The impending snow storm has been delayed :-\  That was my realization when I got up this morning. Apparently, by quite a bit. Skies were crystal clear. As I looked out my front window, I noticed that the Moon and the planet Venus were sitting awfully close together (7* I read on Spaceweather.com). Sitting just above the duo was a bright star. Not fully caffeinated yet, I had to fire up Starry Night Pro to see that this was the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo. Sweet. Groupings like this are called conjunctions and have held major significance throughout recorded history. That being the case, I figured I might as well put the camera on the tripod and see what I could come up with.

I ended up snagging a pair of images. The first shot shows the trio through the Canon Digital Rebel using a 75-30mm zoom lens. This nicely framed the scene. It also revealed a bit of detail on the lunar surface.

The second shot was with the 28-80mm lens pulled all the way back. This allowed me to get the mountains in the foreground. I exposed this shot for a full 10 seconds so that I got a nicely silhouetted mountain.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: The Moon
* Magnitude: roughly mag -12
* Size: roughly 1/2*

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* First 1/2s at ISO1600
* Second 10s at ISO1600
* Gimp Curves

What an interesting afternoon this image created. I was outside last night snapping a series of images of IC434, The Horse Head Nebula. As I was reviewing the sequence, I noticed a pair of objects moving in tandem across the field of view. What in the world could this be?

I sent the image to a few people to see what ideas they might have. A meteor? Nope, too fast. A satellite? Nope, too fast. A plane? Nope too fast. Even the International Space Station crosses the entire sky horizon to horizon in about 6 minutes. My unidentified flying objects took 6 minutes to span the 1° field of view of my image. I sent the image to Dr. Tony Philips at Spaceweather.com for analysis. I could see it now. I’d have a street named after me in Roswell, NM. Perhaps Asteroid Anthony 2007? Fame, fortune??? Well, not exactly.

Dr. Tony explained to me that this was quite likely a geosynchronous satellite.

Dear Anthony,

You may have photographed a geosynchronous satellite. They move about 1.5 degrees in a 6 minute period. (15 degrees per hour.) Take a look at the Nov. 25, 2006, edition of spaceweather for a similar apparition in the Orion Nebula:

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=11&year=2006

Regards, Tony

My UFO had quickly become an IFO (Identified Flying Object) Oh, well… better luck next time

That said, the accompanying image did capture its intended target, IC434 aka The Horsehead Nebula. The image was processed with the UFO turned IFO in mind. So, I’ve not really highlighted it. I’ll work on reprocessing the images (25 of them) a bit later. The emphasis then will most certainly be on revealing as much detail as possible in the Horse Head. This has always been one of my absolute favorite objects. The very fact that I’ve been able to capture it here speaks to the progress I’ve made astro-photography-wise. I’m betting that this is going to be a sweet astrophoto.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: IC434 - Barnard 33 - The Horse Head Nebula
* Type: Nebula
* Constellation: Orion
* Magnitude: 10 * Size: 65′

Astro Photo Processing Details

* 6 x 60s exposures at ISO400
* Stacked using RegiStax 4
* Neat Image
* GIMP Levels

Astronomy Equipment

* Astro Physics Starfire 160mm Refractor
* Canon Digital Rebel XTi