2009 Archives
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30 June 2009 |
You probably have not heard of the Eagle Nebula (or M16, as it is also known) but you've probably seen the famous Hubble photo of its massive towers of dust and gas: the Pillars of Creation.
I don't remember where I first saw that image, but I remember thinking how beautiful and amazing it looked. For the first time I could imagine this distant nebula as a real place.
Now I've finally captured that nebula with my own modest equipment. While it does not compare to Hubble's iconic image, it does connect me, in some small way, to that magnificent object.
The Astrotourist: M16 |
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20 June 2009 |
Just because the skies are clear doesn't mean that it will be a good night for astrophotography. Sometimes the skies are turbulent because of winds or temperature changes. On those nights the stars will twinkle ferociously and looking at the sky through a telescope will be like looking at the bottom of a clear lake on a windy day.
Astronomers call that "bad seeing" and it causes the light from distant stars to flicker and jump. Needless to say this distorts astronomical images, leaving them blurry and wavy.
The image on the left is a shot of the galaxy M101 under good seeing conditions. The one on the right shows the same galaxy, taken with the same equipment, on a night of poor seeing.
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8 April 2009 |
object | type | location | mag | size | skill |
M65 | sg | Leo 11H 18.9m +13°5' | 9.3 | 8' × 1.5' | Beginner |
M66 | sg | Leo 11H 20.2m +12°59' | 8.9 | 8' × 2.5' | Beginner |
M95 | sg | Leo 10H 44m +11°42' | 9.7 | 4.4' × 3.3' | Intermediate |
M96 | sg | Leo 10H 46.8m +11°49' | 9.2 | 6' × 4' | Intermediate |
M97 Owl Nebula | pn | UMa 11H 14.8m +55°1' | 9.9 | 3.4' × 3.3' | Intermediate |
M108 | sg | UMa 11H 11.5m +55°40' | 10 | 8' × 1' | Intermediate |
M109 | sg | UMa 11H 57.6m +53°23' | 9.8 | 7' × 4' | Intermediate |
NGC 3115 The Spindle | lg | Sex 10H 5.2m -7°43' | 8.9 | 6.9' × 3.4' | Intermediate |
NGC 3242 Ghost of Jupiter | pn | Hya 10H 24.77m -18°38.55' | 7.3 | 45" × 36" | Intermediate |
NGC 3344 | sg | LMi 10H 43.5m +24°55' | 9.3 | 6.7' × 6.3' | Intermediate |
NGC 3521 | sg | Leo 11H 5.8m -0°2' | 9.1 | 11.7' × 6.5' | Intermediate |
NGC 3628 | sg | Leo 11H 20.3m +13°35' | 9.5 | 14.8' × 3.3' | Intermediate |
NGC 3184 | sg | UMa 10H 18.3m +41°25.4' | 9.8 | 7.4' × 6.9' | Advanced |
NGC 3338 | sg | Leo 10H 42.1m +13°45' | 10.8 | 5.5' | Advanced | NGC 3718 | sg | UMa 11H 32.6m +53°4' | 10.5 | 8.7' | Advanced |
NGC 3938 | sg | UMa 11H 52.8m +44°7' | 10.4 | 5.4' | Advanced |
NGC 3953 | sg | UMa 11H 53.8m +52°20' | 10.1 | 6.6' | Advanced |
The most popular target in April is the Leo triplet, a grouping of three beautiful spirals: M65, M66, and NGC 3628, but there are other, less famous, galaxies this month that are well worth capturing.
Read more... |
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30 March 2009 |
Unravelling the nature of M82 took almost two centuries and required dozens of independent insights from many astronomers. But Johann Bode, the one who first spotted those two faint patches of light and wrote them down in his journal, is the only name commonly associated with M81 and M82. Those other astronomers? I confess I don't even know their names.
The Astrotourist: M82 |
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13 March 2009 |
February 1, 2003. It’s a little before 9 AM and in 20 minutes the Space Shuttle Columbia is scheduled to land in Florida. In Mission Control, mechanical systems officer Jeff Kling notices two sensors on Columbia’s left wing have cut out. A few moments later, two more cut out. He discusses it with flight director LeRoy Cain, but neither can explain the event. How could four independent sensors just suddenly stop working?
But then Cain remembers back to Columbia’s launch and the large chunk of foam that hit the shuttle as it was rocketing up at supersonic speeds. The debris had hit Columbia’s left wing. Could the loss of the sensors be related? It couldn’t be, thinks Cain. It has to be a coincidence.
Read more... |
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4 March 2009 |
March is the beginning of galaxy season!
In its trek around the sun the Earth's nightside sometimes faces the disk of our galaxy. When that happens we see the band of the Milky Way high above us. But as the Milky Way dips towards the horizon, we see what lies beyond our little metropolis of stars—and that means galaxies of all kinds.
object | type | location | mag | size | skill |
M81 Bode's Galaxy | sg | UMa 9H 55.6m +69°04' | 6.9 | 21' × 10' | Beginner |
M82 | sg | UMa 9H 55.8m +69°41' | 8.4 | 9' × 4' | Beginner |
NGC 2683 | sg | Lyn 8H 52.7m +33°25' | 10.6 | 9.3' × 2.2' | Intermediate |
NGC 2841 | sg | UMa 9H 22.0m +50°58' | 9.3 | 8.1' | Intermediate |
NGC 2903 | sg | Leo 9H 32.2m +21°30' | 8.9 | 12.6' × 6.6' | Intermediate |
Arp 245 | sg | Hya 9H 45.7m -14°20' | 11.9 | 4.1' | Advanced | NGC 2613 | sg | Pyx 8H 33.4m -22°58' | 10.4 | 7.2' | Advanced |
NGC 2654 | sg | UMa 8H 49.2m +60°13' | 11.8 | 4.3' | Advanced |
NGC 2775 | sg | Cnc 9H 10.3m +7°02' | 10.3 | 4.5' | Advanced |
Read more... |
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3 March 2009 |
Darren Zenko writes about Transcendence in Edmonton's Vue Weekly. I love this quote:
"The best part is when you play for long enough, get into the hypno-zone that lets you X-ray-view straight through the sci-fi surface and down into pure, universal mechanics: when you look at a “stargate” and see a “dungeon stairway,” a “ROM upgrade” and see a “magic scroll,” a “barrel labelled NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION” and see a “potion,” you’re seeing through the illusion, not “suspending disbelief” but building up disbelief to such a degree that you’re not just playing a game, you’re playing all games"
Read the full article.
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8 February 2009 |
In November 1999 the Hubble Space Telescope suddenly stopped working. Another gyroscope had failed, leaving the telescope with only two working ones—without at least three working gyroscopes, the telescope lost its bearings, unable to tell which way it was pointing.
Fortunately, only a few weeks later, a Space Shuttle orbiter rendezvoused with Hubble and four astronauts repaired the multi-billion dollar telescope in a series of spacewalks. To test out the newly repaired observatory, scientists on Earth commanded it to point to a target and take some pictures. The result was magnificent—the telescope had been fully repaired. And the target that Hubble captured, a bright planetary nebula known as the Eskimo Nebula, was revealed in all its glory.
My shot of the Eskimo Nebula (or NGC 2392) is of course far inferior to Hubble's. Nevertheless, there is something very satisfying in capturing the same object. You don't need a ten billion dollar space program to enjoy the night sky. All you need is some modest equipment, a little luck, and a lot of patience.
The Astrotourist: NGC 2392 |
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1 February 2009 |
Astronomers love catalogs the way physicists love graph paper and biologists love gooey biological stuff. When I bought my first CCD camera, I didn't need a catalog: My target choices were either the Orion Nebula or the Whirlpool Galaxy. Everything else looked like a brownish blob of varying texture and fuzziness.
Now that cameras (and my skills) have improved, I have more choices. Every month I pore through my catalogs in search of interesting objects that might make good pictures. Last month I wrote down my favorite objects for January. This month I list my favorite objects between 6 and 8 hours of Right Ascension, that is, those objects that happen to be pretty high in the sky at night in February:
object | type | location | mag | size | skill |
NGC 2264 Christmas Tree Cluster | dn | Mon 6H 41.0m +9°54' | 4.4 | 40' × 40' | Beginner |
NGC 2174 Monkey Head Nebula | dn | Ori 6H 9.7m +20°30' | - | 40' × 40' | Intermediate |
NGC 2244 Rosette Nebula | dn | Mon 6H 34.4m +4°52' | 4.8 | 80' × 60' | Intermediate |
NGC 2261 Hubble's Variable Nebula | dn | Mon 6H 39.2m +8°44' | ~10 | 2' × 2' | Intermediate |
NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet | dn | CMa 7H 18.6m -13°12' | - | 10' × 10' | Intermediate |
NGC 2392 Eskimo Nebula | pn | Gem 7H 29.2m +20°55' | 10 | 47" × 43" | Intermediate |
NGC 2403 | sg | Cam 7H 36.9m +65°36' | 8.4 | 29' × 13' | Intermediate | NGC 2467 (Sharpless 2-331) | dn | Pup 7H 52.6m -26°23' | 7 | 16' × 16' | Intermediate |
IC 2177 Seagull Nebula | dn | Mon 7H 5.1m -10°42' | - | ~2° × 2° | Advanced |
NGC 2346 | pn | Mon 7H 9.4m -0°48' | - | 54" × 54" | Advanced |
NGC 2371 & NGC 2372 | pn | Gem 7H 25.6m +29°29' | 13 | 50" × 90" | Advanced |
NGC 2440 | pn | Pup 7H 41.9m -18°13' | 11 | 30" × 30" | Advanced |
Read more... |
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23 January 2009 |
M78 was harder to capture than I expected. The faint nebulae and dark clouds required a lot of exposure time and some aggressive processing.
The Astrotourist: M78 |
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11 January 2009 |
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James Murff who writes the Freeware Friday column at Big Download just posted a review of Transcendence. I like this quote:
"Imagine if Nethack and Star Control 2 got together and had a top-down illegitimate child that went on to bigger and better things. That's Transcendence in a nutshell."
One correction: Transcendence now runs on Linux after much hard work by Benn Bollay (GambitDash).
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10 January 2009 |
Photo of Ray Ozzie and David Treadwell by magerleagues. Some rights reserved.
Winning isn't everything, but it's nice when it happens. Live Mesh won the 2008 Crunchie award for Best Technological Innovation or Achievement. We were up against Google Chrome (which I thought was going to win) and Facebook Connect (which got second place).
The list of companies and products that were nominated for Crunchie awards reads like a who's who of trendy, cool start ups and products. It's a world that Microsoft doesn't often appear in (our business enterprise competitors, IBM and Oracle, for example are nowhere near it).
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9 January 2009 |
M77 has been badly neglected photographically, at least compared to more popular galaxies like M51 and NGC 891. The Hubble Space Telescope hasn't imaged the whole thing yet, though both Robert Gendler and Russell Croman have (which is almost as good).
One reason for skipping M77 is that it is very difficult to capture. The long exposures required to bring out its faint outer arms often leave its bright central core overexposed. Nevertheless, the results are worth it. I love its tightly wound disk and the contrast with its faint outer arms. It looks a lot like M94, which is another favorite of mine.
The Astrotourist: M77 |
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1 January 2009 |
With the beginning of the New Year we say goodbye to the galaxies of Andromeda and say hello to the nebulae of Orion. January is the best month to capture the Orion Nebula, the most famous nebula in the sky and probably the easiest deep space object to photograph. But there are many other nebulous objects to capture this month.
These are some of my favorites:
object | type | location | mag | size | skill |
M1 Crab Nebula | sn | Tau 5H 34.5m +22°01' | 8.4 | 6' × 4' | Beginner |
M42 Orion Nebula | dn | Ori 5H 35.3m -5°23' | 3.7 | 90' × 60' | Beginner |
NGC 1977 Running Man | dn | Ori 5H 35.5m -4°52' | 6.3 | 20' × 10' | Beginner |
Horsehead Nebula | dn | Ori 5H 41.0m -2°27' | - | 6' × 4' | Intermediate |
IC 405 Flaming Star Nebula | dn | Aur 5H 16.2m +34°16' | 9.2 | 30' × 20' | Intermediate |
M78 | dn | Ori 5H 46.7m +0°03' | 8.0 | 8' × 6' | Intermediate |
NGC 1499 California Nebula | dn | Per 4H 03.3m +36°25' | 6.0 | ~3° × 1° | Intermediate |
NGC 1999 | dn | Ori 5H 36.5m -6°42' | 9.5 | 2' × 2' | Intermediate |
NGC 2024 Flame Nebula | dn | Ori 5H 41.9m -1°51' | 7.2 | 30' × 30' | Intermediate |
IC 418 | pn | Lep 5H 27.5m -12°42' | 9.1 | 14" × 11" | Advanced |
IC 2118 Witch Head Nebula | dn | Ori 5H 02.0m -7°54' | - | ~3° × 1° | Advanced |
NGC 1501 | pn | Cam 4H 07.0m +60°55' | 10.6 | 56" × 48" | Advanced |
NGC 1535 | pn | Eri 4H 14.3m -12°44' | 9.1 | 48" × 42" | Advanced | Simeis 147 | sn | Tau 5H 39.1m +28°00' | - | ~3° × 3° | Advanced |
Read more... |
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