More images from the 4 inch refractor

The remaining images from the early hours of yesterday morning. All images have north at the top and east to the left.

M37

M38IC 1871

IC 1795 (left) and NGC 896 (right)Double Cluster in PerseusNGC 7635 or Caldwell C11NGC 7538Lorenzin Sharpless 2 - 157IC 5366Planetary Nebula 422-4.1NGC 281IC 59 with Gamma Cassiopeia at the bottom. 

A good day yesterday - Philae landed - 3 hours of clear sky observing - worked out how to add APASS data in SkyX to any field of view!

M31Last night was clear and I used the 4 inch refractor with my SBIG Camera to image some interesting objects. Having aligned the mount I connected it to the SkyX. This controlled both the camera and the CGEM mount. When I slewed the scope sometimes it was very accurate pointing but sometimes it missed the object completely but was close. This was easily fixed by solving the incorrectly placed image and then synchronising the mount with the centre of the image taken I then reslewed to the target and it would be dead centre. I took the image of M31 on the left at 2.13 a.m. this morning - the last object I imaged before I had to stop to get some sleep. The plate solution details are shown. This tells me that the positioning of the camera is only 7 minutes away from the North-South line - can't really get better than that! The field of view of M31 (and all of the following images taken last night) is 54 minutes by 54 minutes - so almost a square degree.  The plate scale is 6.33 arcseconds per pixel. I usually use this camera with my Celestron 14 which has a plate scale of 1.44 arcseconds per pixel.

M33North is up in this image with east to the left. The bright object at the bottom is the companion galaxy M32.  The other companion galaxy M110 is not visible in this image.  S J O'Meara  has a sketch of M31 in his book "The Messier Objects" which is very similar to this image. 

I also imaged M33 on the right last night - one of my favourite objects. It is located in the constellation of Triangulum

The chart shows its location - the actual image is placed in the chart to scale to show its size. M33 is smaller than M31 but usually more detail shows as its central area is not as bright as M31. The M33 image was taken at 2.03 a.m. this morning. It is usually referred to as the Pinwheel galaxy. It is about 2.3 million light years away. This is a 60 second image with no guiding. M33 is a member of our local group. Burnham devotes several pages to M33 and  reports that it was found by Messier in August 1764.

The next object is the open cluster M35 in Gemini. I took this image at 1.56 a.m. this morning. Burnham M35comments that it is "visible in opera glasses as a nebula" and that Messier recorded it in August 1764 - as M33 above. Of course this is a clusyter within our own Galaxy so is considerably nearer than M33 - less than 3000 Light Years as opposed to less than 3 million for M33!! North is up and east is to the left in this image. As I know the diameter of this field is 54 minutes of arc from the plate solution I can estimate the diameter of this cluster to be about 30 to 40 minutes - hard to know where to draw the circle! The smaller cluster at the bottom right is NGC 2158 - another galactic star cluster like M35 - but in reality much further away. The Simbad database gives a distance of 8472 parsecs which is about 27000 light years - 8 or 9 times the distance of M36M35.

At 1.48 a.m.I took an image of M36 in Auriga (left). Another galactic cluster with a diameter of 10 to 15 arc minutes or so - sitting on the Milky Way along with the two other clusters I always associate with M36 - i.e. M37 and M38. M36 was discovered in the 18th century and according to Burnham contains about 60 stars with magnitudes between 9 and 14. 

To be continued......

Philae Landing Day - Landing time

Quite an exciting day for the European Space Agency with the Philae lander due to go down to the surface of Comet 67P. The predicted landing time is 16:02 U.T. so in the UK that will be 4.02 p.m. G.M.T. which is currently local time there and here in Spain it will be 17:02 local time. Yesterday's issue of the Amateur Night Sky Daily concentrated on the mission to 67P so if you click on Archive at the top of today's issue and select the 11th November 2014 you will be able to read it. There is more in today's issue.

A look at Burnham's Celestial Handbook and Lowell Observatory.

 To set the scene these are Burnham's comments on amateur astronomers from the book

The front cover of Volume 1 of 3

 A brief video about the Celestial Handboo

The reasoning behind the creation of the book - courtesy of the New York Village voice

This is Robert Burnham Jnr.

The first page

This explains how Burnham obtained the images for the book from the plate collection,and no doubt much of the reference information - from the Lowell Observatory Library in Arizona. I visited the observatory on the same road trip that I happened to come across the books for sale in Colorado. When Burnham had to leave Lowell at the end of the project he was working on - he was offered the job of janitor - which he turned down.

Many of the images in the book were taken with the 13 inch Pluto discovery telescope. It is an "astrograph" - specifically designed for photography with images being captured on a sensitised glass plate which is 17 inches by 14 inches - the telescope itself consisting of three 13 inch lenses. Exposure time was about 60 minutes per image.

Courtesy of Lowell Observatory

Whereas I use software to blink between two images of the same field of view on two different exposures Lowell Observatory has a mechanical blink comparator to do the same thing with two glass plates. I remember trying to get a decent photograph of this comparator in the observatory museum and failing - but I do have the efforts stored somewhere.

Blink Comparator

The contents from Volume 1

 This is a typical image from the book (NGC 4565) taken with the 13 inch telescope.

He also incudes an image of the same galaxy taken with the Mt Palomar 200 inch telescope

This is my own image of the same galaxy using my C14 - remarkably similar to the Mt Palomar image.

 At the end of Volume three Burnham lists the Messier objects with page references to their description in the book - a very useful reference! Here is part of it.

The CGEM and the SBIG Camera

This is the telescope at the moment.I am waiting for darkness to fall to test this new set up - but it looks as though clouds are moving in.

 This is a closer look at the SBIG ST9XE on the 4 inch Meade.

 The filter wheel is attached and contains only B and V photometric filters. The X0.8 focal reducer slides into the 2" telescope tube.

This is how the power and USB cables get into the house.

 The laptop uses the SkyX to control the CGEM and the SBIG camera and PHD controls the guiding camera. The SBIG has its own inbuilt guider chip though so PHD is only necessary with a different camera.

The cloud remained with occasional gaps that allowed me to align the finder on the guidescope and the  Telrad using a 32mm eyepiece on the scope. As soon as I put the camera back on however the cloud thickened and that was that.

Setting up my CGEM Mount

I want to try out a different combination of my equipment using my SBIG camera with the 4 inch refractor.

I have disassembled the Paramount ME and C14 in anticipation of my return to the UK so have the SBIG available.

My CGEM is the "Classic" i.e. first version. The DX version is now available which is a beefier version with some of the little niggles resolved - for example the classic locking knobs are almost impossible to use without the aid of a wrench. The DX uses larger knobs and utilises leverage more effectively!

I set up the tripod first of all with the "North" peg roughly aligned with north.

I then added the mount head to the tripod, then added two counterbalancing weights.

   

 I then slid the 4 inch OTA assembly into the Losmandy slot on the mount head.  

I use a mains to 12V cigar lighter socket transformer to provide the power for the CGEM

I plug a 3 way adaptor into this so I can add further 12v inputs if required.

I need USB inputs to the SBIG Camera, the guiding camera and the CGEM mount.

I use a 30m active cable from my laptop to a USB 4 way hub and take feeds from here to the three USB inputs.

In the past I have used the CGEM mount with my 12 inch Meade OTA which theiretically is too heavy for the mount. I found that it worked very well.

More on the CGEM soon - to be continued.

 Yesterday I imaged the Moon rising with my iPhone - the horizon effect made it seem huge - the image below does not - if you can spot it at all!

 On 2nd November the moon was like this

Calar Alto Observatory from my observing site on 3rd Nov 2014, the Moon that night and sunset views.

Calar Alto from my telescope site in Almeria 3 Nov 2014

The Moon on 3rd Nov 2014

Cabrera Sunset 3rd November 2014

Cabrera Sunset 3rd November 2014

Cabrera Sunset 3rd November 2014

Cabrera Sunset 3rd November 2014

 Cabrera Sunset 3rd November 2014

Camille Flammarion on Amateur Astronomy - Comet ISON

Using my Kindle I have been reading a bit of "Astronomy for Amateurs" by Flammarion published in 1910. This is how he  sums it up:

"What greater delight can be conceived, on a fine spring evening, at the hour when the crescent moon is shining in the West amid the last glimmer of twilight, than the contemplation of that grand and silent spectacle of the stars stepping forth in sequence in the vast Heavens? All sounds of life die out upon the earth, the last notes of the sleepy birds have sunk away, the Angelus of the church hard by has rung the close of day. But if life is arrested around us, we may seek it in the Heavens. These incandescing orbs are so many points of interrogation suspended above our heads in the inaccessible depths of space.... Gradually they multiply. There is Venus, the white star of the shepherd. There Mars, the little celestial world so near our own. There the giant Jupiter. The seven stars of the Great Bear seem to point out the pole, while they slowly revolve around it.... What is this nebulous light that blanches the darkness of the heavens, and traverses the constellations like a celestial path? It is the Galaxy, the Milky Way, composed of millions on millions of suns!... The darkness is profound, the abyss immense.... See! Yonder a shooting star glides silently across the sky, and disappears!..."

On the subject of Comets Flammarion says:

"Glittering, swift-footed heralds of Immensity, these comets with golden wings glide lightly through Space, shedding a momentary illumination by their presence. Whence come they? Whither are they bound?

What problems they propound to us, when, as in some beautiful display of pyrotechnics, the arch of Heaven is illuminated with their fantastic light!"

There is an image of the Great Comet of 1858 in the book.

Of course we were all waiting for the "Great Comet of 2013" - otherwise known as Comet ISON

However in reality it was the great disappointment of 2013 as it did not perform as we hoped.

I took this image remotely of ISON in 2012.

This shows its movement over 2 hours:

This is a very brief ISON video of Comet ISON from Hubble.

and this one shows it passing the Sun

NASA Description:

Published on 29 Nov 2013

"Continuing a history of surprising behavior, material from Comet ISON appeared on the other side of the sun on the evening on Nov. 28, 2013, despite not having been seen in observations during its closest approach to the sun.

This movie shows Comet ISON orbiting around the sun -- represented by the white circle -- and covers Nov. 27, 2013, 3:30 p.m. EST, to Nov. 29, 2013, 8:30 a.m. EST. ISON looks smaller as it streams away, but scientists believe its nucleus may still be intact."

2013 Remote Images of Comet Hergenrother

This faint comet (15th magnitude) was imaged using the itelescope.net network of worldwide telescopes from New Mexico just over an hour ago (Image 1)and then again half an hour ago(Image 2). You can see the movement clearly during that time. The second image shows the comet close to a star. (Detailed times and locations to follow) Both exposures were 5 minutes using a Takahashi 6 inch refractor.

Image 1

  Image 2

 

Cloudy Skies in October 2013...but then it cleared to show Comet Hergenrother.!

Cloudy at first but then cleared. Opened up dome and managed to image the comet I imaged from New Mexico.

I then opened an Orchestrate file to image the 51 Galaxies in Cygnus that I have selected with recession velocities that would allow SN with typical absolute magnitudes to be visible.

Object Name,Magnitude,Major Axis
NGC 6946,        9.75,       11.5
NGC 6764,        12.78,        2.5
PGC 63311,      12.94,        1.7
NGC 6824,        12.95,        1.9
PGC 63766,      14.18,        1.4
NGC 6798,        14.33,        1.8
IC 4867,          14.33,        1.4
NGC 6801,        14.50,        1.3
PGC 63664,      15.09,        1.4
PGC 63880,      15.14,        1.1
NGC 6916,        15.15,        1.6
PGC 64026,      15.44,        1.8
PGC 67832,      15.32,        1.1
PGC 63552,      13.53,        1.5
PGC 63440,      13.98,        1.3
PGC 63424,      14.14,        1.2
PGC 63629,      14.46,        1.5
IC 1301,          14.75,        1.1
PGC 67712,      14.96,        1.5
PGC 67265,      14.99,        1.2
PGC 67235,      15.09,        1.2
PGC 66592,      15.28,        1.4
PGC 66867,      15.29,        1.2
PGC 67728,      15.53,        1.9
PGC 90392,      15.86,        1.2
PGC 68121,      12.81,        2.2
NGC 7250,        13.19,        2.1
PGC 68482,      13.34,        3.0
NGC 7248,        13.59,        1.7
NGC 7223,        13.63,        1.4
NGC 7231,        13.85,        1.7
PGC 68029,      14.18,        2.0
PGC 67985,      14.30,        1.2
NGC 7197,        14.35,        1.6
PGC 68169,      15.09,        1.2
PGC 67946,      15.26,        3.3
PGC 68381,      15.77,        1.8
IC 1303,          14.81,        1.2
IC 1392,          12.94,        1.5
PGC 67025,      14.47,        1.0
PGC 66831,      15.24,        1.0
PGC 67049,      13.64,        1.4
PGC 68689,      13.69,        1.2
PGC 68178,      14.47,        1.0
NGC 7264,        14.52,        2.0
PGC 67977,      14.70,        1.1
PGC 69439,      13.46,        1.8
PGC 69101,      14.84,        1.9
NGC 7013,        12.37,        4.2
NGC 7116,        14.27,        1.2
PGC 90392,      15.86,        1.2