Last night I was at a dark sky site (Emmitt Lake – just south east of Tobermory) – absolutely no light pollution – so I set up and started taking 10 to 15 second exposures of the night sky. About 120 images in all. No skyglow. Nice high contrast images. When I started to process the images I discovered pollution of a different nature spread through all but about 10 of my shots… almost every shot had between 1 to 4 satellites or planes tracking through. All of the following images were taken using a Canon EOS40D, a 30mm f/1.4 Sigma Lens, and a standard camera tripod – no tracking. None of the following images were stacked (wouldn’t do any good since the main targets are moving) – single shots of 10 to 15 seconds at ISO 1600.

A meteor (green trail) and a satellite caught on this shot:

A meteor caught just as it started to dissintegrate:

There are 6 satellites tracking through this image – actually, I think the two faint ones are micro-meteors as they are longer (thus travelling faster) and much fainter – can you spot them all?

I have zoomed in a bit and highlighted 4 of the satellites from the previous image (there is actually a faint fifth satellite or meteor that I didn’t highlight and the sixth satellite/meteor was cropped out of this shot):

And another with 2 satellites and 2 planes tracking through:

Most of the other shots had only 1 or 2 objects passing through – by stacking multiple frames these objects can be digitally removed – as in the following image created from 26 ten seconds exposures:

With the dark of the moon approaching, Ed and I decided a week ago that we would head for CSSP this week. Little did we know that the first Saturday of August is the Woodmen’s conference, which would
result in us being kicked out of the park one day sooner than we expected (not to mention a bit of extra noise in the mornings). Ed got there Monday afternoon and had an outstanding clear night. I arrived on Tuesday afternoon, in time to set up for dusk.

It took about 2 hours to get the GWS and tent all constructed, aligned and ready.

At about 10 PM i strolled to the gate to close it, so that lost travelers would not drive through the park. I met up with 2 families that had come for the view, and were trying to find things in the sky. I showed them the north star, big dipper, and a few other constellations, as well as the Milky way, of course. I explained to them what makes this park and the area around it so special for astronomers. Then i invited them to come to the GWS and see things firsthand.

What followed was a tour of the reasons for going to cherry springs… clear views of Nebula, Galaxies, etc… I showed them M22, M11, M17, M51/M52 and M57. Also M13, although i could not find the propeller… i invited them to look for it.

They left happy at about 11 PM.

Later in the evening, I was able to quickly and easily fish up M69 to M78, but missing M68, I will be practicing this more than a few times till December. Finding M74 and M77 are something that needs to be practiced for the Maxi Messier Marathon, so it’s a good investment in that regard. I made sketches of the star fields for them, as they appear in my eyepiece view. M74 is very subtle, even from Cherry Springs. Picking it out of the twilight must be very difficult without a detailed idea of the star field.

Skies were clear at first, but eventually a bit of high haze moved in. By 2 AM the haze was gone and the stars were all out again. I continued my tour of the sky.

I packed up the eyepieces at about 4:30 AM as the thin crescent moon was rising and gathering haze was again veiling it in mist. A gentle wind was keeping the flies away, which was nice, and there was no dew.

Wednesday, we turned on the car radio and got a weather report. They predicted 18 hours of clouds and rain, starting just after lunch. I wrapped the GWS with a tarp, and Ed covered his 2 scopes.
We left them ready for use should the rain subside.

The rains came as a light drizzle, and I took the opportunity to have a nap. The Woodsmen were setting up for their annual festival on the weekend, and we would have to leave the park at noon on Thursday. I was glad i did not pack the GWS into the car, because eventually the rains stopped, and
the sky begain to clear. I configured my laptop to operate the camera remotely, and also helped Ed to do the same for his 300D.

Tiny spaces were starting to open between the clouds at about 6 PM, and the clouds had gone from a nondescript haze across the whole sky to textured fluffy overlapping clouds.

I was able to create a time-lapse sequence of the sky around the setting sun, with about 300 frames. I made the mistake of using a constant exposure time, and eventually the frames were all black, but it’s the thought that counts… The sky was 80% clear by the time the sun set…

In the evening there were about 20 official visitors to the park and Maxine was doing a sky tour for them. I brought my binoculars over so they could view the star field around the milky way, and a few other binocular objects.

Eventually the clouds returned, and the skies were pretty bleak from about midnight onwards, but I did get a chance to see the wonder of the skies several times in the clear intervals. Fog was blowing in from the surrounding valleys. I was done at about 1 AM.

We packed up and left the park by 11 AM on Thursday. It took about 2 hours to tear down and pack everything up. The woodsmen were in the process of erecting tall logs for the lumberjacks to climb and saw off.

Sounds like the festival would have been a sight too. It’s on today.

So I tried my new lens out last night with some success (despite a bit of haze/cloud). The following was shot without tracking (standard camera mount) – using a 30mm fast (f/1.4) lens on a Canon EOS40D. It is a stacking of light, dark, and flat frames. Exposure was 15 seconds at ISO 1600 – in all there were 20 light frames (normal shots) used. Star trailing was just barely becoming evident – I will try using 10 second exposures next time. This is just another example of how astro-photography does not require a lot of expensive gear (or a lot of setup and alignment time).

Kerry’s 5 Jul 2008 composite photo of the summer Milky Way over Binbrook Conservation Area has garnered further recognition.

Today her photo appeared on NASA’s APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day). This is an internationally recognized site, where professional astronomers review submissions and only select those which are significant, of high enough quality and/or scientifically meaningful. From their comments, it appears to have satisfied all categories.

This link has been updated to point to the permanently archived photo.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080729.html

Well done Kerry!!

Kerry indicated by email that her website has received over 20,000 hits at that time. Understandable. I’m sure she’ll get lots more.

Athough I haven’t posted in a while, I have been getting out for observing and imaging. Last month I concentrated on collecting many frames on the Cocoon Nebula IC5146 in Cygnus. THat target has really proved it self to be a difficult one. The first night I took about 2 hrs worth of 5min subs and the second night I added 3 more hours to it. THe cool thing about this nebula is the area of dust that is surrounding it and trailing behind it, blocking out many of the stars in the night sky. I may attempt a widerfield version of this at a darker site with a wider and faster lens to see if I can show more of it and hopefully get some definition in the very faint and brown dusty portions.

Cocoon Nebula, C6 SCT @f6.3, Unmoddified Canon 40D, 5hrs (5min sub exposures) ISO800

THis past weekend I took on another challenge to image another region in Cygnus. The Crescent Nebula, NGC6888 is a small crescent shaped nebula that is energized by the winds of a bright star within it. YOu can see that surrounding it is a large area of Hydrogen Alpha. Typically these HA targets are very difficult to photograph with unmoddified cameras like mine, but the Astronomik CLS filter really came through for me again to make it possible especailly with only 2 hrs worth of 5min exposures @f5 from home under mag 5.5 skies.

Crescent Nebula, SW 80mm @f5 (400mm fl), Unmoddified Canon 40D, 2 hrs (24x5min) ISO 800
A larger verion can be seen here:
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1746&g2_imageViewsIndex=3

Back in June I captured a few more images of the Western and Eastern portions of the Veil. THe pics are linked below… sorry I didn’t post them earlier. Some of you may have already seen them.

NGC6960 Western Veil + friends
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1668&g2_enterAlbum=0

NGC 6992 Eastern Veil
http://www.weatherandsky.com/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1616&g2_enterAlbum=0

KerryLH

Heather reports imaging Jupiter as it drifted slowly between the trees as seen from her backyard patio. She collected a short AVI on the laptop and set Registax to stack the images into a composite. Her image clearly shows that both equatorial belts are again prominent and the equatorial zome has brightened to its usual cream colour. The laptop laboured while she napped, turning out this stacked image of the shadow transit of Ganymede, way to go, Heather:

Of course, the image posted here is much reduced in size and format to permit posting. No doubt Heather will be giving a talk soon at a HAA monthly meeting, showing more of the images she is collecting with the new scope and imaging equipment. What a great club we have!

Two days before our scheduled public event in Burlington, an urgent plea for help was received via our website:

?I’m looking for some help. I purchased a telescope for my wife. We have not gotten any pleasure out of this as we can’t get it to work properly.?

The email was quickly circulated by our ever-vigilant webmaster, Bob C., and Jackie responded with an offer of help. She suggested the couple bring their telescope to our Burloak Park event where a multitude of HAA members could likely diagnose and solve the problem. Alas, the afflicted couple, Dave & Diane, could not attend at Burloak. What was Jackie to do??? She turned to the HAA TELESCOPE SQUAD, of course!

Jim W., Jackie and myself arranged to meet Dave & Diane at the Binbrook alternate site. We armed ourselves with tools, spare batteries, eyepieces, charts and binocs and headed out to fix that telescope!

When we got to the site, Dave & Diane had already arrived. The telescope was quickly set up and inspected: a nice 130mm f/5 reflector on an equatorial mount! Collimation was within acceptable limits, so we left that task for another night. We determined that the plastic sleeve connecting the motor drive to the RA shaft had been snapped off at some point in time and the motor was not driving the scope. A screwdriver was produced, the RA motor removed and the slow motion control knob installed. We set the mount?s latitude adjustment to about 43 degrees and turned the scope to face north. Beautiful views of the gibbous moon were enjoyed by all and it was easy to track the moon by simply turning the RA slow motion control knob. A new battery was installed in the red dot finder and the Squad began the hunt for the night?s prize: Saturn.

Jim W.?s eagle eyes spotted two bright spots just above the hydro lines across the road and we swung the scope into action! First Mars appeared and a quick glance was all it took to see just about all there is to the red planet right now: its colour. Finally, the jewel of the sky slid into the eyepiece and the view was offered to the telescope?s owner who had waited two years for this moment. ?SATURN!? cried Diane. High fives all around! Various eyepieces were shared and their views compared. (Another benefit of joining an astronomy club: the chance to try out different equipment without having to buy it first!)

Finally, to top off a night of firsts ? a view of Jupiter and its moons. Two happy telescope owners have finally gotten pleasure out of their telescope!! Chalk up another successful rescue mission for the HAA Telescope Squad!

Ten HAA members braved threatening skies to bring astronomy to the people of Burlington last night. Despite heavily overcast skies and occasional light showers, close to 100 members of the public were on hand, some from as far away as Toronto after seeing the event posted on our website!

At first, we entertained the crowd with glimpses of ship & channel marker lights on the lake; distant park signs and whatever else we could find. Most of the visitors had very thoughtful questions about the equipment, astronomy and our club. John G. brought a meteorite and spent some time doing ?show and tell?. Steve G?s remote controlled UFO was a big hit with the kids! Heather displayed some fantastic images of Jupiter taken earlier in the week.

Miraculously, about 10:00 p.m., the clouds began to break up and we spotted the moon. Lineups formed at the 6 telescopes and 2 pairs of tripod-mounted giant binoculars we had set up. Two visitors had brought telescopes in the hope someone could show them how to use them. We helped and the telescopes were soon put to good use! The clouds continued to dissipate until Jupiter and other objects came into view. Natasha, an eight year old aspiring astronomer, spotted the only meteor of the night!

Matthew and Brenda were busy all night long offering views through their giant binoculars. Jackie set up her borrowed Starblaster reflector and I used Alex’s Astroscan telescope as examples of very kid-friendly telescopes. Steve G.?s giant 16? Lightbridge attracted a lot of attention as did the computerized GOTO telescopes of Heather, Jim and Ed.

What a fantastic event! It was the perfect way to put our new banner to good use. We?ll definitely be going back to Burlington!!

P.S. I’m hoping others will add to this post and attach any photos they have.

Jim proudly displaying our new banner

Heather & the crowd ignoring the rain

Installing a rain filter.

From John,

The magic that so often accompanies our observing sessions followed us to Burlington and as Ann so capably described, gave us and our many guests great views of the sky on a largely rainy night. I had the pleasure of meeting many interesting and interested people including a youngster half my height (and far less than half my age!) who very properly explained to me why Pluto is not considered a planet any more. I asked if he thought Pluto’s demotion was a good thing or whether he would like to see it considered a planet again. He said that the current status he had explained to me, was correct. I told him that I liked Pluto anyway. The enthusiasm of the youngsters was infectious. Here are a few pics:

Undeterred by rain, enthusiasts gather at dusk for a night of astronomy.

A line up waited to look through Steve’s ‘scope.

One of our smallest visitors sizes up our biggest scope.

Tired but happy HAA members relax after a very successful public event!

JULY 12TH – WIND, RAIN, WAVES OF CLOUD…

The thunderstorm threat kept me from driving to the Burloak Public Night (how did that go?). I took the wet shroud off the pier mount and attached a 6″ Mak while standing on a soggy carpet. As evening wore on the gibbous Moon emerged from waves of windswept cloud, enough for me to marvel at two craterlets in Plato and the terraced walls of Copernicus.

Once it was dark, I dodged cloud banks to capture a dozen 30 second images of M27 to compare with those taken with the 80mm apo a few nights ago. By 11:30 Jupiter had cleared the trees and I showed banding on the planet’s disk, 4 beautiful moons and the about-to-be-occulted star to some neighbours who dropped by.

All in all, not too bad for a thunderstorm evening.

A relatively overcast sky kept us from good polar alignment and squashed any hopes of deep sky observing, but Jackie and Jim and I found ourselves on the hill at Binbrook, still hopeful of some lunar and planetary viewing.

Saturn and Mars were in conjunction and at only 3/4 of a degree apart would fit into the same field of view in a telescope. Unfortunately the same clouds that had made for a beautiful sunset also obscured this planetary duo. Since we couldn’t see them both Jim and I used our GoTo scopes to point them at the planets (see, who says I never use my GoTo?). During a very brief thinning of the clouds (no, not clearing…only thinning!) there was Saturn and Mars in the eyepiece. Jim just fit them into the field of view of his trusty 8″ schmidt-cassegrain and after enjoying that view ran over to my small but mighty 80mm refractor and sure enough, there they were. I pulled out the eyepiece to change to a slightly wider field of view but in the time that took the clouds thickened and the planetary pairing was not seen again. Never the less, the magic of the hill pulled through for us and we all had successful sightings.

The moon had been beautiful in the daytime sky but the time night fell it barely showed through the clouds but was robbed of and contrast or detail.

The daytime moon, just before the clouds rolled over Binbrook.

I tried a few shots through my 80mm and was happy with the result. I shot both straight through the scope (prime focus) and afocally, with lens on camera and eyepiece in scope. Here is one of those shots done with a 10mm eyepiece in the ED80:

The moon through the small but mighty 80mm scope.

Jims scope also provided lovely close up views of some wonderful terminator detail. Our closest celestial neighbour never fails to satisfy, even through the clouds!

As the night wore on the clouds thinned and Jupiter appeared low in the south. Views through both scopes were wonderful. Jim’s 8″ provided a bright and colourful view complete with 3 moons, and my 80mm was showing lovely detail in the bands, thanks to a filter that Jim gave to me. Although I had been happy with the views before, a combination of a contrast boosting filter and a blue filter made for a strange colour (kind of blue-green) but sharply detailed view. Wow, what an improvement! I had written down the time of Ganymede’s reappearance from behind Jupiter and its shadow but left the paper at home. Since Jupiter was the only thing showing well in the sky we were happy to watch and wait. Just before midnight Ganymede started to emerge from the shadow and grow in brightness. It was a beautiful sight and great fun to watch it move out of shadow and in to sun. Perhaps most remarkable of all was Jackie’s sighting of Ganymede before it emerged from shadow! Without any prior knowledge, Jackie correctly noted the exact location of Ganymede’s reappearance before it appeared! To finish off the evening I even tried to take an afocal image of Jupiter. It shows absolutely nothing noteworthy, but here it is anyways.

This afocal shot of Jupiter shows none of the beauty visible through the eyepiece, but it was worth a try!.

Our perseverance and unwillingness to be deterred by clouds paid off and the three of us had a wonderful time, and all HAA members do when out together. See you in Burlington on Saturday!