Archive for 2011
M51 – The Whirlpool Galaxy
by Mike Hankey, under Galaxies
Here’s a photo I took from my observatory of Messier 51, the famous Whirlpool Galaxy.
At an estimated 23 million light years away, M51 is one of the most famous galaxies in the sky and a popular target for amateur astronomers. M51 is an interacting, grand-design, spiral galaxy. Interacting means, the galaxy is merging with another galaxy resulting in a disturbance of both galaxies because the gravitational fields of each are ‘interacting’ with each other. Grand-design is a designation for a special type of spiral galaxy that has prominent, well defined continuous spiral arms. Less than 10% of all spiral galaxies are designated grand-design.
Earlier this year in June 2011, a super nova was discovered inside M51 bringing renewed attention to the galaxy. I don’t think the supernova is still visible in last night’s image. I did look to see if it was there though.
Happy New Year!
Astro Photo Details
30 minutes RGB & 60 minutes of L / 150 total minutes (2.5 hours)
SBIG ST8300 Camera
MMOAG & SBIG 402 Guide Camera
Paramount ME Mount
RCOS 14.5
The Sky X / CCDStack / CCDSoft
The right side of the Moon
by Mike Hankey, under Lunar
Here’s a panoramic image of the moon. This is actually 4 pictures taken of different sections stitched together into one image. I think it would take 20 or more pictures to capture the entire moon with this method.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Geminid Meteor Shower Photos 2011
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
Last night was the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. I setup my camera around 8:00 PM and photographed continuously through the night. The sky was clear until about 2:00 am and then covered with clouds for the rest of the evening. I was able to catch a total of 11 meteors in that 6 hour window. That’s pretty good considering there was a near full moon for most of the evening.
Here’s my final composite holding 7 of the best images from the night.
I used a Canon 5d Mark II camera with a fisheye 15 MM 1:2.8 lens. The extra large CCD inside the mark II used with the fish eye lens allows you to capture the whole sky. This really improves your odds of catching meteors! Here’s another Geminid meteor pic which shows the field of view through this system.
Galaxy NGC 891
by Mike Hankey, under Galaxies
Here’s a photo of the Galaxy NGC 891. This is the first image I have taken with my new system where all things were working perfectly: mount, scope, focusing, temperature & software. I am especially excited about figuring out the automation software because I literally slept through this job!
Astro Photo Details
30s of minute RGBL / 120 Total minutes
SBIG ST8300 Camera
MMOAG & SBIG 402 Guide Camera
Paramount ME Mount
RCOS 14.5
The Sky X / CCDStack / CCD Auto Pilot
Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
Spiral Galaxy – NGC 7331
by Mike Hankey, under Galaxies
I’ve been testing out a new scope the last month. I was finally able to get a pretty good shot out of it last night. Here’s a picture of the fantastic spiral galaxy, NGC 7331
NGC 7331 is 49 million light years away and approximately 30,000 light years across. It was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel in 1784 and is one of the brightest galaxies not cataloged by Messier.
Astro Photo Details
5×10 minute RGB / 150 Total minutes
SBIG ST8300 Camera
MMOAG & SBIG 402 Guide Camera
Paramount ME Mount
RCOS 14.5
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack
Asteroid 2005YU55 – Close Pass with Earth
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
A very large asteroid, 2005YU55 passed by Earth Tuesday November 8th . It reached its peak closeness around 6:30 PM that evening. I made an attempt at photographing it, but failed due to technical reasons. I later found a post explaining the procedure I needed to execute and I was able to successful target, track and photograph the asteroid the following night.
Here’s a short animated gif of the asteroid while it is being tracked. The asteroid is the little dot in the center and the long lines moving are stars. Each exposure is 30 seconds long. The asteroid was only a few degrees from the near full moon and it was also pretty cloudy, so the image is hurt by this, but hey, the asteroid is still there!
Here is a youtube version of the asteroid sequence above, but just with more frames.
Here’s another animated gif of the asteroid. This time the stars are being tracked, so they are stationary as the asteroid flies across the field of view. Each frame in this clip is a one minute exposure.
Here is a youtube version of the asteroid sequence above, but just with more frames.
Both of these videos were taken November 9th, 2011 between 8 and 10 PM EST using an RCOS 14.5 telescope.
If you are searching for information on the 11/11/11 meteor, you don’t need to worry about 2005YU55. Its gone and won’t be impacting Earth anytime soon.
Here’s a good article about the asteroid with a map of its path relative to Earth and also a 3d video close-up of the asteroid obtained using a radio telescope.
http://news.discovery.com/space/nasa-makes-a-movie-asteroid-2005-yu55-in-radar-111109.html
and here’s a pretty good Australian news program about this asteroid and NEOs in general.
Astrophotos and Meteorites from Paris
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
Draconids in Delphi Greece – October 7th & 8th 2011
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
My wife Tracy and I just back from a nine day trip to Europe. We went primarily to photograph the peak of the Draconid meteor shower which was predicted to be abnormally high this year. Unfortunately, the skies over Europe were blocked out with clouds for seven of the nine days we were there, including both nights of the peak. This was ok though, because our secondary mission was to have a good time, and we did do that.
We stayed at a 5 star mountain resort in Greece located in the mountains above Delphi. The first night we arrived, after traveling for over 20 hours I was immensely tired, but the skies were perfectly clear and beautiful and dark and I had to take advantage (i’m glad I did, as this was our only clear night!). Here’s a two minute exposure taken from the deck off of our room after the moon set.
The next day we scouted out possible locations to observe the meteor shower including the ancient Greek city and ruins. Here are a few shots from some of our potential locations.
The Sanctuary of Athena, as seen from Apollo’s ruins
Here are a few more pics of the ruins…
I explained to Babis Taglis, the owner of our awesome Greek resort, what I was trying to do and he offered to drive around with me and show me some good locations to shoot from. He put a lot of thought into it and took me to some awesome spots. We literally drove to the top of the Parnasso mountain 6200+ feet up!
There was a service road to the top made of mostly softball sized rocks with the occasional bowling ball boulder in the middle of the road! At certain points I thought the car was going to flip backward. I pushed the rented Mercedes SUV to the limit. The car barely worked in ‘auto’ mode and continued to stall out trying to get up the hill, but when I put it into dedicated 4×4 it worked pretty good. Here are a few pics from the peak of the mountain.
Both nights of the Draconid meteor shower were completely clouded out.
But I did see this cool falling rocks sign…
M31 Astrophoto – The Great Andromeda Galaxy
by Mike Hankey, under Galaxies
Here’s my latest picture of the The Great Andromeda Galaxy. Also known as Messier 31, Andromeda is a spiral galaxy about 2.2 million light years away from Earth. In 964 a persian astronomer described the galaxy as a ‘small cloud’. When you look at Andromeda through a telescope, it looks like a smudge or a small cloud. Only with a camera and long exposure, does the galaxy’s true form take shape. The majestic spirals and bright center core reveal a universal grouping of over 1 trillion stars!
Compare the astrophoto above with a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy from about 1 year ago, or this photo of Andromeda from 18 months ago. Skills, equipment and 1 year’s experience make a big difference in picture quality!
Astro Photo Details
5×10 minute RGB / 150 Total minutes
SBIG ST8300 Camera
Orion ST80 Guide Scope
SBIG 402 Guide Camera
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack
NASA Satellite set to crash in the next 1-2 days.
by Mike Hankey, under Misc
You’ve probably heard about this in the last week, but a very large NASA satellite is set to crash to Earth in the next day or two and it will could be a spectacular light show for those living near the end of the track. Here’s the official NASA page about the UARS satellite.
You can see the satellite in the sky now at certain times of day, but the time and place is dependent on your location. To figure out when and where to look, go to this site:
Follow these instructions:
1) From the main page, under ‘configuration’, press the link: “select from map”
2) Select your location from the map. Try to get as close to your real location as possible by hitting ‘zoom’.
3) Once your location is selected, press submit and get sent to the main page.
4) Now select the link under Satellites that reads “UARS”
5) This will show you all of the times over the next few days when the satellite will pass over. IF there are no clouds in the sky you should 100% CHECK THIS OUT at this time, cause no matter what it will be COOL, and you have the possibility to see it crash — which will be AMAZING!
If you see the satellite or see it crash, please write me and tell me about it. If you have a camera and tripod, set it up before the pass so you can catch it on film.
Good luck and clear skies!
Major Fireball In the South West
by Mike Hankey, under Misc
There was a major fireball in the south west today that made national news on CNN, MSNBC and the other networks. The American Meteor Society fireball application logged over 100 witness reports. I wrote a blog article today on the AMS website about the 2011/09/14 fireball. Check it out. Good chance it left meteorites, but it might also be space trash.
Eagle Nebula
by Mike Hankey, under Nebula
Here’s a photo of the Eagle Nebula I took back in July. The nebula also referred to as the pillars of creation is a about 6500 light years away from Earth and the column of star forming gas and dust in the center is approximately 60 trillion miles high. At least we know there are somethings in the universe bigger than our national debt.
Here’s a higher zoom picture of the center area.
Primarily visible during the summer months, the Eagle Nebula is one of the most majestic and awe inspiring objects in the night sky.
Milky Way Meteor
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
We were without power for 3-4 days this week due to hurricane Irene. The power outage coincided with the new moon phase leaving the skies in northern Maryland darker than I have ever seen before. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t fire up the observatory, so I made the most of it and took some tripod shots of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Here’s a lucky shot of a bright meteor, low on the horizon. Based on the elevation angle of 8º and assuming a 80km starting point for illuminated flight, this meteor would have been about 569km SE of my location or half the distance between Maryland and Bermuda.
Here’s the meteor at full zoom resolution. At a magnitude of 2.0, the bright star directly above the meteor is Diphda.
Here’s another shot of the Milky Way Galaxy from the backyard.
The power went out early sunday morning. I finally got a generator on Tuesday. The first thing plugged into the generator was my observatory. I was happy to learn that all equipment and PC fired up and operated perfectly on the generator power.
We were happy to get our power turned back on Wednesday night. Many thanks to all of the utility workers from around the country who came to the east coast to fix our power lines. You guys are much appreciated! I’m hoping hurricane Katia will be a dud or misses us.
NASA Meteor Workshop – August 3-4, 2011
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
I recently attended a NASA meteor workshop at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Western North Carolina. The workshop consisted of two days of talks put on by the world’s foremost meteor scientists. The talks centered around meteors and video cameras and all sky camera networks and topics relating to the operation and analysis of meteors using different types of cameras and software. There were some VERY cool advanced technologies showcased at this event. I was invited to speak and gave two presentations. The first presentation was about the recent work my company did for the AMS website and the second was an update on the Mason Dixon Meteor hunt. Both presentations were well received and I got a lot of new pointers and ideas that will recharge the meteorite hunt. It was really great to meet the upper echelon of the meteor community and I consider it a privilege being invited to such an exclusive event.
Here is a PDF of the workshop program which contains an agenda and abstracts of each presentation.
Here are the slides from my power point presentation.
For the MDM hunt update I used The Official Page of the Mason Dixon Meteor, as I guide for my presentation.
Here are a few astro photos I took from the PARI site.
Nestled inside the Shenandoah Mountains, PARI has very nice dark skies.
Allowing for a prominent Milky Way.
Here’s a picasa photo gallery with a few more pics from the trip.
And a time lapse video of all photos taken over the three days.