Saturday, August 26, 2017

Finishing what was supposed to be just one long post...

August 21. Eclipse day!
These pictures were taken by a good friend, Max Armstrong, while we were at the Hinton Rural Life Center near Hayesville, NC. Totality occurred about 2:33. We were able to see the entire eclipse, all 3 hours of it, with no clouds obstructing our view. People as near as 20 miles from us were completely clouded out. 

Before and after totality guests of Hinton (where I had also made an eclipse presentation or 2) viewed the partial phase of the eclipse through my Coronado Solar Max II (60mm) scope.

Me at the solar scope, with others waiting for a view.


Proof that pin hole projection really does work (as though it was needed!).


View through the solar scope.
The image above is a picture taken with the afocal technique, ie, the camera lens pointed at the eyepiece of the scope. It's overexposed. The color of the sun was actually the red color that is the predominant color in this image. For a handheld afocal image, though, this is really pretty good. Four sunspots were easily visible, as were several prominences. Two of the prominences seen during totality (naked eye even), are being covered by the moon.

Landscape at 2:32PM, 1 minute before totality.

Same as above, except taken at 2:34, 1 minute into totality.

Totality
And finally, totality, showing the solor corona, moon, and, on the right side of the moon, the red of the chromoshpere which is brightest where the prominences were visible.

For now, that's all the images and adventures I've had; I'm all caught up. I'll need more clear nights before I can publish more.
For now, though, thanks for reading.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Continuing from previous post

July 30

M5 Globular cluster in Serpens, just west of Ophiuchus



M8 AKA the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius, just north of the galactic center. Brighter stars overexposed, making them look like they trailed.

M9 Globular cluster in Ophiuchus, just north of Saturn for now



NGC6946 taken October 14, 2015 showing nova area.

NGC6946 taken July 30 showing nova. B/W image. Compare to above image.


August 5. Clouds starting to show up again. Sagittarius is also low on my horizon, so is very susceptible to haze and cloudiness since I'm imaging through the thickest part of the atmosphere and light pollution.
M23 Open cluster in Sagittarius


M24 Open cluster in Sagittarius

M25 Open cluster in Sagittarius


M29 Open cluster in Cygnus (Northern Cross)



Saturn


Grimaldi Taken at nearly, but not quite, full moon. It's the big, dark-ish crater.


Kepler Taken at nearly, but not quite, full moon


What Can I Say????

It's been a busy summer. Not very clear either, at least at night. On the few nights I have had so far, I've concentrated on Messier objects, mainly globular clusters. Since they are “just stars”, meaning no nebulosity (well one is a nebula), mostly I imaged only in the luminance channel. Saturn and Jupiter were visible, so I imaged them on a few nights. I even got a couple of craters on the moon to almost complete imaging the Astronomical League's Lunar List. I also was able to get another look at NGC6946, the galaxy with the nova. Last, but not least, I attended the total solar eclipse, but didn't do any imaging. Fortunately, a good friend, Max Armstrong, did get a few good pictures, which he has agreed to allow me to post. Because of being such a busy summer, I think I will just post and identify the images, with little comment. There is a total of 23 of them. Group by date sound good? (It may take a couple of days to get everything uploaded.)

July 11. High cloudiness which shows up in the images. Images are of Jupiter and Io (moon), and two globular clusters M80 and M107. M80 is located in the constellation of Ophiuchus, M107 is in Scorpius.

Jupiter and Io just above the center line, to the right of Jupiter

M80, a globular cluster in Ophiuchus


M107 in Scorpius. The light scattering off the clouds is evident in the lower half of the image.


July 22. These are globular clusters and open clusters. It will probably be obvious which is which, just by looking at the density of stars in the image. All are located in the same general area, around Scorpius and Ophiuchus. 
 
M62 globular cluster in Ophiuchus


M6 open cluster in Scorpius


M7 open cluster in Scorpius


M10 globular cluster in Ophiuchus


M12 globular cluster in Ophiuchus


M14 globular cluster in Ophiuchus


M19 globular cluster in Ophiuchus
 Is it any wonder I call this "globular cluster season?"