Vern’s Weblog

A little over a week ago (Oct 2, 2006) David Levy discovered his 22nd(?) comet visually in the constellation Leo. This is a remarkable lifetime achievement, especially now, with satellites and professional observatories performing automated searches. 

 I located the comet visually around 5:15 am this morning with a Nexstar 11 telescope.  The comet appeared quite faint, though the oval shaped coma was quite distinct. It appeared fairly uniform, a bright nucleus was not apparent.  I did not observe a tail. Others have reported that it has one that is 3 or 4 arc minutes long. Unfortunately, while I was setting up the Stellacam II, clouds were rapidly moving in from the northeast. The image below leaves a bit to be desired as it was shot through thin clouds and poor atmospheric turbulence.

Image was taken from Louisville, CO with Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Astrovid Stellacam II video camera.  Camera was set to integrate 128 frames (about 4 seconds), medium gamma, and 9/14 gain. Fifteen images (1 minute) were aligned and stacked with ImagePlus for each of the two frames which are 5 minutes apart. Photoshop Elements 2 was used to crop and enhance the images and create the animation. The sky was partly cloudy, with obscurring thin clouds, temperature was 44°F, 37% humidity, 1-5 mph wind, and poor turbulence (4/10).  Polar alignment was off as degree or so as upward drift was noticable in the images.

Below is an image of comet C/2006 M4 (Swan) taken early Saturday morning between 05:40 and 05:55 MDT. Its diffuse tear drop shape was easily visible even with 10×50 binoculars. It certainly helps being at a dark sky site and having a view of it in a clear sky for a change. I had some challenges getting an image however. My location was such that the comet was behind the top leaves of a tree when I first spotted it around 5:25am. The marine battery I was using to power my notebook and Stellacam II had tripped off due to low voltage. The notebook had shut down as well from low battery. I had dropped and broken my headlamp and I couldn’t find the spare. Also, the temperature was 32°F and humidity was 85% so everything was starting to frost over. Everything worked out though a few minutes later. I was able to fumble around in the predawn light and connect to my scope battery to run the notebook and Stellacam II. The comet cleared most of the leaves of the tree.

Location was Crow Valley Campground near Briggsdale, CO. Sky was clear, transparency was very good, temperature was 32°F, no wind, and turbulence 6/10. Celestron Nexstar11 telescope mounted on APT wedge, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera. Integrate 128 frames (4 sec), medium gamma, and 9/14 gain. Stacked and aligned with Registax3.

I was a bit disappointed when I rechecked my records and found that I had already imaged this comet last November. Even so, it is the faintest (vmag 13.2) that I have imaged thus far by about a magnitude.  Imaging from a dark sky site clearly helps!

Location was Crow Valley Campground north of Briggsdale, CO. Celestron C11 telescope, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and Stellacam II video camera. Integrate 256 frames (8 sec), medium gamma, and 9/14 gain. Temperature was 34°F, sky was clear, no wind, 80% humidity, turbulence 6/10, and transparency was very good.

Stephan’s quintet (NGC 7317, 7318A, 7281B, 7319, and 7320) in the constellation Pegasus is a grouping of 5 galaxies in a 3.5 arc-min area. The largest and brightest of the group, NGC 7320, is located in the lower left of center. Due to difference in red shift, the conventional view  is that NGC 7320 is not part of the other 4 galaxies in the group. It is instead actually part the nearby NGC 7331 group.  However there is evidence of a connecting tail extending from 7320 which implies interaction with the the other galaxies. Some astronomers, such as Halton Arp, maintain that because of this the current beliefs about red shift should be re-examined. 

The galaxies 7318A and B located near the center of the image are quite interesting as well. Not only are they interacting but they also have differing red-shifts. Galaxy 7318B is currently moving toward the others at high speed setting up a tremendous shock wave larger than our own milky way galaxy in size.

Location was Crow Valley Campground in the Pawnee Grasslands just north of Briggsdale, CO. Temperature was 44°F and humidity was 56%. The sky was mostly clear with a few thin clouds, no wind, turbulence around 6/10, and transparency varied from good to very good. Fifteen minutes of video taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, APT wedge, Meade F3.3 focal reducer, and a Astrovid Stellacam II video camera. Camera set at 9/14 gain, integrate 256 (8 sec), and medium gamma. Images were dark subtracted and flat field corrected with ImagePlus, aligned and stacked with Registax3.