Another quickie of the Sun this morning!

 Another quickie of the two southern sunspot groups that I imaged when 5th and 6th graders from Veritas Christian School this morning at Patterson Observatory here in Sierra Vista. Great group of kids! Thanks for coming! (Click image for a larger view)

Quickie shot of the Sun September 24, 2022 from Oracle, AZ

 

The Lagoon Nebula

 It has been a while since I was able to do some astro-imaging due to the long monsoon season.

Here is my image of the Lagoon Nebula taken with a Meade 8" telescope and a Canon T3i camera with a UHC filter taken last week.

Be sure to click the image for a larger view!

My First Image of the Omega Centauri Globular Star Cluster - NGC 5139

 

NGC-5139    Omega Centauri

My first ever capture of the largest globular star cluster in the southern skies! This is Omega Centauri  in the constellation of Centaurus. At this time of year it is due south after it gets dark and from my vantage point in south-eastern Arizona it is barely over 8 degrees above the horizon! 

This was was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677. Located at a distance of 17,090 light-years from us, it is the largest-known globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years, in other words it would take someone (traveling at the speed of light) 150 years to cross from one side to the other!  It is estimated to contain approximately 10 million stars making it the most massive-known globular cluster in the Milky Way. Omega Centauri is thought to have an origin as the core remnant of a disrupted dwarf galaxy.

DATA:

Scope: Apertura 6" RC

Camera: Canon T3i body (unmodded)

Stack of 18 sub @ iso 3200 for 20sec each with darks and bias frames (stacked in Affinity Photo)

Post-processed in Luminar 2018

Now to give this perspective as the relative size of Omega Centauri, the second photo is of another star cluster, Messier 5 (aka M 5) just to the north-east of Omega Centauri. Both were taken with the same telescope and camera.

Messier 5

If you are far enough south you can actually easily see Omega with a common 5x35 binocular. Scan the horizon just after it gets dark, pointing due south and up some from the horizon.

Total Eclipse of the Moon photos from May 15, 2022

 As the Moon begins to enter the darkest part of the Earth's shadow

(the umbra)...

...just before totality...

...TOTALITY !

Mercury and the thin crescent Moon with Earthshine gracing the evening sky!

 The planet Mercury is in the western sky after sunset (45+ minutes or more). This is actually my first time spotting the planet in the evening sky due to the fact that I lived in a wooded area in central Oregon for 22+ years. But here in southeastern Arizona, with fairly flat horizons, I was able to photograph it this evening. The first photo is "as is" and the second is annotated to show you "what is what" in the image.  

The final image is a cropped image of the Moon showing at thin crescent and lots of Earthshine! Enjoy!

Galaxy M 100

 

It is still galaxy season! Last night I imaged Messier 100. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and is approximately 55 million light-years from our own galaxy! AWESOME !

Then I ran the image through Astrometery.net which identifies many of the other galaxies and stars in the image... all those smugges are GALAXIES, most are even farther away than M 100.

NGC 4323 and NGC 4328 are satellite galaxies of M 100.

DATA:

Meade LX200GPS 8" with a .63 focal Reducer

Camera: Canon T3i body (modded)

Stack of 7 subs (480 seconds each) at ISO3200

Total integration time:  56 minutes

Stacked with Affinity Photo

Post-processed with Luminar 2018

Cropped in about 50%