Adirondack Astronomy

A Bright Flash in the Sky For New England, New York, and Canada

2012-02-29T17:26:00.000-05:00

If anyone happened to see the bright fireball on February 28th, 2012 at roughly 22:15 EST please either let me know, or post your report at The Meteor Bot Internet Query (MBIQ). There was a report of a large Bolide Meteor over the states of New England, Canada, New York, and parts of Pennsylvania.

I was out with my telescope trying out my new motor drive for my mount and my new t-ring adapter. While looking up at the constellation Auriga, scoping out what I wanted to try my camera on, there was a bright flash very white from what I saw, which I thought was just a car flashing their high beams. After a couple minutes of wondering what it could have been I went on to doing what I was doing before the flash. I forgot all about it by the time I came in for the night until I came across this link where I found out it was a bright fireball that had flashed, and caused the same quick bright flash as lightning would during a summer thunder storm. From what I've read it appeared and went from the Northeast to the Southeast, I happened to be looking West-Northwest at the time, and the light bounced off the trees in my front yard. At the same time as the flash there was a plane that flew by heading east, I bet they got a great view, well at least the pilots did.

If you saw it, it wasn't a bomb, and it wasn't a UFO, it was definitely an identified object.

A Beautiful Alignment

2012-02-23T19:45:00.002-05:00

Tonight is just a quick post of a couple pictures. The moon, Venus, and Jupiter were in a line tonight. The best part is the 4% Waxing Gibbous Moon that is just above the horizon hanging over the city lights of Plattsburgh, NY. With the moon is the very bright planet, Venus, and just above Venus also shining brightly is the gas giant, Jupiter.

From top to bottom; Jupiter, Venus, Moon. Click to enlarge.

4% Waxing Gibbous Moon just before setting. Click to enlarge.

If anyone else happened to get a picture of this alignment please e-mail them to me at adirondackastronomer@gmail.com I would love to see your images.

Also if you happen to have clear skies on February 25th look for the Moon and Venus close by in the sky. Also keep your eyes open on February 26th for the Moon to pair up with Jupiter. Again, if you get any pictures of any of this please e-mail me the images. Would love to see and share your images.

February 19, 2012 Viewing Session - M42, M43 and M44

2012-02-20T18:22:00.002-05:00

Two nights in a row of clear skies, so I had to take advantage. I did some more sketches, but this time after sketching I took them into Gimp to edit them, and get rid of the paper texture I got when scanning. The temperature was warm for this time of year around 29°F, so I was sketching without gloves on to get in the way.

First target of the night was the Orion Nebula, M42, and the neighboring nebula, M43. These two nebula can be found in the sword of Orion just below Orion's belt. The middle star in the sword is not just a star, but it is what you see in this sketch. A stellar nursery where new stars are being formed. On a clear night in a dark sky area you can see a slight haze around this central star of Orion's sword, that is the nebula you are seeing with your unaided eye. This nebula is quite close astronomically speaking at a distance of 1,344 +/- 20 light-years away, and is roughly 24 light-years across.

M42 and M43 Two Nebula in Orion. Click to enlarge.

The next target of the night was an open cluster in the constellation of Cancer. This open cluster is M44 with the common names of the Beehive Cluster, or Praesepe (Latin for Manger). This cluster is one of the closest star clusters to our solar system at a distance of 520-610 light-years away. The stars of Cancer are quite dim and hard to spot in my light polluted skies, but I was just able to make out a slight haze where this cluster is located, which makes it another object you can see with the naked eye. Although it may be harder to find in light polluted skies, but if you're skies are dark enough you'll find it no problem.

M44 Open Cluster in Cancer. Click to

February 18, 2012 Viewing Session - Galaxies

2012-02-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

I went on a bit of a galaxy hunt. I felt the need to take advantage of the crystal clear skies and the fact that there was no moon visible in the sky. I didn't get out until around 10pm at which point I checked the astronomical seeing by magnifying Mars. I had no luck and couldn't even make out a polar cap. At that point I decided it was going to be a night of deep sky observing. Without having a motor to track with I decided it would be a good night for sketching. It wasn't unbearably cold out tonight, around 26°F, quite a treat after last weekends real feel in the negatives. My favorite thing about sketching is that it is exactly what I'm seeing through the telescope, no long exposure to get more detail out of it.

My first target of the night was a Messier object in the constellation Canes Venatici which in my location is only two stars visible; Alpha and Beta Canes Venatici. The object I located was the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51a&b. These two spiral galaxies are in the middle of a collision 23 million light years away, and M51 has a diameter of 38,000 light-years. The cores of both the galaxies are noticeable through the telescope, and you can just make out the connection between the two. Although I am unable to make out any spiral features from my light polluted skies this was still a great object to view.

M51a&b sketch with quick notes. Click to enlarge.

Even though there are quite a few other galaxies to view within Canes Venatici I moved on to another constellation after the galaxy M63 gave me a hard time - more like I couldn't find it. So I moved on to a completely different area of the sky.

Ever since I got my first scope I have wanted to see the Leo Triplet in the constellation of, well I'm sure you can guess, Leo. I have not been able to see these until tonight. The Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 group, contains the three Galaxies; M65, M66, and NGC 3628 which are aroung 35 million light-years away. These three galaxies are below the 3.3 magnitude star Theta Leonis, and also happen to be above the planet Mars, so there are some easy ways to find this grouping. M65 and M66 are both intermediate spiral galaxies, while NGC 3628 is an unbarred spiral galaxy, which is almost directly edge on with our view. Having the three of these in my view immediately made me think of a smiley face with the two Messier galaxies as the eyes and NGC 3628 as the mouth.

The Leo Triplet from left to right: M65, M66, NGC 3628. Click to enlarge

As I got done with sketching this I looked up to see where I could point to do another sketch, I was on a roll. When I looked up I noticed that the majority of the sky was covered in clouds. Unfortunately I had to end my night there. I wanted to keep going, especially since the galaxy cluster between Leo and Virgo were just coming out from behind a tree. I'm sure I'll get another chance.

February 11, 2012 – M81 & M82 Bodes Nebula

2012-02-12T11:44:00.000-05:00

Last night I went out in the freezing cold, on wunderground it said it was 9°F but feels like -1°F. I still couldn't resist the urge to put the telescope out and enjoy the sky. Dedication, or crazy. You decide.

I originally planned on getting Mars as the prediction for astronomical seeing wasn't too bad. When I magnified Mars a bit it was definitely not picture worthy conditions. I tracked Mars along for a while through the scope noticing the polar cap.

After Mars I decided to see what my scope could do with 75% moon's worth of light and a galaxy, two galaxies actually. Since they're so close together figure it would be a nice site. I have imaged M81 and M82 previously with my Astromaster 114EQ with the motor drive and the camera bracket afocal. This time with my Omni XLT 150 it was a bit more difficult to image since I was turning the RA knob by hand, which isn't the easiest thing to do. I took about 10 pictures, but only 5 stacked. Can't complain, I didn't expect anything useable from it.

M81 & M82 5x15sec F3.1 ISO400. Hand tracked.

I expect with prime focus imaging, and a motor to track an object this is going to take some really good images.

After going in a couple times to warm up, I noticed the constellation Hercules was coming up. This constellation is home to a couple globular clusters, but what I wanted to see was Comet C/2009 P1 Garrad which is currently between Hercules and Draco. I attempted to image this while hand tracking the telescope, but came up with nothing but a blurry blob (not a fuzzy blob like I want) and star trails.

Comet C/2009 P1 Garrad. Single image.

I'm thinking that this was hard to see due to it still being low on the horizon - about 35° above the horizon - and also due to the 75% moon making it harder to see. Have plenty of time coming up where I will be able to do this comet a lot better. So keep your eyes open for that update sometime in the future. Garrad is my first comet, so I'm excited about what I can achieve with more pictures to stack.

94% Waning Gibbous Moon

2012-02-11T17:02:00.000-05:00

Thursday night into the morning of Friday I was out enjoying the 94% Waning Gibbous Moon and a few of the planets.

I got a little up close and personal with the moon that night magnifying quite a bit to get this picture of Mare Crisium and other craters along the terminator. Just to name a few of the craters in this picture are Mare Crisium, and to the right of it is Cleomedes, and Geminus; the smaller crater above Crisium is Macrobius. The two on the far right are Atlas on the bottom, and Hercules just above it.

Click to enlarge.

I also did my first HDR image of the moon, which I'm quite pleased with thanks to Rachael Alexandra for editing my raw files before I stacked them for HDR.

Click to enlarge, you wont regret it.

I then took my 25mm eyepiece and put it in the 2x barlow making it a 12.5mm eyepiece giving me a magnification of 60x. I also put the dust cap on and removed the small plastic cap to stop down the aperture a bit to make it so the moon didn't overexpose the video. It takes down the quality a bit, but it was the only thing that was working. This video is along the terminator as the moon moves in and out of my small field of view.

February 4, 2012 - The Moon and Planets

2012-02-05T16:38:00.000-05:00

Took the new telescope out tonight for a long night of cold viewing. Spent some time looking at Jupiter which I still can't manage to get a good picture of. I'm not going to give up! Tonight was mostly a planet and moon viewing night.

Also spent quite a bit of time viewing the moon. It was quite bright, but the clarity of it was just amazing. I even got up to a magnification of 120x, and got a few pictures of a set of craters along the terminator. I'm amazed with the quality of the moon with that much magnification. The 114eq couldn't deliver the moon at that quality with that much magnification, what a difference the optics in the Omni XLT 150 make.

94% Waxing Gibbous Moon. Click to enlarge.

The craters at the top of the picture above. Names in order from left to right; Phocylides, Schickard, Lehmann, Lacroix, Vieta, and Cavendish. Click to enlarge.

Not only did I view the moon, but I also viewed 3 different planets throughout the night. Jupiter was the very first, but I was again unsuccessful in capturing video of it. Then I aimed at tiny little Mars later on in the night. Very hard to get a useful video of it as I had the same problem of overexposure as I do with Jupiter. While viewing it though I could make out a polar ice cap and a slight darkening of some of the surface area.

Then I was on to Saturn. I was able to get a video of it and stack the frames of the video, but I was not able to capture any detail in the video. Although the eyepiece was in focus for my eyes I don't think the focus translated very well to my point and shoot camera. I got what I could. I will be attempting all 3 planets again, and hopefully I will be successful in getting something good, clear, and useful.

I was in and out of the house quite a bit during the night to warm up as it was quite cold outside. After bringing in the telescope I took a few pictures of all the frost built up on it. This wasn't my coldest session out with a telescope, but it was definitely quite cold.

The Celestron Omni XLT 150

2012-02-02T22:46:00.001-05:00

On Monday I received my brand new telescope, a Celestron Omni XLT 150. It has a 6 inch mirror (150mm) and is such a beautiful looking scope. Aesthetically pleasing, and also provides some great views of the skies.

When I got the telescope it arrived in two boxes, one containing the tripod, mount, weights, and slow motion control knobs. This box was a bit on the heavy side, which is a good thing. A strong sturdy mount with little to no wobble when in use. I knew this box was going to be heavy, but it still surprised me a bit when I went to pick it up; luckily I didn't have far to carry it into my house to be assembled. When I opened the boxes inside the main box I was happy to see how well packed it was, I was also happy with UPS for not delivering me boxes with damaged corners or holes poked through it.

In the second box which was quite a bit lighter in comparison was the optical tube assembly, finder scope, 2” eyepiece adapter, 1.25” eyepiece adapter with threads to attach a t-ring (for attaching a DSLR camera for prime focus astrophotography), and the 25mm eyepiece. Again, I was quite happy with the packaging and the fact that the boxes were in good condition when delivered.

I removed all the parts from the first box and laid them out on the floor and checked them over for any damage. I had one damaged piece, but it's damage was my own fault. When removing the box containing the weights it slipped out of my hand and fell to the floor. It broke a piece off of the tightening screw, but it's not worth losing any sleep over. It still functions properly and if I really need to I can order or find a replacement screw.

Opened the second box and laid the pieces out to inspect them and make sure everything is ok. I didn't want to put it all together to find out there is damage to anything. Everything was in great shape, so it was time to attach it all to the mount and tripod.

After setting it all up I collimated the scope to align the mirrors to get the best views I can. Went outside and took a look up – CLEAR! Went to go pick up the telescope and realized that this thing weighs 45.5lb and the Astromaster 114EQ weighed 17lb, but I got it outside just fine.

Polar aligned the telescope real quick just enough where I could track an object. First object I went for was the moon, and I have to say I was amazed by the difference. This telescope is going to be a blast to view with.

I quickly aimed at the constellation Auriga and almost immediately found M37, which was a distinctive cluster of stars which looked like small pin holes.

Took a quick moon shot, but couldn't get many as the clouds rolled in. Better ones to come in the near future.

Powerful M9-Class Solar Flare Heading Towards Earth

2012-01-23T18:28:00.001-05:00

The strongest Solar Radiation Storm since May of 2005 is under way. The sun unleashed a powerful M9-class solar flare from sunspot 1402 on January 22nd around 11:00pm EST, and the flare is heading towards Earth.

Latest GOES-15 Image.

M9-Class Solar Flare from NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory.

A computer model by the NOAA predicts the Coronal Mass Ejection will reach Earth by around 9:00am EST (+/- 7 hours) traveling at a speed of approximately 1,367 miles per second.

Solar Wind Prediction from NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center.

These kind of storms can affect satellites in geosynchronous, polar and other orbits. Sky watchers in higher than normal latitudes should be on the lookout for aurora. If you have clear skies, this may be a great chance to get out and see the aurora for yourself. Looking at the weather predictions for Plattsburgh, NY it's looking like we're clouded in the next few nights, so there is a very slim chance I will get to see it.

Tonight May Be Better For Aurora

2012-01-22T16:47:00.000-05:00

It seems last nights aurora turned out to be a dud. Me and a few other people were chatting throughout the night on twitter. A couple people out with cameras attempting to get some hints of Aurora with no luck. Today I woke up and see that the planetary Kp number has been between 4 and 5Kp which 5Kp is a good number for us here in the Adirondacks, and a 6Kp would be even better.

CME coming from the sunspots above. Image from SpaceWeather.com

So tonight if you have clear skies and a view north you may want to give watching for the aurora another shot. I will be updating with the most recent Kp levels via my twitter name @AdirondackAstro or if you don't have twitter you can check my twitter updates to the right.

This image of the Auroral Oval should be (hopefully) updated throughout the night. Not sure how this works, I'm doing a direct link and not quite sure if it will update here along with the site I'm getting it from.

From SpaceWeather.com

Coronal Mass Ejection Heading Towards Earth

2012-01-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

Expected to hit Earth sometime on Saturday evening (January 21st) the sun has unleashed an M3-class solar flare and a full-halo coronal mass ejection. Strong geomagnetic storms are possible when the cloud arrives this weekend. The blast is from an active earth facing sunspot 1401.

Image from SpaceWeather.com.

Tomorrow night (Saturday night) could be a great night to get out and aim your camera (or even your eyeballs) North for a view of the Aurora. People in high Latitude and possibly mid latitude could see this blast.

If you can't see it with your naked eye, try aiming your camera north with a 15-30 second exposure time, just because you can't see it doesn't mean you won't get some good pictures of it. If you get out and get any images of it I would love to see your results. Feel free to e-mail me your images at adirondackastronomer@gmail.com.

Images from SpaceWeather.com

Out of Order

2012-01-15T14:02:00.002-05:00

I haven't had much of a chance to go out and gaze at the stars in the past couple of weeks due to a mixture of clouds and the fact that my telescope mount for the Astromaster 114EQ broke the night of December 30^th, 2011. I was tightening the thumb screws to attach the optical tube to the mount when all of a sudden there was a SNAP and before I could react the telescope fell to the floor. The mount snapped and there is no DIY fix.

You can see me holding the thumbscrews that connect the telescope to the mount, along with the mount broken there. At the moment of the picture the telescope was laying on the floor. Fortunately after going through and giving the OTA a thorough check it didn't seem to be damaged, but it may need a good collimation after falling about 3 feet to the ground. I can't describe how scared I was to look into the tube expecting to see a shattered mirror.

I have contacted Celestron and they will replace the part, sending out the broken part to be replaced this week. Unfortunately they are saying it could take 4-6 weeks until I receive my new mount. Until then I still have the 70mm refractor although I can't really take pictures with it, and it's been quite cold so sketching my views is a bit of a hassle.

I'm also looking into a new telescope – The Omni XLT 150 – which will be a nice addition to my small telescope collection. Keep an eye out I will hopefully be back up and running as normal hopefully within a couple of weeks. Sorry about any lack of viewing updates.

Time-Lapse and Star Trails

2012-01-06T18:05:00.000-05:00

It was the coldest night of the this winter so far, so I wasn't too keen on going outside and doing much star gazing. I did however setup my camera on the tripod and aimed to the Northeast in hopes of catching some Quadrantid meteors for a time-lapse on the night of January 3rd to the morning of January 4th. I left the camera out overnight and grabbed it first thing in the only about 30-40 minutes after sunrise. I was on my way to work so I didn't have time to review my pictures to see if I captured any meteors. All day at work I was curious about it and couldn't wait to get home to check it out. Unfortunately when I got home to view the pictures I was a bit disappointed that I got about two meteors one really faint upper left, the other quick and bright in the lower right, and a few airplanes.

I wasn't going to let the lack of meteors get me completely down. I decided to make the time-lapse anyway with the images I got, and it turned out quite good watching Ursa Major rise, and seeing Ursa Minor pop up from the bottom of the images while Polaris seems to hardly move at all in the video.

Best viewed in full screen and HD.

I also decided to make a star trail image from the same images used in the time-lapse video since it had recorded pictures every 30 seconds for roughly 10 hours. In this star trail image you can see how Polaris may be called the North Star, but it's <i>not quite</i> at the exact North Celestial Pole. Polaris is actually a little less than a degree off from <i>true</i> north.

Click to Enlarge.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower

2012-01-03T17:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight (January 3^rd) into tomorrow morning (January 4^th) is the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower. This meteor shower is one of the best meteor showers of the year producing around 100 meteors per hour. Although I must warn that with tonight's 75% Waxing Gibbous Moon it may drown out some of the fainter meteors. Fortunately the radiant of the Quadrantids is in the opposite part of the sky as the moon, so you may still get some good views.

This particular meteor shower is a bit finicky when it comes. The peak is estimated to be at 2:20am EST on the morning of January 4^th, and usually only lasts for an hour or so from the peak time. Another tricky part about it is that the meteor shower prediction time isn't always right on, so you may have missed it by 2:20am or you may be too early.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is named after an obsolete constellation; Quadrans Muralis, which was located near the constellation Bootes. An easy way to find the radiant for this shower is to look for Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) in the Northeast and follow the handle towards the horizon. You can get a rough view of the radiant by looking in that area of the sky between Ursa Major and Bootes. Although a meteor shower radiates from a certain point you should make sure to keep an eye open for all parts of the sky as meteors can be just about anywhere.

Click to Enlarge. Showing the radiant point of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower. This picture shows the sky on the morning of January 4th at 2:30am EST.

Up here in the Adirondacks it's quite cold tonight, actually the coldest it's been all winter. With temperatures feeling below zero make sure you are bundled up. If you want to see the meteor shower but aren't willing to brave the cold there are a few other options for viewing them from within your nice warm comfy home.

Listen with Space Weather Radio

View with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

There is also this link to a NASA page which has a list of all sky cam's you may be able to view the meteor shower from.

Enjoy the show and stay warm!

December 29, 2011 Viewing Session – NGC 884 and NGC 869 (Double Cluster)

2011-12-30T16:35:00.000-05:00

Another clear night in December, and it may be the last of the year. Went out to get a view and images of NGC 884 and NGC 869 – The Double Cluster. I've posted an image of it in the past (at this link here), but tonight's yielded much better results due to 30 images stacked at 15Seconds, 3.2seconds, and 8seconds all at F3.1 ISO400.

Click to Enlarge.

NGC 884 and NGC 869 also known as Caldwell 14 are two open clusters within the constellation of Perseus. The cluster can be found between the constellation lines of Perseus and Cassiopeia. These two relatively young clusters lay at a distance of 7600 and 6800 light-years away with NGC 869 being 5.6 million years old and NGC 884 being 3.2 million years old. Each cluster contains a few hundred stars, young hot super-giant suns that are thousand times for luminous than our sun. This double cluster is one of the few objects that can be seen with the unaided eye. They cover a span of only 30 arc-seconds which is about the width of the moon.

When viewing the double cluster you can see a variety of colored stars from blue, to white, to the red of a swelling giant star moving ever closer to it's violent end as a supernova. This cluster can be enjoyed with just your eyes (given you live in a dark enough area) as a fuzzy object between Perseus and Cassiopeia, or enjoyed with a pair of binoculars, or a telescope ranging from small to large in size. Next clear night see if you can spot the double cluster with your unaided eye.

December 27, 2011 Viewing Session – M42 (Orion Nebula)

2011-12-27T14:11:00.001-05:00

The day was clear, the sun was shining, and I was expecting to get a good view of the 2 day old crescent moon 7° from Venus in the western sky after sunset. That was destroyed by a thick layer of clouds that rolled in about 30 minutes before sunrise. After that I figured the sky was going to be cloudy all night. Around 9pm I let the dog out and I decided to have a look up, and the sky was clear. After letting the dog in I took the Astromaster 114EQ out with hopes of getting a few images that I could stack and make into a pretty image to share here. I had some luck, but need to fine tune and learn some adjustments to be made.

The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula just below (south) Orion's Belt, and is also visible to the naked eye granted you have clear skies, and minimal light pollution. To find the M42, first find Orion's Belt, look below it for the three fainter stars almost perpendicular to the belt. The middle of the three stars is where the nebula can be found. With the unaided eye you may notice that this middle star is a bit fuzzy, and that's because of the nebula. Aim a pair of binoculars or a telescope at this and you will be amazed with how much of the nebula is visible.

At a distance of 1,344 light-years away this nebula shines quite bright through a telescope and handles magnification quite well. Although this is all that I was able to see through my telescope, this nebula is part of a much larger nebula within Orion known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Inside M42 there is quite a young cluster of stars known as the Trapezium. Through my telescope the Trapezium is just visible with the 32mm eyepiece and I can resolve 3 of the stars. I didn't get the chance to magnify it anymore than that, but those three stars in the Trapezium turn into a total of six with good transparency and higher magnification.

This is a single image of M42 I took showing the Trapezium. Click to Enlarge.

Through the 32mm eyepiece M42 looks a lot like it does in my picture below. The image below was created with about 30 images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker at 3.2seconds F6.3 ISO400. Strapped the camera to the eyepiece set up a timer and let the pictures begin.

Click to Enlarge

This second image was about a total of 70 images stacked, 30 of the images were the images used in the picture above, and the rest were taken at about 6seconds F4.5 ISO400. The central region of the nebula is a bit overexposed, but you can really start to see the shape of the nebula in this image. Hopefully I have clear skies soon, and will be able to spend more than just an hour with this nebula. By the time I had captured all these images a thin layer of clouds started rolling in.

Click to Enlarge

Although the central area is overexposed I am still quite happy with the results I'm achieving with the setup I have. I finally have the tracking of the sky down to a point where I can take up to 15 second exposures and still have a decent enough picture to stack within Deep Sky Stacker, which is quite picky when it comes to even the slightest star trail. Now I just need to work on less exposure with a ton more images taken, or I need to screw around with some other settings.

EDIT: I have taken the two images and masked them in Gimp to come up with a much better image of the nebula. You can really make out the stars in the center of the nebula a bit more, and the central core of the nebula isn't as overexposed.

Click to Enlarge

Why Astronomy?

2011-12-25T15:07:00.000-05:00


The Wreath Nebula via NASA.

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you are having/have had a great day!

Today I'm going to discuss a little bit about why and how I fell in love with astronomy. What brought me into this new hobby that I now seem to obsess over during every free moment, and non free moment I have? What makes it so interesting to me that makes me keep looking up?

Christmas of 2010 I got my first telescope, the Celestron Astromaster 114EQ from my wonderful girlfriend. She had got it for me expecting me to use it for the Moon and not expecting the astronomy bug to bite me as hard as it did. I was spending Christmas with my parents out of town and drove the 2.5 hour drive back home Christmas night to spend the last hour with her and to open each others presents. I was not expecting a telescope at all. Unfortunately as any astronomer will tell you, amateur or not, if you get a telescope expect clouds. So of course I was unable to bring it outside and use it right away. This was fine, as I did a bunch of research on my specific telescope, found some great astronomy messageboards that were extremely helpful to a newbie like myself. I started finding star charts, astronomy software for the computer, possible upgrades to get the most out of my viewing, and so much more.

I wont lie, the first few nights out with the telescope were a bit of a drag due to me not completely understanding the use of an Equatorial Mount, but I did just set it up, and aim it towards what I wanted to look at which of course was the full Moon. I didn't quite know where anything was in the sky at this time. Of course as a kid I would look up at the sky and enjoy the sites, but actually learning constellations, star names, locations of objects in the sky, and the understandings of the different constellations for different seasons were all new things to me. I basically took myself through a crash course of astronomy thanks to the internet, and my girlfriend buying me one of the greatest Christmas presents ever.

Snowflake Cluster via NASA.

Now here I am a year later, so what keeps me so interested and looking up every clear night that I have a chance? Well first of all in the grand scheme of things I've hardly scraped the surface of this hobby with viewing what's available in the night sky. Learning the craters of the moon, viewing the planets of the solar system, seeing double stars, variable stars, nebula, galaxies, open star clusters, and globular star clusters. I can step outside on a beautifully clear night with a long list of visible objects to view and end up only viewing a couple of them within a few hours of time. When I view an object such as an open cluster I don't just point the telescope at it, look at it for a few seconds and move on. I get into the viewing of an object, I'll try to count the brighter stars that form the cluster, and/or I'll examine the shape of it.

Viewing a planet such as Jupiter can be quite interesting in a night due to it's 9.925 hour rotation speed, because within one night you can watch the Great Red Spot rise, transit, and then set, all within a matter of 5 hours of viewing! Also within this 5 hours of viewing Jupiter you could catch a transit of one of the four Galilean Moon's across the face of Jupiter. Watch as the shadow of one of it's Moon's lands on the surface then shortly after you see the Moon itself cross in front.

Not only is getting out with the telescope and viewing the vast sky above extremely rewarding and calming, but there is also the constant news of new things discovered all the time. Before I got into this hobby I had absolutely no idea how active this community of people is, or how many new and cool discoveries there were so often. From distant galaxies discovered near the edge of the visible universe, to asteroids and comets. This hobby will keep you learning new things day in and day out. At least once a week there seems to be some new and exciting discovery that seems so crazy you just can't believe it.

Now you might be thinking to yourself that you'd get sick of looking at the same thing over and over, but that's the fun part. There is so much up there you don't have to look at the same thing every night, even the moon is changing with different craters visible every day. Also, looking at the same thing could bring out new details to you that you haven't noticed before, or you could be one of the lucky individuals that spots a new supernova, or a comet or asteroid that hasn’t been discovered yet. This hobby is quite addictive and so amazing that you just can't help but think about some of the amazing wonders you are looking at. It makes you want to read up on it which causes you to learn and that can't be a bad thing!

Nothing like sitting back looking at an object 64 million light-years away and thinking to yourself how the light you're looking at took 64 million years to reach your eye. Meaning what you're looking at could have changed a vast amount or not even exist anymore, but you would never know because it will take another 64 million years for that light to reach Earth. The light from out sun takes 8 minutes to reach us which isn't that long, but if the sun were to just shut off one day you wouldn't know for 8 minutes.

One of the most distant galaxies known, called GN-108036, dating back to 750 million years after the big bang. The light from this galaxy took 12.9 billion years to reach us. Image via NASA.

Our ever changing Universe is jaw-dropping, awe inspiring, and just down right awesome. If you haven't before, or you haven't in a while on the next clear night you have go outside and just look up at the stars.

If you are thinking of joining in this hobby and don't know where to start with buying a telescope there are two great communities online where you can ask all the questions you want about getting started and everyone is nice and willing to help:

Astronomy Forum

Cloudy Nights

Those are the two messageboards I frequent the most, and there is a great wealth of information. Also if you don't want to sign up to a messageboard to ask questions feel free to ask in the comments section below I would be more than glad to assist you any way that I can.

So there you have it, a little bit about how I got into the hobby and why I'm still into it just as much, if not more, than I was when I got my first telescope and first focused on a distant object magnified. Hope you have clear skies and maybe more of an interest in astronomy.

Comet Lovejoys Exit Stage Right

2011-12-16T13:23:00.002-05:00

Comet Lovejoy headed straight for our nearest star (the sun) last night, and made a close approach of about 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) above the suns surface. This sungrazing comet was predicted to vaporize upon it's close approach. NASAs Solar Dynamic Observatory aimed it's camera at the left side of the sun to get images as Lovejoy made it's approach, and updated with new images added to a time lapse in almost real time via twitter. As SDO got the news so did we, and anyone else following along on twitter last night.

After the comet disappeared behind the sun there was quite a bit of talk online about how unlikely it would be that Lovejoy would reemerge on the other side. After about an hour of it's disappearance on the left side of the sun the word was out – Comet Lovejoy survived perihelion and popped out from behind the sun to show it was not going to let the sun defeat it!

Lovejoy's core is about 660 feet (200 meters) wide, and like all other comets it's made of ice with either a solid ice core or a solid rocky core. This comet gave plenty of warning time for it's close approach to the sun unlike most sungrazing comets that don't show their face until it's almost too late. This warning gave the SDO, SOHO and STEREO satellites the opportunity to train their camera's on Lovejoy and follow it as it made it's death defying plunge towards the sun. I would have put money on it's demise as it was behind the sun, but was pleasantly surprised when it showed it's face reemerging on the other side.

Here is a minute long video put together by @Camilla_SDO of the many views of comet Lovejoys trek near the sun. Images from NASA/ESA SOHO, NASA STEREO, and NASA SDO. This video is great, glad I got to witness it as the news and images came in. Quite the exciting night last night during and for many hours after as everyone was just as surprised as I was when news came in of it's survival. You know how quickly ice can melt on a hot summer day just imagine how much quicker it can happen that close.

Of course with such a close approach comes a consequence. Comet Lovejoy didn't come out of this unscathed it came out with it's head, but it was missing it's tail. Although things could have been worse as this "dirty snowball" was immersed in several million degree temperatures for a little over an hour.

December 11, 2011 Viewing Session - The Moon

2011-12-11T09:03:00.001-05:00

I took the new Celestron 70mm EQ refractor out tonight for it's maiden voyage. This is the first good refractor I've used and I'm liking it so far. Got a good price on it through craigslist and it is in excellent shape, almost like new. Needed a quick wipe down on the mirror in the diagonal and it was ready to go. I took out both my scopes and set them up, polar aligned them, waited for clouds to clear, and I spent all of the night using the new refractor.

For it's first light tonight I decided to have some fun with the 100% full moon tonight. I got a few good pictures through the refractor using the 32mm eyepiece, and I also got my favorite picture of the night through the 32mm in the Barlow lens doubling it's magnification. I ended up getting clouded out before totally getting my technique down tonight. We may have not had the total lunar eclipse that the west coast, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Asia got this morning, but we still got to enjoy a bright full moon.

This last shot is my favorite from the night, this is when I took the 32mm and doubled it's magnification with the Barlow lens. As weird as it may sound I couldn't get the moon in focus on my camera until I zoomed in a little bit, even then it was a little difficult to frame. This shot came out great, and of course right after I figured it out the clouds came in and left me stranded. I waited an hour and a half just for a chance to get another 5 minutes to get the moon fully in frame. The end cap on the telescope has another cutout in the center to dim a bright object like the moon. I took that cap off, took off moon filters I had on the eyepiece and everything was just about perfect.

Lunar Eclipse December 10, 2011

2011-12-09T14:12:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow, December 10, 2011 there will be a total lunar eclipse which unfortunately will not be viewable from the east coast of the United States. If you live in the western United States, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Asia you should be able to catch the whole eclipse.

Pictures via NASA's Eclipse Website

Fear not though, you can watch the whole eclipse online via the SLOOH SpaceCamera free of charge by clicking the link and selecting the “On Air” button in the upper right corner if it doesn't automatically forward you to the event. SLOOH will broadcast this celestial event starting at 8:00am EST on Saturday December 10, 2011. SLOOH provides a countdown timer if you click the above link, and when they start airing the button to watch will appear.

For those on the western coast of America you may get to see a rare event referred to as a selenelion which is when you will get to see the eclipsed moon and the sun in the sky at the same time as the sun is rising and the moon is setting. This isn't usually possible to see since an eclipse is possible due to the moon and the sun having to be directly opposite each other in the sky. Due to atmospheric physics and geometry it IS possible. The atmosphere acts as a lens curving the light around the Earth allowing you to still see the moon for a minute or two after it has actually set, same goes for the rising sun being visible for a minute or two before it actually rises.

I would love to see pictures from anyone who may catch this lunar eclipse. If you send me a picture please include any info (name, date, location, time, website, twitter handle, or whatever you want me to link to/post below the photo) that I can credit to here on the blog. If you get pics of the lunar eclipse you can send them to me via Facebook, Twitter, G+, or e-mail. If I get a few pictures I will post them up here with the information you provide for the picture.

Video provided by NASA's Science Cast on youtube providing some good information on tomorrow's Lunar Eclipse.

December 3, 2011 Viewing Session - M36, Time Lapse, Iridium Flare, Star Trails

2011-12-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

While out viewing I had Rachael Alexandra come out and brave the cold temperatures and blowing winds to get pictures of me while viewing through the telescope. The pictures were taken with an exposure time of 30 seconds. You may think you'd end up with a blurry me, but when looking through a telescope at an amazing thing thousands of light-years away you tend to not move a whole lot. After she was done I gave her the chance to view a pretty open cluster in Auriga.

M36 sometimes called the Pinwheel Cluster, is an open cluster in the constellation Auriga. There are three Messier object in Auriga M36, M37, and M38 all of which are open clusters. I decided to go for M36 not just because it's the first in the list within the constellation, but because it seemed to be the brightest of the three. M36 is roughly 4,100 light-years away, and about 14 light years in diameter. It is about 25 million years old which astronomically speaking is rather young. M36 has an irregular shape and the stars are in a chain like pattern.

Although not visible with the naked eye as I was scanning the area I came across a faint cluster of stars using the 32mm eyepiece. Not too many were very bright, but there were a few stand-out stars. About 15 stars in the heart of the cluster most of which visible with averted vision. Some seemed somewhat hidden close to the brighter stars making them harder to pick out. When I stepped up the magnification with the 12.5mm the harder to see stars before seemed to pop out in the eyepiece a bit more. Roughly the same amount of stars this time in the heart of the cluster, but then averted vision brought out a few more of the dimmer stars unseen with the 32mm.

Click for larger image.

Also throughout the night starting around 5pm I setup my camera to take a 30 second picture ever 5 seconds. The shutter speed was 30 seconds, F3.1, ISO400, takes 30 seconds to process one image, so each picture took 1 minute+/-. I had this running from 5pm to 3am and got 457 images. I took these images and made them into a time lapse video. A little bit of jostling of the camera by some wind gusts, but all in all this time lapse came out pretty good. I've attempted a few before like this one when I had no luck. This time though I only had a short batch of thin clouds come in for a short time during imaging.

Time lapse video, best watched full screen in HD (everything's better in HD).

When scrolling through the pics of this video before making it I saw some streaks across the sky, most of them were planes, except one in the lower left corner that was extremely bright near the beginning of the video. If you didn't see it, watch it again and look for it. At first I thought I had caught a meteor, then looking online at CalSky it showed that there was an Iridium Flare from an antenna 5 minutes later than the picture was taken and 6 minutes later was an Iridium Flare from a solar panel. After some looking on the site and then checking my camera I found that my time is 5 minutes off which would make these images a direct affect of an Iridium Flare.

Iridium Flare in the Northeast with Cassiopeia and Perseus in view. Click to Enlarge.

Still a faint streak in the lower left in the frame after the previous one. Click to Enlarge.

Some info on Iridium Flares. They are from an Iridium Satellite which is a relatively small telecommunications satellite in a low Earth orbit. They're part of a world-wide system for mobile communications. Each satellite has three main mission antennas (MMAs) which are flat, highly reflective surfaces that can reflect the suns rays when hit just right. These Iridium Flares can be as bright as a -8 magnitude which for comparison bright Venus can reach a magnitude of -4.9.

That's not it either. I then took these 457 images and brought them into another program and made pretty star trails out of them. Again you can see the wobble from the wind, but again this came out pretty good for a first. This won't be the last!

A Meteor in Pegasus

2011-11-28T23:35:00.002-05:00

Tonight I decided to put my camera out in an attempt to do some time lapse photography of the stars. It started off good but quickly became cloudy and not too interesting. Although when going through my images I got to make the video I came across one I really liked. It's of the constellation Pegasus and going through it is a meteor. I checked for satellites for my location and the time the picture was taken and found none in the area at the time. Not only is there the bright, yet short meteor, but you can also just make out a fuzzy galaxy to the left in the picture. That galaxy is Andromeda, and I was hoping to get it going across the sky tonight. If you're having trouble spotting Andromeda in the picture look to the left of the picture for 3 stars going up slightly curved. At the top of those three stars you can just make out Andromeda.

Edit: I have just found out that there is a meteor shower from September 25 to December 6 called the Andromedids. The radiant is, you guessed it, in Andromeda which means this short bright meteor is part of that meteor shower. Currently this meteor shower at it's peak (November 14) is extremely weak with an estimated 3 meteors per hour. These meteors come from associated comet 3D/Biela which broke up and possibly caused a large outburst back in 1872 and 1885. More on the Andromedids here for a more detailed explanation on the meteor shower.

Also something else neat about the Andromedids. In 1885 the first meteor ever photographed was an Andromedid by Ladislaus Weinek in Prague. Info from this link on Google Books, from the book Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets. The part I think is the coolest is that this is MY first picture of a meteor ever taken, which just so happens to be an Andromedid. Pretty neat stuff!

Click to enlarge.

Edit: I am now only including the time-lapse from the picture above since having all 3 available here made the blog load really slow.

November 6, 2011 Viewing Session

2011-11-07T18:49:00.001-05:00

I had went out planning to image Jupiter and a large section of sky like I did in my previous post of November 5, 2011 Viewing Session.

Very first thing I did when I went out was piggy-backed my camera to my telescope, turned on the motor to track the stars across the sky and test out a 15 second exposure. After the first one I examined it, made sure there were no star trails present and then set the camera up to take 20 pictures at 15 second exposure, ISO 400, F-Stop 3.1. I aimed the scope and camera at the constellation Cygnus, and just below it is Lyra with it's star Vega shining near the bottom off centered to the left of the picture.

Single frame 15sec, F3.1, ISO400. Click to enlarge.

16 frames 15sec, F3.1, ISO400. Click to enlarge.

I then took the scope and aimed it at Jupiter tracking it across the sky viewing it in my 12.5mm eyepiece, then I decided to kick it up a bit and put in the 6mm. For some reason I just couldn't get the focus sharp enough with the 6mm, so I took my 2x barlow piece out and put the 12.5mm in it making it a 6.25mm. I know this sounds pointless to do since the 6mm didn't work, but for some odd weird reason it worked and I got a pretty good focus. The next hurdle I had to jump was dimming Jupiter down so it wasn't just a giant bright white ball in the eyepiece which was quite a task, but my Moon filter came in handy to tone down the light. It's hard to spot in the photo below, but the Great Red Spot has started to come around the limb of Jupiter in the upper left side you can just make it out. I attempted editing this image to bring it out a bit, but I had no luck so these are just straight off the camera.

Click to enlarge.

Later on in the night before calling it quits I had seen about 5 meteors from the meteor shower Taurids that peaks the night of November 12 into the morning of November 13. These were very bright and kind of fell from the sky like you would picture a flare gun. Short lasting but quite bright considering how they grasped my attention immediately and made me stop packing in my things to bring it inside. I took a series of images, only about 6 images more focused on Pleiades. I tried a few zoomed out to try and capture meteors but they only seemed to streak across the sky as my camera was done taking an image of an area. I tried for meteors but all I got was this pretty picture.

Pleiades single frame 50sec, F5, ISO400. Click to enlarge.

Pleiades 6 frames 50sec, F5, ISO400. Click to enlarge.

November 5, 2011 Viewing Session

2011-11-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

Not only was the sky clear enough for me to get images of the sun earlier in the day, but the sky was crystal clear, absolutely no clouds, the seeing and transparency were both as good as I've ever seen them; if not better. I could magnify an object with no distortion due to turbulence only distortion due to trying to max out my magnification power. The only downfall on my original hunt for nebula was the bright Moon light, so I moved onto other objects for the night.

My first target was the Moon, I didn't get any full shots of the moon as I was trying to attempt multiple shots of sections to create a mosaic, but the images I got weren't good enough to put together. Better luck next time I suppose. Instead of that image I have one of the Moon the night before (November 4) showing off the crater Copernicus favorably lit on the terminator (where the shadow and light meet). The right side of the moon is cut off due to a tree being in the way.

Copernicus is lit where light and dark meet. Near center of the Moon. Click to enlarge.

I then moved onto Jupiter, attempting to get images of it that are clear enough to show the banding in the clouds was quite difficult to get with my setup. Attempt after attempt I tried with different settings, increasing shutter speed raising f-stop lowering iso, attempting video. Nothing seemed to work all that great. I tried with a polarizing filter hoping to dim it a bit, but Jupiter is just exceptionally bright. With all the messing around and freezing my fingers off in the 25°F weather I gave up after a little while, this is what I walked away with. More attempts coming soon.

You can just make out the cloud banding across Jupiter, great red spot was not visible. Click to enlarge.

By the time I was done with the Moon and imaging Jupiter I decided to just look up towards Taurus to see if I could see any meteors from the Taurid's that peak on November 12, I saw about 4 total, but each time I saw one my camera was in between shots so I didn't capture any meteors. I will say that I got one heck of a great picture from 16 images stacked viewing the constellations Auriga, Taurus, and Perseus with the dazzling Pleiades just above Taurus. Below and to the right of Pleiades you can see a grouping of stars in Taurus known as Hyades with bright red Aldebaran. To the left of Pleiades you can also see a cluster of stars around the star Mirfak. Towards the bottom center of the picture is the constellation Auriga with the star Capella (looks like a red star), which is actually a star system of four stars in two binary pairs. Inside Auriga I think I'm seeing the small nebula IC 405, but I could be mistaken.

Below I'm showing you what one of the 15 second exposures look like, which is a little more than what I was seeing with my naked eye. Then I'm showing a picture of 16 of those images (about 4 minutes worth of exposure time) stacked to make what I consider my best picture of the stars yet. I plan on making more of these so stay tuned.

Here is one 15 second exposure showing off a few more stars than visible with the naked eye in my light polluted area. Click to enlarge.

Here is 16 of those 15 second exposure pictures as I tracked these constellations across the sky. Click to enlarge.

November 5, 2011 Solar Viewing Session - Sunspot AR1339

2011-11-05T17:05:00.006-04:00

Warning: Never look at the sun directly with a telescope or binoculars. Only view using proper filters, solar telescope or projection method.

Over the suns Northeastern side is a large sunspot grouping spanning an area of 100,000 km wide with each primary dark spot about the size of the Earth that became visible to Earth on November 2. Largest sunspot in years. It's been slowly making it's way face on to Earth over the past couple of days.

November 2 it blasted off a M4-flare at 2200 UT which hurled a coronal mass ejection into the solar system, but it wasn't aimed at us. On November 3around 2027 UT the sunspot unleashed a X-Flare which created waves of ionization in Earth's upper atmosphere which slightly affected radio waves in Europe and the Americas, but not much happening in our region as far as Aurora's go. Since November 3 the sunspot has been quiet, but that doesn't mean that it's done blasting off flares, and as it aims towards Earth over the days any blasts could possibly result in Aurora's if strong enough will be visible to us here in the Adirondacks.

In these pictures is the main AR1339 which you can't miss, also the sunspots 1338. In one of the images I marked which is which. These are projected through my Astromaster 114EQ telescope with the 12.5mm eyepiece making it a magnification of 80x. Pictures taken and edited by Rachael Alexandra.Some trees were in the way of the sun and you can see their shadow in the images.