PANSTARRS Parting Shots

Comet PANSTARRS is getting harder to see from my location. Tonight's images are probably the last that I will take. I missed the opportunity last night to get a shot of the comet with the Moon, so I tried to make up for that tonight:

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); 80mm focal length at f/5.6; 2.5 seconds at ISO-1600
Click here for the full-size image

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); 300mm focal length at f/5.6; 2.5 seconds at ISO-800
Click here for the full-size image

Close-up of the crescent Moon, with the dark side lit up by Earthshine.

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); 300mm focal length at f/5.6; 2 seconds at ISO-400

PANSTARRS and Moonset

My wife and I went up to the roof the Sam Houston State University parking garage to see the comet and take some pictures. A small crowd gathered around the telescope. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Below are some of the pics from tonight.

The star below and to the right of the comet is the planet Uranus:

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); ST80 on Vixen SP; 4 seconds at ISO-400
Click here for the full-size image

Comet PANSTARRS; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); ST80 on Vixen SP; 5 seconds at ISO-1600
Click here for the full-size image

Setting Moon over Huntsville, TX; Canon Rebel T3 (1100D); ST80 on Vixen SP; 2.5 seconds at ISO-1600
Click here for full-size image

Here is a movie of the crescent Moon setting over Huntsville:

Moonset over Huntsville, March 13, 2013

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