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What's New information prior to 09/20/05.
July 11 - 12, 2008: M 27 The Dumbbell Nebula
July 1 - 6, 2008: M 8 The Lagoon Nebula
June 29 - 30, 2008: M 57 The Ring Nebula
June 8 - 10, 2008: M 101 The Pinwheel Galaxy
June 5 - 7, 2008: Abell 2199 Hercules Galaxy Cluster
Moon: Apennine Mountains
Taken with the RCOS 12.5" RC and Apogee U16M, 0.2 seconds.
May 9, 2008: M 64 Black Eye Galaxy.
May 5, 2008: M 63 the Sunflower Galaxy.
May 1, 2008: NGC 5963 and NGC 5965.
April 26, 2008: M82
April 14, 2008: M100.
April 6, 2008: M86 and friends. APOD on April 25, 2008.
March 10, 2008: M105 and friends.
March 6, 2008: M65 & M66.
March 3, 2008: NGC 3628.
February 2008: The Cone Nebula and area.
January 2008: The Rosette Nebula.
December 2007: IC 1795.
September 2007: NGC 7358.
September 2007: IC 5134.
September 2007: NGC 7380.
08/20/07 Sh2-155 The Cave Nebula.
Imaged from Sierra Remote Observatories, RCOS 12.5 inch, STL-11K, Paramount ME LRGB 23 hours. For more information go here.
08/08/07 M20 Trifid Nebula:
From Sierra Remote Observatories. RCOS 10" Astrograph, STL-11K, Paramount ME RRGB 9 hours. For more information go here.
07/03/07 Pelican Nebula IC 5067:
From Sierra Remote Observatories. RCOS 10" Astrograph, STL-11K, Paramount ME and 9x1200 10nm Ha CS filter.
Click on the image for a half-resolution image.
06/30/07 Crescent Nebula:
First light from Sierra Remote Observatories. RCOS 10" Astrograph, STL-11K 1x10 min and 2x20 min 10nm Ha images.
10/20/06 M31 The Andromeda Galaxy:
Click here or on the image for more information.
09/16/06 M 33 The Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum:
Click here or on the image for more information.
09/10/06 New buttons have been added to the Equipment page:
Go here for links to software used for astronomical image acquisition and processing.
Go here to see 3-D Curvature maps of different optical system and camera combinations.
09/03/06 NGC 6992 Veil Nebula East:
Click here or on the image for more information.
09/02/06 NGC 7000 Cygnus Wall:
Click here or on the image for more information.
09/01/06 IC 1318 Gamma Cygni area:
Click here or on the image for more information.
07/15/06 M8 the Lagoon Nebula in Hydrogen-Alpha light:
Click here or on the image for more information.
07/02/06 M16:
Click here or on the image for more information.
06/22/06 M20:
Click here or on the image for more information.
05/29/06 NGC 4565:
Click here or on the image for more information.
05/28/06 NGC 4725 and companion NGC 4712 in Coma Berenices:
Click here or on the image for more information.
03/29/06 Total Eclipse of the Sun from Egypt:
This animation shows the relative size of the sun and moon on March 29, 2006 from Salloum, Egypt. The relative motion of the moon against the corona can be easily visualized. The moon moved from the lower right to the upper left. Solar flares were much more prominent at second contact as compared to third contact. Close inspection reveals the silhouette of lunar mountains and valleys against the corona. Click on the image or here for a higher resolution view. Click here for more information about the eclipse.
03/29/06 Total Eclipse of the Sun from Egypt:
The eclipse as seen from western Egypt near the small fishing village of Salloum on the Mediterranean Sea. At our location, we were treated to 3 minutes and 56 seconds of "mind numbing darkness" in the silvery shadow of the moon, also referred to as totality. This composite is an approximation of the full dynamic range as seen by eye at the time of the eclipse.
Click here for many more pictures and additional information about the eclipse.
This will take you to a high resolution animation of the eclipse, ~14 MB.
Go here to see images of the Sun. Images are at 30 second intervals.
Check out the technical details used to create a composite image of totality.
This is a short photo galley of the trip to Egypt.
02/25/06 NGC1973 the Running Man Nebula in Orion:
Click here for the full resolution (2184 x 1472) jpeg image, 2.4MB.
The images were shot at Shaver Lake, CA at 5610 feet. The outside air temperature was 5 degrees C. Data were collected over two nights due the proximity of some large trees. This is a LRGB image where the RGB channels are median combined and the Luminance channel is a summation combination. The LRGB channels are 10:4:5:8 x 180 seconds each (81 minutes total) with the ST-10XME, Takahashi BRC-250, Losmandy G-11, -15C, 1x1 binning for each channel.
02/25/06 NGC 2264 the Cone Nebula in Monoceros:
Click here for the full resolution (2184 x 1472) jpeg image, 2MB.
This is a LRGB image where the RGB channels are median combined and the Luminance channel is a summation combination. The LRGB channels are 8:5:5:5 x 180 seconds each (69 minutes total) with the ST-10XME, Takahashi BRC-250, Losmandy G-11, -15C, 1x1 binning for each channel. Deblooming left some artifacts that could be further cleaned up. Summing the Luminance images left some cosmic hits that could be cleaned up with a median combination but with a decrease in the signal to noise ratio. Deeper subframes would have been better but blooming would have been much more problematic. The images were shot at Shaver Lake, CA at 5610 feet. Data were collected over two nights due the proximity of some large trees.
02/07/06 M42 region in Orion compared to same field of view of the moon:
Click here for the M42 full resolution (4008 x 2672) jpeg image, ~2.5MB.
Clicking on the image of the moon will show it at full resolution, ~2.3MB.
This was a quick shot of M42 with only 2 x 180 second exposures. This was my second night out with the Takahashi BRC-250 and STL-11K at 1x1 binning, -15 C, no filter (with the filter wheel partially blocking the northern corners of the image), not fully calibrated or processed to reveal details around the Trapezium. The image of the moon was a test shot from the night before, not quite at critical focus. It was shot through the 10 nm Hydrogen Alpha filter and is a single 0.11 second exposure.
02/05/06 IC 443 the Jellyfish Nebula, a supernova remnant in Gemini:
Click here for a full resolution (4008 x 2672) image, ~5MB.
This is first light with my new Takahashi BRC-250 10 inch f/5 Baker Ritchey-Chrétien telescope. This image was shot with the SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera and 10 nm Hydrogen Alpha filter on loan from California State University Fresno campus observatory. This is a median combination of 9 x 1200 second exposures, 1 x 1 binning at -15 degrees C. The image is fully calibrated with median combinations of 16 x 1200 second darks, 9 bias, 6 flats and 6 darks for the flats. Focus was achieved with the new FLI PDF. The field scale is 1.468 arc seconds per pixel. the field is ~98 arc minutes across or 1 degree and 52 arc minutes on the diagonal.
02/04/05 New Hardware Configuration, Takahashi BRC-250 Baker Ritchey-Chrétien telescope and FLI digital focuser:
Click here to go to the Equipment page for more pictures and additional information.
Shown above:
Takahashi BRC-250 10 inch f/5 Baker Ritchey-Chrétien astrograph.
Finger Lakes Instrumentation (FLI) Precision Digital Focuser (PDF).
Custom CNC tube rings have been made by Leon Aslan.
SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera on loan from California State University Fresno campus observatory. Thanks to Dr. Fred Ringwald for letting me test drive this camera.
Losmandy G-11 with Gemini Goto.
01/27/05 NGC 2174 the Monkey Nebula in Orion:
Click here for a full resolution (2184 x 1472) image, ~1MB.
This image is a median combination of 9 x 1200 second images (3 hours). The image was shot with the Nikon ED IF AF-I f/4 600 mm Focal Length, 150 mm Aperture Lens, ST-10XME on a Losmandy G11 Gemini mount. A Schuler 10nm Ha filter was used. I used the "Dithering" technique for each subframe for the first time on this image. The image was shot at 1x1 binning at -15 degrees C from Clovis, CA.
12/04/05 First Light With the CSU Fresno SBIG STL-11000XM:
This image of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is composed of 10 x 120 second exposures (a total time of only 20 minutes), 1x1 binning, -10 degrees C and no filter. This image is fully calibrated with bias, darks, and auto dark flat fields. This is first light with CSU Fresno's new SBIG STL-11000XM camera through a Meade 10-inch SCT on the Losmandy G-11 Gemini mount. No focal reducer or field flattener was used. The measured field scale is 1.046 arc seconds per pixel. The field is ~70 arc minutes across or 1 degree and 24 arc minutes on the diagonal. By comparison, my ST-10 CCD camera would image only the center quarter of this field.
11/20/05 Mars with the ToUCam:
This three frame animation shows Mars rotating over a two hour period. Images were collected with the Phillips 840 ToUCam Pro II at f/30. Eyepiece projection was achieved with a 12.4 mm eyepiece 72 mm from the ToUCam chip through a 10-inch f/6.3 SCT on a Losmandy G-11 Gemini mount. The final field scale was 0.15 arc seconds per pixel. Three 45 second video sequences were captured over a two hour period. Each sequence was about 1300 frames. RegiStax 3 was used for processing. Each frame is a stack of 30 to 300 of the best frames from each video sequence. Mars was crossing the meridian at 64 degrees above the horizon on the last sequence. The images were shot at Shaver Lake, CA at 5610 feet.
Click here for information from 09/20/05 and earlier.
