Mike's Astro Photos

I was getting ready to go meteorite hunting today and I just had to put my boots on. I had two rare earth magnets and put one in each back pocket so they wouldn’t stick together. I have this nice felt lined red box with a handle and a metal clasp that I carry some of my meteorites in so I can show them to landowners and teach them what to look for. I grabbed the red box and headed for the garage. As I turned around the doorway one of the magnets in my pocket stuck to the clasp on the box and as I moved, the box opened and a 1kg Canon Diablo fell on my toe. It hurt like $%!+, but I still went out hunting. Would this be considered an impact event?

Meteoritoe

Here’s a quick snap of Arcturus. This is a single 30 second exposure using the new William Optics telescope. I’m still waiting on some mounting brackets before I will be 100% with the new scope, so the content production is a little slow right now.

arcturus

Here’s a photo of the Waxing Crescent Moon on March 20th, 2010.

Waxing Crescent Moon - March 20th, 2010

Here’s just the moon at full size cropped from the big image.

Waxing Crescent Moon - Full size

I took this picture while testing out the focus and trying to align the scope. When I reviewed it the next day I spotted what looks like a satellite streak in the upper left corner.

Star & Satellite

Here’s a picture of NGC 2244 I took using the new telescope. I’m really still figuring things out with this new scope, trying to get it setup, get polar alignment right, get focusing right — basically re-learn everything I’ve learned in the last year with the other scope. I was able to capture this photo on the third night of using the new scope.

Rosette Nebula - March 7th, 2010

Photo Details
Optics: Willamoptics FLT 98
Camera: Canon 20da
Exposure: Multiple 18×3 minute exposures, flats, darks
Software Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop Elements

Here is a picture of Messier Object 63 a spectacular spiral galaxy nicknamed the Sun Flower Galaxy.

M63 - February 20th, 2010

I recently bought a new telescope and I used it for the first time Saturday March 6th. I was really having a tough time with it the whole night. Between setup, polar alignment, balancing, tracking and then doing it all over again a few times, I didn’t get much time to do photography. I was really only taking test shots most of the evening and after several hours of frustration and not expecting to have taken any good photos, I chalked the perfectly dark no moon clear night up to a leaning experience. I was eager to review the test shots just to see how the new scope performed. During the session, I took 3 shots of the Flame Nebula to test focusing. While reviewing the photos at the end of the evening, I found this meteor looking streak right through it.

Flame Nebula & Telescopic Meteor

Here’s a zoom-crop of just the meteor part:

Meteor

Here’s an inverted image of the meteor. The variation in light intensity and pixel width (a sign of a meteor) is clear in the inverted picture:

Inverted Image of Meteor

I haven’t gotten confirmation on what this is yet, but I’ve posted the picture to the meteor observing community to get some opinions. If it was in fact a meteor, it would have been a very teeny tiny one, probably the size of a grain of sand. This meteor would not have been visible to the human eye or normal camera lens.

Here’s a picture of M3 a magnificent globular star cluster.

Here’s a picture of Messier 84, a galaxy in the constellation Virgo. M84 is in the core of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, a part of the sky comprised of approximately 1300 galaxies… Wow. You can see what look to be at least 5 galaxies in this picture. Doing some quick math on this… over 5 billion stars are represented in this small piece of the sky imaged from a backyard telescope.

M84 - A Cluster of Galaxies

Here’s a photo of M35 an open star cluster in the constellation Gemini. This is a 60 minute exposure (3 minute x 20 frames) at ISO 800 taken with my Canon 20D and CPC 1100 using the focal reducer. This is a pretty big object about the same size as the full moon. I spent most of my time this weekend hunting the skies for Comets Wild 81/P and C/2007 Q3 Siding Spring. These two comets don’t rise until close to midnight so I captured a few DSOs while I was waiting. After 3 nights of searching I still have not been able to find either of these comets, but they will be around for at least a month, so I will keep at it.

Open Cluster M35 - February 19th, 2010

Most of this weeks episode of Meteorite Men will be about the West Texas / Ash Creek meteorite search, but they will have a segment dedicated to the PA Fireball from July 6th, 2010. Any meteorite hunters out there tracking the Lancaster Meteorites will get a jolt of motivation from watching this episode. It should also be a fun and interesting episode for anyone who experienced the fall last summer. Check it out on Science Channel at 9:00 PM & 11:00 PM this Wednesday night.

Update Tuesday Feb 23, 2010: I got a call from the meteorite men producers and they said they bumped the Mason Dixon segment from the show in favor of a longer Lorton episode.

Sometimes people have a hard time understanding why I’m so obsessed with finding the Mason Dixon Meteor. Its hard to explain really, but the other day someone on the meteorite list posted this quote from 1964 made by Doctors who were part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.

Dr.Hey, Dr.Mason, Prof. Orcel, Prof. Sztrokay and Dr.Fournier D’Albe wrote:

“Since meteorites are the only specimens we receive of material from outside
our Earth, it is essential for the progress of science that every effort be
made to collect these specimens and make them available for investigation.
Unesco, through its Working Group on Meteorites, is trying to interest
people everywhere in the observation and recovery of meteorites.”

Those are the first sentences of a circular, they proposed, which….

“It is recommended that the circular”…”be sent to the institution
responsible for meteorites in each country, with the suggestion that copies
of it be given wide circulations in schools, post offices, police stations
and other public services. It is desirable that the press and radio be
encouraged to arouse public interest in this subject.”

Any questions?

Here’s a picture of M82, an irregular galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. Dubbed the cigar galaxy for its shape, M82 looks like its exploding. Astronomers explain this effect as gas being driven out of the galaxy by particle winds.

M82 Cigar Galaxy - February 13th, 2010

Check out this Hubble photo of M82 to experience the full effect.

Here’s a pretty cool picture of a meteor with a nifty spear like shape.

Meteor Spear - February 12th, 2010 4:07 AM EST

There are two distinctive bursts where the meteor gets wider and brighter. You can see these more easily in the inverted image:

Meteor Spear Inverted

Here’s the full image. Its no fireball but this is a bigger than average meteor with a distinctive shape.

Meteor Spear - February 12th, 2010 4:07 AM EST

Here’s a photo of Bode’s Galaxy, Messier 81 a grand spiral galaxy. M81 is approximately 12 million light years away and home to a super massive black hole. This photo is the processed output of 20×3 minute ISO 800 exposures. I’m still figuring out the best methods for the Deep Sky Stacker software. It seems I’m loosing a bit of color when I stack and things are turning a little gray. Despite the loss of color DSS brought out a good bit of definition in the outer spiral rings.

Bode's Galaxy M81 - February 13th, 2010