M109 (March 11 and 12, 2013)

Full resolution image here.

M109 is very roughly 81 million light years away, give or take 24 million.  We find it in Ursa Major very near one of the stars in the Big Dipper's bowl.  M109 is classed as a barred spiral.  It is the largest of a group of galaxies called, with affection, the M109 Group.  I've always found M109 fascinating.  This is my second image of it. Other galaxies are readily visible in the image.  The brightest of these are UGC 6923 (PGC 37553), on the left; UGC 6940, about 9:30 from M109; and UGC 6969 (PGC 37700), above and right of M109.  Some or none of these might be satellite galaxies of M109, but some folks think each of them is.  This image is shrunken slightly for noise reduction.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (24x900" for M109 and 17x900" for everything else---I had some sort of glow in 7 frames that did not cover the galaxy), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: SHSU Observatory near Huntsville, TX; Starry Nights Bed and Breakfast near Wimberley, TX 

M81 (March 11 & 12, 2013)

Full resolution image here.

M81 is roughly 12 million light years away.  We see it in the constellation Ursa Major.  In fact, it sits just west of the Big Dipper's bowl.  M81 is the largest of a group of nearby galaxies called, with affection, the M81 group.  The galaxy just below (west of) M81 in the image is PGC 28757 or Holmberg IX, an irregular dwarf satellite galaxy of M81.  There are other, more distant galaxies in the image, too, but I have no idea what names they carry, or if they do.

This image was taken from skies darker than my normal location.   Distant galaxies are always better seen from darker skies.  The image is shrunken slightly for noise reduction.

If you look closely at the image above, you will see there are clouds to the left of M81 running from the top to the bottom of the image.  These are probably clouds of gas and dust within our own galaxy and have earned the name "Galactic Cirrus."  See here and here.  These clouds are very dimly lit.  They are more easily seen in this inverted version:

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (29x900"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: SHSU Observatory near Huntsville, TX; Starry Nights Bed and Breakfast near Wimberley, TX

A Short M51 (Jan. & Feb. 2013)

 Full resolution image here.

How many images of M51 can a fellow have?  This was taken while I still had night left after my real target had set behind the trees.  Size reduced a bit to handle noise in the background.

Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (23x480"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik CLS
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX

Star Party (Feb. 28, 2013)

Last week I ran a star party for an honors club from our local high school. I have never seen such an inquisitive group. I answered questions about, for example, star formation (its conditions and causes), star life, and star death (in all its forms), neutron stars and white dwarfs, the difference between globular and open clusters, what is visible in amateur scopes, how autoguiding works, what kinds of cameras are used for astrophotography, and "what app do you use to talk to your telescope." The group stayed for nearly two hours under a clear sky in a local park. They saw Jupiter and its four largest moons, M42 and the Trapezium, Gamma Leonis, and the Pleiades. Three of them saw Sirius B, and five of them M66.

For a telescope, I used the relatively new metallic orange C8. I am continually delighted with the quality of its optics, and it has held collimation since I tweaked it when it was new nine months ago. It sits on the mount at just the right height for a standing person of average height. It is large enough to show interesting things but small enough to carry fifty yards into the park to set up without trouble. After it cools down, the views are fantastic. I keep dew off with a dew heater around the skyward end.

The C8 was mounted on a Tak EM-10 equipped with a form of Temma 2 goto. The mount's serial cable ends in a Firefly-BP Bluetooth adapter. The Firefly pairs with my Samsung tablet, and the telescope is controlled with SkySafari. This works wirelessly and beautifully. Having a star party wait while one finds something to look at is a real downer, especially if it's cold outside. Between the Goto and the finderscope, the crowd stayed happy. Also essential was a green laser pointer, the best tool I've ever seen for public discussion of the sky.

All in all it was a wonderful night!