Vern’s Weblog

Archive for February, 2006

Supernova 2006X in Messier 100

Saturday, February 11th, 2006

I ran across an announcement yesterday that a supernova had been discovered in Messier 100 in the constellation Coma Bernices on Feb 7th, 2006 by Shouji Suzuki and M. Migliardi. This makes a total of 5 supernova that have been observed in M100. The supernova was at estimated magnitude 15.3 when discovered and is now at magnitude 14.4 according to Migliardi (I’d put it closer to magnitude 15.0 judging from nearby stars on my unstacked images — I’m not an expert however; I’m not sampling with a reference filter; and the Stellacam2 is more sensitive to IR).

Below is the result of stacking 120 images I took last evening just between midnight and 1 am. Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam2 video camera. Temperature was 14 degrees, no wind, no clouds, transparency excellent, and turbulence 7/10. Blue text in image shows magnitude for nearby stars from AAVSO chart. Background brightness from the nearly full moon made brightness/contrast adjustments a bit of a challenge.

Click on image for larger version.

Posted in Astronomy, Galaxy | 5 Comments »

Moon on Feb 8, 2006

Thursday, February 9th, 2006

Image of the moon on night of Feb 8, 2006 at 10.5 days past new. Partly cloudy skies, temperature of 45°F., turbulence 6/10, no wind, transparency generally good with occasional thin clouds. Celestron Nexstar11, 6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D camera.

Posted in Astronomy, Lunar | No Comments »

Lunar images on Feb 5, 2006

Tuesday, February 7th, 2006

I’m working on some of the Astroleague Lunar2 targets and decided to image some of them while I was at it. All images taken with Celestron Nexstar11 with F6.2 focal reducer and a Phillips Toucam 740K camera. Partly cloudy skies, temperature was 34°F, no wind, transparency generally good, though a number of thin clouds drifted through.

Lunar2 target, Cassini A, is a 10 mile wide crater within the larger (35 mile wide) Cassini crater.

Heading south of Cassini to the next Lunar2 target is Rima Hadley, a north south winding rille. This area was visited by the Apollo 15 crew on the 4th US mission to the moon in 1971.

Posted in Astronomy, Lunar | 3 Comments »

The flame nebula (NGC 2024) and horsehead nebula (Barnard 33)

Friday, February 3rd, 2006

Despite yesterdays dire weather predictions of snow and wind here in the Denver area, views from the backyard last night were better than expected. The transparency wasn’t great, lots of high thin clouds visible. Large banks of clouds were moving rapidly across the sky. One of my neighbors was out drawing circles in the clouds with a spot light. Turbulence was only fair, maybe 5/10. I set up the Stellacam2 and F3.3 focal reducer on the Nexstar11. Despite all the negatives, the flame or burning bush nebula was pretty impressive on the notebook screen. I was moved to reflect at how marvelous the Orion region of the sky is. Thankfully, God created such wonders for us to explore.

Image of the flame or burning bush nebula, ngc 2024

Encouraged by views of NGC 2024, I decided to give another try at locating the elusive horse head. Armed with an excellent widefield image of the Alnitak region I found on the internet, I moved slowly south from Alnitak, a half screen at a time, comparing the stars on the widefield image with those on the monitor. After I reached the location where it was supposed to be, I adjusted the integration time and gain on the Stellacam2. I was quite amazed to find that the dim outline of the horsehead was easily seen. I’ve been searching for this object since I bought the Stellacam2 over two years ago.

Image of Barnard 33, the horsehead nebula

Posted in Astronomy, Dark Nebula, Deep sky, Diffuse Nebula | 2 Comments »

The moon on Feb 2, 2006

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006

Another image of the moon at 5 days past new. Turbulence was 5/10, temperature 34° F., transparency was fair with high thin clouds, and 3 mph wind. It is not a great night for imaging, but sometimes they come out better than expected.

Image of the moon on night of Feb 2, 2006