Science Daily: Uranus
- New images reveal what Neptune and Uranus really look like January 5, 2024
- Ringing in the holidays with ringed planet Uranus December 19, 2023
Science Daily: Pluto
- How Pluto got its heart April 15, 2024
- Evidence of geothermal activity within icy dwarf planets February 15, 2024
Science Daily: Kuiper Belt
- How Pluto got its heart April 15, 2024
- Evidence of geothermal activity within icy dwarf planets February 15, 2024
Author: Roland Roberts
M8, M20, and More…
Another shot from Cherry Springs State Park, this image has a few flaws starting with a failure on my part to check the focus very well. It doesn’t show in this 25% scaled down image, but yeah, it was out of focus. With a background near the galactic core in Sagittarius, these almost get lost …
Double Cluster from Cherry Springs
It will take some time to work through all the images from this last week to produce “final” products, but this is the first one. While I’ve known about Cherry Springs State Park for a long time, this was my first visit. I’m glad I went. This is the Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC …
Mars and Moon Conjunction
So I was up late and stepped out front to set out the garbage cans and couldn’t help but look up at the sky. Mars was just a couple of degrees away from the moon! Back inside to grab the camera and tripod for a quick shot Camera Canon T6i, IR cut filter modified Lens …
Attempting to Image the Veil from Brooklyn
Brooklyn, NY is a Bortle class 8 sky. On a good night. Really, that’s it. On a good, clear, low-humidity night, I can see all four stars in the trapezoid shape of Lyra and probably make out epsilon Lyrae as well. Toss in a little humidity or generally poor air quality and I lose all …
Mercury is Tiny!
This first photo is from 7:44 AM EST, shortly after the transit started. I saw both of the Venus transits (well, the second one was mostly clouded out, but that’s another story). Mercury is so much smaller. With Venus a filtered pair of binoculars at a mere 10X was enough to pick out Venus. I …
Mercury Transit Lessons Learned
The transit is in progress, I’m taking images, it’s actually all working, so what lessons? I usually do night time long exposure imaging. This is different. Set up before daybreak so you can polar align. Did that, check. Just like night time except you’re racing the sunrise. Turn the screen brightness on high for the …
Prelimary processing for M27 Image
Finally took a few minutes to do something with the images I took during the Summer Star Party. This is an LRGB composite of a single frame of each color for M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. We’re talking only about 2 minutes (or less!) exposure per color here. I need to take the time to combine …
I Should Learn to Sketch
Another night sitting for 30-40 minutes watching Saturn. The moons have moved around a bit, and this time I could see both Tethys (mag 10.9) and Dione (mag 11.1) as well as Titan (mag 9.1) and Rhea (mag 10.3). Seeing was as bad as usual . I mostly used my 6 mm Televue Radian eyepiece, …
Observing Saturn
I never seem to have enough time to get out and observe, much less image, but since the Summer Star Party, I’ve been trying to get out at least once a week even if only for a short period. This usually involves sitting the Dob out in the back alley, then taking a long walk …
Aquila from near Wardell, MO
Shot from near Wardell, MO at the end of July while visiting family. The skies in southeast Missouri are nice and dark, but I was set up near a rice field which made challenging to keep the mosquitos off me while shooting. There was a first quarter moon up while this was being shot, so …