Winter has finally arrive here in Park City. About 20″ or so fell in the last couple of days with more likely (and hopefully) on the way. Park City is ski country. That’s one of the main reasons that I’m here. That said, I’m also an avid astronomer. Park City’s snow filled winters can be a bit of a challenge to the hobby. Here’s a picture of what I awoke to this morning. I spent quite a bit of time clearing off the deck (twice) and the driveway (twice). Summer and fall are generally quite clear and great for observing. Winter, on the other hand tends to be quite a bit stormier. We get lots of snow here typically, and that means considerably more cloud cover.

On top of the cloud cover, snow is quite reflective. As such, light pollution from outdoor lighting is magnified considerably in the winter. Even night sky friendly down lights hit the reflective snow and send a huge proportion of this light back up into the night sky. In some instances, this requires astro-imagers to cut their exposure times considerably. This just makes it that much harder to get the killer photos that I’m aiming for.

Don’t let me bum you out too bad though. There are many pluses to astronomy in the winter. First of all, it gets dark really early… and stays dark until well into the morning. Finding time to get out and observe is typically much easier. Also, the winter night sky is chock full of some truly amazing astronomical targets. We’ve already seen M42, the Orion Nebula. It’s been amazing, and its not even really well positioned yet. The constellation Andromeda is sitting over head as soon as it gets dark. Andromeda is home to the sweetest galaxy visible to northern observers, M31 the Andromeda Galaxy. Swinging in the other direction, M45 the Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus is an awesome rich field target. Just behind (east) this, the constellation Gemini is home to a few treats as well.

So, don’t think that you can’t do astronomy in the winter. You’ll certainly will want to bundle up as temps can be quite low in many areas… especially given that this is a predominantly low energy endeavor. However, the number and diversity of astronomical targets make it more than worth the effort.

I’ll finish by mentioning that next Thursday night into Friday morning (12/13-12/14), the annual Geminid Meteor Shower peaks. This is probably the best meteor shower of the year. It routinely puts 50+ meteors per hour during its peak and can easily top 100 per hour during better shows. This years event is pretty nicely helped by the fact that the moon will be less than 1/2 illuminated and setting before midnight.

I got my first ever images of IC434, the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion. The Horse Head is the faintest object that I’ve ever attempted to image at  mag 10 or so. I’d taken about 20 images or so that on Monday night (12/3/07). Unfortunately, due to a number of mishaps, only about 12 were actually usable.

These 12 images were stacked using RegiStax to give me a good starting point. FYI, each original/raw image barely showed the horsehead. You could kind of see where the nebula was. This was brought out quite a bit after the stacking. However, it wasn’t until I brought the image into The GIMP that things really came into view. Its amazing how much data was ‘hidden’ originally. Almost like pealing the layers off an onion, the nebula slowly revealed itself with each processing option.

I’m happy with the results of this first attempt to capture the illusive Horse Head Nebula. This is a very tough object. I’ve only seen this on a small handful of occasions. This is a faint object. Its also just large enough that the minimal light arriving in the telescope is spread out enough to make this a highly difficult target. Only seriously dark skies and a fairly substantial aperture will allow you to see this in the eyepiece.

As far as the image goes, it seem that 12 minutes was not quite long enough Additionally, as the constellation Orion is still fairly low in the southeast early on, I was fighting a bit of local light pollution. Had there been a bit less moisture in the sky and had this been a bit higher in the sky, I’d have taken longer exposures. These, were all 60 seconds a piece. Longer exposures had the background sky looking all washed out due to light pollution from a neighboring shopping center. Perhaps, towards the end of the month, I’ll have another shot at the Horsehead before the moon rises. This, plus another round of telescope alignments, should hopefully allow me to hit this pretty hard. My goal is to get perhaps 50-100 minutes of exposures (5 minutes at a time). With the nebula sitting a bit higher in the sky and more and longer exposures, my signal to noise ratio should be dramatically improved. If this works out as planned, I should have quite a bit more data to start with as well as a much darker background. Anyway… I’m happy with this, my first image of IC434, The Horsehead Nebula.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: IC434 / The Horsehead Nebula
* Constellation: Orion
* Magnitude: ?
* Size: 6′ x 4′

Astro Photo Processing Details

* Canon Digital Rebel XTi
* Astro Physics Refractor
* 12 x 60s exposure at ISO1600 (comet)
* RegiStax
* Gimp Curves & Levels
* Neat Image

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

Given the limited amount of sleep I’ve gotten recently, I was surprised and how energized I was last night. I came close to pulling an all-nighter. Skies were incredible. Very clear, very transparent and pretty steady. I’d gotten some telescope alignment work done earlier in the week and was eager to see what kind of improvements this would provide. The alignment techniques will be covered in a future post. I just wanted to get out and play last night. I figured that since Orion was already high in the southeast, that I’d start there.

The Orion Nebula, for those unfamiliar with it, is without a doubt, the most amazing deep sky object visible in amateur telescopes. Ok, the most amazing object for folks in the northern hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy, star-like object. In even a modest pair of binoculars, it clearly is an object that requires extensive time to survey. Telescopes in the 6-10″ range will crawl inside it. The bright stars of the Trapezium anchor the center of the nebula, the expanse of which seems to extend to greater and greater distances as aperture is increased. In the 25″ under dark skies, it simply fills the eyepiece from edge to edge. Darker sections within the nebula have more detail than most nebula in their own right. You could literally spend the evening observing Orion at various levels of magnification and continue to find previously unseen detail. Orion is just now becoming an evening observing target. Folks should plan their observing around this beauty. Even low to the horizon, it’ll knock your socks off… though it is surely best to let it climb into the higher realms of the sky to fully appreciate all that it has to offer. If you don’t have a telescope worthy of such a beauty, I’d recommend finding a friend or an area star party to view it through the largest instrument possible.

The accompanying image is the result of (10) x 60 second exposures at ISO400 shooting at prime focus through the AP. These were subsequently stacked using RegiStax. I made use of the Gamma feature on the Wavelet tab. This is one feature that I’ll need to better understand. This feature literally pulled an incredible amount of detail from the provided data. Next, I pulled the image into PhotoShop where I applied an Unsharp Mask and a quick resize. The result is the image you’re now seeing. Click on the image to view it at higher resolution. You can also checkout my first images of the Orion Nebula elsewhere on this site.

Astro Photo Details:

* Designation: M42 - The Orion Nebula
* Type: Nebulous Star Cluster
* Constellation: Orion
* Magnitude: 4
* Size: 65′

Astro Photo Processing Details

* 10 x 60s exposures at ISO400
* Stacked using RegiStax 4
* Neat Image
* Photo Shop Levels

Ok, I purchased a new digital camera in late September. I chose the Canon Digital Rebel XTi for a number of reasons. First up, I’d had a film version of the Rebel years ago and it was awesome. I also still had the lenses from this camera, so I was able to save a bunch of money by just getting the camera body. Additionally, the newly updated Rebel now sported over 10 mega pixels. This would (hopefully) allow me to get some large scale prints down the line. I’ve wanted a full on CCD astro-cam for years. However, even as the price of these has dropped considerably, I figured that it was better to get started with the digital slr now than wait to get the camera of my dreams later. Given how much I need to learn, the sooner I get started the better.

The first few images got me really excited. Sure, they contained a bunch of issues. Most of these initially were the result of improper alignment of the mount. I’d been using the mount for visual observations and it was aligned well enough for that, but… for longer exposure astro-photos… it just wouldn’t cut the cake. I even had a bunch of vibrations coming through the mount in into the image. (click on the image to see the two distinct times that Jupiter (roughly 90lbs) ran by the mount). But, these were (for the most part) easy things to fix. I could align the mount (we’ll discuss this in greater detail in a future post)… and I could keep my puppy Jupiter from running around on the deck while I image. I could also isolate the entire imaging system from the deck. This slow moving project will find its way into a number of subsequent posts. What really got me excited was simply the amount of raw data that I was able to capture. The image shown here was a simple 2 minute exposure with no image processing whatsoever. I was salivating just thinking about what I could do when I’d addressed the first couple of sets of issues…. and started stacking many, many 2 minute (and longer) exposures. I was also itching to get seriously under the covers with PhotoShop. I knew instantly that I’d be taking some pretty spectacular shots in the not too distant future. All I needed to do was to fix a few things here and there

Ok, you’re probably wondering… and I’m certainly dying to show off a shot that did come out nicely. The following shot was another 2 minute exposure on M42, The Orion Nebula. This was taken after I’d put Jupiter inside… and after I’d gotten myself properly situated. I made sure to take very shallow breaths so as to not vibrate the camera again Again, no processing of the image has been done on this. I simply shrunk the image a bit to save on bandwidth. A quick critique would say that this was an ‘OK’ shot. A bunch of details within the nebula were revealed, it nicely framed, but… where’d the Trapezium go? In case you’re not familiar with this, the Trapezium is a grouping of stars at the very core of the nebula. These are completely lost inside the overexposed core of the photo. This can be remedied in the future via Photoshop… though I’ll likely get a better series of photos and stack them before I get into this. And so the journey continues…