Vern’s Weblog

There was an impressive prominence on the sun’s northeast limb today.  I scale the prominence height to be 5.95% of the sun’s diameter. Currently the diameter of the sun is 865,618 miles or 1.393078 million kilometers.  The height of the prominence above the photosphere is  51,504 miles or 82,888 km.

Equipment used Solarview50 H-alpha telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D Rebel camera. Sky was clear, temperature was 73 °F, transparency was good, and turbulence was 6/10.

Below image of the sun in white light taken with Stellarvue A1010, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D Rebel camera.

Periodic comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann is now in 40 or so pieces.  Two of pieces, designated B and C, may be found in the constellation Bootes in small telescope or large binoculars. Below is an animation showing the primary component, 73P Schwassman-Wachmann-C from last evening just after midnight, 06:33 to 06:54 UT April 10, 2006.

Component B has brightened within the last several days and now appears as bright as the primary component C.  Its coma is slightly smaller.  Image from 07:19 to 07:54 UT April 10, 2006.

Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar11 with Meade F3.3 focal reducer and a Astrovid Stellacam2 video camera. Transparency last evening was very good, temperature was around 52 °F, no wind, and turbulence was quite good (7/10). Animation was created from 4, approximately 5-minute stacks of the 20 minute capture. 

Some sunspots visible for a change! Active region 10865 (the western most in below white light image) is quite large (600 milli-hemispheres). I count 17 spots with an 8 mm eyepiece through the 78mm Stellarvue refractor (NOAA shows 22). Turbulence was 6/10, partly cloudy, occasional thin clouds, temperature 74 °F and no wind. Equipment used was a Baader solar filter on Stellarvue A1010, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Canon 300D (Rebel) camera.

Nice large prominence visible on eastern limb in h-alpha. Appeared to be 4 or 5 tree-like branch structures. Some brightening visible around the trailing spots in 10865 to the west.

I decided to try taking some images of Messier 51 with the Canon 300D last evening despite partly cloudy skies and a crescent moon. Transparency was generally good though there were occasional thin clouds, temperature 45°F, turbulence 6/10. Equipment used as Celestron Nexstar11, Celestron F6.2 focal reducer, and Canon 300D. I handguided for around 40 minutes to obtain 16, 2 minute exposurers at ASA 400. ImagePlus software was used to dark subtract, flat field correct, stack, and align the best 8 of 16 images.

Wider field versions are available 1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1024×768, and 800×600.

Messier 51 (NGC 5194), the whirlpool galaxy in Canes Venatici is thought to be quite similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in mass, size, and luminosity. M51 is an excellent example of a face-on spiral that can be seen in a small telescope (8″) under a dark sky. It is believed to be interacting gravitationally with is neighbor to the north, NGC 5195.