Almost Heaven

The Perseid meteor shower is without doubt one of the more reliable displays of shooting stars. I have fond memories of setting the alarm for 2 a.m. as a teenager to catch the view from our lawn, lying in wait for that next superlative streak of light that would make me call out a shout of approval to the heavens above. I also have great memories of Stellafane visits during the Perseids, especially when either son would make the trek with me to Vermont.

This year was one of those fortuitous alignments of new moon and Perseid peak. My plan was to attend Stellafane to try some photography and visual observing using the Vixen. The weather gods were not cooperating, offering possibly a clear night Thursday but not many prospects beyond that. Unfortunately one can only gain an early Thursday entry if you had put your money down and pre-registered.

In contrast the forecast looked pretty good for West Virginia near Spruce Knob. I did a quick check of the North Mountain Vacation Rentals site to see if any cabins were open, and to my delight I saw that there was a Wed-Thr vacancy. Deb and I visited there last fall but the weather did not cooperate at all for any observing that trip, but I knew the cabins were nice and the owners very hospitable to star gazers. When I called Patty, one of the owners, right away she inquired "So you coming here for the meteors?"

While the cost of camping at Stellafane was certainly less than a two night cabin rental there were other advantages to the change in plans. First, the drive was much shorter, about half what it'd be to Vermont. The drive is also without tolls, unlike the shortest route up to Springfield. And then there is the enjoyment of a cabin with indoor plumbing as opposed to a spot-a-pot.

Wednesday night started out partly to mostly cloudy but the forecast had indicated that it would clear off by midnight. So I put my feet up and dozed off waiting to see if the weatherman got it right. When I stepped out around midnight it was indeed clear, and the sky oh so full of stars. The Milky Way was bold overhead, making it hard to even pick out the cross of Cygnus. When a sporadic cloud would intrude it was a black hole in testimony to the lack of lights below to illuminate it. And almost immediately the Perseids began to punctuate the night. From my perch on the hill I probably caught about 30-40 through the evening as I worked on taking some shots of the Pleiades and M31 through the scope. Around 3 a.m. I tried taking a series of tripod mounted time exposures of the northeast but was not lucky enough to capture anything.

Awaiting Perseids

The next night promised to be a repeat, and as the twilight deepened my delight rose. I had changed my location so as to get a better alignment for the scope on this evening, and it paid dividends with better if not perfect tracking. From this vantage point I could take in Scorpius and Sagittarius, visiting the show pieces like the Lagoon, the Butterfly Cluster, M4, and others. The 20-30 second images were revealing detail, creating anticipation that the stacked end product would be a fine souvenir of the evening.

The Lagoon Nebula

As the evening wore on I turned my attention to the planetary nebula highlights of the Ring in Lyra and the Dumbbell in Vulpecula. I had hoped to be able to increase the magnification in my images with the use of a Barlow but was not having luck getting the focus, so I stayed with prime focus shots. When the Andromeda Galaxy cleared the trees I also gave it attention with a series of short exposures.

Globular M4

Dumbbell Nebula

At around 2 a.m. I noted that Aquarius had cleared the mountain and was visible. I had deemed that this was an opportunity if ever there was one to try to bag the elusive Helix nebula. The limiting magnitude had to be at 6 or better (able to see M13 naked eye), so it was possible to spot 5th magnitude υ Aqr which lies a little east of the Helix. Centering the star and then panning I was amazed at how readily I was able to identify the ghostly Helix in my field of view. Large and with a more vacuous center, not a lot of details at 80mm of aperture and 30x with no UHC filter, but still an impressive object. A simple sketch and then it was time to pack up in deference to the dew that was becoming more prevalent in the cool mountain air.

What a fabulous two nights! Comfortable accommodations, very dark skies, lots of Perseids on display, imaging success to some degree, and of course adding the Helix to my trophy wall of DSO. I really hope I can make this trek a couple times a year to enjoy this full splendor of the night sky above - it is almost heaven!

A Celestial Pairing

The media was abuzz the last week with the close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the western sky. It really was eye-catching, the two brightest planets coming so close together. Of course the media in its subtle secular way promoted this as a recreation of the Star of Bethlehem. But let's not digress...

The closest approach was on Tuesday evening. The mid-Atlantic has had a very rainy June - wettest month of June on record as a matter of fact. So the pattern has been clouds and more clouds, making for scant opportunity to follow the two planets drawing closer and closer. On Tuesday the skies to the west were pretty hazy, and the planetary pair were just able to pierce the shroud to be captured. At least I could say I saw it!

Venus (lower) and Jupiter June 30th

The next night was a bit better - not a wonderfully transparent sky but certainly clearer than a normal evening we've had lately. I got the camera onto the tripod and headed outside. The pair had grown perceptibly apart and had shifted into a side-by-side alignment, but still close to one another. I took my first dozen shots (that is so nice about a digital camera, immediate feedback and no worries about a cost associated with each camera click) when suddenly it stopped working! I quickly saw the issue - no space left on the card. Quick dash inside to load a new card and I was back in action.

Over the period of about 40 minutes I grabbed about 50 shots. One somewhat frustrating thing was that the part of the sky where they glistened must be a flight path - I had more than one shot polluted by a plane intruding into it - but nothing a little digital slight of hand won't be able to erase since the exposures were pretty short. Below is the shot that for me will go into the scrapbook when I want to remember this appulse. (Click for full view)

Venus and Jupiter July 1, 2015 10pm
Canon Ti3 18mm f/3.5 4 sec exposure

A Pre-dawn Planetary Appulse

The weather gods were kind and granted clear skies over Towson this morning, affording me an opportunity to grab a peek at the close pairing of Jupiter and Venus (at 5 a.m. ET this morning they were roughly a third of a degree apart, less than the appearance of a full moon). While not as rare as a Venus transit like we had in 2012, these two planetary beacons coming so close is not a common occurrence. And it is always eye-catching to say the least!

I decided to not set an alarm, trusting that I normally turn over an hour or so before sunrise anyway (perhaps a bit too trusting, but it panned out as expected). Grabbing the charged camera and tripod I headed out the front door around 5:30 to look for our duo. Unfortunately the eastern skyline in front of my home is not a great spot for horizon hugging events. So into the car with hopes of quickly locating a suitable venue with perhaps an interesting backdrop for a few shots. As I started up the hill I was continually making furtive glances to the east, and then I caught sight of them at the tree line as I passed the Towson Presbyterian Home. I circled the block and hopped out to see if I could compose a nice shot, opting for one with them nestled amid a dip in the treeline.

The first exposure at about 15 seconds was way too bright (the 'instant feedback' of a digital camera is really nice for catching such a problem quickly), so I shortened the exposure until I could see the two dots on the LCD screen. Bracketing around that ~2 second exposure at ASA 800 I collected several shots. With those secured I ambled about the front lawn in search for another interesting composition. I made two more series of photos for the raising pair, but the increasingly bright sky as dawn inexorably proceeded meant my first shots were probably the best. By 6 a.m. it was all over, barely ten minutes of snapping photos.

The best of the shots is above - played with it a bit in Paintshop to darken the sky and boost the contrast. May post some more after I have a chance to play with the images

Camelopardalids, Camelopardalids, Wherefore Wert Thou?

What with the March Regulus occultation by asteroid Erigone being a cloud out on the east coast and the April Lunar eclipse also blocked from our view it seemed amazing that it was actually going to be clear for the a possible new meteor shower on the evening of May 23-24. The predictions of Earth skimming through debris left behind by comet 209P/LINEAR on one of its passes over a century ago brought some over-the top predictions from the media ("200+ meteors per hour possible!", "comet 209B/LINEAR is expected to light up the night skies in May 2014 in a dazzling display"). Please people - the event is associated with a comet, one of the most notoriously unpredictable denizens of the night sky. It hadn't been 6 months since ISON went to ISOFF in a significant disappointment to sky gazers everywhere.

But still - who wants to be that guy who stayed home on a beautiful spring night if there's even a remote opportunity of catching a few dozen shooting stars? Obviously not me, so I grabbed my camera, binoculars, lawn chair, and some warm apparel and headed out to the Alpha Ridge observing location just west of Baltimore. When I got there it was just getting dark and there were a surprising number of folks who had assembled hoping for a show. Those with scopes were enjoying the planetary trifecta of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn; as the skies darkened they pursued deeper quarry of cluster, nebulae, and galaxies above the park.

I settled in facing North and placed the Big Dipper into the camera field. Around 11 pm I began clicking off 30 second exposures hoping to catch a piece of comet dust streaking through that familiar constellation. I would occasionally take a break and hunt down familiar Messier objects with the Oberwerks. There is something to be said for just lounging comfortably out under the stars, enjoying a cosmic game of I spy.

Unfortunately by 1 a.m. my grand total of observed meteors was three - two of which were sporadics and one maybe was a Camelopardalid. And obviously nothing to show on film other than some pleasant Ursa Major shots. But even without the Giraffe's meteors it was a relaxing, bug-free, temperate, great Friday night under the stars with like minded souls. To quote Charlie Sheen, "Winning!!"

Exploring Podcasting

Well this is certainly different - a post without an observation! I have been a bit negligent in writing up some observations (have actually been out to Alpha Ridge twice in last couple of weeks), but this evening it's all about checking out a proof of concept Podcast. Nothing fancy, just me reading some text straight off the ALPO web site for their training program. As part of a workgroup that is tasked with finding ways to help maintain the organization's membership I am researching the whole Podcast publishing process - and when reaching the point of needing a blog to publish it to - well thank goodness I blog (albeit sporadically!). So, if you are willing to waste about 90 seconds of your life click the link below to access my first podcast :-)

Jim's Podcast Host (Podbean)

A Vague Mars, Awesome Tycho

Well this week was the 2014 Mars opposition, like the Olympics a bi-annual event in the life of amateur astronomers. I set up the scope under so-so skies the actual night of opposition (Apr 8th) but struggled to place Mars in the scope's field of view (spotting scope really needed to be reset, the tube was fully racked to the side I needed to move towards). So, with a first quarter Moon beginning its westward slide to the horizon I opted to grab a few frames from it craggy landscape.

The northern hemisphere sported Plato, always a favorite, but a little past prime as the sun had climbed high enough across its plains to remove most of the contrast shadows provide. The images were best without a Barlow, showing a wider section the the Moon's landscape. A little east of Plato the "Alpine Valley" was an interesting feature, an 80 mile long cleft amid the lunar version of the Alpine mountains. Another cool landmark was Mons Piton, a solitary mile-high mountain projecting from Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers) a bit farther south and east of the Vallis Alpes.

Plato on the norther shores of Mare Imbrium

The southern hemisphere this evening was the normal chaotic mix of craters upon craters. Among the scared landscape two caught my attention. One was huge Clavius, always demanding attention because of its impressive size, nearly the distance from Frederick MD to the eastern shore of Maryland. Being an ancient crater its floor is beat up with subsequent smaller impact craters, a couple of which were easily seen. In contrast the other standout is one of the newer significant lunar features - crater Tycho was in sharp contrast and very eye-catching. Probably no other feature has such a remarkable change in appearance from its local dawn to high noon. Here as the sun just come above the horizon the steep walls and its nearly mile high central peak are evident. Less than a week from now it will be the ray system that draws attention from the observer, especially during the eclipse set to happen early next Tuesday morning.

Tycho at top center, large Clavius to the left

The following night I took some time to correct the finder scope and made another attempt at Mars. Being an aphelic apparition there is never a lot that one can hope to see with a modest 6" reflector. But throughout my astrophotography career Mars had always been one target that I could never capture through the scope. Always not at opposition, or too small when at opposition - it rarely presents itself favorably and never as consistently as Jupiter, Saturn, and Luna. But this evening I did manage to get it on screen, a clear disk with even hints of a polar cap. So I ran a few AVI to see what I could get, a couple with blue and green filters. Sadly, the processing revealed a very uninspiring result. Part of it is that clearly the "boring" side of Mars was showing, mainly plains without any significant albedo features. But even so the polar region was very mushy, more of a suggestion of its presence than a confirmation. So, the scope will need to be checked again, make sure I have the best mirror alignment possible, and then hope for another clear night with maybe a more fascinating central meridian available in the next couple of weeks. But - even as inferior as it is - I can at least say I now have Mars on film.

Mars with a small polar cap at about 5 o'clock

Light Pollution 1, Supernova 2014J 0

Most supernovae are beyond my standard reach - a 6 to 10" scope plus suburbia awash in lights. But the recent explosion in M82, the thin cigar-shaped galaxy in Ursa Major, sounded like an awesome opportunity. With articles indicating it was peaking at magnitude 10.5 it also seemed like capturing it on video was not out of the question.

The skies Saturday seemed to have a small window of opportunity - average transparency and seeing predicted from about 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. by the CSC. I took a little extra time to set the tripod on Polaris and then scanned the northeast with some binoculars to locate the target area. I've seen the M81-M82 galaxy duo before from home many times in the past, but mainly from the backyard (which was a muddy mess with the defrosting temperature we had during the day). I spent about 20 minutes sweeping the area at low power to no avail. Granted, it is harder to sweep for a circumpolar object when using a GEM, but I think the real culprit was just the abundance of outdoor lighting. Our neighbor across the way has recently 'upgraded' the lamp post light to a glaring 250 watt (my estimation) mercury vapor style light - which was striking me in the face as I panned for the galaxies. Moments such as these are a downer - makes me long for putting some distance between my telescope and neighboring lights.

With the scope and video already set up I opted to swing over to Jupiter, climbing pretty high into the sky by this time. The seeing ended up being fairly good, and I took about a dozen 1 minute film runs of Jove.

In the B&W shot above, the NTB, which in years past has been a bit more distinct, is pretty visible in the preceding half of the hemisphere but then seems to blend into the amorphous NPR (no real sign of a NNTB). Hints of festoons arcing southward off the NEB can be glimpsed as well. NEB and SEB are about the same intensity. No sign of a separate STB.