Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Luna (2-22-2009)

This was the view this morning to the east, from a tall hill in The Woodlands, TX:

Lulin (02-19-2009)

This is Comet Lulin on the morning of February 19, at about 7:00 a.m. U.T., or 1 a.m. Central Standard Time. This image was taken through the AT66ED and the WO 0.8x reducer ff II with the XTi, and is 32 x 17" processed in Nebulosity and PSE7, unguided.

Lulin passed not just through a field of stars, but also through a field of galaxies. In this next image, the galaxies are labeled (some of the galaxies are pretty faint; you may have to adjust your monitor to see them) (I have also labeled two of the brighter stars near the center of the image):
The galaxies are a long way off, of course. Comet Lulin is speeding through our solar system. the stars in the image are relatively nearby in our galaxy. NGC4697, the brightest of these other galaxies, is probably 35 million and may be 50 million light years away. NGC 4697 has attracted attention because its X-ray output is high; see images in X-ray here. NGC 4602 and its neighbor NGC 4604 are probably around 41 million light years out. One study I read suggested that NGC 4691 is nearly 72 million light years away. PGC42868 is way out there, but no one knows how far.

Of course, Lulin itself does not look like a streak of light, but it is moving so fast that an exposure of any length requires that one either stop the stars or stop the comet. The images above stop the stars. Here is one that stops the comet and lets the stars move. Each of these images represents the passage of about ten minutes. In other folks' exposures, Lulin has a tail. In fact, it has one pointing toward the sun and one pointing away. My skies were too light-polluted to record either tail, however, and this is more or less just the comet's nucleus.

Lulin & Zubenelgenubi (02-05-09)

This morning Comet Lulin was just south of the star with the coolest name: Zubenelgenubi. That is the name of the two stars at the top of this image. Zubenelgenubi is actually a double star, as you can see. In fact, sharp-eyed people see the two stars without optical aid. The two are probably gravitationally bound. The dimmer of the two is actually also itself a double star, though these two are too close to split visually.
Comet Lulin was discovered at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan last July. It is an odd comet because it is moving along roughly the same plane that the planets move around the sun, but Comet Lulin is moving backwards! It is expected to appear near Saturn later this month (only apparently near the planet) on its way out of the inner solar system.
This image is about 9 x 30' with the Canon XTi and a Nikon 300mm f/4 lens. Processing was done in Nebulosity and PSE7.

Comet Lulin (02-03-2009)

I found Comet Lulin this morning from the backyard with the 100mm f/6. The comet was floating in Libra. At 17x, it was bright and obvious, a big fuzzball. I thought it oblong but noticed no tail(s).

Star Party at the Elementary School

Two nights ago I had the opportunity to go to my son's elementary school science night. There were all kinds of science exhibits, from magnets to hamsters! Lots of second- and first-graders and kindergartners were coming! That's just the place for a large refractor. I had just finished setting up when the first students arrived. Venus and the Moon shone brightly in the west (thanks for the image, Phil). Most kids would want to see the Moon, which was just a crescent, so that's where the scope went. A long line formed and did not end until around 8:00. The moon was big and bright magnified 35x. A moderately bright star shone beside it. The moon was a waxing crescent, but it was not dark on the side that was away from the sun! Sunlight shining on the Earth was reflected back onto the dark side of the Moon, lighting it up in eerie twilight! So the Moon looked like a round ball even though a crescent shape along one edge was lit up by the sun! I would bet around 200 kids and parents looked through the scope that evening. What a wonderful opportunity! Thanks to the school for a fine welcome, and thanks to all the kids who looked through my telescope! Sharing the evening with you was great!

Saturn

I left the 4" scope outside last night so that this morning all of its lenses would be of equal temperature. It focuses much better that way. Saturn was still high in the sky when I looked around 5:45 am. At 120x, Saturn was a big ball with a line through it---well, sort of a line. The rings are not edge-on now but tipped a little. The earth crossed through the plane of the rings about a month ago. On one side of the line which is the rings, right where they crossed the planet's face, a sharp, black line now plainly appears---the shadow of the rings on the planet itself. Titan and at least one other moon were easily visible, following the planet like a posse.

Uranus & Venus (01-22-09)

Tonight there was a close conjunction of Uranus & Venus. Seeing them together is interesting because Venus is 67 million miles from the sun, but Uranus is, on average, 1.78 billion miles from the sun. At the time this pictures was taken, Venus was between 80 and 100 million miles from Earth, and Uranus was at least about 1.8 billion miles behind it. When we look at the two planets, we are looking back in time. Sunlight took 6 minutes to get to Venus and then 8 or 9 minutes to get from Venus to my camera. But sunlight took 2.65 hours to get to Uranus and another 2.65 hours to get back to my camera. So the light from Venus is 14 minutes old and the light from Uranus is over 5 hours old. If the sun ceased to shine all at once, folks on earth would learn about the sun's darkness a little over 8 minutes after it happened. But even after the sun ceased shining here on earth, Venus would shine for another six minutes, and Uranus would glow for about another 5 hours!

Three of these are 15 seconds with the Canon 400D through the AT66ED with the 0.8x field flattener II. The darker image is only 8 seconds.