Vern’s Weblog

Located 20 arc-minutes east of M86 in the constellation Virgo is a pair of galaxies known as “the eyes”. According to the Chandra website, it is thought that these galaxies had a glancing collision about 100 million years ago. Both galaxies appear elognated in the NNE to SSW direction.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar 11, Meade F3.3 focal reducer. and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Integration set at 256 (8.5 second exposure), gain 9/14, and medium gamma. Images flat field, dark subtracted, and bias adjusted, 20 minute stack. Sky was clear, transparency was very good, turbulence fair 5/10, no wind, and temperature was 57 °F.

Below not so great image of Jupiter taken just after midnight last evening. Turbulence was fair, between 5 and 6/10, sky clear, transparency very good, temperature 55 °F. Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Televue 2.5X Powermate, and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam at 1/25 sec, 10 fps, 60% brightness, 20% gain, and 320×240 format. 

Fragment B as brightened signficantly in the last few days and now is brighter than the main component, fragment C. It is now moving quite rapidly — too fast to stack even 30 seconds of images without bluring stars a lot. It was just barely visible in the telrad. Equipment was a Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam2 video camera. Weather conditions clear, no wind, transparency excellent, and turbulence good (6/10).

I created a couple movies with MS MovieMaker, a 320×240 (617 K-Byte) and a 640×480 1.7 M-Byte version.

It was mostly cloudy last evening just as the comet was passing near M57, the ring nebula in Lyra. Fortunately for me, it cleared slightly and I was able to get some images even though they are all through thin clouds. Equipment used Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam2 video camera. Stellacam2 set to 64 frame integration (about 2 sec), gain 9/14, and medium gamma. No wind, poor transparency, turbulence 6/10, temperature 53 °F.

An animated version is available as well (approximately 1.5 M-Bytes).