Vern’s Weblog

A film crew for the BBC and Discovery Channel was in Boulder yesterday and put out a request to film local amateur astronomers and their equipment. The local astronomy clubs in Denver, Boulder, and Longmont quickly assembled a few representatives and we gathered with telescopes and imaging equipment for about a 4 hour chat with the crew. Not great weather, it was windy and cold and the sky was about 50% obscurred. We all had a great time irregardless. The crew was rather annoyed occasionally as we’d be talking loudly and laughing as we always do while out observing with friends. A couple fellow imagers, Brad and Cheyeenne, managed to get some great images of the comet. It appeared to me to be even brighter last night than it was last weekend. Unfortunately I broke off a pin on the DIN connector to the Stellacam and got nothing but blank screen. According to the crew, the segment will air on the BBC late this year and on the Discovery Channel early next year.

Comet C/2006 M4 (Swan) has brightened significantly over the past few days and is now around vmag 4.5 or so. It is quite large, bright, and easy to find in 10×50 binoculars even in light polluted skies.

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II around 8 to 8:15pm last evening from Louisville, CO. Stellacam set to integrate 64 frames (2 seconds), medium gamma, and 9/14 gain. Aligned and stacked with Registax3. Enhanced and cropped with ImagePlus. Sky was clear, no wind, transparency very good, turbulence 5 to 6/10, and temperature 50°F.

Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 is periodic comet with a rotation period of 16.4 years. It is currently located in the constellation Perseus. It is quite dim, around vmag 13 but is known for its sudden outbursts.

Image taken between 23:19 pm to 23:43 pm with Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Stellacam II settings were integrate 128 frames (4 sec), medium gamma, and 9/14 gain.  Images were dark subtracted and flat field corrected with ImagePlus, aligned and stacked with Registax3, and cropped and converted to animated gif with Photoshop2. Location was Louisville, CO, the weather was clear, temperature was 41°F, 46% humidity, sky was  clear, turbulence 5 to 6/10, and no wind.

Below image shows the largest mountain range on the moon, the Apennines, running diagonally from lower left to upper right. The mountain range is approximately 600 km (373 miles) The prominent crater Archimedes, near center of the image, is a large 83 km (53 miles) wide lava flooded crater with terraced walls.

This area was visited by the soviet Luna II probe in Sept. 14, 1959 and the US Apollo 15 mission on July 30, 1971.

Image taken the morning of October 13, 2006 at 6:00 am MDT, Louisville, CO with a Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F3.3 focal reducer, and Toucam 840K video camera. One hundred seconds of video was stacked and aligned with Registax3. Sky was clear, transparency was very good, turbulence 5/10, temperature 38°F, 60% humidity and no wind.

Below is another image of comet P/2006 T1 (Levy). The designation has been changed from C to P as it is a periodic comet. Much better conditions this time.

Image taken from Louisville, CO with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera around 5:30 am MDT. Integrate 128 frames (4 sec), gain 9/14, and medium gama. Images were dark subtracted and flat field corrected with ImagePlus. Aligned and stacked with Registax3. Photoshop2 used to crop the image. Sky was clear, transparency was very good, turbulence 5/10, temperature 38°F, 60% humidity and no wind.