Nikon

Comet C2013 R1 Lovejoy

tcrass 0 Comments

Comet Lovejoy (Designation C2013\R1) was discovered in September 2013 by observer Terry Lovejoy in Australia. This comet is expected to reach peak brightness this week around +4 magnitude (in a good estimate for what's visible is about +6 magnitude), the lower the magnitude the brighter the object (kinda like golf, the lower the score, the better!).

Below is the image that I was able to take with use of the BTR (Cluster Camera) a Nikon 200mm lens.

C2013 R1 Comet Lovejoy

The comet will be visible in the morning skies and will be moving quickly towards the Sun and then out of the solar system. This comet has a 7000 year orbit so I don't think we'll be seeing it back around these parts anytime soon so look while you can!

The key to seeing this comet will be early morning observing. I recommend a visit to the following site (http://theskylive.com/ephemerides-computation?obj=lovejoy) if you want to try and catch it. This website provides tracking of the current position of the comet against the stars so you can get an accurate idea of where to look. Given how dim this comet is, you'll probably want to have a pair of binoculars or a small telescope for easy viewing.

Happy comet watching!

October 21st Astrophotography Session

tcrass 0 Comments

The planet Venus, the Ring Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy (and companion galaxy M32) and the Hercules Globular Cluster were all worth the crisp autumn air.  Much thanks to that air there was relatively good visibility for the Kansas City metro area.  As such, it was time to break out the 6" refractor once again and give my T-Ring to Nikon camera adapter a whirl.

You can see the fruits of that labor here:

http://www.collegeastronomy.com/gallery/venus-m57-m31-m32-m13/

In summary, the evening went well even though it was quite chilly.  After getting things up and going I started out by snagging a few, less than impressive, shots of Venus.  Then as it darkened up a bit I set my eyes on getting some better shots of what I could easily find around the night sky.  Especially for my first photography session ever using a DSLR.  I started with M57 the Ring Nebula which was a great site when it popped into view after a simple 4 second exposure!  Once I'd finished here I thought I'd try for something a little more elusive but still a sure thing if I could star hop to it.  Sure enough I was able to get M31 the Andromeda Galaxy as well as one of its companion galaxies (M32) in the frame.  I managed to capture several really good shots with most of them (before processing in some cases) showing the dust lines of the galaxy's spiral arms.  I did not expect to see this detail.  After these I headed for one last, easy to snag, object, M13 the Hercules Globular Cluster which my mount failed to properly find earlier in the night.  Once I star hopped to it I was able to snag some really great shots of it before calling it a night and comping back here to process and post the results.  Hopefully you guys can enjoy the images as much as I enjoyed taking them!