Observing
This photo of last night’s aurora was taken by John Crowdis from his home in Alberta. In spite of interference from clouds, moonlight & streetlights, the Northern Lights are prominent in this image. Keep watch again Wednesday night for a possible repeat performance.
There is a major solar storm happening now that could produce strong auroral displays. If skies clear, look up tonight or tomorrow night. For current info on aurorae (Northern Lights), check out this website.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) and open star cluster NGC 188 in Cepheus, near the north celestial pole. Taken near Barry’s Bay, Ontario on May 13, 2015 between 10:24 pm & 11:29 pm EDT. Stack of 30 exposures of 1 minute each; 30 minutes total. Canon 40D through Tamron 300mm lens at f/2.8, on SP mount. ISO 1600.
The HAA celebrated Astronomy Day this year at Bayfront Park in Hamilton. We had excellent weather with crystal clear seeing during the day and minimal light clouds during the evening.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this season’s inaugural public viewing session in Grimsby, but I did get my telescope out for some solar and lunar viewing on the weekend. After a long and cold winter, the comparatively mild temperatures and clear skies were like a siren’s call, luring me out under the sky.
A week ago I treated myself to a new astro-toy; a Herschel wedge, for white light solar viewing. Both Saturday and Sunday afternoon offered opportunities to test it out, and after comparing different eyepiece and filter combinations, it gave spectacular views that I was very happy with.
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The Waxing Crescent Moon and Venus in the Western Sky
Here is a shot of the Moon and Venus together in the western sky, as promised in the previous post (well, my previous post). Enjoy! (tripod mounted camera with zoom lens set at 200mm)
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Here’s a shot I took of the Moon and Mars last night. They presented a lovely pairing low in the west just at dusk, while Venus shone brightly high above them. Go outside tonight and see how the Moon has traveled up much closer to Venus. (photo is hand held with 200mm lens)
Fantastic auroral display tonight. These images were taken northwest of Hamilton, near Westover. The aurora was visible naked eye, but I couldn’t see colour.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) passed within about a degree of open cluster NGC 457, the E.T. Cluster, the week of March 9, 2015. This image is from Monday March 9, 2015, approx. 9:00 pm to 9:55 pm from Caledonia ON.
M103, another open cluster, is visible at far right. The bright star Delta Cassiopeiae is near lower right. The red emission nebula, Sh2-188, is faintly visible near the comet. North is towards the lower right.
This is a stack of 33 1-minute exposures at ISO 1600 and f/2.8.
I used my Canon 40D DSLR with an Astronomik CLS light pollution clip-filter and my Tamron 300mm f/2.8 telephoto lens on my SP EQ mount.
This was a lot of hard work processing this image; about a dozen iterations of layering and masking….. not including the gradient blending I had to do to flatten the field from side to side a bit better.