Shy Astronomer

Amateur astronomy. reblog: shyastronomy2

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Six Planets, 2016-02-09

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Lunar Eclipse, 2015-09-27

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Moon and Venus

2015-03-21

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Some images taken from Blue Canyon, CA

Despite having an 87% illuminated waxing gibbous Moon around, the sky was still darker here than within the light polluted city that I come from.

Starting from the top, we have:

The Andromeda Galaxy - Also known as M31, it is flanked by two satellite galaxies, M32 (top center) and M110 (bottom left).

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q1 Lovejoy) - Not to be confused with the sungrazer that appeared in 2011, this presently bright comet was seen in the constellation Triangulum. The sky was sufficiently dark to allow its tail to show up in this image.

The Pleiades - Also known as the Seven Sisters or M45, it is an open cluster in the constellation Taurus. Reflection nebulae, especially surrounding the star Merope, permeate the cluster.

The Running Man Nebula & the Orion Nebula - the running man is a faint reflection nebulae that (you guessed it) reflects the light of young and hot stars nearby. The much brighter Orion Nebula is immersed in light powerful enough to energize the electrons in the hydrogen atoms that compose a large portion of its molecular clouds. The resulting emission of light as the electrons shed off the energy give the nebula a characteristic reddish color (due to the hydrogen).

The Triangulum Galaxy (M33) - It is so-called because it lies in the constellation of the triangle, Triangulum. It notably lacks a central bulge, and the galaxy shows no sign of having undergone any recent interactions or collisions with other galaxies. The galaxy's visibility is heavily affected by light pollution, so it is near-impossible to see from the city.

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I've created a colorful set of solutions mostly from mineral samples in the geology lab. From left to right, we have: 

CoCl2 was obtained by stealing some from the chemistry stockroom. I initially tried to get a pink solution of MnCl2 by dissolving rhodochrosite (manganese carbonate) in hot HCl, but that didn't work very well...

FeCl2 was created by crushing siderite (iron carbonate) and dissolving it in HCl. The reaction was relatively slow, but works at room temperature.

[CuCl4]2- was created by adding excess NaCl (which is the mineral halite) to a CuCl2 solution. Extra chloride forms a coordination complex with the copper (II) ion, resulting in a green solution.

CuCl2 was created by dissolving malachite (copper carbonate*) in HCl.

CuSO4 was created by dissolving chalcanthite (copper sulfate) into water. It should be roughly the same color as the CuCl2 solution, but the sample here is just more dilute.

BaCl2 was created by dissolving witherite (barium carbonate) in HCl. The reaction was very fast, comparable to that of dissolving calcite (calcium carbonate).

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*Malachite contains some hydroxide, so it is actually a copper carbonate hydroxide:  Cu2CO3(OH)2

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What kind of telescope do you currently use?

All the scopes I have are newtonian reflectors.

The telescope that I have been using a lot lately is a 6 inch (this one) for astrophotography. I also have a 4.5 inch (this one) that is light enough for me to carry it in and out of the house easily, and a 10 inch scope (this one) for some serious observing.

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Are you able to look through the telescope? Man I would love to see deep space!!

Yes!

I actually began doing amateur astronomy with a fairly modest scope, and I spent many nights looking through the eyepiece to see star clusters, nebulae and galaxies.

If you plan on getting a scope, I recommend starting with a pair of binoculars (you might have a pair already!). They are easy to use, require no setup, and are fairly inexpensive. I personally have a pair of 10x50 binoculars, but any pair should suffice. Binoculars will let you see the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, the fainter stars of the Pleiades star cluster and even bright comets if they happen to be around. Of course, binoculars have limited magnification and the detail is not as great as a telescope, but they are very convenient.

If you have decided to make the leap to buy a telescope, it’s important to consider the type of scope - there are the refractors (which use lenses) and the reflectors (which use mirrors). The kind that are cheapest for their size or the aperture (the diameter of the primary lens or mirror) are the reflectors. Aperture is the most important aspect of a telescope because it determines the brightness and the resolution of the view through the scope. Larger apertures allow you to see fainter objects and resolve more detail.

Final note: Digital cameras are much more sensitive than our eyes, so images (especially by the Hubble Space Telescope) sort spoils the view. Generally, our eyes miss out on detail in nebulae because they are diffuse objects. Light pollution also tends to wash out these objects as well, but there are exceptions - the Ring Nebula is always spectacular to look at. Star clusters tend to do fairly well; what you see in images is generally how they appear to the human eye.

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Messier 37 (M37), open cluster in the constellation Auriga

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I imaged the Pleiades star cluster, aka M45, on a darker night. There is some nebulosity around Merope, the bottommost star in the "micro dipper."

M45 is currently passing through an interstellar dust cloud, and the bright stars in the cluster create a reflection nebula. Unlike the much brighter HII regions where the gas is ionized, a reflection nebula is comparably faint. There is not enough energy from the nearby stars to ionize the gas, but the stars are bright enough to make it visible.

Like other open clusters, it is a young collection of stars only a few hundred million years old. For comparison, globular clusters are as old as the Milky Way galaxy itself (~12 billion years). Stars in an open cluster are loosely bound, and in time (a few more hundred million years) the stars of the Pleiades cluster will disperse.

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Image was taken with a Nikon d5100 at the prime focus of a 750mm f/5 newtonian.

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Since it was a clearer night than yesterday, I decided to try imaging again. This time I used a larger scope (6 inch aperture)

From the top:

M42 - The Orion Nebula

C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy - Comet Lovejoy

M81 and M82 - galaxies in Ursa Major

M35 (and NGC 2158 to the bottom right) - open clusters in Gemini

M45 - The Pleiades star cluster, aka the Seven Sisters

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I finally got my hands on a motor drive so my telescope can automatically track the sky and compensate for the Earth's rotation. As a result, I am now able to take long exposure images of deep sky objects with my dslr attached to the 'scope. From the top:

M42 - The Orion Nebula

Double Cluster in Perseus

M15 - globular cluster in Pegasus

Betelgeuse

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy

All images are 30 second exposures at ISO 1600. The telescope used is a 4.5 inch f/4 newtonian reflector.

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This is a 20 frame timelapse of the winter sky from my backyard. I let the camera run for only 15 minutes as a test run, but fog eventually set in so a longer sequence will have to be for another night.

Note Orion on the left, chasing Taurus and the Pleiades. Vapor from a nearby factory (which used to be a Campbell's) enters the frame at the top.

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Redshift

Light that travels through space encounters many obstacles, one of which is the danger that it will get scattered by interstellar dust.

These images, compiled by Bob Franke, show you what we see when we look at the globular cluster M71 and its color if you were to see it without any of its colors missing.

Typically the shorter wavelengths (the blues) get scattered out but the longer wavelengths (the reds) are able to overcome obstacles their smaller brethren couldn’t pass.

This effect gets worse the farther away we observe (M71 is a mere 13,000 light years away), but not due solely to dust.

The accelerating expansion of the universe causes many galaxies to also have their light shifted towards the red end of the spectrum.

Because of this, they will start turning invisible to us and the sky will go black.

The farther away the galaxy, the greater this redshift is.

Some galaxies are so far away that their light is shifted into the infrared range, which is invisible to us.

As the universe continues to expand, galaxies will eventually become invisible, and the night sky will only be the Milky Way and the stars in it.

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edited for clarity

A recent Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) featured this: The Reddening of M71

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Geology - Earth Science field trip to Point Reyes, Fall 2014

1. Pillow basalts

2. Monterey Formation

3. Fault in the Laird Sandstone

4. Dikes in the Salinian Granite

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partial solar eclipse of 2014-10-23, viewed through a plain solar filter (top) and a hydrogen-alpha filter (bottom)

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A summer project in the SCC geology lab: Our geology professor gathered a group of students (me included), and together we began construction of an Augmented Reality Sandbox, adapted from a design at UC Davis. The finished project will have a computer projecting contour lines, a elevation color map, and simulated water in real time on the sandbox as people create miniature landscapes in it. The sandbox is intended to become part of the lab curriculum so students can more easily understand contour lines and topographical maps (which is somewhat difficult on just paper). Currently, we decided on naming the sandbox as ARTIE, the Augmented Reality Topological Isoline Experiment. The sandbox is nearly done, and we hope to finish in the next two weeks.

Videos and more info at the UC Davis website

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Lyra, the harp, floating in the starry sea