the faint red patches below and left of center):

Perseus Region; Canon EOS Rebel XS on Vixen SP mount; 11x150; click here for full size

Star Trails to the South!

This is the view to the south from my place. The glow in the sky is mostly from the city of Huntsville, Texas. The contrast has been enhanced a bit to eliminate some of the sky glow, but it's awfully hard to compete with all of those prisons and retail centers.

The stars of the constellation Sagittarius dominate the lower half of the image. A few aircraft trails are visible--mostly air traffic from Bush International Airport (IAH). The two short, bright streaks near the top (center and near the left edge) are probably satellites, but I have not been able to confirm this.

This image is a composite of 111 30-second exposures.

Star Trails to the North!

The sky was beautiful last night! The Milky Way was bright, and there were tons of stars! I didn't have time or energy to set up the telescope, so I did a quick star trail before the moon rose.

The object at the bottom of the image is the roof of my deck, faintly reflecting the light of a sodium lamp several hundred feet away through the trees. The colors have not been enhanced. I adjusted the contrast a bit to reduce the sky glow. This is a composite of 163 30-second exposures.

The bright star near the center of the circle is Polaris, the North Star. Contrary to common belief, Polaris is not the brightest star in the night sky. It is, however, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor.

The straight lines that criss-cross the starfield are the trails of aircraft. Also, there are several hot pixels scattered about the image because I forgot to take dark frames.