My first attempt on a dim reflection nebula, IC447, located in the constellation Monoceros. It includes several massive B-type stars. About 2 hours of integration time at high gain and 60 sec subs using a Daystar 480mm f/6 refractor, duo-band filter and post-processed with Siril. I will have to give this a lot more time in the future as I have over-processed it this time.
Barnard 33 aka the Horsehead Nebula. Just below the left hand star in Orion's "belt". It was windy but the scope tracked well enough. About 2 hours of one minute exposures with my Daystar refractor.
The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin Galaxy, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.- Imaged December 3, 2024
The Dumbbell Nebula
The Crab Nebula
Citizen Science and my participation in asteroid occultations
I have always wanted to contribute to astronomical science since my youth. Only in the past decade have I found opportunities, the first one was in August, 2017 with The Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) collaborative project that used citizen scientists across the United States during the total solar eclipse to help with astronomers study the Sun's inner atmosphere (corona). And though my interest in astronomy has been primarily astrophotography with my telescopes, this was one a way to contribute data for scientists. The data I collected for this project was included and credited to me in the final science paper of the 2017 total solar eclipse as a contributor.)
Some time ago, a fellow member of our astronomy club (The Huachuca Astronomy Club in south-eastern Arizona, USA), Vince Sempronio, was doing some citizen science work doing “asteroid occultations”. After hearing of his efforts he asked if I would be interested. I finally said I would give it a try. My hesitancy was that many of these “occultations” take place in the middle of the night and I kind of value some sleep! He described it as “joining the dark side”, LOL ! He had been doing these for four+ years and is well experienced in this field of citizen science.
What is an asteroid?
The inner solar system where Earth is located is constantly being “invaded” by space rock constantly intercepting the Earth’s orbit from farther out in our solar system. The vast majority of these are as small as a grain of sand and we call them “shooting stars” as they try to penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. But larger ones which can be very larger (like miles across) are called asteroids which mostly orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
What is an asteroid/star occultation?
From our perspective on Earth, an “occultation” (when one object passes in front of another) in this case an asteroid passing in front of a known star, it causes the light from the background star to either drop in brightness or “blink out” totally. Some of these can be extremely brief (a small fraction of a second) and others can last for many seconds (5 seconds or more). The longer the blink the larger the asteroid. Even if two observers that are close to each other capture that moment (a “positive”) and one get a total blink and other other either no blink or perhaps a slight dimming of the star (due to the irregular shape of the asteroid) both are supplying astro-scientists with good data. Both will be credited for helping data-crunchers at NASA (for example) define better the orbit and the shape of the asteroid. And the more captures that are made in the future will help even more.
Why are these kinds of precise observations important?
There are many evidences of asteroids hitting the Earth in the past and causing, at times, catastrophic damage on the Earth’s surface to life, habitats and property. Astronomers who track these large asteroids need to know how large they are, what are their shapes, where are they and in what orbit they currently are in and most importantly, will that orbit take it close to or actually hit Earth. There are literally thousands of these asteroids that need to be tracked and understood. If the data is more accurate and should an asteroid threaten Earth and if it be known far enough in advance then perhaps some rocket mission can be prepared, launched and intercept that asteroid and minimize or eliminate that thread.
Can amateur astronomers help professional astronomers in gathering data on these thousands of known space rocks?
Due to the limited time given to astronomers to use big professional telescopes they seek help from the amateur astronomy community to do asteroid occultations. Though many of these asteroids are already known and their orbits at least somewhat calculated, refining the orbit, shape and size is a constant need. And as a bonus, some of the stars that an asteroid may occult may be found to be not just a single star abut double stars orbiting each other! This has happened to my astro friend in our local club!
Getting started in asteroid occultation work...
Vince met with me at my home observatory to get my equipment set up to help in this citizen science data collection effort. He configured my pier mounted 8” LX200GPS Meade SCT telescope with the necessary equipment needed to record these occultation events: camera, cabling, GPS device and timing clock, etc. This also required the installation of some software on my laptop (that was easy). Soon we were testing the equipment under dark skies.
I attempted my first asteroid occultation event back at the end of October, 2024. Unfortunately, it ended up a miss, due to being new to the whole experience and having issues with some of the hardware. Vince also observed the event from his home (about 5 miles away) but he too had a miss so credits for either of us.
He then upgraded my equipment with a more sensitive camera and we solved the hardware issues which turned out to be just a loose connection, easily fixed.
Then, on November 21st, we both observed another event. He was mobile for that event in the Hereford AZ area, a few miles from my observatory. My attempt at capturing the “blink out” was successful and it was quite apparent to me when the moment (¼ of a second blink out!) as I watched the live video feed from the camera. It was great bagging my first positive occultation!
Vince, however, did not see the blink-out so he got a miss. But for this event, both he and I will be credited because even a non-observation of a same occultation even from a nearby location can help define the size, shape and refine the known orbit of an asteroid for astronmers.
Interestingly enough, Vince told me that when I get my next “positive” event captured that I will be in the top 1,800 observers of current observers of this kind of asteroid occultation! That’s cool !
So how did the data prove that I captured the event?
We start the video capturing a good 30 secs or more just prior to the estimated time of the occultation and another 30 seconds after (just in case their earlier calculations need adjusting).
The video we capture with the camera is sent to and examined by professional astronomer data crunchers.
The data astronomers get a baseline from the pre and post event light values to get an average brightness of the stat that will be occultated. That brightness does vary a little bit due to our Earth’s atmosphere causing the star to “twinkle”.
When the asteroid passes between us and that star then the brightness of that star will drop, sometimes just a touch, other times considerably and yet sometimes a complete “blink out”!
Here is the light curve from my first successful observation !
The Copernicus region of the Moon has many interesting features. What unusual or unexpected features do you see? Image taken February 6, 202...
