Xanadu Observatory

Summertime Treats

2011-09-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Summer isn't over yet, and there's still time to observe some of the most beautiful treasures the sky has to offer. The summer Milky Way provides the best view towards the center of our galaxy, and scattered amongst the billions of stars are gigantic clouds of gas and dust. Many of these clouds (called "nebulae" by astronomers) are high-energy regions of stellar birth. Some are actively condensing nebulae in which baby stars are beginning to shine brightly. Reddish regions are warm and often surround a nursery of newborn stars seen as a cluster, and are called Emission Nebulae. Regions that are bluish in color are reflecting the light of nearby stars and are called Reflection Nebulae. This image shows several nebulous regions that are located in the summer Milky Way. At the top is M20, the Trifid Nebula. The larger region in the bottom middle is M8, the Lagoon Nebula. The nebula on the left is a complex of doubly-ionized Hydrogen regions catalogued as Sharpless 2-29, 31, and 32. Amateur telescopes (or even a good pair of binoculars) can easily be used to observe M8 and M20. I took this image in June, 2010 over several nights using a 7" telescope and CCD camera, from my backyard Xanadu Observatory. Total exposure time using 4 different filters was about 14 hours.

Solar Astronomy

2010-08-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Xanadu Observatory is now capable of 24-hour astronomy, with the addition of a Lunt LS100THa Solar Telescope. This scope allows direct observation of the nearest star. It's a refractor with a special tuning and filtering system to allow transmission of only a very slight amount of the sun's light. Normally, one would go blind from looking at the sun, but this scope makes it safe.
In reality, I probably will not use the solar scope inside the observatory much. I've painted the inside of Xanadu black, which is great for nighttime observing but makes it an oven in the day. I've got some learning to do to get the most out of this scope, and I'm planning to image through it eventually. Even with the drastically reduced amount of light that passes through the filter, imaging the sun will be a much different process than normal astroimaging. The quantity of light reaching the camera will still be far greater, and also the sun exhibits dynamic short-term activity, so one big difference will be taking shorter exposures.

False Colors, True Wonder

2010-05-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Here's an image of two bright nebulae found in the summer constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. NGC7000 is called "The North American Nebula", and IC 5070 is called "The Pelican Nebula". These bright nebula consist primarily of Hydrogen gas (like most of the rest of the Universe), and in this rendition I've mapped the glow from Hydrogen-alpha emission to the green color channel. I also used filters that gathered light from OIII (doubly-ionized oxygen) and SII (singly-ionized sulfer), and mapped that data to blue and red color channels, respectively. This color mapping strategy is known as "The Hubble Pallet" and results in a false-color image; the nebulae shown above would certainly not appear to be green to the naked eye. In "reality", they would appear to us to be reddish, since H-a is the dominant emission and it comes at a wavelength of about 6563 angstroms, which is in the region of the spectrum that our eyes see as "red". Note that the SII data would also be in the red, so it's impossible to create an RGB image from these filters without mapping something as a false color.

Does this diminish the beauty, the true wonder of observing these amazing interstellar objects? Personally I don't think so. Using the color maps allows visual interpretations of the nebulae that might not otherwise be possible. If I were trying to use the data for some critical science application, the colors probably would be irrelevant anyway. When using the data to create a representation of the wonders of our universe, a representation that may stir the soul in ways that words cannot, I think it's acceptable to take some artistic license and work with false colors.

This is my first image with some new 5 nano-meter bandwidth filters, and clearly I could have improved it by simply rotating the camera slightly. Nevertheless, I hope you find a bit of enjoyment in viewing this image. For more information and a higher-resolution version, visit http://www.xanaduobservatory.com/ngc7000.htm.

The Bigfoot Nebula

2010-05-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here's an image of an interesting place in our Universe. This object is a cloud of gas, and there is enough ionized Hydrogen to emit the reddish light that you see here. The light is actually a very specific emission at about 6,562.8 Angstroms, and is known as "Hydrogen-Alpha" or "H-alpha". Although the gas is glowing "hot", it would actually be quite sparse and extremely cold if you were in it. From our vantage point, which is believed to be about 400 parsecs away, (practically next door in astronomical terms!), the cloud takes on a unique shape that reminds me of a footprint from the legendary "Bigfoot" creature of North America. Thus, I call it "The Bigfoot Nebula", but it has a more scientific-sounding official catalog name of Sharpless 2-129.

The bluish coloring in his big toe is a reflection nebula - the probable reason is that the denser gas in that region has condensed and a newborn star is burning brightly enough to reflect some of its blue light against the surrounding gas.

Also visible at the upper right of this image is a smaller nebula, vdB 140, which has both reddish emission as well as bluish reflection components.

For a high-resolution version of this image, as well as image details, click here: http://www.xanaduobservatory.com/Sh2-129.htm

As seems to be normal for some time now, I've been collecting lots of imaging data and getting very little of it completed in the processing stage. The busy phase of my life seems to take over more often than I'd like. But I'm grateful for so many things, as we all should be. Today is Mother's Day, and I continue to grow in my respect for my own Mom, who taught me so much about how precious life is and how important it is to take time to appreciate the amazing beauty that surrounds us. She isn't an astronomer, but I think I owe my fascination with the Universe to her. Thanks Mom!

Backyard Observatory Night at TAAA

2010-03-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

This evening's gathering of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association was our periodic "Member Observatories" night. It's a popular meeting with various members showcasing their personal observatories. I always learn a few new tricks and it's fascinating to see what others have done to solve the various problems that face small observatory owners. It's also amazing to see how different they are, whether in construction style, size, or price.

We're lucky here in Tucson to have so many amateur astronomers, and with the often-clear skies, building a backyard observatory can be a very worthwhile project.

I gave a short presentation on Xanadu West, my vinyl-shed roll-off-roof observatory.

AAPOD for February 17, 2010

2010-02-16T20:14:00.001-07:00

It's always a thrill when one of my astro images gets recognition, so when I got an e-mail this evening telling my that my rendition of the Christmas Tree Cluster & Cone Nebula region was selected as the Amateur Astronomy Picture Of the Day (AAPOD), I was very happy!
AAPOD is hosted at the Astronomy.FM website, which is an outstanding source of astronomy information. One of the unique features of this site is their "AFM Radio", which broadcasts various astronomy-themed audio programs over the internet. It's free and there are a lot of topics covered.
I took this image back in October, 2009 using an ST-10XME camera. I later targeted this same region with a wider-field camera. Both versions, along with acquisition details, can be viewed on my Xanadu Observatory website by clicking here.
I suppose that published images feed my ego a bit. It takes an awful lot of work to set up the equipment properly, plan an observing run, acquire the data, and process it to obtain a visually pleasing result, so when an image is published it provides affirmation that someone believes I've done a good job - and who doesn't appreciate an occasional pat on the back? There's no paycheck, so it's a labor of love - that's what makes it Amateur.

I learned from my mother, who is a wildlife artist, to appreciate the beauty and glory of nature. When I work on an astroimage, I'm hoping to capture just a bit of that, and sharing it with others makes it even more meaningful. Similarly, I love to view astroimages taken by others. One of my first astronomy books was "New Handbook of the Heavens", a worn-covered discard from the Hilton Central School District's library, but a true treasure trove to me. Published in 1941, the photo on page 198 of the "Andromeda Nebula" from Mt. Wilson awakened the dreamer in me that still exists today. (Of course we now know this object as the Andromeda Galaxy, not Nebula, and instead of the 800,000 light-year distance per the book, it's believed to be about 2.5 million light-years away).

(Note - AAPOD is not to be confused with APOD, the Astronomy Picture Of the Day site that often has landscape and professional telescope images).

Grand Opening of the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex

2010-02-14T21:39:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first star party at the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association's new Chiricahua Astronomy Complex.
We've been eagerly waiting for this night for several years, beginning with a test visit that several of us made on a warm summer's night a few years ago. It's been a long haul - Cochise County has placed many restrictions on the club during the acquisition and development of the property. I won't go into details here (there are enough to fill a small book!), but the County just granted approval for us to actually allow events to occur on the site this past week.
So far we only have basic facilities - parking lot, electricity, bathroom, etc. - but we have the beginnings of a fantastic club observing site. Long range plans include full observatories and pads to set up telescopes.
I was too tired to take all of my imaging gear out, so instead I just brought a visual instrument, my 15" Dobsonian. My buddy Larry drove down with me in my "AZTRNMY" pickup, and we hauled his 18" Dob along as well. The photo above shows our scopes getting ready for work, and there were many other scopes set up all around us. There were 24 people there (I think), and the excitement level was high.
The sky was very clear, and my Sky Quality Meter gave nice dark readings of 21.68 magnitudes per square arcsecond by early evening. The Zodiacal Light was prominent for a while after sunset - this is a faint glow along the ecliptic that results from sunlight reflecting off of dust in space, and is generally only visible from very dark sites. Later in the evening I measured 21.81 on the meter, which is about as dark as I've ever been able to get anywhere. There are some lights along the distant horizon but they really didn't affect the observing.
My friend and imaging mentor Dean brought his ccd equipment and started off his session with a quick one of Messier 34, an open cluster in Perseus. Click here to see his image, which was taken in honor of The Perseus Group, the 4 members who donated the parcel of land to the club.
I spent my time visually observing and socializing with friends. One of the great things about a star party is sharing the night sky and outdoors with wonderful people, and last night was no exception. I viewed numerous objects through a variety of scopes and eyepieces. Mars was a favorite target, with the polar ice cap as well as dark surface markings clearly visible. The Orion Nebula, M42, was another object whose photons graced the surfaces of many mirrors last night. One of the more unusual visual objects that I observed last night was the Horsehead Nebula. Although that is a popular imaging target (in fact I have many hours of unprocessed ccd data on it), it's rare in the eyepiece. I used my H-Beta filter on the 15" and several of us enjoyed the view. There were a lot of other nebulae, galaxies, star clusters, etc. that we viewed, along with plenty of laughter and swapping of stories.
Seeing was very good, with a steady sky making it easy to pick out details in the objects we observed. All in all it was a great night and I can't wait for more to come!

Seeing Red

2010-02-08T20:45:00.001-07:00

It's a nice clear night so far in Tucson. I went out to open the roof on the observatory, and could not resist the urge to stop and enjoy the night sky for a little while.
Although most of us think of the stars as a bunch of little white points of light, they can actually be quite colorful for anyone who takes the time to observe them carefully. These winter nights provide an excellent opportunity to view some nice red objects. When I looked East this evening, I was immediately struck by the 3 bright red points of light that stand out in the crowd. The lowest, and brightest, is the Angry Red Planet Mars. A bit higher and to the South is the amazing Red Supergiant Betelgeuse, one of the members of the dramatic constellation of mighty Orion. Farther up lies deep red Aldebaran, the leader of the v-shaped Hyades cluster and an important component of the sharp horns of Taurus the Bull.
Looking deeper into space, one finds red over and over. Most nebulae glow red as they emit photons created from the ionization of Hydrogen, which makes up the vast majority of the known universe. Interstellar dust and gas creates a reddening effect on many of the objects we observe.
This image is a wide-field rendition of the Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula region. The dominant red color shows relatively dense regions of hydrogen gas, commony called HII regions. Click here for a better view of the image and more information about how the image was obtained.
Right now my telescope and camera are obtaining data for another HII region, known as IC 2177 and commonly called the Seagull Nebula. I suspect the humidity will force me to close the observatory before midnight, since we have had considerable rain in the past few weeks, but for now my scope and I are enjoying our amazing universe.

Imported Blogs Below From Astronomyblogs.com

2010-02-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

I've just completed moving most of my old blogs over to this site.
I previously used Astronomyblogs.com, but that site's owner has told me that he may discontinue it. I am grateful to astronomyblogs.com for getting me started in blogging and hosting my ramblings for the past few years.
The import process was not automated - it took a lot of "cut-and-paste". Many of the images came over as very low resolution bitmaps instead of their original jpeg format, and none of the embedded links crossed over.
But at least I have an archive of the old blog here now.
There has been an awful lot of astronomy stuff going on in my life since my last astronomyblogs post back in June of 2009. I won't bother trying to catch it all up, but there is new equipment, the roll-off roof observatory is fully operational, I attended the 2009 Advanced Imaging Conference, and I'm still heavily involved in the local astronomy club.
I plan to continue this blog to track my pursuit of amateur astronomy.

06/21/2009 C-Row Star-B-Que

2010-02-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

For the past two nights, I've been enjoying the Huachuca Astronomy Club's C-Row Star-B-Q. This event was held at the Repogazer (RGO) Observatory.
The theme of C-Row is Celestron; the main observing field was filled with various Celestron telescopes and accessories. Celestron will be 50 years old next year, and there was plenty of vintage gear on the field. My contribution to the C-Row was my little white tube C-5+.
Celestron's corporate headquarters sent out various executives and sales personnel, and they set up a nice booth with demos, including the new CGE+ and some prototypes of new telescopes with flat optics.
Friday night was basically clouded out, so I left early and headed home for a good night of sleep. Last night, however, was very clear and a beautiful Milky Way set the stage for a great night of observing. In addition to some visual work through varoius friends' scopes, I played a little bit with the AstroTrac and digital camera.
There was a big raffle giveaway last night - in fact, every one of the 150 attendees won a prize! My big winning was a year's subscription to Astronomy Magazine. This was definitely a great event, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.

05/21/2009 SAS Symposium

2010-02-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

I'm here in California for the Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium on Telescope Science. Today was a day full of seminars on amateur astronomy from a science perspective. Most of the talks related to photometry and spectroscopy. This year they combined the SAS meeting with the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) meeting, so it's quite large, with several hundred attendees.
This picture shows my friend Olivier Thizy giving his spectroscopy talk. Olivier runs Shelyak Instruments and we had a great time playing with the LHIRES III Spectrograph up here a couple of years ago. This time he brought along his new high-end Echelle spectrograph, which I am drooling over!
There are several Tucson folks here, including my friend Steve and Darryl, Mark, and others. Also a bunch of the "usual" star party folks and vendors, like James, Don, Kevin, etc. Overall I'm having a great time.
On Friday we'll head a few miles down the road to the RTMC Astronomy Expo. Hopefully I'll see a bunch of good friends there as well.

04/21/2009 Ready for More

2010-02-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

The sun's going down and a new night of fun is starting here at TSP. I didn't get nearly enough sleep today but that's o.k., I'm ready for more!
Here's an image of IC 4603, the nebulous region around the interesting star Rho Ophiuchius (how do you pronounce that, anyway?) I took this in the early morning hours the past couple of nights. The numerous dark tendrils weaving their way around this area are really fascinating.
Click here to see a larger version of this image.
Meanwhile it's time for me to attend to the scopes...

04/21/2009 The Milky Way Rising Over TSP

2010-02-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

It's 6 a.m. and I'm just wrapping up an excellent observing night at the Texas Star Party.
I took the picture above with my Canon DSLR about 3 hours ago, it is a single 10-minute shot with the camera aimed towards the center of our Milky Way galaxy, tracking on an AstroTrac and tripod.
We had a lot of success, including some good CCD imaging and completion of some of the TSP Observing Lists.
Time for some rest now!

04/20/2009 The Stars at Night, Are Big and Bright, Deep in the Heart of Texas!

2010-02-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

Here I am for another exciting week at the Texas Star Party, one of my favorite astronomy escapes. After arriving yesterday and setting up all the gear, I was pretty exhausted, but still managed to stay up most of the night.
This picture shows the two telescopes that I brought along - my Epsilon 180 for imaging, and my Obsession 15" for visual. The sky last night was very dark and seeing was excellent, so I had a great time with both scopes.
This afternoon I spent some time in the amateur radio shack, and made about 100 QSO's for the W5TSP special event station.
Tonight's going to be clear again and I'm looking forward to some more fun. There are a bunch of Arizona folks here from both TAAA and HAC, including Larry (who I drove out with), Dean, Bob, and Glenn. Plus I know a bunch of others from previous star parties, etc., so it's a great social time as well.

04/04/2009 Asteroid Workshop Day Two

2010-02-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Had a great day yesterday learning about asteroids and NEO's. We had some of the CSS astronomers give talks, and also spent a good part of the day working with Astrometrica software. Astrometrica can be used to identify possible asteroids and NEO's in image frames.
We also learned how to check data with the Minor Planet Center, and how to submit observation reports. Hopefully I will obtain some data sometime soon, and with my first submission I'll be eligible to request an MPC Observatory Code for Xanadu Observatory.
The weather last night wasn't good so we never did open the dome. I drove down the mountain around midnight, which meant missing the final few hours of the workshop this morning. Other obligations today made it necessary, but I think I got some very valuable information out of the workshop. Plus, it's always very enjoyable to spend time in an astronomy environment with professional observatories all around!

04/03/2009 Asteroids and Near Earth Objects Workshop

2010-02-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first night of the Mount Lemmon Sky Center's Asteroids and Near Earth Objects (NEO's) Workshop.
I decided to take a short break from an extremely busy tax season to try to learn a few new things. I have not done a lot of asteroid work in the past so thought it might be fun.
We started the workshop with an hour-long tour of the University of Arizona's Mirror Lab, which builds many of the world's largest telescope mirrors. They were currently in the process of grinding mirrors for the GMT (Giant Magellan Telescope), and the LSST (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope).
After driving up the mountain, we spent some time observing and imaging the Sun through a new Lunt Solar Systems 100mm Hydrogen-alpha scope. There were several small prominences and a very faint sunspot.
Later we took some data on various fields using this telescope, a 24" Ritchey-Crieten made by RC Optical Systems. We'll be processing this data today and learning how to identify asteroids in the field, as well as determine if there are any new ones. That's not likely, since the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) already covers much of the sky and presently makes about 70% of the discoveries of NEO's. While we were obtaining data, we took a walk to the dome next door, which houses the 60" telescope used by CSS. One of their astronomers was busy taking data, and he showed us their system which is really fascinating. They routinely observe as many as 8,000 asteroids per night, and it is not unusual for them to discover new NEO's, main-belt asteroids, and even comets.
The weather started to deteriorate before midnight, with high winds and humidity, so we didn't observe all night (probably a good thing since I needed some sleep badly).
Today we will learn how to identify objects in the fields, and determine whether there are any new ones to report. The speakers today will be Adam Block and a few astronomers from the CSS. We're in a very nice "Learning Center".
The picture above was taken last night as we prepared to start our imaging run. As you can see even early in the evening it was quite cold - there is even snow up here!
I also was interviewed earlier this week by a writer for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, which is the U of A's daily newspaper. They published the article, which can be viewed here, but I was disappointed because they misquoted me and emphasized the threat of an asteroid hit, which really wasn't the main focus of my comments during the interview. My main reason for being here is quite simply to satisfy my thirst for knowledge - it's interesting stuff. I'm really not planning to discover "The Big One".

03/07/2009 TAAA AstroImaging Night

2010-02-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

Last night was the (approximately) annual TAAA AstroImaging night. Members of the astroimaging special interest group get a chance to share their techniques and photos with the rest of the club. It's always a lot of fun and we see some amazing images.
Steve gave the astronomy essentials portion of the meeting with a talk on basic astroimaging. After the break, we split up presentation duties among some of the members of the SIG.
I was one of about 8 presenters, and just showed some of my more recently processed images. Here's a pciture of me doing my gig.
The room was packed, I didn't count but I'd estimate about 250 people came. After the talks, a bunch of folks went out for some food and we talked astronomy for another hour or two. It was a late night but a lot of fun!

02/21/2009 High Speed Comet

2010-02-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

Lately the astronomy world's been buzzing over Comet C/2007 N3, also known as Comet Lulin. It's grown rather bright, with naked-eye visibility. It also sports a rather greenish coma and has a long tail.
Comets are usually short-lived phenomena for observers - although some of them return on a periodic basis, most of them will only be visible once in an amateur astronomer's lifetime. They also can surprise us with erratic behaviour, so it's always fun to watch them.
I took this image two nights ago. It consists of 96 subframes (24 in each red, green, blue, and luminance), only 30 seconds each. Although the total exposure time was 48 minutes, with the added time for focusing, exposure downloads, guide star acquisition, etc., the total elapsed time between the first and last image was almost 2 1/2 hours. Since the comet is moving across the sky quite rapidly, I decided to make a little movie showing the motion as well. Click Here to see this image in higher resolution, and to view the comet movie.
I'm not sure I'll get another chance to image this one, as clouds have taken over the Tucson skies and my workload remains heavy. But I'm very happy to have had a chance to snap a brief picture of this celestial friend as he sped by!

02/09/2009 Staying Busy

2010-02-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Here we go again, a whole month has passed with no blogs. I guess I'm just too busy with stuff. Lots of work to do as usual at this time of year, plus I've been spending a lot of time with the radio hobby. And of course there are family obligations, Board meetings, this, that, and pretty soon I find it's tough to get on and blog, even though I enjoy it.
I have been doing quite a bit of imaging, but unfortunately the processing has not kept up with the data acquisition so I now have about 30 objects to process!
Here's one that I took back in December and January, it is the Jellyfish Nebula (IC443) in HaRGB format. For a larger version click here.
While processing this image, I "discovered" an asteroid passing right through the nebula. Turns out it was actually discovered in 1887 and carries the designation 270 Anahita. But it was still fun for me to find it trekking through my chosen object. Click here for a short animation of my "discovery".

01/06/2009 Star Light, Star Bright

2010-02-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Clear crisp winter nights can be some of the best times for astronomical observing. There is something about the chill in the air that makes the sky more appealing. In reality the cold winter nights are not always the best for seeing conditions, but naked eye views of the sky seem to bring an almost mystical perspective when the night air has that quiet chill. At my house, there are a couple of owls that like to make their "who-who"'s which makes it even more magical.
One of the objects that faithfully shines brightly in the winter sky is the Pleiades open star cluster, catalogued by Messier as M45. The Pleiades is a nice little grouping that many non-astronomers will notice (as long as their eyesight is reasonably good), and sometimes they will even mistake it for the Little Dipper since it does have a dipper-like appearance.
This image was taken back in December on several clear cold nights. Total exposure time for each color filter was 2 hours (24x5 min each) plus another 48 min of Luminance. The blue reflections in the nebulosity surrounding the cluster are easily visible in an eyepiece, but the nebulosity itself is believed to be an unrelated interstellar dust cloud that the cluster just happens to be passing through. Imagine what the sky would look like if you lived on a planet in this area!
Click Here for a larger, higher resolution version of this image.

12/31/2008 Astronomy, Good for the Soul

2010-02-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

It's the end of another year. Looking back I'll simply say that it's a blessing to have experienced it, there really are not many years given to us and despite occasional rough times, I'm grateful to have enjoyed another year of life.
2008 has certainly been full of negative news on the global scale. Economic turmoil has dominated our lives, and everyone has been affected. Yet no matter what happens, the celestial wheels continue to spin and the sky continues to present glorious views to those who are willing to spend the time to observe them. The problems of Earth seem so trivial when one ponders the immensity of the visible Universe.
This image is one that I took back in November over many nights of clear skies. It goes by the name "Soul Nebula", and is catalogued as IC1848, Sh2-199, and W-5. It's an emission nebula and star-forming region, but the shape is what really makes it unique. It's quite large (this is a 2-frame mosaic), and lies very close to another dramatic object known as the Heart Nebula. Click here to see a larger version of this image and more details.
Oh yes, and I would be remiss if I didn't use these final hours of 2008 to post a New Year's Resolution. Mine is to enjoy more time with an eyepiece (but don't worry, my camera will remain quite busy!)

12/13/2008 Our Colorful Universe

2010-02-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

Look through a normal eyepiece and you usually see things in black and white. Some stars are colorful, but nebula and galaxies are pretty much always going to appear to be in "Greyscale" to most people's eyes.
Except, of course, when one places a color filter in the eyepiece. For example, put a red filter in, and suddenly the view turns from black and white to black and red. Filters do more than just change the color, though, they also block out other wavelengths, which can help to increase contrast or identify certain details. The same holds true for CCD imaging filters. Color filters are common but narrowband filters can really attenuate the light, allowing only a tiny slice of the electromagnetic spectrum to shine through.
Using CCD filters allows one to "map" the resulting image to any color. So for instance, Hydrogen-alpha emissions which are normally in the Red region of our vision can be represented by green instead. This can be desirable since other narrowband emissions, such as those arising from NII or SII, may also be in the Red. This "false-color" mapping is used in nearly every scientific discipline to help scientists translate data into a visual expression that simplifies analysis.
The commonly used "Hubble Pallet" maps SII as Red, H-alpha as Green, and OIII as Blue. Another common mapping is the "CFHT Pallet" (named for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope), which maps H-alpha as Red, OIII as Green, and SII as Blue.
For the image above I first created both Hubble and CFHT pallet images, then combined them into a single image. This resulted in some interesting colors that you don't often see in astronomical images of nebula. Yes, this is a false color image; if you could fly to the Veil East, you might see the structure but the colors would not be like this. Of course, that's just the way our brains are wired; perhaps if you lived on Gliese 582, your brain would in fact map these colors like this! Either way, I find all of the parts of the Veil Nebula to be quite fascinating for their incredibly intricate detailed structure. Click Here to See a Larger Version of this Image

12/05/2008 TAAA - OBAFGKM & LSST

2010-02-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Just got back from another great monthly meeting of the TAAA (Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association).
The Astronomy Essentials portion of the meeting was presented by George Barber. His talk was "What Kind of Star" and gave some excellent information about various stellar types and the physical processes that make them different. Of course that included the OBAFGKM (Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me) stellar sequence. George is an energetic speaker and I always enjoy hearing his talks.
The main lecture was presented by Victor Krabbendam, who is a key player in the LSST (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope), a huge project that will probably change astronomy in a big way. The LSST will basically image the entire sky every few nights, over and over and over again, providing the ability to explore the night sky and search for changing objects. The amount of data that this telescope will generate is simply incredible - they expect approximately 150 TeraBytes per night! Eventually it will reach into the PetaBytes range; that's a term that we certainly are not used to hearing (although at the rate technology changes it will probably be commonplace in the near future).
I've got my scope taking data right now, but it will probably only provide me with about half a gigabyte. My poor little ccd camera is probably feeling rather inadequate now!

11/30/2008 So Much to be Thankful For

2010-02-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

It's Thanksgiving weekend here in the U.S. With all the crazy world happenings and economic crisis around the world, many folks are finding themselves in the pits of despair. It really is easy to allow all the bad news to dominate one's thinking.
Yet life goes on as always, and when I stop to think about things, I realize that the reality is that in general things are actually very good, and we really should be thankful for it all. Never in history have humans had access to the infrastructure and technology that we enjoy today. Sometimes I think our human nature is to act like spoiled brats rather than appreciative beings.
One thing I'm thankful for is the beautiful night sky with all of its hidden treasures. Another thing is the equipment that I've been able to assemble that allows me to image some of these treasures. Here is an example - this object is Emission Nebula NGC 6820, also known as Sharpless 2-86. In the center is a nice cluster catalogued as NGC 6823. There are also plenty of dark nebula to enjoy, as well as a myriad of stars that are beyond count. All told, a perfect example of something to be thankful for - the opportunity to explore this mysterious and wonderful region of our universe.
Click here to see a larger, higher-resolution version of this image.

11/23/2008 TAAA Observatory Dedication at TIMPA

2010-02-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we dedicated a new roll-away observatory building at the TAAA's TIMPA site. Despite some clouds, a fair number of people showed up for the party. As Vice-President of TAAA, I gave introductions to the various speakers, who included David & Wendee Levy, George Barber, and Michael Turner. David & Wendee made the arrangements for a 14" Meade LX200R telescope donation to the club a few years ago, George was the driving force behind construction of the pad and building, and Michael coordinated numerous volunteers who participated in getting the telescope and pier in working order.
A video recording of the dedication was made and should be posted to the web soon, if I remember I'll come back and update this blog to include a link to it.
I didn't stay long because I had to get back to a Webelos campout with my youngest son. It did clear for a short time later and we enjoyed some stargazing around the campfire.

11/18/2008 Another Great AIC

2010-02-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

I'm back home from a weekend at the Advanced Imaging Conference 2008. It was my 3rd time attending this gathering of astroimagers, and once again I had a great time. We heard from numerous speakers on various topics, including some big names like Timothy Ferris (author and producer of Seeing in the Dark). One speaker was from Pixar and he talked about producing 3-dimensional images - I expect we will be seeing a lot of those within the next few years (obviously they will be based on assumptions or simply rendered to emphasize details rather than scientific reality). The picture above shows me wearing the 3-d glasses that he handed out to view some sample images, and they were really cool!
The vendors were all there displaying there wares, making us all drool. There were some really cool items like the new ASA mount that has no gears, and a bunch of high-end RC scopes. There was also a lot of time for sharing ideas and networking with other imagers.
Unfortunately I did not win anything in the big raffle again this year!

11/14/2008 Blending Science and Art

2010-02-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the 2008 Advanced Imaging Conference. I'm here in San Jose for the 3rd year, and enjoying every minute of it. The sessions today were primarily product workshops. I attended 4 of them, including:
-John Smith and Steve Walther discussing CCD Autopilot and CCD Navigator;
-Matt Thomas discussing CCD Commander;
-Doug George on MaximDL;
-Stan Moore on CCD Stack;
-The Bisque Brothers on the upcoming TheSky X Professional.
Of course I also saw a bunch of friends. There are a bunch of us from Tucson here, including Dean S., Alistair, Steve, Dean K., Scott, and Adam.
Dean and I are logging in back home and running our scopes at night. It's a lot of fun to be sitting in a CA hotel room and running the telescope at home! The moon's full but I'm getting some decent H-alpha data anyway.
Here's an image that I took over several nights back in October. It's emission nebula NGC 1491, which lies in Perseus. Narrowband filters were used, and mapped with the Hubble pallet (SII=Red, Ha=Green, OIII=Blue). I took 4 hours worth of 10-minute subframes with each filter, for total exposure time of 12 hours. Click here to see more information and a larger version of this image.
One of the speakers today referred to our hobby as a "blend of science and art". This is a good example. The narrowband filters are not "true color" (there's not really any such thing as "true color", but it's basically what we see visually), since they represent only a 60 angstrom slice of the spectrum. H-alpha and SII both generally lie in the red region, and OIII is closer to the green. So when astroimagers put together an image using narrowband filters, we often have to create a false color mapping to differentiate the fine details between the filters. I often use the "Hubble Pallet", as I did here, which is based on a color scheme often used for image processing on data taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The data has also been "stretched" to emphasize various contrast differences. So basically, I have taken scientifically accurate data and presented it with some artistic perspective.

11/06/2008 Veil Revisited

2010-02-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here's an image of the Western portion of the Veil Nebula. I took this image over several nights last week - there is a total exposure time of 24 hours that went in to this one (8 hours each in H-alpha, OIII, and SII, using 10 minute subframes). I'm trying to determine whether extended exposure times will improve the signal-to-noise ratio enough to overcome some of the limitations I experience when imaging from my back yard.
I've shot this one a few times before with the 105mm refractor; this time I used the Takahashi Epsilon 180ED astrograph. It does seem that I picked up some extra faint wisps of nebulosity in the field. In fact this field has so much H-alpha emission that there's a slightly reddish tinge throughout the field. The OIII really has some stunning features as well.
Click here to see more detail and a larger version of this image.

10/31/2008 Beware of Witches in the Night

2010-02-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

It's Halloween here in the U.S.A. Lots of people dress up in scary costumes and this evening the kids will be going around trick-or-treating.
Sometimes nights out with the telescope can be spooky too. I've had plenty of times when I've been observing and heard noises that I couldn't identify, causing my heart to race. Fortunately I've never had anything very serious, but there have been encounters with skunks, snakes, javelina, and other wild beasts, as well as plenty of imaginative scares.
Here's an image that I took over several nights of an object that always seems to stand out at this time of year, because it's common name is the "Witch Head Nebula". It's an easy target although it requires RGB which is more difficult to obtain from my back yard due to the light pollution. The final result includes 4.5 hours each of green and blue data, plus another 4 hours of red. I actually took about 20 hours total of data but had to discard quite a lot. Not because of scary goblins and such, but because neighbors turned on their glaring porch lights or the police helicopter flew overhead. At least, that's what I think...I wonder if witch's brooms have tail lights?

10/27/2008 Ghostly Whisps in Outer Space

2010-02-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

The upcoming Halloween holiday here in the states is an imaginative time for many of us. Whether it's caused by marketing, childhood memories, seasonal movies, the changing weather, or something else, our minds are filled with images of fleeting shapes and ghostly creatures.
The skies are filled with some amazing objects that appear to be relatively static to our observation, yet they have an appearance that can only be explained by dynamic processes. It's like looking at a picture of a runner in action; the subject is captured by the camera in a moment in time, and the resulting picture isn't moving, but anyone viewing the picture will know very well that the person is moving. When we look at many objects in space, it's unlikely that we will detect any material change in their appearance even after years, and yet just one look and it's quite obvious that the objects are in a state of flux.
This image shows a portion of Pickering's Triangular Wisp, and to my mind it fits well with the season since it has numerous faint tendril-like shapes that cause me to imagine all kinds of forces at work. It's part of the large Veil Nebula complex, which is a remnant from a supernova that exploded perhaps 5-10,000 years ago. I took this image in my backyard over about a week's time starting on October 14th. I used narrowband filters and mapped it using the Hubble pallet (SII=red, H-alpha=green, and OIII=blue). This is a cropped portion of my final image, zoomed in on the most intersting part; the wider-field full version, as well as one mapped using the CFHT pallet, can be seen by clicking this link.
We sure have had a nice long run of clear nights lately. I missed the All Arizona Star Party this past weekend due to a client emergency, but still managed to image here at home. The data is really piling up.

10/23/2008 The Imperfect Universe

2010-02-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

We all know how crazy things seem these days. There seems to be a lot of unrest in the world and many people are just plain scared. Nothing's perfect...maybe that's nothing new. Yet in a strange way it's possible for things to appear quite perfect on a large scale even though the small scale reveals serious flaws.
A photo of planet Earth taken from space makes it look like we live on a nice spherical (and calm) world, yet down here we are well aware of the mountains and valleys and storms that make it not so perfect.
Images of the California Nebula, NGC1499, like the one above, make one think of a huge bubbly cloud of gas. Not a perfect shape, but it's a beautiful image anyway. Or is it? This is only a portion of a 4-panel mosaic project that I worked on last November, using my Zenithstar 105mm refractor and CGE mount. I spent many nights collecting narrowband data on this object, in H-alpha as well as OIII and SII. Unfortunately the fields were not flat enough to allow a perfect stitching together of the frames. Zoom out enough and it appears to be a decent image; but zoom in and you'll find various problems including duplicate and elongated stars.
Maybe right now the whole world should consider taking a step back and viewing things from a wider perspective.

10/19/2008 Faint Fuzzies

2010-02-07T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here's an image of M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, that I took at the 2008 Okie-Tex Star Party a couple of weeks ago.
M33 is fairly large in apparent size, so even though it is a little over 6th magnitude, it's rather faint in appearance. The dark skies at Okie-Tex this year allowed me to see M33 with the naked eye as a faint fuzzy patch in the sky. At one point, I saw an airplane fly right over the patch.
M33 is probably the farthest object that I have ever visually observed without the aid of a telescope. It's distance is believed to be somewhere around 2.8 million light years away.
The shape of M33 is truly awesome, showing a clear face-on spiral pattern. I've viewed M33 through an eyepiece many times, including through Bob & Glenn's Dobsonians at Okie-Tex, and it exhibits some definite spiral structure. Images really bring out the spiral pattern, as well as numerous H-alpha regions and newly formed stars. The spiral pattern is a fascinating shape that shows up over and over again in nature. Things from terrible hurricances to beautiful seashells display intricately wound spirals. Spirals can be described mathematically and the forces that shape them can be explained with physics, which only adds to the beauty involved when one observes them.
To see a larger version of this image, click here. I took a lot of data on M33, but had to discard much of it due to some clouds that rolled through.

10/07/2008 Back to the Home Galaxy

2010-02-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Okie-Tex is finished, at least for another year, and I've been back home since Sunday afternoon. It was a very successful star party, with five clear nights out of the six that I was there. I got plenty of good image data, had a great time with friends both old and new, and had some good practice with the equipment.
This image is one of my targets from Okie-Tex. Of course I have observed M31 many times, and imaged it a few times, but I wanted to give it a try in the Epsilon. Also my processing skills are a little different now (although I'm not entirely certain they are any better!) I captured 2 hours in each of the color filters plus another hour in luminance over a two-night period. Click here to see a larger version of this image. I've noticed that when I show a picture of M31 to people, they often comment "I wonder if there are aliens looking back at us from there". I guess the galaxy fits the 'traditional' idea of what a galaxy should look like, so it's natural to assume that there are civilizations over there watching us, just like we observe them. I don't suppose that they would call ours the "Milky Way", instead it's probably some mythical name just as we call theirs Andromeda. Regardless of what you call it, home is always a beautiful place, and after a week of camping I was certainly happy to return home to my comfort zone and my family.

10/01/2008 Another Day, Another Photon

2010-02-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's day four of Okie-Tex and I'm still having a blast. A bit tired perhaps, but that's because there's not much time for sleep after all the fun stuff going on.
It's been clear every night so far, but that may change soon. The nights have been very calm and chilly, perfect imaging weather. The skies have not been perfect in terms of transparency and seeing conditions, but the clearness seems to make up for it. My mount is mostly behaving well - a few glitches with pier flips but we may have solved that, since it ran successfully last night. I have a bunch of data to process now, much of it color data since the darker skies provide better results in color than back home in the big city. My Sky Quality Meter has been giving readings of approximately 21.65 each night.
The Milky Way is positioned well, visible horizon-to-horizon. The moon has been absent as it goes through its new phase, just what we want. After I got my run going last night, I spent a lot of time doing visual observing with Glenn Sanner and Bob Kepple, authors of the Night Sky Observers Guide. I see them regularly at the Huachuca Club meetings and they are a couple of great guys. We had some fantastic views of various celestial delights including some of the more obscure, faint objects as well as some more popular ones. We spent a lot of time exploring the details in various portions of the Veil Nebula for instance.
The hills nearby provide some nice hiking opportunities and I've found a spot on top of a nearby hill that actually allows me to get a cell phone signal. There is so much open land around here, just what I needed for a little attitude adjustment.
I've had a lot of help as well as plenty of good times with various friends, many of whom I have met at star parties or conferences. To name a few, Rockett, Kent, Jim, Fred, James, Doug, etc...and of course Dean and I have been partying it up. A good star party includes lots of good observing but the people are what really makes it worth attending.
Here's an image that I took the first night. The bright star near the top is Gamma Cassiopeiae, and the nebulosity is known as Sharpless 2-185. It's unlikely that an eyepiece would reveal the nebula, but the camera shows both emission (red) and reflection (blue) components in this Hydrogen dominated cloud.

09/29/2008 Okie-Tex Star Party Day Two

2010-02-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

It's my second day at the Okie-Tex Star Party. Dean and I arrived yesterday afternoon and we got everything all set up before dinner time. I had a few minor challenges with the Astro-Physics AP1200 mount that I unexpectedly acquired a few days ago from my friend Richard, but there are 5 other AP1200 owners in the area that I set up and they were all most helpful. I made it through the learning curve very quickly and was imaging for much of the night last night. This mount certainly tracks well.
I was tired from the driving and work of setting up, but the excitement of being in a star party with several hundred other amateur astronomers is enough to keep the energy level high. Star parties really are so much fun, the people are great and lots of stories are swapped. I'm very happy to be here and away from the routine stresses of normal life.

09/27/2008 Okie-Tex or Bust!

2010-02-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

As I type this, I'm on my way to the Okie-Tex Star Party. Dean's taking a turn at driving and I'm clicking away on the keyboard. There is a new mount in the back (well, actually an old mount, but it's new to me), and I'm excited about the chance to put it to use at Okie-Tex. The weather prediction is a bit uncertain, we shall see how the upcoming week turns out.

09/23/2008 Reflections

2010-02-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Astronomy is the most peaceful hobby I can think of. When I'm out under the stars I find myself in a completely different frame of mind than when I'm frantically racing through the normal pressures of every day life. It's so calming to quietly sit back and reflect on my little place in this universe, so wonderous to try to understand what my significance is compared to the amazing objects out there in space.
It's been a rough summer. My mount was in for repairs most of the season, but bad weather would have prevented much use of it anyway. Work has not let up and other discouraging situations have brought me down. So it's been a very nice relief to have found some time to get back to astronomy the past week, as the skies begin to settle down and temperatures cool. I've been imaging a lot, and in less than a week I will be happily camping out with my astro gear at the Okie-Tex Star Party. I simply cannot wait!
Meanwhile I'm discovering that I have tons of unprocessed image data...I really have not done well with completing my image projects, nor have I kept up with these blogs. Here is an image that I took about 9 months ago, an object that is already finding it's way back into the early morning skies. It's reflection nebula M78, a beautiful little cloud in the rich Orion region. This may be among the last of my images taken with the William Optics 105mm refractor, as I'm now working with the Takahashi Epsilon 180. Click Here to see a larger version of this image.

07/30/2008 Finally Some Clear Skies

2010-02-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

It's been very cloudy for quite a while, but the past two nights have been nice and clear. I missed last night, but decided to get my act together this evening. I'm definitely in photon-deprivation mode these days, so I opened up the dome and spent several hours in there. I have been doing most of my observing for the past year or so with the wide-field scopes, but my CGE mount is still in the shop so I fired up the RCX again. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had retained its alignment since the last time I used it, so it was just turn it on and go.
The RCX needs a lot more hand-holding when I image through it, and it is a work night, so I didn't stay out all night. My main target was M16, and here is a quick process of the first 10 subexposures. They were 300 second frames at -20C (I'm using the chiller that my wife used during her knee surgery recovery last year), and I also used the SBIG adaptive optics unit which really helps the guiding.
This is one of my favorite targets, I always love to see "The Pillars of Creation" show up on my screen when the frames download. I'm hoping for some more clear nights, if we get them I will try for additional data, including using the color and other narrowband filters.

07/13/2008 TAAA & Cloudy Skies

2010-02-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's been real cloudy lately, the monsoons are arriving daily with plenty of rain, lightning, and wind. No damage around here yet but it's impossible to do any astronomical observing.
I did attend the monthly meeting of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association on Friday night. George Barber gave a great talk on solar observing for the Astronomy Essentials, and then we heard Dr. Tim Swindle of the U of A Planetary Sciences Department tell us about his adventures hunting for meteorites in Antarctica.
I've got plenty of "administrative" astronomy tasks to take care of. The CGE is in the shop for repairs; I need to bake my CCD dessicant plug; there are a few items I want to list on AstroMart; I've got some configuration work to do; I have a ton of image data to process; and of course the big one is completion of the roll-off roof shed. But it's hard to get motivated to do these things when I know I can't do any observing. So instead I've mostly been spending my play time on ham radio stuff. But I did spend some time this afternoon teaching the Astronomy Merit Badge to my son's Boy Scout Troop.

07/07/2008 Jupiter is Near Opposition

2010-02-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

Jupiter, the king of the solar system, is only about 2 days away from opposition. This means that it is basically 180 degrees away from the sun as viewed from Earth. When planets are at opposition, they are usually also roughly closest to the Earth and thus have a larger apparent size.
Here's a webcam image that I took on July 1st with the 14" RCX. I'm no expert at webcam imaging, and it was a work night so I was taking the images too early in the evening - Jupiter was only about 20 degrees up in the SouthEast when I shot it. I took several 2 to 3 minute .avi videos, then used Registax freeware to split it into frames and process them. I also didn't get a perfect focus. So the details are a bit rough, and I had to overprocess it to bring out the minimal details visible here. On nights of good seeing, it would not be unusual to see more detail using a high-power eyepiece than this image shows.
I may try to image it again soon, but that depends on the weather - we are in the midst of monsoon season so there is not much hope for clear skies most days.

07/04/2008 I Wish this Was My House!

2010-02-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Northern Arizona again. I'm in Sedona for a family reunion on my wife's side, and today we took a jeep tour. While seeing the sights we saw this house under construction. It's supposed to be 30,000 square feet, and the dome on top looks like a large Ash dome, or something similar. Wonder what type of scope is being housed inside, must be a nice big one. The skies here must be nice and dark, and although this is perhaps not the best way to build an observatory (too close to the mountain, on top of a house), I sure wouldn't mind having it at my disposal!

06/29/2008 Grand Canyon Star Party Day 2

2010-02-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today was my second day at the Grand Canyon. During the day, we hiked up Mt. Humphreys. This is the highest peak in Arizona, at the top it is at 12,650 feet. It was about 10.8 miles and went up a steep and rocky route, so it took most of the day. The view from the top was quite dramatic, although haze and some far-off rain limited the view somewhat.
In the evening, I enjoyed the final day of the Grand Canyon Star Party. There were many scopes set up, and crowds of visitors gathered around each and every one. It is really an amazing sight to see so many people, who often have zero knowledge of the night sky, showing an interest in astronomical observing. I heard tonight that in the past 18 years the GCSP has literally had hundreds of thousands of visitors! Most are people who are simply on vacation at the canyon and happened to see the scopes, or read about it in the park newsletter. Tonight was almost the perfect summer observing night, with temperatures around 72 degrees Fahrenheit, and very clear skies. The transparency was not perfect, but many objects like M13 were plainly visible to the naked eye. The Milky Way is simply spectacular here, it is so bright that many visitors mistake it for clouds in the sky.
I'm sure I will be back for more GCSP in the future, although it is undergoing a change. My friend Dean Ketelson (the "other Dean") is passing the reigns after 18 years of coordinating the star party. Fortunately he will still be spending half his time in Tucson.

06/28/2008 Grand Canyon Star Party

2010-02-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

I've finally made a visit to the Grand Canyon Star Party. It's been something I've wanted to do for years, but other commitments have always kept me away. This is the 18th year of this large event, which is a week long star party focused primarily on public outreach. The park rangers at the Canyon are very supportive as it allows them to encourage public visitors to experience the joy of the dark night skies, and perhaps learn to value the preservation of dark skies, which fits well into the National Parks program here in the U.S.
The party started last weekend and ends tomorrow night, so I will only be here for two nights. Dean Salman and I drove up today from Tucson, and this evening Dean gave a very nice presentation to about 200 park visitors. He showed many of his outstanding CCD images during twilight, and afterward everyone went down to the parking lots where about 60-70 telescopes were set up. The whole event takes place right on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Actually, there is a North Rim version of the party that runs simultaneously, but the South Rim event is the larger one.
The skies here are quite dark, with a dramatic Milky Way providing an awesome backdrop to the star-studded sky. This is really a great place to hold a star party!

06/20/2008 Yes, I Am Still Watching the Heavens

2010-02-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me whether I've taken a break from astronomy since I don't seem to be blogging lately. I definitely am still stargazing at every opportunity, but life has kept me so busy that sometimes I wonder which way is up.
The past few months have been frustrating on many nights because my CGE mount was damaged and I can't seem to get it back in shape. We've enjoyed an incredible stretch of clear skies here in Tucson, for most of this year so far, but many nights I have been unable to work the CGE. There are other scopes available, but certainly the CGE has been the workhorse.
There are some exciting things coming, and I expect to be doing some serious astronomy in the fall, after monsoons (we're officially in monsoon season now, but the rains have not started yet).
Anyway I will try to post a little more often. Meanwhile here is a recent image, taken over the course of 4 nights at the end of last month. It's the Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888, and the image includes data taken with traditional narrowband filters (Ha, OIII, and SII), as well as some near-infrared filters (above 7000 Angstroms), This was my first attempt imaging with the NIR's. To see a the individual versions (i.e. Hubble Palette, CFHT Palette, and NIR) as well as an animation of the various versions, see my website at
http://www.xanaduobservatory.com/ngc6888.htm

03/10/2008 Kitt Peak With the Scouts

2010-02-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today I visited Kitt Peak National Observatory with my oldest son's Boy Scout Troop 753. I'm teaching the kids the Astronomy Merit Badge and one of the requirements is to visit an observatory.
We had a chance to get an up-close tour of the McMath Pierce Solar Telescope as well as the 2.1 meter telescope. This picture shows me and two of my sons, the oldest a Life Scout and the youngest a Bear Cub Scout, with the 4-meter Mayall Observatory in the background.
There were about 20 people in the group and everyone seemed very interested in the tour. We're lucky to have such a well-known site nearby (it's about an hour and a half drive). The weather was perfect.
I'm imaging again tonight, lots of data being collected with little time to process it...but the first light image from the new Tak is coming soon.

03/07/2008 Phoenix Headquarters - in Tucson!

2010-02-07T22:08:00.001-07:00

I attended the monthly meeting of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association this evening. Our speaker was Peter Smith, of the Lunar & Planetary Lab, who is the Principal Investigator for the Phoenix Mission to Mars.
Peter gave us an excellent overview of the mission, which is currently on its way to Mars after launching last August. It is expected to land in the North Polar region on May 25th of this year. The lander has a robotic arm with a shovel and will explore the surface ice next to the landing site.
While I was at the meeting, my imaging system was starting itself up for an observing run. My targets tonight will be M42, M51, and M101 (although I may intercept it and change M101 to something else later). We've had a nice week or so of clear skies and I've been imaging with the new Epsilon every night, so there is plenty of data to process. But since it's my busy season I have not had any time to process it much yet. I do know that the very fast focal length of this telescope results in more severe color gradients than I have experienced before, so I will need to develop some skills to handle that.

03/02/2008 First Light for the Epsilon

2010-02-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

No, I have not disappeared into a black hole...it's hard to believe how rapidly time can go by. Seems like only yesterday that I last posted a blog, and here it is March already.
I must admit, however, that I have not been as active with astronomy these past few months as I wish I had been. I've had a few imaging sessions, but the data sits unprocessed on the hard drive. Our local club has been pursuing acquisition of a new dark site, and since I'm on the Board, I've been somewhat involved with that. I've been getting ready to teach the Astronomy Merit Badge to my son's Boy Scout troop. And I've spent a lot of time working on the roll-off roof observatory that will eventually allow me to do even more astronomy from my back yard. But I've missed quite a few clear observing nights, and obviously I have been bad about posting to my blog.
There have been a few equipment plans in the works. One was an intended acquisition of a Paramount equatorial mount, but that was cancelled for a variety of reasons, primary among them that Software Bisque could not seem to deliver it. So now my name is on the waiting list for an AstroPhysics mount, which will take quite a while to get.
Meanwhile I made a deal with my friend Dean and ended up with his Takahashi Epsilon 180. He's imaged just about everything possible and needed to move to a longer focal length, so we worked out a trade and now I'm the proud owner of this scope. It's a lot for the CGE mount to handle, and I'll be interested to see whether I can get decent images out of it without a larger mount. I needed to add a second 25# counterweight because it is much heavier than the refractor. Tonight I got it all set up and balanced, and as I type this I'm running "V-Curves" in FocusMax to get a good profile for automated focussing. So far it's looking pretty good.
I know I won't be able to produce the quality of images that Dean has - many of them have been published in the magazines, including several pages worth in Sky & Telescope's "Beautiful Universe" book and the inside back page of numerous issues of Astronomy Magazine, including the latest issue. But hopefully I'll have some fun with it, that's what it's all about!

12/24/2007 Mars in the Spotlight

2010-02-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

This evening (12/23/07), there was a stunning pairing of a nearly full Moon and the fiery red planet Mars. We're just a couple of days past the Winter Solstice, and Mars will be at opposition tomorrow for a Christmas Eve present. I observed the conjunction of the Moon and Mars from what would normally be a horrible place to observe from - the shopping mall parking lot - as we were leaving a movie with some visiting family members. In fact it wasn't me who noticed it first, but my Siste-in-Law, who said, "Look, the Moon has a satellite"!
Seeing this motivated me to try to complete processing on some Mars images that I took last week using a Phillips Toucam webcam with a 2x Orion barlow, on my 14" Meade RCX. Capturing the data was the easy part; I simply took short (~2 min) .avi video frames using K3CCDTools software. However, since I don't do this type of image processing regularly, I found it very challenging to do the processing. I used Registax and Photoshop. This image is the result of my attempt, and while it's far from perfect I'm pleased to be able to discern various features on the surface of Mars. Click here to see a slightly larger version of this image.
I used the Sky & Telescope freeware program called "Mars Previewer II" to help identify the exotic-sounding names of the various markings, such as Sinus Meridiani, Sinus Sabaeus, Niliacus Lacus, and Mare Erythraeum. Far away places to be sure, but once again my telescope has allowed me to briefly be transported away for some exciting exploration of the universe (figuratively speaking of course)!

12/07/2007 Astronomers Potluck

2010-02-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

Turns out amateur astronomers are good at having potlucks too. Tonight was the annual TAAA holiday party, held at the home of our President, Bill Lofquist. The sky was cloudy but no problem, we all had a great time socializing anyway. Pam came along for a change, and she actually won a raffle prize - which she gave to me. We won a nice Moon globe, with plenty of named features on it. The club also raffled off a C8 with Byers gears, an old but very classic telescope. I know one astronomer who says these are the best drives ever made - and he should know, he has discovered more asteroids than anybody else. I had picked up the C8 from a nearby neighbor, who was one day away from throwing the scope in the trash! Instead we had it cleaned up by Dean Koenig of Starizona, and the winner this evening was none other than my good friend Victor, who until tonight did not even own a telescope. So it all turned out very well for that old scope, as I know Victor will give it a fresh new outlook on life.

12/03/2007 Swimming in a Sea of Stars (and Dew)

2010-02-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

Last night it finally cleared up after more than a week of bad weather. I knew it was going to be a wet one, but I set up anyway, hoping to get some imaging in before the dew hit.
Here is what I started with, Open Cluster M35 and it's old friend NGC 2158. The stars in M35 are mostly blue but NGC2158 is full of old red stars. They're a nice pair for observing (in fact they made the list in January 2008 Astronomy Magazine's article, "Observe Celestial Odd Couples". Click Here to see a larger version of this image and more details.
But unfortunately I pushed my luck a bit too far and by the time I went outside, a little after midnight, to check on the gear, it was a soggy mess. So I got the hair dryer and spent a while trying to dry things out, but it was rather hopeless. I wonder if any of my neighbors heard and wondered about the crazy guy next door drying his hair outside at 1:00 in the morning! In the end I just covered it up, set the camera to take darks for the rest of the night, and called it quits.
I'm imaging again tonight and everything seems to be fine, so I guess no damage was done by the water. I did hook up my Dew Heater, though, which is something that is almost never needed here in the arid desert.

11/25/2007 Nebulae at the HAC Meeting

2010-02-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

The cold weather is finally here, today I closed down the swamp cooler and fired up the heater for the first time this season. Along with the cold, we've been getting a few drops of rain and the clouds might be a real problem for the next week or so.
On Friday night, I drove down to Sierra Vista with Larry to attend the monthly Huachuca Astronomy Club meeting. As always it was worth the drive. The guest speaker was Steve Coe, who spoke about nebulae. Steve has written a couple of books, including "Nebula and How to Observe Them". He also writes articles and columns for Astronomy Magazine and Cloudy Nights Forum.

11/22/2007 Two Years, Two Tadpoles, Two Concrete Foundations, Too Much Fun

2010-02-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm about a week late but my blog has now passed the two year mark! I sure enjoy using the internet this way, I do think it's enhanced my astronomy experience to write about my activities now and then. And I definitely enjoy reading the other blogs, each with its own personality. Thank you Astronomy Blogs!
So here is a picture of the two tadpoles, swimming in the sea of IC410. (They are tiny and near the center in this little image - to really see them well, click here for a larger version of the image). It's been a long swim for them and I think the current will eventually win in a few million years. But for the time being we are lucky enough to be able to observe the dramatic effects of radiative pressure from the stars in cluster NGC1893, which are struggling through their early Hydrogen-burning years inside the dusty cocoon of the IC410 nebula. The tadpoles are areas of cooler, denser gas that are resisting the flow, thereby producing the interesting stretched-out tails which are roughly 10 light-years long. The darker "holes" in the nebula are areas that have been carved out already by the strong stellar winds. I wouldn't want to live there, but it's a nice place to visit with the telescope.
The two concrete foundations are the pier foundations that we poured on Sunday. My friends Dean and Larry came over and worked hard helping me with the project. These are going to hold the two piers that will be in Xanadu West, which I hope to have in operation very soon.
As for the too much fun, well, as always I will maintain the focus of this blog on astronomy which means I can't complain about all the other trials and tribulations of daily life - but without a doubt, astronomy continues to be one area that can be guaranteed fun!

11/11/2007 Comet 17P Continues the Show

2010-02-07T21:59:00.000-07:00

This Comet is quite spectacular. In less than two weeks it has really grown fast, and although it has dimmed a little bit it's still shining brightly. I observed it tonight naked eye and could easily see that it was a fuzzy blob instead of a pinpoint star. I also checked it out in my 6.5 x 42 binoculars and was really impressed. 17P/Holmes was expected to be a minor league comet and would probably have escaped most of us, but the sudden brightening a couple of weeks ago made it a household name for amateur astronomers.
I took this image tonight using just 9 x 60 seconds in each of red, green, and blue filters. The challenge with comets is stacking them, but I think I got it pretty close. Click Here to see a larger version of this image. Compared to my image from less than 2 weeks ago, the comet is much larger. It seems that 17P has acted up before - in 1892, Barnard imaged it from Lick Observatory; it grew from 8 arcminutes to 25 arcminutes in diameter in just about a month! Here are some scans of the Lick plates:
-Nov 10 1892
-Nov 10 1892
-Nov 21 1892
-Dec 8 1892
By the way, I was supposed to go to a star party at the new dark site near the Chiricahua mountains tonight, but it was so cloudy late this afternoon that I decided not to go. It's cleared up nicely here in Tucson, but the satellite images seem to show quite a cloud cover down there so hopefully I'm not missing out. I was hoping to do a visual session with the dob, I need some eye photons! I did spend some time out back enjoying the sky tonight though. In addition to the comet, I've got the refractor plugging away on my California Nebula mosaic project tonight.

11/09/2007 Two Clusters, Thousands of Stars

2010-02-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here's an image of the Double Cluster in Perseus. "The Double" is a well-known target for amateurs, and is visible to the naked eye. I have viewed this many times through the scope, but it needs a very wide field eyepiece to get it all in. A Nagler 31mm 'hand grenade' or something like it is usually needed for a long focal length telescope.
The red giants really stand out in this field as they contrast well with the other stars.
I took this image over two nights earlier this week, first the color channels and the following night the luminance. The subexposures were only 1 minute each, the stars are so bright that it doesn't need much. Click Here to see a larger version of this image. I did a PinPoint plate solve in MaximDL, and it tells me that there are 8,376 stars in this image! Sometimes the seemingly boundless size of our universe just leaves me awestruck.
Tonight is cloudy so it's looking like a catch-up-on-sleep night for me. I've been working hard lately and plan to do some more labor on the shed tomorrow so I'm ready for a good rest.

11/08/2007 Space Invaders Was Better

2010-02-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

When I was a teenager I loved to play Space Invaders at video arcades. We didn't have Playstations or XBoxes, but for a quarter you could experience some amazing graphics for the time. Another popular game, not one of my favorites but addictive nonetheless, was Pac-Man.
There's a very nice bright emission nebula in Cassiopeia, NGC 281, which has earned the name "The PacMan Nebula" because its shape has an uncanny resemblance to that little gobbling monster of PacMan fame. I doubt that NGC 281 is actually devouring everything in its path as it flies through outer space, but it's still a fun object to observe either visually or in the camera.
I took this image over 4 nights in mid-October. Click Here for a larger version of the image. I wound up discarding much of the data and used only the best subframes. I used the Hydrogren Alpha filter to obtain luminance data, and also combined it with the red, green, and blue channels in an 80%, 5%, and 10% mix accordingly. Since NGC 281 shines brightly in H-alpha, using it in this manner helped bring out some of the contrast.
There's been a lot going on lately in my "normal" life, but as always I'll try to keep this blog on the astronomy track. I've been working on the shed project for Xanadu West and hope to pour pier foundations this weekend. I've also been imaging a lot recently, with the help of CCDAutopilot which has been an awful lot of fun. The data is getting backed up...

11/04/2007 Remote Imaging in New Mexico

2010-02-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here is an image I took from the JMSM Observatory, located in the mountains of New Mexico. It was an unexpected surprise for me when the observatory's owner, Mike, offered to let me control the observing plan for the night last Saturday while we were attending the AIC conference in San Jose. So there I was, an Arizonan visiting California, imaging in New Mexico!
This observatory has incredibly dark skies and also some very high-end amateur equipment. So I was pretty excited to be able to grab some data, even though the moon was nearly full. Dean and I set up CCD Commander to use a 6" refractor and an SBIG 6303 camera to image two objects all night long, the first being NGC896 and the second, NGC1893. Due to the moon we only used the Hydrogren Alpha filter. The image above is a mean combine of the best 10 images, each one 10 minutes long. I dark subtracted but didn't have a flat field. I'm hoping to get some color data, either from the JMSM or perhaps even with my 105mm here in Tucson, and I also need to process it a little more carefully, but for now this is still a decent result. Click here for a larger version of this image. There is some fascinating detail in this object, which Pam calls "The Cracked Egg Nebula".
It sure was fun using this setup. IP cameras at the site allowed us to watch the dome, mount, and scope in action. There are a large number of amateurs with observatories in the nearby hills (this site is right next to New Mexico Skies), and it's easy to see why they set these up - the seeing is sub-arcsecond, and darkness is better than just about anywhere.
I've been using CCDAutopilot lately to help in managing my imaging runs right here in my backyard. I've written before about the use of technology to enhance astronomy, as well as the risks of losing sight (forgive the pun!) of what attracted me to the hobby in the first place. There truly is no match to being outside under the stars on a cool evening and enjoying the quiet majesty of our universe. One reason I am using CCDAP is to allow me to spend less time staring at the red computer screen and more time staring up and contemplating the heavens above.

11/03/2007 Comet 17P/Holmes Keeps Growing

2010-02-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is an image that I took two nights ago with the William Optics 105mm refractor. It's a combination of 12 30-second luminance images, plus 12 each 60-second red, green, and blue images.
It was really a challenge to try to make the color combination "look" correct on this one. I'm not quite satisfied with this result but I'm weary of messing with it so I think I'll stop here. The neat thing is that you can see some detail, for example there appears to be an annulus around the coma (this is the result of the spherical arrangement of the shell, it's not really thicker on the outside. The multicolored streaks are stars, which elongated because the comet was moving as the images were taken. A larger version of this image can be seen by clicking here.
The comet has been generating a huge amount of interest among amateurs over the past week and a half. Today's APOD was of the comet and there are pictures flowing from telescopes everywhere. People are sketching it, and observing it through eyepieces and binoculars, as well as the naked eye. I checked it out again tonight naked eye and it's still a bright star-like beacon near Mirfak (Alpha Persei).

11/03/2007 TAAA Members Night

2010-02-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Members Night at the TAAA meeting. Plenty of interesting speakers on various topics. Not surprisingly there were several images of Comet 17P/Holmes as well as some excellent sketches. I gave a talk about the LHIRES III Spectrograph, and also showed my comet image from last night along with the spectrum from last week. I got a decent comet image last night and will probably post it tomorrow.
Gotta get some sleep as tomorrow is going to be a hard labor day while I work on Xanadu West.

10/28/2007 Back Home

2010-02-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

I'm back home after 3 fantastic days of Astro-Imaging seminars and fellowship. The AIC Conference is really a good one, with some extremely skilled, world-class astroimagers sharing their tips in the seminars. There's also a great exhibit area where the top manufacturers pitch their wares. One can't help but get totally pumped up for some serious imaging after attending AIC!
Speakers yesterday and today included Rob Gendler, Don Goldman, Neil Fleming, Steve Cannistra, Michael Barber (from SBIG), Stephen Bisque (of TheSky and Paramount fame), Brad Ehrhorn (RC Optical)

10/27/2007 AIC 2007

2010-02-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here on Saturday morning awaiting the start of day two of the Adanced Imaging Conference in San Jose, CA. Yesterday was an excellent day with a workshop by Adam Block. The vendors are here in force with all kinds of wonderful toys.
More to come soon.

10/25/2007 An Awesome Comet Makes Its Presence Known

2010-02-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

The internet is abuzz with talk about Comet 17P/Holmes, which suddenly brightened by an astonishing 13 magnitudes over just 3 days!
Comets brighten but this is simply stunning. Apparently 17P has played like this before but not quite as dramatically. It's currently in Perseus and despite the full moon, is easily visible to the naked eye. I found it tonight in a little triangle pattern with Alpha and Delta Perseus.
I'm about to head off for the AIC and had planned to be well rested, but this event was too good to pass up. So I spent some time in the dome and captured some spectra of the Comet, as well as some stars (for flux calibration as well as general interest purposes). Then I decided it would be worth performing a quick processing on the Comet spectra, so here is the result.
The odd thing is that this spectra does not look like a comet spectra, but instead it looks like a Type K star. So, I must admit that there is a possibility that I messed up and got the wrong object. But I was quite careful, and the object in the guider field was clearly the Comet with a fuzzy glow around it. And the spectra were extended rather than thin strips like stars give. People are reporting that the Comet appears yellowish or even reddish, and this spectra seems to support that.
Anyway I guess I will find out soon. Meanwhile I need to try to get a few hours of sleep before the trip tomorrow.

10/23/2007 Imaging Season is Here

2010-02-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally got serious about putting the camera back to work. I spent every night from Monday through Saturday collecting data. It was a lot of work, but I used CCDAutopilot to handle some of the load, which allowed me to continue to get sleep and get my work done at the office each day. There are other advantages from using CCDAP, such as a more efficient focussing process (I'm now able to refocus every 30 minutes).
So far it appears that the results have been good. This image is a narrowband (so it's false-color) look at IC405, the Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga. I've been playing around with various combinations of color mapping to enhance certain structural detail in nebula, and this one certainly has a lot to explore. Click here to see a larger version of this image. I imaged the same region almost exactly a year ago, with fairly similar results, but I think this one may be slightly better. I've got data for about 5 more objects from last week that still needs to be processed.
Tonight is very windy, and there's a very bright moon anyway, so I've just got the camera collecting dark frames for the library.
I can hardly wait until the weekend...stay tuned for the reports.

10/21/2007 AstroImaging SIG Star Party

2010-02-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight I attended a star party at Steve's Vail View Observatory. The TAAA Astroimaging Special Interest Group meets there occasionally for a star party, and this weekend Steve invited us to spend both Friday and Saturday nights there.
I was not able to go last night, and today was an incredibly busy day with an early start for me, so I just didn't have energy to pack up my gear for an offsite session tonight. Instead, I set up a session in CCDAutopilot to run my scope all night, right here at Xanadu Observatory. But I did go out to Steve's, and logged in remotely from there to control my scope here. Things were running smoothly so it wasn't really necessary to log in, but it was kind of fun to play with it. Technology has become so advanced in amateur astronomy, and this was a good example - it's kind of strange to think about going to a star party and logging into the home observatory! Steve, Michael & Mary, and Dean were all there running their telescopes with CCD cameras, and Victor also was there.
I've been imaging every night for the past six nights, but have managed to get some sleep thanks to CCDAutopilot. I love astronomy, but I also really have fun making all the technology work properly.
Tonight was supposed to be the peak of the Orionid meteor shower, I saw a few but not too many. The skies at Steve's are certainly darker than mine so it was nice to get out in the warm night air and do some visual stargazing as well, although the moon was rather bright. It was dark enough to easily see M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, naked eye, even before the moon set.

10/16/2007 Tracking and Mount Performance

2010-02-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Telescope mounts can be finnicky things. Sometimes they work wonderfully, and other times they inexplicably misbehave (reminds me of one of my sons!).
Tonight I'm set up poolside and at first, everything seemed to click into place. I just plunked it down, using a neighbor's tall evergreen to point me approximately North; on my first alignment I was less than 7 arcminutes from the pole in Altitude, and only about 2' in Azimuth. "Ah", I thought, "tonight is going to be one of those nights when everything goes well, so I'll go ahead and refine it to get even closer." But the mount had other ideas. Two frustrating hours later it seemed that I was back where I started.
But once I finally got to imaging, the tracking seemed to be doing very well. Here's a screenshot, I enlarged the tracking graph to show it better. The graph shows guiding errors over about a 12-minute period, and it shows that the tracking was nearly dead-on. The errors are sub-pixel in size, in fact even the largest error was only about 1/3 of a pixel. This is especially good for a mid-range mount such as my CGE (although I have to admit that the wide-field produced by the refractor makes the graph flatter. Still, these errors are sub-arcsecond in size). When I have it on a pier, and refine my PEC curves, I may even be able to improve it further.
Tracking isn't just important for imaging, it also is crucial for a lengthy visual session. The eye can resolve much more detail during a long session when telescope tracking is good. A proper polar alignment goes a long way in helping a scope track targets.

10/11/2007 Measuring the Imaging System

2010-02-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a screen shot from CCDInspector, a powerful program that I sometimes use to evaluate my images. This software does a nice job of quantifying certain characteristics of a series of CCD images, such as FWHM and contrast ratio, which makes it easy to identify the bad ones. Since most processing jobs involve combining multiple images, CCDInspector is a powerful tool for culling the best ones.
This particular image is the software's attempt to measure the curvature in my imaging train, as well as the collimation. Basically this helps me to see whether the camera is perhaps not orthoganal to the telescope lens, or whether the telescope is out of collimation. Ideally, you would want a perfectly flat image, but that is virtually impossible to achieve. A system with a lot of curvature will exhibit noticeable distortion in the images. I'm very pleased that this particular system, my William Optics Zenithstar 105mm with a 0.8 focal reducer/field flattener, provides a reasonably flat result. For a relatively inexpensive system, it has done quite well for me. Of course I dream of something better and perhaps someday will upgrade, but it's nice to know that the current setup is not way out of whack.
I used my ZS105 on Sunday night at an observing session over at Dean's house. I spent some time fiddling with software configurations so don't have a lot of data, but I'm working on processing it and should be able to post it soon.

10/09/2007 Dusty Binaries

2010-02-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night was the October meeting of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association. The guest speaker was Dr. Steve Howell, an NOAO astrophysicist who was fortunate to get observing time on the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Dr. Howell is studying dust in the region around binary stars. He's a very animated speaker and did a great job bringing some high-level theory down to the layperson realm. Observing dust is generally done in infrared wavelengths and it was interesting to hear his comparisons to optical observing (for example measuring wavelength in microns instead of Angstroms). Although these dust clouds would be extremely cold by human standards, they can be "hot" from an physics perspective, if there is an energy source available to heat them up.
He has interpreted his data to indicate the presence of a large dust disk surrounding certain binary star systems; the image above shows Dr. Howell in front of his closing slide, which is an artist's rendition of the dust glowing red around a binary system.
I'll have to keep all this in mind next time I'm working on a double star. Of course, the dust would never be visible, but it's always fun to let the mind wander and consider what is going on with the objects in the eyepiece.

09/20/2007 Seeing In The Dark

2010-02-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I purchased the book "Seeing in the Dark" by Timothy Ferris for a few dollars on eBay. I love to read books that are written with a poetic view towards astronomical endeavors and this one did not disappoint. Ferris has written numerous astronomy books as a 'popular science writer', and his style and prose is obviously influenced by his own personal passion for amateur astronomy.
So it was with excitement that I learned a few months ago that Ferris had produced a television show for PBS to accompany the book. The long wait was finally rewarded this evening with the show and in general I enjoyed it very much. It didn't really teach me anything new about astronomy, and certainly was not filled with scientific facts; rather, it affirmed my own enthusiasm for the hobby by presenting a fairly wide-ranging overview of various themes in astronomy, interspersed with Ferris' own poetic narrations.
I've been unable to get out for some time now, mostly due to weather but other obligations have kept me inside even on the few clear nights. Monsoon season's coming to an end - in fact it is quite clear tonight. I suppose it was worth staying in to watch "Seeing in the Dark" instead of sitting at the eyepiece, whereas normally I would not dream of putting television on equal par with the eyepiece. But now that Ferris has topped off my tank with fuel for some all-night sessions, I cannot wait to get back out. This weekend we're planning a couple of nights of star parties and I'm praying for the skies to be clear.

08/28/2007 Lunar Eclipse

2010-02-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

As I write this, the Moon is in a beautiful deep eclipse. The shadow of the Earth is causing the full Moon to appear quite dim and a stunning coppery-red color.
The skies are clear and Cygnus is leading the summer constellations to rest as it sets in the West. Meanwhile Orion is rising in the East to usher in the winter group. The Moon is dim enough that the Milky Way is easily visible.
I began watching the eclipse about 2:30 a.m., when it was in partial phase. I love to see how the Moon takes on a distinctly reddish hue during an eclipse. Lunar eclipses are not rare, but this eclipse is quite a good one, fully in the umbra. About the only thing that could have made it better would have been to occur on a weekend, but I guess the astronomical event calendar doesn't pay much heed to our silly human working schedules.
Last night had the usual clouds so I was not even expecting to see anything. I didn't bother to set up a telescope, so the only imaging possible was with a little handheld digital camera. Thus the lousy picture above, which was taken just at the beginning of totality - but it's been fun taking the naked eye approach to enjoying this eclipse anyway.

08/25/2007 Pushing Some Glass

2010-02-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

Astronomical events often happen over very long periods of time. In this case, there has been a 26-year period between two related actions.
Way back in the summer of 1981, I attended an astronomy & physics camp at the University of Iowa. It was a fantastic experience and on the last day of camp, we were given a kit containing a 6" pyrex mirror blank and related items. We spent a day in the lab learning about telescope mirrors and grinding away on the mirror, and I brought it home with me. (Apparently I also took a few moments to scribble a brief tribute to Led Zeppelin on the box). I had good intentions to continue the grinding, but alas the box went on the shelf.
Fast forward 26 years. Somehow that box managed to stay with me through various moves as I grew up, but it continued to remain in the exact same state as it was at the end of that hot summer day in the lab, July 29, 1981.
Now it's August 24, 2007, and the Huachuca Astronomy Club is hosting their monthly meeting in Sierra Vista, Arizona. I grabbed my box and joined Larry, Dean, and Adam for the drive down South to visit friends and hear Mr. Galaxy, Wayne Johnson, give a talk on telescope mirror making. Wayne had asked people in the club to bring along mirror making supplies if they had them, so I thought I'd bring the old blank out of retirement.
Wayne gave an outstanding talk on the tricks and traps of grinding, polishing, and figuring your own mirror. He used my mirror, along with a couple of others, to demonstrate some of the many unique aspects of the fine art of mirror making. The picture above shows Wayne explaining the "W grind" on my mirror blank as I watch. I'm proud to say that the glass behaved very well despite the poor treatment it has received over the past few decades. Perhaps it still believes what I wrote to conclude my lab report way back in 1981:
"There's still a lot of work to do on the grinding and polishing of my mirror. Then I'll have to get it aluminized, and build a 6" newtonian reflector with f/6".
I'm a bit less optimistic now about how quickly I'll complete the project than I was when I was a teenager. But after tonight's HAC meeting, I think perhaps someday I actually will make my 6" telescope, and maybe it won't be another 26 years before it's all done!

08/04/07 The Center of the Galaxy, Right here in Tucson!

2010-02-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the monthly Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association meeting. Since the sky has been a blanket of clouds lately it was nice to do something astronomical-related.
The meeting opened with Luke Scott giving a talk on observing the Moon. He did an excellent job with it, and wrapped up with a demo of the superb freeware, Virtual Moon Atlas.
Our main speaker for the night was Dr. Fulvio Melia, an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona, who gave a talk on Supermassive Black Holes. Dr. Melia has written several books including "The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy" (I got my copy signed at TSP after he spoke there last year). His talk was really great - he's a good speaker and certainly knows his topic. The picture of the galactic center shown above was one of many that he displayed; he had plenty of amazing images to show us, using telescopes of various wavelenghts. We also enjoyed the "movie" produced using data from 1993 - present, which shows very clearly several stars within a few light-days of the galactic center, moving in orbit around an invisible point. One of the stars has even completed its 15-year orbit, while another appeared to zoom in and reach perigee at only 10 light-hours from the black hole!
Amazing stuff to be sure. One thing I appreciated was Dr. Melia's acknowledgements throughout his talk that many things are still only in theory stage, rather than the over-confidence that seems to often accompany talks by theoretical astrophysicists.

07/28/2007 The Observatory is Getting Lonely

2010-02-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

We've been getting day after day of monsoon rains here in Tucson. Today the whole city seems to be blanketed with a heavy, constant rain. I suppose the plants can use the water but it sure is making it impossible to do any observing.
Here's a picture of the dome taken at 2:45 this afternoon. Normally there would be a bright blue sky and you would see the Catalina Mountains in the background, but right now the sky is dull grey and nary a mountain in sight. It's been much too long since the dome of Xanadu has been used. I'm getting a little stir-crazy, as I'm sure most of the amateur astronomers around here are.
We did have a meeting this morning about the potential land acquisition for TAAA. Things seem to be moving ahead with that although it's going to take a while to be certain.

07/18/2007 The Moon and Venus on the Beach

2010-02-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Finally got a clear night and enjoyed some stargazing on the beach tonight. Here is a snapshot from my little digital camera of the crescent moon (overexposed) and Venus, shortly after sunset. Right after taking this picture, I was swimming with the kids in the warm water, but I kept looking skyward and taking in the stars.
The sky was not completely clear, but it was clear enough to see Scorpius in all it's glory. I also observed the constellation Lupus, and bright Alpha and Beta Centauri, both of which I believe was the first time that I have ever identified them (they are too low from my normal location in Tucson).
I was certainly happy to get a chance to do a little Southernly observing before the vacation ends!

07/15/2007 Beautiful Universe

2010-02-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you can find evidence of the amazing beauty of our universe right here on planet Earth.
Here's an example - I visited this waterfall today during a long, difficult, and thoroughly enjoyable hike with the family.
No astronomy is possible as it has been much too cloudy. Too bad, because I'm at a much lower latitude than normal....

07/08/2007 HAC 25th Anniversary Banquet

2010-02-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Huachuca Astronomy Club's 25th anniversary banquet, which was held at the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Ramsey Canyon. It was a nice dinner with good friends. This picture shows guest speaker David Levy, the author and famous comet discoverer; his talk was titled "A Nightwatchman's Journey: My Life and Hard Times as a Comet Searcher". David always gives wonderful talks and tonight was no exception - his passion for astronomy is infectious. The picture is not too good, as I took it with my cell phone (I forgot my camera).
I actually won a door prize tonight! My winning ticket earned me a very nice large Orion hardshell eyepiece case. I've sat through a lot of raffles with no luck so it took me a moment to realize that they had called my number.
Last night was another good astronomy club meeting, with the monthly Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association club gathering at Steward Observatory's main lecture hall. In addition to various short discussions about club activities (including the TIMPA roll-away observatory project and the dark site search), we heard from Dr. Mark Dickinson, a Kitt Peak professional astronomer. His talk was "Multi-Wavelength Deep Field Surveys: Watching Galaxies Grow". He gave an excellent overview of the numerous deep field surveys, beginning with the original Hubble Deep Field. The trend in professional astronomy is towards more joint efforts where different observatories all observe the same area of the sky with different wavelength instrumentation.
No observing for me, however, as the monsoons let loose yesterday and today with heavy rains and clouds.

07/06/2007 The Stars are Up, the Internet is Down

2010-02-07T19:52:00.001-07:00

I have been having extreme problems with the xanaduobservatory.com website for several weeks now. If they cannot fix it within the next day or two I will be moving it to a new host.
Funny how internet problems can actually make me less likely to get out and observe the stars, which faithfully show up night after night. I suppose in a way it's sad how my enjoyment of the hobby has become so linked to the net. It's even caused me to slow down on my blog posts.
This image was one that I took at the "Bumble Bee Site", which is in the early stages of evaluation by the TAAA, during our visit a couple of weeks ago. It's a narrowband image of the Veil Nebula West (NGC 6960). I decided to mess around a bit with the colors, and combined a "Hubble Palette" version with a "CFHT Palette" version. Maybe I got carried away, but I like how it emphasizes some of the structural differences. I somehow managed to ftp the jpg file onto my malfunctioning website, you can attempt to see a larger version by clicking here.
I've imaged this region in the past but I find it so fascinating that I wanted to try it again. What an amazing area of the sky this is!
Tomorrow night is the TAAA meeting and Bill will be presenting his ideas about the site to the club. I'm looking forward to hearing what other members think about the club obtaining a dark sky site to call their own.
Not much observing going on these days. The monsoons began today with a bunch of wind, lightning, and light rain.

06/24/2007 M97 and M108

2010-02-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much is invisible to the unaided eye, just waiting for us to discover. Here are two objects catalogued by Charles Messier as M97 and M108, which would never be seen without a telescope. M97 is also called the Owl Nebula and is a beautiful planetary nebula. M108 is a spiral galaxy. They both lie in an area rich with faint objects; most of them would have been too faint for Messier to see with his small telescope.
I processed this image while I was on the plane last week to North Carolina. I cannot seem to access my website for posting things right now so I can't provide a link to a larger version, hopefully I can edit that in later.
Last night, a bunch of TAAA members including myself made a trek to a dark sky site that we are evaluating as a possible club-owned site. It was really an excellent night, warm and calm, and most importantly, very very dark. There was no significant light glow and after the moon set the Milky Way was simply awesome. Dark knots, arms, and it went from horizon to horizon. Objects like M13 and M31 were easily naked-eye visible. I had the refractor set up and spent most of the night working on the Veil nebula. Will report more about that trip later.

06/19/2007 Rush Concert

2010-02-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

Last night I took this picture during the Rush concert, which I attended with my brother in Charlotte, NC. Rush has been my favorite rock band for many years and one of their older songs is titled "Xanadu" - that is how I first learned of the 18th century fantasy poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge about the mythical pleasure dome. My dome, "Xanadu Observatory", is named after this poem.
Rush has inspired other amateur astronomers as well. One observatory owner in Canada has named his dome observatory "Dreamline Observatory" after a more recent Rush song. Rush is an unusual rock band since many of their songs are about science, nature, and even science fiction. For example, they have a lengthy song about Cygnus X-1. One of my favorite songs that they played last night was "Natural Science". They have been going strong for about 30 years which is amazing for any band.
The concert was held in the evening and for the whole time, the crescent moon and Venus shone brightly directly behind us. One song's lyrics (from their new album, Snakes and Arrows), includes the phrase, "You can almost see the planets glowing"; I couldn't help but wonder if Geddy Lee glanced at Venus as he sang that.
I'm typing this as I wait for my plane to return me to Tucson and Xanadu Observatory. Hopefully we'll have some clear weather this week and I'll find some astronomy time.

06/12/2007 A Golden Swan

2010-02-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

The Swan Nebula, M17, is a great summertime object to observe through any telescope. In the eyepiece it really does look like a swan floating on the water. You normally won't see all the surrounding HII nebulosity but it's obvious there are some really strange processes at work in this nebula.
This image is a narrowband filter image that I took on Saturday night from the Astronomers Inn. It's mapped so that H-alpha = Red, OIII = Green, and SII = Blue. The color mapping makes a neat effect that causes the Swan part of the nebula to come out sort of yellowish-gold in color. Narrowband imaging generally produces false-color images but it can be useful in emphasizing certain nebula details.
Click Here to see a larger version of this image.
Today I received the two piers that will be installed in the soon-to-be-built Xanadu West. I can't wait to get that project going but it's likely to be a while until it's complete. The monsoons have started so even if it was ready to go, there would not be a lot of observing going on yet.

06/10/2007 How Many Stars Are There?

2010-02-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure but here are a few of them. This image is Globular Cluster M22, which lies in the summer Milky Way above the teapot. I took this during my night on Kitt Peak a couple of weeks ago, right before sunrise. I didn't have much time but I took about 10 minutes in each color filter and this is the result, quickly processed. Click Here for a larger version of this image. I'm way behind in processing and have a bunch to catch up on.
One look at something like this and you cannot help but feel small and insignificant - there are soooo many stars up there!

06/10/2007 A Night at the Astronomer's Inn

2010-02-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm set up at the Astronomers Inn, a bed-and-breakfast and home of the Vega-Bray Observatory in Benson, Arizona. My friend Dean works here and invited me to come out for an imaging session, and fortunately the weather cooperated.
I've got my refractor imaging M17, the Swan Nebula right now. Earlier I shot Sharpless 9 in H-alpha. It's a warm summer night but the camera's cooling nicely -with the help of the water cooler. This is the first time this season I've needed it.
The Astronomers Inn is really a great place, full of more science stuff than you can imagine. In this picture, taken before sundown tonight, you can see the dome for the 20" Maksutov, the planetarium dome (yes, there is a planetarium inside!), a roll-away observatory, and another dome. There is a also a huge roll-off roof in the middle of the house that has about six large telescopes inside. This place is truly an astronomer's dream house. Yhey even have a radio telescope here. It sits on a small hill and there are a couple of ponds near the bottom. In years past, prior to the passing of Dr. Ed Vega, the TAAA used to have club picnics here. I haven't been here for a long time so I'm really enjoying a chance to come back and enjoy the night here.

06/09/2007 Argo Navis and a Visual Session

2010-02-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

We've had a spell of clear nights recently and I finally took advantage of it tonight and did some observing. I decided to keep it simple and just set up the Dob in the back yard. I had not tried the Argo Navis digital setting circles yet, so I decided to hook it up and see if I could make it work.
I'm pleased to say that it didn't take long to figure it out. I suppose some would call it cheating but I'm a technology lover and anything that makes things easier is o.k. in my book. The Argo Navis unit is similar to a "go-to" system although it's actually more like a "push-to" system, it tells me with little arrows which way to push the scope to reach my target. It wasn't flawless but I suspect I will gradually learn to use it better.
I had a fantastic view of bright Venus in the twilight after sundown. It's a large crescent right now and a beautiful sight. I also observed Saturn and Jupiter, both of which inspired the usual jaw-drop with their amazing appearance.
One goal with the Dob is to pursue some Astronomical League "club" programs, and tonight I dusted off my old Double Star log and added to it a bit.
Overall a it was a nice session but I cut it short as I have bigger plans for tomorrow evening.
There are plenty of other astronomical things going on for me these days. My new membership on the TAAA board has brought some interesting things to thing about. Last Saturday I spent most of the day with the President working on a project, and the meeting on Wed. evening went for 4 hours. More to follow about that but suffice it to say we are working on some rather big plans.
I also submitted my first spectra to the BeSS database, and have been in communication with the site administrator; I'm looking forward to uploading many more Be star spectra in the future.

06/04/2007 Back to Reality

2010-02-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm back home after a bunch of fun astronomy activities. The SAS Conference was fantastic - I learned a lot and met some great people. It really fired me up to work a little harder on the science stuff. One of the best things was that my friend Olivier from France was there. He manufactured the LHIRES III Spectrograph, and was most helpful in finally getting it to first light. We had some great times and collected some good data too.
After SAS was RTMC, and fortunately the skies were clear and, unlike last year, the temperatures were reasonable. During the days I visited vendors, attended workshops, and generally had fun; during the nights I ran the spectrograph. The only down part was that my 12" continued to misbehave. The RA drive is seriously damaged, but it does continue to work if it's treated carefully and the scope is balanced. Unfortunately the slippage is enough to prevent any go-to operations, so all the pointing needed to be done manually. Nonetheless we managed to collect a bunch of spectra, both in high-res mode (2400 lines/mm grating) as well as low-res (300 lines/mm). My setup seemed to attract a lot of attention and there were usually between 3 and 10 people watching while we worked. This picture shows a few onlookers from Saturday night. My friend Alfredo was set up next to me and he took a lot of images despite the nearly full moon. One of our successes was to capture the Asteroid 4 Vesta - Alfredo snapped an image while I took a spectra.
After RTMC I met the family at relatives home in Southern California, and we spent an exhausting 3 days at Disneyland. The only astronomy that I practiced there was during the incredibly fun Space Mountain Roller Coaster Ride. Oh yeah, also Star Tours, and Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters....watch out for those little green men....

05/23/2007 SAS Conference Day 1

2010-02-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the Society for Astronomical Sciences annual symposium. I arrived late last night after working all day. The late night drive up the winding mountain road was a bit scary since the fog was so thick that visibility was near zero, but I made it safely around 2:00 a.m.
The day began early with a workshop on Spectroscopy, one of my favorite areas of astronomy. Gary Cole gave an overview of the history of spectroscopy. Dale Mais followed with an entertaining session where we used small handheld diffraction gratings to observe spectral features in flames and various dangerous gasses. Then Olivier Thizy, who came here from France, gave a hands-on workshop on processing spectral data. It was an excellent session and despite being tired, I really enjoyed it.
At lunch we set up a couple of LHIRES III Spectrographs, and used them to observe the huge number of spectral lines in the Sun. The colors are simply amazing when you observe the Sun this way. The picture is of yours truly gazing in wild wonder at the bright green part of the Solar spectrum.
In the afternoon we had another workshop, on image processing by AIP4WIN author Richard Berry. It was interesting although I don't expect to be using that software very much.
After dinner we had another workshop on using SPIris software to process spectral images. I had planned to set up the 12" and run some spectra tonight, but it got too late and I'm exhausted, so I decided to wait until tomorrow.

05/19/2007 A Perfect First Light Night

2010-02-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

I just got home from an all-nighter on Kitt Peak. What a perfect location for First Light on the new dob! Of course my 15" of aperture pales in the shadows of the professional scopes in the domes atop Kitt Peak, which include the Mayall 4-meter telescope. But it was a lot of fun seeing those domes behind my setup (they're visible in the picture above), and hearing the sounds of purring motors as the observers moved from target to target throughout the night.
I had the refractor set up for imaging, and just used the dob in manual "push-to" mode (I skipped the digital setting circles). Collimation was tricky but we managed to get it fairly good and I was pleased with the results. The first object viewed was M13, then M97 and M108, then a bunch of other nebula, galaxies, and clusters. Jupiter was a grand sight and we watched a moon emerge from a transit and also observed the Great Red Spot as it slipped across the face of the planet during the night.
Larry had first light on his dob as well. He spent a lot of time trying to get the Go-To and tracking devices working, without total success. Dean S. and Dean K. were both set up for imaging.
It was especially great to be able to get out for this night of stargazing because we actually should have still been at the Texas Star Party. Unfortunately the awful weather made us leave early, on Thursday morning. I did present my talk on Amateur Spectroscopy on Wednesday afternoon, and was pleased with a good attendance and lots of interested people in the audience. But there was so much moisture and dire predictions of flooding that we decided to call it quits early.

05/15/2007 Another Stormy Day at TSP

2010-02-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Thunderstorms continue to roll through. A few people have packed up already but many are holding out hope for some clear weather. The forecast is not too good though. Last night I got up around 4 a.m. and it was mostly clear, but seeing must have been bad because stars were twinkling like crazy. Apparently it cleared about 3:30 a.m. but it was still very wet out so I just went back to bed.
Today I had a chance to see the new 100 degree Nagler on display. Al Nagler and the Televue group had it connected to a 127mm refractor, pointed at a star chart on the opposite wall. I looked through it and couldn't believe how wide the field was, far too wide to see with one look - I had to move side to side to take it all in. Really an amazing new item.
In the afternoon I went to visit a friend, BiQing, who is currently on an 11-day observing run at McDonald Observatory. Got a chance to get an "insider's" tour of the 84-inch, which they are using for high-speed photometry.

05/14/2007 It's Official, I'm Obsessed With Astronomy

2010-02-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the proof.
The weather tonight is very bad - thunderstorms have been rolling through and a lot of rain has fallen. There are a lot of covered scopes out on the fields but I fear that some of the attendees are going to find their equipment damaged by the water.
It's rather depressing for astronomers when we're ready for some serious fun and the weather doesn't cooperate. But that goes with the hobby and I guess we all find our own way to deal with it.
I put most of my gear in my truck or Larry's trailer to keep it safe. The CGE mount is double-covered and tied down so it should be safe. One of our friends, Rockett, had his Newtonian blown over by a dust devil today and it broke the secondary mirror. I know of at least one other scope that has been damaged and I've seen a few that look like they are soaked due to inadequate covering.
However there was a lot of fun to be had today anyway, socializing with others and talking astronomy. The high point of the day was right after lunch, when Larry and I took delivery of two new Obsession Dobsonian telescopes. Mine is a 15" and Larry got an 18". Of course we were dying to give them a first light run but right now it seems quite possible that we won't get to do that at all during TSP - the weather predictions are rather dire for the remainder of the week.

05/13/2007 Texas Star Party - The Fun Begins!

2010-02-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

The stars at night, are big and bright, deep in the heart, of Texas!
Well I am finally here after months of waiting. TSP 2007 has officially begun. I actually drove out here yesterday with my friend Larry, and several other friends have joined us today. Although I've been running on very little sleep lately, and I was tired after 9 hours of driving, the clear sky last night was irresistable. So I dug down deep for enough energy to set up the scopes and play for a short while.
This is my first TSP '07 image, it is the incredible globular cluster NGC 5139, also known as Omega Centuari. Click here for a larger version and more information about this image.
This was a very quick image - only 5 x 1 minutes for each L,R,G,B. After it was finished I was just too tired to carry on, so I missed out on a fantastic night. I can only hope that we get more like it - unfortunately the weather prediction at this time isn't too good, with thunderstorms likely in a couple of days.
I really needed this astronomy fix - it's been a long spring and while I'm grateful to have plenty of work to pay the bills, it's also important to find time now and then to appreciate the calm beauty of our world and the universe around it.
There's a lot more fun in store this week, whether it's bad weather or not. On Wednesday I will be one of the afternoon speakers with a talk on spectroscopy. I have the spectrographs with me and hope to capture some good data while I'm here.
More to follow....

05/06/2007 Team Pluto

2010-02-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of our Pluto occultation event team, taken during a meeting this morning on Kitt Peak. From left to right are me, Steve Peterson, Victor Herrero, Jesus Finol, Claude Plymate, and Don Jennings. We're standing in front of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Strangely enough, Don and Claude used this solar telescope, which was built to observe the brightest star in our sky, to observe Pluto that evening. It took some ingenuity for them to accomplish this; for example, Claude used the primary lens from a cheap Celestron refractor as a focal reducer in the light path. Not only that, but they were observing in the near-infrared K-band, which also meant an even fainter target. Nevertheless they did obtain useful data.
This whole project has been a lot of fun and the data is still being analyzed, but we do know that our data using a 14" scope and cheap CCD closely matched that from the bigger scopes. Eventually it will (hopefully) be published in a paper somewhere.
During the meeting I also got a highly detailed insider's tour of the solar scope. We even got to observe Venus visually through it!
Some of the gear used for the Pluto event was similar to that currently in use on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, which is currently in the neighborhood of Jupiter and well on its way to the target planet.
Of course being on Kitt Peak is always a lot of fun, I can never tire of seeing domes of various sizes all over the place and "Quiet Please, Astronomers Sleeping" signs. Steve has been working at the Advanced Observing Program on Kitt Peak lately, so he was able to give us a tour of the dome that is used for that. It houses a 20" RC on a Paramount; my dream system.
I haven't had any time for imaging or observing lately but the Texas Star Party is coming soon. Two nights ago (Friday) was the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association meeting. I was elected to the Board of Directors as a "Member at Large" - perhaps they have noticed my ever-expanding torso. I also gave a brief talk during the meeting as it was members' night.
Last night was the Huachuca Astronomy Club meeting. I drove down but had to meet with a client before, and ended up missing the majority of the presentation by David Healy on his "Junk Bond Observatory". But I still managed to enjoy a little bit of it, and also got to chat with several other members who plan to attend TSP.
I have tons of work to do before heading out next week so probably not much astronomy will be happening until then.

04/30/2007 Leo 1 Group of Galaxies

2010-02-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here's an image that I took about 2 1/2 months ago, on Feb. 16th. It shows 3 of the galaxies catalogued by Charles Messier - M95, M96, and M105 - along with a few bonus galaxies. In fact many of the "stars" in this image are actually galaxies as well. Click here for a larger version of this image.
The RCX would have been a much better choice for these targets (although they wouldn't have fit in a single field of view), but since it has been set up for spectroscopy for quite a while now I have not used it much for imaging. One of these days I really want to get the imaging camera back on, but that may not happen until the new observatory is built.
Yard work is continuing in preparation for Xanadu West. There is a lot of clearing to be done and we're also making some other changes back there so it's taking a while. I already have the shed waiting to be built, but the piers have not arrived yet. Eventually I plan to have a 10x13 shed with a removable roof, housing two piers; I'll be collecting tons of data!
Speaking of data, I had a terrible experience yesterday...I was in the process of moving and backing up older imaging data and somehow managed to lose almost all of my 2006 original data. The irony is that it happened while I was intentionally organizing things so as to prevent data loss! Needless to say I am upset about that. So many lessons to learn in this hobby. Fortunately most of the useful data had already been processed, but it's good to keep old data in case you want to try new processing tricks, or need to check for a supernova, etc. I did lose a lot of data on M42 that I had hoped to spend some serious time on.
Texas Star Party is coming soon, less than 2 weeks until I'll be on the road. Sadly the family cannot come with me, but several friends will be there. I'm scheduled to give an afternoon talk on amateur spectroscopy; I'm really excited about that. Plus there's going to be a new scope delivered to me at TSP...let's just say that hopefully the eyepieces will no longer be getting dusty!

04/23/2007 Back in Action

2010-02-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it has been over 3 weeks since I've posted a blog. Tax season was my busiest ever and I'm still in recovery. I missed a lot of clear nights but I try to remind myself that I'm blessed to have plenty of business; it certainly helps pay the bills and keep the family clothed and fed, so I know I should be grateful. However it really is discouraging to see a beautiful clear night slip by, knowing that another observing opportunity has gone forever.
Enough of that, though, it's time to get back in action! I've got a bunch of observing and imaging projects that I want to get moving on. I've spent a few hours with the scopes this past week, but I've been so tired that I really needed to catch up on the rest as well, so not a lot of new data yet. I'm also beginning the Xanadu West observatory project, which means a lot of yardwork. In fact yesterday I managed to get quite a sunburn while I worked on it. It will probably be at least a few weeks and possibly even a couple of months before the new observatory is built. My plan is to have a large shed converted to a roofless observatory, which will house two scopes. The dome will be home to a third. Once that is all done, I'll be able to collect a lot of data on clear nights!
This image is from last night, I had hoped to image and collect a spectrum of the famous quasar 3C273. I got the image, but the spectrum proved to be too much of a challenge for my presently tired little brain. I could place the quasar on the slit, but couldn't get the tracking to work adequately (it's a 13 magnitude object which is really pushing the limits for the spectrograph). Light from 3C273 has been travelling approximately 2 billion years to reach us!
Click here for a larger version of the image. I'll keep working on the spectrum.
Oh yeah, only 3 weeks until Texas Star Party!!!! I'm really excited about going again, and I'm going to be a speaker there on Wednesday afternoon as well. Larry will be taking delivery of a new 18" Obsession; Dean will have his new Epsilon 180 collecting photons from faint nebulae; and I will, unquestionably, along with about 700 or so other amateur astronomers, being having a fantastic week of star partying.

04/01/2007 Clear Skies, Little or No Progress

2010-02-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight is yet another beautiful clear night. The moon's full but that shouldn't be stopping me from taking advantage of the photon collection.
What is stopping me is the heavy workload of tax season. My chosen profession requires a serious mental commitment for a few months each year and as a result the astronomy activities (along with many others) slow to a snail's pace.
I've only had the telescopes operational for a few nights in the past month or so. In addition, my progress in image processing for data obtained before the work onslaught has also slowed considerably.
Here's an image that I took at Steve's place back on February 17th - about one and a half months ago. It is part of The Seagull Nebula, also known as IC2177. This region is interesting as it shows both absorption and emission features. Click here to see a larger version of this image.
I have a lot of other unprocessed data, both images and spectra. But for now it will most likely remain in raw .fits file format, or if I do process it, I won't spend a lot of time doing so. I processed this IC2177 data in less than an hour.
In a couple of weeks things will settle down a little bit. Most likely the streak of good weather will end by then, but I'm looking forward to getting back to observing. Also, I expect to do some major observatory work starting in a few weeks.

03/25/2007 Pluto Station 3, Daily Report, Collin Ord

2010-02-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here's something that will either create a thrilling sense of excitement or make you yawn. It's a plot, created by my friends Victor and Steve, of the Pluto occultation event last weekend.
Although I was present, my involvement here was minimal; I was busy taking images and spectral data. Victor and Steve put an awful lot of time into planning this event, gathering the data, and now they are still in the process of the data reduction, analysis, and follow-up.
The data will probably be used in conjunction with data obtained by other amateurs as well as some professionals, including a few on nearby Kitt Peak. I didn't realize what a stir would result; my inbox has been buzzing with e-mails flying back and forth as the collaborating members give their input. It's really been an interesting experience.
This data shows a rather obvious dip in magnitude as Pluto passed in front of the star. There is currently some talk that perhaps at our latitude, we had more of a grazing occultation, i.e. the star was occulted by an atmosphere around Pluto rather than passing directly behind the planet from our point of view here in Southern Arizona.
For more information about our Pluto star party, including some pictures, click here to see Victor's Pluto Stellar Occultation Observation website. Also, an excellent writeup and data from the event can be seen on Bruce Gary's Pluto Occultation site.
By the way, the title to tonight's blog is based on one of my all-time favorite old-time radio shows, "Hallucination Orbit" on X-Minus One. The show is about a person stationed on Pluto.

03/19/2007 MM, Pluto, Supernove 2007af, Nova Cygni 2007: One Fun Night!

2010-02-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I finally got a chance to do some observing, work has really been taking a toll lately and lots of missed clear skies for me.
The original plan was to head North for the All Arizona Messier Marathon. But I ended up going instead to Steve's observatory. I'm sure the MM'ers had a wonderful time up there and I missed a good party - I hear there were about 140 people there. After "winning" the event last year I was hoping to go back for another one, but for various reasons the decision was made on Saturday morning not to go.
That doesn't mean I didn't have a great astronomy night though. I packed up and made the much shorter trip to Steve's to join him, Victor, Chip, Larry, and Mike for a smaller, multi-purpose event.
The main event was the occultation of a faint star by Pluto, which occurred around 3:30 a.m. Steve and Victor spent about two weeks planning to do a photometry run, using his C14 and one of my CCD cameras (an ST-402ME). The '402 was a good choice because it provides very fast downloads, needed to capture a high number of short images over the 6 minutes or so of occultation. They were successful in this venture and it will be interesting to see the final results of the data analysis.
I was also interested in two very recently discovered astronomical events. Supernova 2007af, in the faint spiral galaxy NGC 5584, was one target. I did manage to capture some data which clearly shows the SN, but I have not had a chance to process it yet (actually I still need some matching dark frames). The other target was a new Nova in Cygnus, also an early morning object, which was discovered just a few days ago. I was able to get some decent H-alpha images of the nova as well as some spectral data. The spectra show a very bright, wide emission at H-alpha. I'm anxious to process this data and share it in a timely fashion but I also need darks for this. The reason I need darks is that the weather has warmed up considerably in Tucson, so the coldest I was able to run the cameras was at -20C; since I have not had much imaging time lately, most of my useable darks are at colder temperatures.
Of course we also spent some time running a mini-Messier Marathon, observing a number of the M-objects visually, although not as many as I observed last weekend. But given the success with the other targets I didn't end up feeling too greatly disappointed about the incomplete MM.
All-in-all another great astronomy night, enough to keep me looking up during the upcoming week which will probably be my toughest one yet of this tax season.
This image shows Chip's C8 in the foreground along with the big C14 (on an AP mount) in the background. The heavy clouds did eventually clear out, by about 9 p.m. local time we were mosty in the clear.

03/11/2007 Star Party at MM44

2010-02-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

Last night was a really excellent observing night. The sky was dark (at least until about 1 a.m., before moonrise) and seeing and transparency were good. I was fortunate to be able to enjoy the night at the MM44 site with some good friends, including Alfredo. This picture shows Alfredo with his usual setup, imaging with a piggybacked refractor on a f/6.3 LX200.
I've had a lot of star parties with Alfredo and tonight's was a bit of a "going-away" party since he will likely be moving soon. I know we'll see him again though. Also at the MM44 party tonight were Steve and his brother-in-law Richard, with their 8" Ultima and 10" Dob. We had hoped for a couple of others but they didn't make it, too bad because the sky was really nice.
I was too tired from working so much lately to set up for imaging, so I just put up the 12" LX200GPS and popped an eyepiece in for some visual. I'm glad I did, it has been too long since I've really enjoyed visual observing, and my visual skills might be getting a bit rusty.
The Messier Marathon is next week and I'm planning to do it, so tonight I did some practicing. I didn't really get started until about 9:30 and I purposely made it a casual practice run, but I still managed to snag 67 of the 110 Messier objects before moonrise. Most of the rest would not have been visible until later anyway - there is a "lull" period around 1:30 a.m. where Marathoners are waiting for the next targets to rise.
The temperature was really nice (stayed above 60 degrees most of the time we were out there), and virtually no breeze - just the kind of perfect night that casual stargazers hope for. It would be really great if we got the same weather next weekend!
On the way home I was considering stopping in at another star party, this one at Steve's (the other Steve) observatory. They were planning to do a trial run for the Pluto occultation next week, Steve will be using one of my cameras to attempt to get some photometry data during the event. Unfortunately it is the same night as the Messier Marathon and I'm going to do that instead, but it sure sounds like a fun project. Anyway I didn't end up stopping there, tried to call to see if they were still at it and got no answer so I just continued on home to get some much needed rest.

03/09/2007 Saturn Continues to Put on a Show

2010-02-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

If you haven't looked at Saturn recently, you need to do so. It's near opposition still so the planet is nice and big. Lots of moons can be seen, and of course the rings always please.
I took this image tonight during a rather short session in the dome, using a Phillips webcam and the 14" RCX. It's a stack of a couple of hundred exposures, which were taken as an .avi movie, which was then fed into the freeware program Registax. Total camera time was only about 60 seconds. It just amazes me what we can do these days as amateurs. Sure, there are currently pictures coming out of NASA's Cassini mission that make mine look amateur; but I get more pleasure sitting in the warm night air and taking my own image than I do looking at theirs.
Which reminds me, the hot weather is coming on fast. I think the cold nights are gone for a while around here.
I missed blogging about the Saturday night Huachuca Astronomy Club meeting; a few of us (Dean, Larry, Steve, and myself) drove down and enjoyed a great talk by Adam Block. Adam's topic was Contrast in image processing and as always I learned a few important tips. His knowledge about image processing seems endless. We also saw the full moon rising as we drove down, but could not identify any effect from the lunar eclipse; I think it had finished a few minutes before rising for us here in the Western U.S.
The weather prediction for the next few nights is clear, so I'm hoping to get in some limited observing. My focus these days is on tax season so any astronomy adventures will be a bit tempered. But there a bunch of astronomical events coming up soon, including next weekend's Messier Marathon and Pluto Occultation.

03/02/2007 A Serious (Seriously) TAAA Meeting

2010-02-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

A long week at work, lots of missed observing time, but I was able to make it to the monthly TAAA meeting tonight.
Our guest speaker was Dr. Jay Holberg, who gave an excellent talk about the brightest star in the sky, Alpha Canis Major, better known as Sirius. Dr. Holberg has written a book about Sirius, and he certainly knows the subject - he has even had numerous observing runs with various space telescopes to observe it.
Sirius actually has a faint white dwarf companion. Sirius B has a roughly 50-year orbital period and is currently moving farther from the planet - it will soon be possible to observe it with amateur instruments.
The history of the discovery of Sirius B is a fascinating story. I'm always intrigued by the human side of astronomical history - many stories include failures, infighting, passionate debates, etc., and Sirius is no exception.
When I left the meeting, I looked up to see Sirius shining brightly down, but I held a newfound respect for it.

02/27/2007 Crowded Fields

2010-02-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a rather crowded looking field. Of course these galaxies are actually far apart from a human perspective, but in a telescope they seem to be rather close together. The main two galaxies in this image are M89 and M90; they make up part of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, which includes 16 Messier objects all within a very narrow region of the sky.
Also visible in this image are many other galaxies, for example IC 3583 near M90, and NGC 4531, which were too faint for Messier's little telescope.
I took this image about 10 days ago during our astrophotography special interest group (sig) star party at Steve's house. The wind had already started howling so the images didn't all come out nicely, but I got enough to show a few of the more prominent features of these galaxies. M90 shows spiral arms and a lack of blue star forming regions; M89 presents a classical elliptical galaxy shape.
Another "crowded field" is present in my own life these days. My work is in the usual near-madness phase that accompanies tax season each year; I'm blessed to have a fruitful business but it does require a lot of sacrifice. That includes less astronomy nights - we have had a run of beautiful clear, transparent, steady nights but I've been too exhausted to take advantage of them. However, I must confess that I did take a few days off last week to go on a 50-mile canoe trip with my family and the Scout troop. We had a great time, and I was able to do some naked eye observing in the dark skies in Northern Arizona. I observed numerous objects including Mira, M42, Saturn, the First Quarter Moon, and in the early morning, Jupiter (we got up really early to start each day's 17-mile leg of the trip). The highlight of the trip was seeing a huge bald eagle seated atop a hill.

02/20/07 MIra Again

2010-02-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

Mira is still putting on quite a show. Since I took the spectrum on February 10th, it's brightened about another half-magnitude visually.
On Friday night at Steve's, I took more spectra, but as noted in the last blog it appears that all of that data is gone forever. However, I also took an image through the refractor using the other computer, so here it is. The bright green ring is just a filter artifact, in reality the star is an orangish-red color.
It's shining brightly in the South, and I highly recommend observing it since this year's maximum is the brightest in a long time. It's fascinating to think what physical processes must be taking place to cause this star to undergo such major fluctuations. Mira is well-studied and has a well-accepted theory for why it changes. See this link at the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) to get a very good writeup on Mira.

02/20/07 A Bright Nova and a Brilliant Deduction

2010-02-07T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Bright Nova is of course, V1280 Scorpius, which was recently discovered and is thrilling observers with a dramatic brightening.
The Brilliant Deduction is one that I didn't make, and sadly I am paying a high price.
On Friday night, we had a star party for the astroimaging SIG at Steve's Vail View Observatory. The night started out great and I set up two scopes - the refractor for imaging, and the LX200 for some spectrograph work.
Two cameras seemed like a lot to put on a single computer, so I decided to put an old laptop to work on the spectrograph. The computer has some problems, for example it shorts out and randomly shuts down if the battery is left in, but I went ahead and used it anyway. And it performed admirably, collecting data throughout the night with no trouble. This is where a brilliant deduction might have saved me. If a computer is having major problems, well it might not be a good idea to use it at all; and if you do, you'd better save your data to an external disc regularly.
I was pretty excited to be able to get a spectrum for the nova, which didn't rise until shortly before sunrise. The weather took a turn for the worse as high winds kicked up, but I kept pushing along because I really wanted the spectra. I also took the image above with the refractor. Even at 10 second integrations the star was too bright, as evidenced by the blooms (I decided not to remove them). The wind was wreaking havoc and resulted in more than half of the images being smeared as the telescope was being whipped about.
Maybe it was the cold and wind, or maybe my tiredness, but for some reason I neglected to plug in the thumb drive to back up my spectral data after twilight arrived. I just shut things down and packed it home, thinking I would get the data later. BIG Mistake - upon trying to start the computer, I discovered that Windows had become corrupted. I've been trying ever since to get the data - I think it's probably still there - but I'm losing hope that I will ever retrieve it.
So, the moral of the story is, back it up!

02/15/2007 Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

The date says 02/15/2007 but I'm actually posting this at about 11:00 p.m. local time on V-day. Took my beautiful wife to a Valentine's Day Banquet at our church tonight, which has become sort of our traditional way of spending the holiday.
But hey, this is an astronomy blog, so I'll stay on topic. After we got home I glanced up at the sky, which was partly cloudy, but there was enough clearing to see plenty of stars. Among them was bright Mira, which appropriately for Valentine's Day was shining bright red in color.
I didn't attempt a magnitude estimate but it's definitely bright. According to many recent posts on the various e-mail discussion list, such as the AAVSO list, Mira is exceptionally bright this time around, some estimates have put it in the V-mag ~ 2 range.
I'm hoping the weather will clear up enough this weekend for some more Mira observing. I'd like to image it and get some more spectra (see my post a few nights ago for a Mira spectrum). Today was very rainy and cold.