Mike's Astro Photos

Archive for 2014

Dec.26 2014

A Christmas Comet

by , under Comets & Meteors

Here’s a cosmic gift delivered just in time for Christmas, Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy, discovered this past August by accomplished amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy using only an eight inch backyard telescope. The comet became viewable to observers in the Northern Hemisphere the week before Christmas and can almost be seen with the naked eye. The comet will continue to brighten over the next few weeks and should reach peak magnitude in mid January.

Lovejoy

Image Details for Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy
LRGB: 13 minutes each
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: SBIG 402 with MMOAG Off Axis Guider
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: December 25th, 2014
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDStack, Photoshop

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Oct.23 2014

Galaxy NGC 7331

by , under Galaxies

Here’s the first astrophoto I’ve published since the spring. This is a spiral galaxy called NGC 7331 and its located approximately 40 million light-years away from Earth. This galaxy is similar in size and structure to our own galaxy and is sometimes called the Milky Way’s twin. The fuzzy dots surrounding the picture are also galaxies, there are three prominent ones that appear to be hovering above the main galaxy in this photo. In reality they are just much farther away and that’s why they appear smaller. There are several other galaxies scattered around the picture. These are just a few of the 200 or so billion galaxies in our Universe, each containing about 100 billion stars.

Galaxy NGC 7331 – October 20th, 2014

The image above was cropped in order to show the galaxy in higher resolution. The full un-cropped image is below.

Galaxy NGC 7331 – October 20th, 2014

Image Details for Galaxy NGC 7331
RGB: 3 hours each
Luminance: 6 hours
Total exposure: 3 + 3 + 3 + 6 = 15 hours!
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: SBIG 402 with MMOAG Off Axis Guider
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: Over Multiple Nights in October 2014
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDAutoPilot, CCDStack, Photoshop

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Jan.23 2014

Super Nova in the Cigar Galaxy

by , under Galaxies

Was yesterday one of those days when you felt a disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced? Well it wasn’t just a feeling. As it turns out, a super nova was detected in the Cigar Galaxy yesterday. Super Novas are the largest explosions in the Universe and this one could be seen from over 11.5 million light years away! Don’t worry about all those souls that were vaporized in this cosmic eruption. It happened a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

You can see the super nova in this image from this morning. Its the bright star near the bottom center of the galaxy just below the red gas outbursts.

Super Nova Inside the Cigar Galaxy

For reference, check out this image of M82 I took last spring. Clearly, that star was not there then. From what I have read, the Nova is expected to brighten over the next two weeks.

Here’s a single frame of the galaxy taken through a clear filter for future reference.

Super Nova in the Cigar Galaxy – Single 20 minute exposure through clear filter – January 23rd, 2014

This was a relatively quick exposure of just 40 minutes X red, green and blue and 60 minutes of Luminance. I blended in a few hours of luminance data from last year to help sharpen the details in the galaxy.

Image Details for Super Nova in Cigar Galaxy
RGB: 40 minutes each
Luminance: 1 hour + 4 hours of old data
Total exposure: 3.5 hours
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: SBIG 402 with MMOAG Off Axis Guider
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: January 23rd, 2014
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDAutoPilot, CCDStack, Photoshop

 

 

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Jan.06 2014

Messier 1 – The Crab Nebula

by , under Nebula

The Crab Nebula is a great example of what a star looks like soon after it has run out of fuel, collapsed on itself and blown up in a super nova explosion — one of the largest and most violent releases of energy the Universe has to offer. Long before Charles Messier cataloged it, the ancient Chinese witnessed the super nova that created The Crab Nebula as it erupted, recording the phenomenon in their history books and detailing its location, brightness and longevity. The exploding star was so bright it could even be seen during the daytime.

Below is my first photo of the new year, Messier #1 — The Crab Nebula. It looks more like a sea sponge or luffa to me, but this object got its name from an early observer who described the fuzzy ball as looking like a crab. The image below is a long exposure photograph taken from my ground based observatory in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s a combination of 2 hours of Red, Green and Blue PLUS 7.4 hours of Luminance (clear) and 8.6 hours of Ha for a total exposure time of : 2 + 2 + 2 + 7.4 + 8.6 = 22 hours! To spice things up a little bit more, I added a layer of X-Ray data captured by one of NASA’s space based telescopes, The Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Note: the diagonal line on the bottom right of the Nebula is not a satellite but actually a refraction spike from a bright star nearby but off frame.

The Crab Nebula – With Chandra X-Ray Data – January 4th, 2014 – Credit Mike Hankey & NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory

The Chandra X-Ray data reveals a neutron star in the center of the Crab Nebula that was hypothesized and later discovered in the 1960s. Below is an x-ray image of the Crab Nebula taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. I blended this X-ray photo as a layer with my final LRGB-Ha image.

M1 – The Crab Nebula X-RAY – Photo Credit: NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory

You might be wondering how I knew where to put the X-Ray data or where it is inside my picture. I was subtle about blending it in, but to give you an idea of where the x-ray data is relative to the visual light data, take a look at this image of the Crab Nebula published by NASA using data collected from Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes. (This was the guide I used to place the Chandra data on my picture).

Crab Nebula – Hubble, Chandra & Spitzer Space Telescopes – Photo Credit: NASA

Visit this link, if you are wondering what my Crab Nebula Image looks like without the x-ray data, or check out this animated gif showing my image of the Crab Nebula with and without the x-ray data.

As a final thought, The Crab Nebula is approximately 4,000 light years away, so if the Chinese saw it explode 1000 years ago, how many years ago did it actually blow up? This is a little bit of a joke, but I actually thought about that for a second and it got me wondering about how long the Crab Nebula has looked this exact way, and I wonder how it must have looked just a few days after the super nova went off. As it turns out, the gases in this nebula are still expanding and photos taken over a series of years actually show the clouds growing. Especially the x-ray images! Watch this movie showing changes in the Crab Nebula’s clouds over just six months or check out the Crab Nebula photos inside the Chandra X-Ray Image Archive to see how things have changed over the years.

Image Details for Messier 1 – The Crab Nebula
Narrow Band Ha – 8.6 hours
RGB: 2 hours each
Luminance: 7.4 hours
Total exposure: 8.6 + 7.4 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 22 hours!
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: SBIG 402 with MMOAG Off Axis Guider
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: Over 6 nights in December
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDAutoPilot, CCDStack, Photoshop

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