Clear Skies and Lots of Captures !

M 27 - The Dumbell Nebula

12 minute (24 - 30 sec images stacked with Deep Sky Stacker)

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 3200

The skies really cleared up last night and so it was out to the observatory!

The first part of the evening, while the Sun was still up, was spent using my Mallincam Micro Ex on the Moon with the Celestron NexStar 8iSE scope. It was EXCELLENT ! Such detail and good contrast! (I will post a few shots in the next blog).

But what really got my blood pumping was when I connected the Meade LXD-75 mount (on which the NexStar scope is mounted) with my old Dell laptop and Cartes du Ciel star program. After aligning the scope with Arcturus, I hit "Sync" and was off to M 13 and though it was not dead center (my fault I am sure!) it was in the field of view... and that at prime focus! And so I was able to go into hyperdrive and hit each target without any fuss... unlike using the hand controller! It made the evening so enjoyable and fun!

M 13 - The Great Hercules Globular Cluster

30 secs single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 6400

Then it was off to more... and all were in the frame without any trouble!

M 5 - The Great Hercules Globular Cluster

30 secs single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 6400

M 29 - Star Cluster

2 Minute - single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 3200

M 14 - Star Cluster

30 sec - single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 6400

M 57 - The Ring Nebula

2 Minute - single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 3200

M 56 - Star Cluster

2 Minute - single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 3200

M 71 - Star Cluster

1 Minute - single exposure

NexStar 8iSE - Canon t2i at prime focus - ISO 6400

Addition to La Pine Observatory building

For several years the observatory roof only could slide to the north-west on rails (the right as seen in the photo below). This meant that the western sky was pretty much blocked by the roof. So a few days ago I began the process of adding on new rails to the building so that the roof can slide to the south-east.

Back in the Observatory again !

Well, at long last the skies are more clear than not! Last night's skies were EXCELLENT ! Here are a few of my captures using my Celestron NexStar 8 inch telescope (8iSE) with a Canon XS camera body attached to it. The exposures were short, 10 seconds each, but stacked using DeepSkyStacker Live software to create a final image that is much longer.

I started off with M 13 in the constellation Hercules.  Sometimes called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of about 300,000 stars. M13 was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714, and catalogued by Charles Messier on June 1, 1764. It is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of several hundred thousand stars and is 25,100 light-years away from Earth.

It can be seen as a fuzzy patch with binoculars but it takes a good telescope to make out the individual stars...

From there I went to one of my favorite nebulae, M 57, aka The Ring Nebula. Located in the constellation Lyra, south of the brilliant star Vega (which is almost directly overhead in late summer in the evening from my location in Oregon). This nebula was discovered by the French astronomer Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in January 1779, who reported that it was "...as large as Jupiter and resembles a planet which is fading". Later the same month, fellow French astronomer Charles Messier independently found the same nebula while searching for comets and became the 57th object on his list.

First up is the "wide view" that my Canon XS (modded) camera sensor captured with my Celestron NexStar 8iSE telescope with the Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer. As you can see, it was a very tiny ring !

But here is a 1:1 cropped image of M 57 from the above photo. You can see the star in the middle that is the source of the explosive ring of gasses around it. The nebula is a shell of ionized gas is being expelled even now into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star, which was passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf. 

I was pleased that my modification of the camera made it significantly more red sensitive. I hope to capture a better image in the future months but without the focal reducer (which give a wide field and short exposures but results in a less magnified view.

Then I slide over to M 56, another smaller collection of star, a very small globular cluster compared to M 13. Charles Messier, who cataloged these objects know as Messier objects was looking for new comets with his telescope nearly 300 years ago and was annoyed by these fuzzy patches of stars and nebulae. So he made a list of them so that he would not be distracted by them. It was discovered by Charles Messier on January 19, 1779. M56 is at a distance of about 32,900 light-years from Earth and measures roughly 84 light-years across.

Finally, I moved to M 92, another brilliant globular cluster in Hercules. It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1777 but was independently rediscovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781 and added as the 92nd entry in his catalog. M92 is at a distance of about 26,700 light-years away from Earth. M92 is one of the brighter globular clusters in the northern hemisphere, but it is often overlooked by amateur astronomers because of its proximity to the even more spectacular Messier 13. It is visible to the naked eye under very good conditions (but not with my old eyes now !) 

Well, I was getting sleepy and decided to close up the observatory for the night (12:30 am).
I am looking forward to a productive summer enjoying God's creation!

M3 Globular Star Cluster

The skies were clear and cool Tuesday evening and this is the result of 7 stacked images with my Canon t2i on the Celestron NexStar 8iSE telescope. Total exposure time 2 minutes at ISO 3200.

Click on the photo for a larger image.

M3

For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_3

My video of the last few minutes of the Transit of Mercury today

This is a very close up video taken with my Celestron 8 inch telescope and my Canon t2i camera at prime focus at 100% actual image (at times at 200%). Enjoy!

May 2016 Transist of Mercury

The skies cleared and the winds calmed down in time to capture a rare event: the transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. Mercury is the dot just right of lower center. The other major spot (upper center is the sunspot group AR 2542. Taken with a Celestron 8iSE (8 inch scope) with a 5 inch Baader filter (white light only) and a Canon t2i camera at prime focus.

Closeup of Mercury:

Mercury as it approaches the edge of the Sun near the end of its transit:

Mercury at "Third Contact"

Mercury about halfway between Third and Fourth Contact with the edge of the Sun

BACKGROUND:

A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury comes between the Sun and the Earth, and Mercury is seen as a small black dot moving across the face of the Sun.
Transits of Mercury with respect to Earth are much more frequent than transits of Venus, with about 13 or 14 per century, in part because Mercury is closer to the Sun and orbits it more rapidly.
Transits of Mercury occur in May or November. The last four transits occurred in 1999, 2003, 2006, and May 9, 2016. The next will occur on November 11, 2019

Here is a collage of the images I took of the event:

Here is the video of the last few minutes of the event:

Celestron NexStar 4SE Telescope is here!

After my first Celestron NexStar 4SE was received out of collimation, Celestron honored its warranty and replaced it with another new one. This one is PERFECT ! It has such great clarity and tracks very well ! I wanted a "go-to" scope that was also "grab-n-go" size and weight and this NexStar 4SE really fits the bill.

Within hours of assembly, I took it out for its "first light" on the Moon and Jupiter.

First I took a prime focus shot of the Moon:

Then I dropped in a 2x teleconverter...

The Canon t2i has a movie mode of 640x480 cropped:

But then there was Jupiter, with it's moons (left to right: Ganymede, (Jupiter), Io, Europa

Then a close-up of Jupiter, once again with the cropped movie mode, processed in Lynkeos on a Mac. You can just barely make out the Great Red Spot at the upper left of Jupiter. Visually, I could make out the moon Callisto just as it moved away from the bright disk of Jupiter (in this image it would have been in the lower right hand portion). I was impressed by the views of this little scope !

Here is the scope and camera mounted on it.