What to Look for in November

I have used most of my posts displaying astrophotographs I have taken of DSOs. November is not a great month for additional work in that department. However, once in a while the night sky clears and the casual observer might want to know what’s visible above. So here goes…for November.

Weather permitting, the big show during November will be the Leonid meteor shower. The meteors annually appear, emanating from the constellation Leo, which rises in the east later in the evening. Below is an artist's rendition of a meteor shower.



"On Nov. 17, 2009, we expect the Leonids to produce upwards of 500 meteors per hour," says Bill Cooke of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "That's a very strong display.

Since we begin the month with a return to Eastern Standard Time, everything will get darker by an hour, so be aware that night-time viewing will be easier for all you early risers.

Jupiter is still king this month. Look for it in the south. You can’t miss it.

Mercury is lost in the light of sunrise.

Mars rises around midnight and is very high in the southeast before dawn. It's below Gemini's head stars, Pollux and Castor. Use binoculars to watch Mars near the Beehive Star Cluster. It will be attractive to watch the ice cap change if you do have a scope and are willing to be up that late.

Queen of the morning planets is Venus. I saw it the other morning on a trip into TC. Almost looked like a UFO. I saw another bright object brighter than Venus, but, alas, it was an airplane.

Venus is so bright that it's easy to spot if you look low in the east 60 to 30 minutes before sunrise.

Saturn, only a hundredth as bright, is above Venus and somewhat to the right. Unless you get up before dawn on a clear morning, have a scope, and know where to look, you probably won’t be able to identify it.

I’ll be anxiously awaiting the return of Saturn in the night sky later in 2010, to watch the reappearance of its slightly-tilted rings. We went through a year of ringless Saturn this year.

The Fireworks Galaxy and the Snowball Nebula

Although I spent some time in a previous post discussing the NGC catalog, and the following two NGC DSOs were cursorily discussed, the two NGC DSOs visible during this time of year hold great interest for the astrophotographer looking for new objects to image.

At the risk of being repetitious, the first, NGC 6946, is both a spectacular and dim galaxy in Cepheus. At a distance of 10 million light years, this galaxy is one of about a dozen nearby neighbors to the Milky Way.

This galaxy has had an enormous number of supernovae explosions in the past 60 years. If we could watch this galaxy with years passing as seconds, every moment or two we would see a star blow up!

From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 6946 face-on. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy, appropriately named because of all of the explosions of massive supernovae.

Below is my Track and Accumulate composite of 16 images at 45 seconds each.



As the weather turns cool this autumn, perhaps it is a bit premature to look ahead to winter. However, the sky above has a constant reminder of what is coming — snow. NGC 7662, also known as the Snowball Nebula, is visible in moderately sized telescopes as a bluish ball. Located in the fall and early winter constellation of Andromeda (home to our nearest galaxy neighbor, M31), it contains a blue dwarf star at its center, thus having one of the hottest nuclei of any planetary nebulae.

The distance to this nebula is not known with any real accuracy, but some estimates put it at about 5,600 light years away.

Ninety-five percent of all stars we see in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, will ultimately become “planetary nebulae.” This includes the sun. Much as a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, planetary nebulae are formed when a red giant star ejects its outer layers as clouds of luminescent gas, revealing the dense, hot, and tiny white, or bluish-white, dwarf star at its core. The other 5 percent of stars — that is, those born with masses more than eight times larger than our sun — end their lives as supernovae.

Below is my enlarged T & A image of this beautiful nebula.



Speaking of autumn, dark cloudless nights are going to be the exception from now on. Sunset comes earlier each day as we cross the autumnal equinox. As of November’s first Sunday, we will lose daylight savings time, and I will be able to get to the observatory early in the evening. However, because of the generally cloudy skies in our area during November, I’m afraid my viewing nights will be few indeed.

M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy and M11- The Wild Duck Cluster

Since I have come to be a fan of the Track and Accumulate method of capturing Deep Sky Objects (DSOs) that the SBIG cameras are known for, I always knew that if I wanted to go deeper into revealing details of DSOs, I would have to learn how to get my camera to self-guide. Self-guiding basically involves calibrating on a bright star with a separate camera…in this case, one that involves a separate computer chip which does the task…and letting this second chip tell the telescope where to stay as it tracks the DSO.

Well, I tried it and here is my first result…M33…tracked for 297 seconds, or almost five minutes. This is hardly an excellent accomplishment, because self-guiding with a properly aligned scope can hold the DSO without star movement for hours, but it is my first step up on the ladder to achieving what amateur astrophotographers with their 50K investments in cameras, scopes, etc. are producing.




M33 is is a member of what’s known as our Local Group of galaxies. Along with our own Milky Way and Andromeda, the group of about 50 galaxies travels together in the universe, bound to one another by gravity. In fact, M33 is one of the few galaxies that is moving toward the Milky Way despite the fact that space is expanding, causing most galaxies in the universe to grow farther and farther apart. It is located about 2.9 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum.

Contrast this DSO with M11. M11 is one of the most condensed open clusters in the sky.

An intriguing and tantalizing sight in binoculars, it is wonderful in a telescope, and is many observer’s favorite open cluster.

Located in the constellation of Scutum, it is sometimes mistaken for a loose globular cluster. M11 is also called the “Wild Duck Cluster” because of it’s resemblance to a flight of wild ducks when viewed in a telescope. Appropriate viewing for this time of year for duck hunters!

M11, with an overall brightness of magnitude 5.8, contains as many as 500 stars ranging from 8th magnitude down to 14th magnitude.

This image of mine was a short 20 second “Grab” photo…no self-guiding needed. Obviously, with that short of an exposure, one doesn’t see the several hundred stars that would be visible if I used the T&A or self-guiding method, but at least it brings into focus what only appears as a blur in binoculars.

Two Great Nebulae…

Summer is the best time to view two nebulae that are truly outstanding. Nebula is the Latin word for “cloud” … and that really describes it well. Many nebulae form from the gravitational collapse of gas in space. As the material collapses under its own weight, massive stars may form in the center. Some nebulae are formed as the result of supernova explosions, the death throes of massive, short-lived stars. Other nebulae may form as planetary nebulae. This is the final stage of a low-mass star's life, like earth's sun.

My image below is of M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. It is of the planetary type, with a dying white dwarf at its center. Taken in early September, this image is a Track and Accumulate, without focal reducer, of seven combined images of 40 sec. each.



The other spectacular nebula is M57, the Ring Nebula. M57 is probably the most looked at and most photographed object in the sky. Much of its popularity rests on the fact that it can be seen in almost any sized telescope. Its appearance as a tiny ring of smoke in a dark sky is a sight not soon forgotten.

In looking back at records I noted, I first saw the Ring Nebula in August of 1999, so I have a bit of nostalgia because it was one of the most memorable sights I had seen in a large telescope. Located in the constellation Lyra, there are three stars in the constellation which form the “Summer Triangle”….Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Since Lyra is almost overhead, it is a bit uncomfortable to view in most telescopes except the Newtonians, because unless your refractor or SCT has a diagonal, you almost have to get on your knees to look up into the finder scope and then your main scope.

M57 is a planetary nebula, and if you look carefully, you can see the white dwarf star in the center. The circle of gases were caused as its former stage collapsed.

It is truly mind boggling that a modest amateur telescope with the latest electronic technology can do today what the greatest telescopes of only a decade or two ago could do. When I was a kid, Mt. Palomar, with its 200” mirror was the ultimate scope.

Below is my 4 minute exposure that is actually as good, if not better, than that taken at Palomar those many years ago. (I’ve seen the old photos.):

NGC 4565 & M63

Last evening, even with my scope unable to use its GPS function, I was able to image two DSOs I had not attempted before. The first, NGC 4565, is an edge-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 53 million light-years away. I took a four minute exposure with dark applied of this beautiful galaxy. With a thin disk and bulging central nucleus, this magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices resembles a frosty flying saucer speeding through intergalactic space. Our own Milky Way Galaxy would look much like NGC 4565 if viewed edge on from a distance of 50 million light years or so. Roughly 125,000 light years in diameter, this beauty is about 25% larger than the Milky Way.




The other DSO I captured is M63, The Sunflower galaxy, is a beautiful spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is part of the M51 group of galaxies, located at a distance of about 37 million light years. With a mass of 10 billion suns and a diameter of about 60,000 light-years, the Sunflower Galaxy is only a fraction of the size of our Milky Way. My image is a one minute "Grab" exposure with dark applied.

The Andromeda Galaxy and the Bubble Nebula

Last evening was a welcome night for taking DSOs. "Seeing" was great, which meant there was little atmospheric interference from moisture. My GPS function on my new scope needs repair, and this accounts for the elongated stars, but I was able to image a couple of stunners. The first was everybody's favorite, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. I tried just a 2 min. unguided exposure of this galaxy, our nearest neighbor, with an f6.5 focal reducer, and was amazed to see the detail longer exposures failed to show before. (CLICK ON IT FOR A BETTER VIEW.)



The other object of interest...one I had never before selected...was the Bubble Nebula. Nebulae are gaseous cloud formations spewed off from a collapsed star which usually appears near the center of the image as a white dwarf star. You may have to use your imagination a bit to see at least the bottom half of the "bubble," but for a two minute unguided shot, I'd say you can tell where the nebula gets its name.

A Host of Summer Treats

Imaging new objects in the sky is not only satisfying, but also food for serious thoughts about cosmology. Every time I go out to my observatory, I view it as a kind of sacred place where I am allowed the privilege of seeing God’s creation in ways not many are able to.

August is a great month, temperature-wise, to be under my observatory dome and the dome of the ages…the night-time sky. I’m like a kid in a candy store, looking for the best treats I can find.

One of the great thrills is imaging M20, the Trifid Nebula. Looking like a beautiful rose in bloom, I never get tired of it. I’ve blogged about it before, but the picture below is a more complete image with the blue-green coloration below it. It is a red emission nebula with a young star cluster near its center. I’ll spare you further details and just let you glimpse my ten minute image of it. (CLICK ON THIS IMAGE AND THOSE THAT FOLLOW FOR A DETAILED VIEW.)



Another treat of the summer sky is M24. It is not a "true" deep sky object, but a huge star cloud in Milky Way, a pseudo-cluster of stars spread thousands of light years along the line of sight, perceived through a chance tunnel in the interstellar dust. You can only see a portion of it here:



Since I began this post with reference to the sacred I find in the sky above me, what more fitting object to try to image than “The Eye of God.” The Helix Nebula, also known as The Helix or NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation of Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae.

I won’t make too many excuses for my effort below, because it can be imaged much more clearly. However, in my 15 minute exposure, several clouds passed through, so that did affect the outcome. I definitely will be trying to do better on a clear night.



Spiders are feared by some. This condition is called arachnophobia. One of my children had this condition as a child. It was a particular problem because when you heat your house with wood, there are some big ones that get inside. However, NGC 6547, called the “Red Spider Nebula,” is a really treat to see. Unfortunately, it is huge, and I could only capture a part of it.

Found in the constellation Sagittarius, it is centered on one of the hottest white dwarfs ever observed, probably a member of a binary system. Stellar winds have been measured blowing from the central stars at over 300 km/s. These hot winds expand the nebula, flow along the nebula's walls, and cause gas and dust to collide. Below is a ten minute exposure of one side of the spider’s abdomen.



Finally, since I haven’t posted many star clusters, there is one worth seeing…M23. It is a glorious sight for small telescopes and binoculars in the summer Milky Way. There are over 120 cluster members in and it is considered to be one of the older open clusters. I took a 40 sec. picture of it at dusk.

This Year's Best...

If you’ve been following my posts on astronomy, you surely are aware that I am a learner-in-progress when it comes to astrophotography. Yet, like so many producers of this or that, there comes a time when highlights of their work are published. So it is in my case. I am devoting this post to the twelve “best” astrophotographs I have taken this past year. (BY ALL MEANS CLICK ON EACH OF THE PICTURES FOR A DETAILED LOOK.)

At No. 1 is my recent photo of M51, the Whirlpool galaxy below. I am one of those astrophotographers who does not like to spend the hours it takes to get a picture worthy of publication. In other words, when I go out to my observatory I want to spend two hours maximum and come home with a picture or pictures that are worth saving. So, what to do?

Two solutions: First, invest in the biggest scope within my budget with lots of light-gathering capability. Second, invest in the best CCD camera I can afford. Both I have done. I have a 14” LX200 Meade ACF Go-To telescope and an SBIG ST-4000XCM CCD camera with built-in autoguider.




There are basically four approaches to use with a CCD camera. No. 1: Guiding with an autoguider using a radial off-axis guider; No. 2: Guiding with an autoguider using a separate guide scope; No. 3: Track and Accumulate, an SBIG patented technique where multiple images are added together with shifts to produce a longer equivalent exposure; and No. 4: Self-guiding.

Method No. 1: I have used an off-axis guider, but it involves handling equipment on the scope…a bump here or there can mess up a picture.

Method No. 2: I have an 80 mm guidescope and used it with a separate autoguider. No sustained interest in that approach. I don’t like the time it takes to calibrate a guide star before you start imaging the target. Also, my big 14” scope did not like to respond to the autoguider’s calibration, even though I sought advice from the best amateur astrophotographer in the business, Chris Hendron.

Method No. 3: My current method of choice is the Track & Accumulate technique. One finds out the maximum time of exposure that avoids star-trailing or even oblong stars, then takes multiple exposures (10, 20, or more) for that period of time …say 60 seconds. For the M51Whirlpool galaxy, I took 20 images at 45 sec. each giving me a 900 second exposure, or 15 minutes. If I had taken more exposures, the detail would be enhanced, but I liked the results, and was satisfied.

Method No. 4: In the future, I will go to the final technique of finding a good guide star and letting the camera self-guide itself. That will be the key to improved images.

Getting back to my best images…most of which were taken using the T&A method…

At No. 2, the Eagle Nebula, M16, also famous as the “Pillars of Creation”:



At No. 3, the Trifid Nebula, M20:




At No. 4, M42, the Orion Nebula:



At No. 5, the Omega or Swan nebula, M17:



At No. 6, M5 a dense star cluster:



At No. 7, M88 a spiral galaxy:




At No. 8, Jupiter with Red Spot:



At No. 9, the Irregular galaxy, M82:



At No. 10...Lunar craters Copernicus and Erotasthenes...and the Apenine mountains.




At No. 11, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy:



Finally, M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy:



So, there you have it…my best efforts at astrophotography over the past year. I still have much to learn and an absolute must is learning how to use the autoguider in my camera to self-guide.

Then, I can go home and watch some TV for a couple of hours while my scope, camera, and computer do their thing. But wait, I’m a “hands-on” kind of guy who likes to see things happen …so maybe I’ll never get to the point of perfection. But, hey, that’s okay…it’s all in the learning and doing when your gallery of objects is the universe.

M88 and M90...Beautiful Summer Galaxies

On a so-so “transparency” night last evening, I trained my scope on M88, a beautiful, if not quite faint, galaxy. One of the Virgo cluster members, it was near the horizon as I imaged it for a total of ten minutes. The background sky was a bit on the dark blue side at around 10:30 pm as you can detect from the image. The galaxy was one of the eight galaxies found on March 18, 1781 by Messier, who thought it was “a nebula without stars.”

However, if you look carefully, you can see its spiral rings. Its appearance resembles a bit that of the Andromeda galaxy, but, unlike Andromeda, it is speeding away from our galaxy at about 1240 miles per second. (CLICK ON IT FOR A DETAILED VIEW.)



The second beautiful galaxy which I imaged was M90. This galaxy has a very compact and bright nucleus. Because of M90's proximity and motion inside the Virgo Cluster, M90 actually shows a blueshift - indicating that it is moving toward us rather than away.

So, M88 is speeding away from us, and M90 is coming toward us. Both are visible in the west. At a distance of 60 million light years, M90 has enough velocity to escape from the gravitational bonds of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.

Below is my image of this apparently perpendicular spiral galaxy, using Track and Accumulate of ten one minute exposures.

M81& The Cocoon Nebula…NGC 5146

On a night of excellent “seeing,” I was able to image two DSOs I had never tried to before. The first, M81, is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. M81 is one of the most striking examples of a grand design spiral galaxy, with near perfect arms spiraling into the very center. Because of its proximity to Earth, its large size, and its active galactic nucleus (which harbors a supermassive black hole) Messier 81 is a popular galaxy to study in professional astronomy research. The galaxy's large size and relatively low apparent magnitude (lower magnitude implies higher brightness) also make it a popular target for amateur astronomy observations. Below is a Track and Accumulate image of about three minutes exposure.



My second DSO was the Cocoon Nebula. Difficult to get unless the atmosphere is in “good seeing” mode, NGC 5146. In small scopes it is very faint. It is a strikingly beautiful nebula, though, located about 4,000 light years away toward the constellation of Cygnus. Inside the Cocoon is a newly developing open cluster of stars. Like other stellar nurseries, the Cocoon Nebula is, at the same time, an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and an absorption nebula. Speculation based on recent measurements holds that the massive star in the center of the above image opened a hole in an existing molecular cloud through which much of the glowing material flows. The same star, which formed about 100,000 years ago, now provides the energy source for much of the emitted and reflected light from this nebula.

I used a Track and Accumulate method, of 60 second exposures, to image it.

Star Clusters – M5 & a Dense Star Field near NGC 7000

What is a star cluster? Basically it is a group of stars, anywhere from a few hundred to tens of millions, that are gravitationally bound together. There are two kinds of star clusters…Globular and Open.

Globular clusters are roughly spherical groupings of from 10,000 to several million stars packed into regions of from 10 to 30 light years across. They commonly consist of very old stars -- just a few hundred million years younger than the universe itself . A few posts ago, I featured a picture of M5 I took last August. I took another just recently with my SBIG 4000cxm camera, and here is a six minute exposure of it:




M5 is, under extremely good conditions, just visible to the naked eye as a faint "star." However, you have to use binoculars or a telescope to see anything but that. Spanning 165 light-years in diameter, M5 is one of the larger globular clusters known.

The Big Bang, or beginning of the universe, occurred 13.7 billion years ago. This cluster formed “shortly” after that…about 13 billion years ago. Its distance is about 24,500 light-years from us and the cluster contains more than 100,000 stars, or as many as 500,000 according to some estimates.

Open clusters are different from globular clusters. Unlike the spherically-distributed globulars, they are confined to the our galaxy, and are almost always found within the Milky Way’s spiral arms. They are generally young objects, up to a few tens of millions of years old. Below is an 8 minute image of a dense field of stars…which is technically not an open cluster…near the North American Nebula which I was trying to image. I suspect the NA nebula is below the image I took. I took leave of my observatory instead of trying for another shot, since the midnight hour struck and I am not one for much imaging after the new day begins.




What impressed me about this dense field of stars is that THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM! To estimate distances between all of these would take years. They are, however, all in our Milky Way galaxy. BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A BETTER VIEW!

M98, M100, and M101 – Summer Galaxies…and the Reappearance of Jupiter

Toward the end of July, there is an abundance of excellent DSO’s to image. The constellations to the south and west offer treats of nebulae and galaxies that are hard to match. The only problem, as I’ve said before, is that you have to be willing to stay up late, because imaging doesn’t get going until that clock strikes before midnight.

One of the dimmer galaxies is M98. It is one of the faintest objects in Messier's catalog. M98 is nearly edge-on and displays a chaotic, diffuse disk, containing some blue regions of newly formed stars, and a huge quantity of occulting dust, which reddens considerably the light of the central small but bright nucleus.

Discovered in 1781, it is about 60 million light years away.

Since I have recently gotten my scope polar aligned and collimated…collimation is extremely important, as I will explain. A couple of weeks ago, I began a careful diagnostic series of "repair" missions to my telescope.

I knew I had a long evening ahead because it meant collimating my scope. Scopes can lose their factory settings in shipping. As a further repair element, I wanted to, once and for all, get the scope polar-aligned. Polar alignment took several (15 in all) iterations. Result? The evening was a success. Collimation went reasonably well, what with screwing tiny screws on the secondary mirror in complete experimentation mode, standing atop a ladder in the dark.

Anyway, the process has led to my ability to track and accumulate images without using an autoguider. I have the SSAG model by Orion with a 2X Barlow lens focused in a diagonal of an 80 mm guidescope, but perfection with calibrating guide stars will be a project all on its own. For now I am satisfied with the T & A method.

Below is my image of M98…an accumulation of 8 images of 25 sec. each, or a total exposure of over 3 minutes.



M100 is a grand-design spiral galaxy, and one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. It is tilted nearly face-on as seen from earth. It is among the first spirals that have been discovered. The galaxy has two prominent arms of bright blue stars and several fainter arms. The blue stars in the arms are young hot and massive stars which formed recently from density perturbations caused by interactions with neighboring galaxies which are lying just outside our image. M100 is estimated to be 56 million light years away. Sorry about the blue sky, but I took the image at dusk.



The most spectacular spiral galaxy, seen face-on, in my opinion is M101. I posted this in one of my earlier blogs, but with my adjusted scope and with darks applied, this image was exposed for over six minutes, so it has little noise.

M101 is the brightest of a group of at least 9 galaxies, called the M101 Group. M101 is twice as large as our Milky Way galaxy, and, I always find myself coming back to get a better image. I guess it’s my favorite galaxy.


Finally, before midnight, Jupiter reappears in the east, and will be with us for quite some time…into the fall.

This image tried to capture the moons of the giant planet, so Jupiter appears washed out and light-saturated. There are three moons visible. The first (top left is Europa. The second, below Jupiter to the right, is Ganymede, and the third bottom right, is Callisto. Hidden behind Jupiter is Io.




For an interesting slide show I prepared on the planets and their moons, go to http://www.slideshare.net/ejjhpiano/childrens-astronomy-presentation. The program is geared for Junior-high students, but there are plenty of up-close-and-personal images of the moons in our solar system.

The Eagle and the Swan

The Hubble space telescope has produced startling images of deep space objects (DSOs). In the top five is one called “The Pillars of Creation.” Images made in 1995 by Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen using the Hubble greatly improved scientific understanding of processes inside the nebula. The picture taken depicts a large region of star formation. The Pillars is located in the Eagle Nebula, or M16, and is in the constellation Serpens which is in perfect viewing to the south as we near the end of July.

One cannot see M16 without telescopic help, but if you own one it is worth seeing.

The other night I was able to capture an image with my equipment. Below is a series of ten 25 sec. exposures of the “eagle”….which forms a prominent part of the Pillars image.



If you look carefully near the bottom of the image, you can see what appears to be a dark eagle flying upward. (You will have to click on image to see it enlarged.) This is the central “pillar.”

The next image, not taken by me but by a fellow astrophotographer, is an enhanced image of M16, which more clearly shows the eagle and the two other pillars, one on either side. (Again, click on image to see it enlarged.)



Finally, the Hubble shot:



Eerie, dramatic pictures from the Hubble show newborn stars emerging from "eggs" — not the barnyard variety — but rather, dense, compact pockets of interstellar gas called evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs). These striking pictures resolve the EGGs at the tip of finger-like features protruding from monstrous columns of cold gas and dust in M16. The columns — dubbed "elephant trunks" — protrude from the wall of a vast cloud of molecular hydrogen, like stalagmites rising above the floor of a cavern. Inside the gaseous towers, which are light-years long, the interstellar gas is dense enough to collapse under its own weight, forming young stars that continue to grow as they accumulate more and more mass from their surroundings.

The other DSO that I imaged was M17, the Swan Nebula. The nebula lies some 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, and stretches 15 light-years across. I just mentioned that M16 was a nursery of new star formation...well, astronomers calculate that it’s one of the youngest and most massive stellar nurseries in our Milky Way galaxy. The nursery began forming new stars only a few million years ago. In May, a team of astronomers analyzing the nebula as seen via NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope estimated that more than 1,000 stars are forming in and around the nebula. The Swan Nebula is visible with binoculars in July and August, but one has to get a star map to find it. Astronomy magazine would be a great help for the casual observer, since it identifies constellations and highlights such as M16 and M17.

My picture is a 40 sec. image in RGB mode.

M20 and M22 – Fireworks in the Sky

“And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air…” At about 11:30 pm July 4th, my son and I were in my observatory imaging M20 and M22, when the Leland fireworks went into their thunderous finale. Leland is about three or four miles from where we were, and, inside the observatory’s dome, it seemed like we were next door. But we were observing our own fireworks that are perpetually on display in the heavens.

The moon was 95% full and I wanted to take a picture of M22. It was about a hand width east of the moon, so I didn’t know if the ambient light would blanche out the attempt. Nope. The SBIG 4000 CXM camera and 14” telescope mirror came through to our surprise. The first object captured was M22. Below is a 20 second exposure with dark applied in RGB format.



M22 is one of the nearer globular clusters to Earth at a distance of about 10,600 light-years away. Probably because of its proximity to earth, it is the brightest cluster of stars in our hemisphere. Kind of looks like a fireworks display.

The final attraction for the night was M20. The Trifid Nebula is a bright and colorful object, and is always a favorite of amateur astronomers. Trifid, loosely translated, means “divided into three sections.” M20 is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars and different types of nebulae, including a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' ). The picture below was a 40 sec. exposure with dark applied in sRGB mode. M20’s distance from earth is not known, but it is close, as DSOs go…perhaps in the 5,000 ly category. In other words, the light from the nebula you see here began its travel to earth when the Sumerians began writing in cuneiform.

Returning to the Moon

I was fortunate enough to remember when, on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. I also kept track of all the Gemini and Apollo launches that ensued until the famous landing of Neil Armstrong on the moon on July 20th of 1969, forty years ago this month.

Lately there has been renewed interest in returning to our nearest night sky friend. On June 18th, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket.

"Our job is to perform reconnaissance of the moon's surface using a suite of seven powerful instruments," said Craig Tooley, LRO project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "NASA will use the data LRO collects to design the vehicles and systems for returning humans to the moon and selecting the landing sites that will be their destinations."

Well, LRO’s camera has been hard at work already in its task of mapping the entire moon to assist selecting future manned landings. One of its first images was taken in a region east of a crater in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium. The picture reveals details down to about 10 feet across. Below is the stunning image. (Click on it to see a larger image.)



The stunning capability of the new camera to image such detail was not available for Armstrong’s landing. In a previous post, I elaborated on the touch-and-go tense situation the first landing entailed. No one knew what Apollo 11 would encounter until, with fuel almost gone, the 1969 lander could have struck a large boulder which would have eliminated any possibility of return to earth.

The new LROC will take the guess work out of landing sites. Besides the LROC, ground controllers have already activated two other instruments: the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector, or LEND, designed to identify regions enriched in hydrogen (a tracer for deposits of water ice); and the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation. The picture below was taken by the LROC in mid-July. It shows the actual landing site of Apollo 14. You can see the pod from which the lunar module left the moon on the right and the instrumentation site on the left. Notice the astronauts footprints between the two. Incredible. (Click on for a more detailed view.)




Amateur astronomers will be training their telescopes on the moon more frequently from now on. I know I will. NASA will be trying to image possible landing sites for a return manned voyage in ten years or so.

Just recently I took the picture below of Mare Nubium. It is 445 miles in diameter, and is just north of the famous Tycho crater. Although the LROC images were taken from about 31 miles above the moon, my image was taken at about 230,000 miles. Neat, huh?