I was able to enjoy the absolute rarest of celestial alignments on April 16, 2014. I received a new piece of equipment and on the very same day had clear skies to try it out. This only happens maybe once or twice in a lifetime. I was able to image the Beehive Cluster in Praesepe, otherwise known as Messier 44. This magnificent cluster of stars has been known since classical times. The first recorded view through a telescope was made by Galileo himself in 1609 who remarked, "The so-called nebula is not a single star but consists of a mass of more than 40 stars." Today, astronomers estimate there are about 200 stars belonging to this cluster. My favorites are the clusters of three that look a bit like bees buzzing through the cosmos.
Photo Details
April 16, 2014
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
Nikon D3100 Camera - ISO 1600
Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector
Skyglow filter
Autoguider
27 sub-frames at 1.5 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 40 mins 30 seconds
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop
Tonight was the opposition of Mars, an event that only happens every two years when the sun, Earth and Mars form a straight line. We also are closer to Mars tonight than we've been in the last 6 1/2 years, approximately 57 million miles. As I was eagerly awaiting this event over the past few days, I was getting pretty dispirited about the weather forecast; cloudy with rain. Jen encouraged me not to give up, despite the heavy cloud cover this evening. So, I set up the 12" Dob on the deck and the clouds miraculously parted just as Mars cleared the tree line in my line of sight. Jen's hyper-vigilance once again influenced natural events. The radar image below shows I had a perfectly placed small window to see this event. Amazing! I've been doing so much astrophotography lately, I had forgotten the pure joy of looking through the eyepiece. I have never seen Mars look so stunning. A deep reddish hue fading into the polar ice cap. Stunning. I was gifted with about 40 minutes of good seeing before the clouds reclaimed the sky. Fleeting but fantastic.
It's been a tough few weeks for clear skies. My last attempt was on March 30th and was able to image Messier 105 (circular galaxy in image above). What makes M105 so special, of course, are the other nearby galaxies forming this tight right triangle. The oblong galaxy is NGC 3384 while the third galaxy that seems to have better structure is NGC 3389. Though M105 may appear simply as a fuzz-ball, it is massive as our own Milky Way galaxy.
Photo Details
March 30, 2014
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
Nikon D3100 Camera - ISO 1600
Coma Corrector & Skyglow filter
Autoguider
46 sub-frames at 1.5 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 1 hour 7 minutes 30 seconds
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop
