Archive for May, 2006

Messier 5, NGC 5904

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Messier 5, located in constellation Serpens Caput, is an impressive globular. It appears to be slightly elliptical in the NNE to SSW direction. Image of Messier 5

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera. Clear, 62 °F, transparency very good, no wind, turbulence 5/10.

NGC 6621 and 6622 Arp 81

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

NGC 6621 and NGC 6622 (Arp 81) are a strongly interacting pair of galaxies in the constellation Draco. The tidal arm extending up and to the left of NGC 6622 is just barely visible in the below image. Image was taken on May 21, 2006 at 01:53 am MDT with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellcam2 video camera. Temperature was 59°F, sky clear, transparency very good, no wind, location Lousiville, CO.

Image of NGC 6621/6622 Arp 81

Comet C/2004 B1 Linear

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Comet C/2004 B1 Linear is around magnitude 12.7 (according to ephemeris) and has a small of 1.5 arc-sec coma. Below image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer and Astrovid Stellcam2 video camera at gain 9/14, integrate 128, and medium gamma. Temperature 59°F, clear sky, turbulence fair (5/10), no wind, and transparency was very good. I also created a movie using MS Windows movie maker showing movement of the comet in about 15 minutes (640×480, 15 seconds, 651 Kbytes)

Comet C/2004 B1 Linear on May 21, 2006

Jupiter on May 21, 2006

Sunday, May 21st, 2006

Below image of Io, Jupiter, and Europa (left to right) at midnight last evening. Very pleasant night in the backyard, 62°F, no wind, no clouds, very good transparency, and fair (5/10) turbulence. Equipment used was Celestron Nexstar11, Phillips Toucam 740K webcam.  Air was too turbulent to try much higher magnification.

Jupiter, Io, and Europa on May 21, 2006

Messier 13, Hercules globular cluster

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

One of my favorite objects to visit is the Hercules globular cluster M13. It is a stunning object to view when you are at a dark sky site and the sky is transparent. Image of globular cluster M13 in constellation Hercules.

Below image taken from light polluted metro Denver with a Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Intregration set at 128 (4.25 sec), gain 9/14, and medium gamma. Stacked from 20 minutes of video, dark subtracted, flat field and bias corrected. Sky was clear, temperature was 56 °F, no wind, transparency very good, and turbulence fair (5 to 6/10).