View allAll Photos Tagged Comet_Hunter
M108 & M97
Between 1745 and 1781 French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier compiled a list of 110 fuzzy objects that remained at fixed positions in the sky. The purpose of the list was to help people not waste their time observing fuzzballs that don't move across the stars. It was a list of things UNINTERESTING to Messier. Now labeled M1-M110, the complete list of 109 (Wait, wasn't it 110? That's a story for another day...) fuzzy blobs in the sky are known to be star clusters, nebuale and galaxies. A popular astronomy challenge is to observe as many Messier objects as possible in a single night. A fun photographic challenge is to capture images of all 109 objects. I recorded these a few nights ago when it happened to be clear, but the slightly gibbous moon was too bright to bring out any serious detail and dew began to coat the camera later in the night too.
The first image is M1, the Crab Nebula. It is the remains of a star that went supernova, and supposedly the stellar explosion could be seen in daylight in 1054 A.D. The bright star in the image is called Tianguan, in the constellation Taurus, just above Orion's head.
In the second image is M108, an almost edge-on spiral galaxy, and my field of view was inadverdently wide enough to also capture M97, a so-called planetary nebula, the remains of a Sun-like star that has reached the end of its life. The bright star in the image is Merak, one of the stars in the scoop of the Big Dipper.
Hopefully I'll capture better images of these this year, but so far , 3 out of 109 objects captured!
#messiercatalogue #messier1 #crabnebula #messier97 #owlnebula #messier108 #deepskyphotography #astrophotography
In the 1700s Charles Messier published a catalog of 110 stationary objects to help comet hunters like himself from mistaking them as possible targets. Today this list is celebrated as 110 of the brightest, most spectacular objects in the night sky.
Abell 1656 galaxy cluster ("Coma Cluster"), taken on April 13, 2024 from my backyard observatory. 12x10 min exposure (10 seconds subexposures). Telescope: Explore Scientific MN-152 Maksutov Newton "Comet Hunter", camera Uranus-C, Neodymium filter.
M51
Agregué 200 minutos de Luminancia con Comet Hunter, lo cual mejoró notablemente el halo galáctico y aproveché para reprocesar el color.
Takahashi FS60Q = 600mm F10
Explore Scientific 6" 731mm F4.8 "Comet Hunter"
Orion Atlas EQ-G con extensión de 6", sobre tripié
Atik 460ex mono @ ~ -3°C
OAG StarlightXpress + Altair GPcam2
Filtros Baader Planetarium
Ha = 8 x 1800"
L = 46 x 600" (FS60Q)
L = 20 x 600" (Comet Hunter)
R = 75 x 120"
G = 60 x 120"
B = 69 x 120"
~22 horas de integración total
Altair Capture, PHD, PixInsight, Photoshop
Cielo Bortle 6-7
Carretera Nacional, Monterrey, NL
_vorOBSERVAtorio_
Pavel Vorobiev
This was taken on the morning of 09-05-11 using Sony Nex5 DSLR, ES Comet Hunter Mak-Newt. Unguided, 35 second capture. Levels adjusted in PhotoShop CS4.
Taken on 09/28/11...From RMOS Darksite - The star trails are a bit out of control in this one, but what a difference a dark site makes.
ES Comet Hunter/Sony Nex5
Telescopio: Explore Scientific Comet Hunter 152mm Mk-Nw
Montura: CGEM de Celestron
Cámara: ASI178MC
Barlow 2x
Ciudad: Tijuana
Estado: Baja California
PaÃs: México
Fecha: 23 de Mayo del 2020 a las 8:09pm
Autor: Adrián Ibarra
Crater Clavius 2024/04/19, ES MN-152 "Comet Hunter" telescope, Uranus-C camera with Baader Neodymium filter, stacked best 10% frames from a video with 12000 recorded frames. Exposure of each frame: 5 miliseconds.
The Postcard
A postcard that was posted by Francis Frith & Co. Ltd. of Reigate. The card was printed in England.
The card was posted in Exeter using two ½d. stamps on Monday the 3rd. October 1932. It was sent to:
Mrs. A. Sancher,
'Ruffet',
Croutes,
Guernsey,
Channel Islands.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear A, E, and M,
Having a fine time over
here. Went to within 15
miles of Plymouth
yesterday.
We've been twice to
Buckfast Abbey.
Went to Exmouth on
Friday.
I shall be looking forward
to our chess evenings.
Love,
Stan."
Monday, Monday
Monday would seem to be the most popular day for posting postcards. An analysis of the posting days for cards on this photostream reveals the following:
Moday 1,701
Tuesday 1,208
Wednesday 1,227
Thursday 1,081
Friday 1,227
Saturday 1,285
Sunday 1,271
The Independence of Iraq
So what else happened on the day that Stan posted the card?
Well, on the 3rd. October 1932, Iraq gained independence from Great Britain and was admitted to the League of Nations.
Max Wolf
The day also marked the death at the age of 69 of the German astronomer Max Wolf.
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a pioneer in the field of astrophotography.
He was chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory from 1902 until his death.
-- Max Wolf - The Early Years
Max Wolf was born in Heidelberg, Germany on the 21st. June 1863, the son of medical doctor Franz Wolf. His father encouraged an interest in science and built an observatory for his son in the garden of the family home.
It is from here that Wolf was credited with his first astronomical discovery, comet 14P/Wolf, in 1884.
-- Max Wolf's Life at the University
Wolf attended the University of Heidelberg and, in 1888, at the age of 25, was awarded a Ph.D.
He spent one year of post-graduate study in Stockholm, the only significant time he would spend outside of Heidelberg in his life.
Max returned to the University of Heidelberg and accepted the position of privat-docent in 1890. A popular lecturer in astronomy, he declined offers of positions from other institutions.
In 1902 he was appointed Chair of Astronomy and Director of the new Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl observatory, positions he would hold until his death.
While the new observatory was being built, Wolf was appointed to supervise the construction and outfitting of the astrophysics half of the observatory.
He proved to be not only a capable supervisor, but also a successful fundraiser. When sent to America to study the construction of the large new telescopes being built there, he returned not only with telescope plans, but also with a grant of $10,000 from the American philanthropist Catherine Wolfe Bruce.
Max Wolf immediately designed and ordered a double refractor telescope from American astronomer and instrument builder John Brashear.
This instrument, known as the Bruce double-astrograph, with parallel 16 in (41 cm) lenses and a fast f/5 focal ratio, became the observatory's primary research telescope.
Wolf also raised money for a 28 in (71 cm) reflector telescope, the first for the observatory, used for spectroscopy.
In 1910 Wolf proposed to the Carl Zeiss optics firm the creation of a new instrument which would become known as the planetarium.
The Great War intervened before the invention could be developed, but the Carl Zeiss company resumed this project after peace was restored. The first official public showing was at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany on the 21st. October 1923.
During his trip to America Wolf was interested in learning more about the relatively new field of astrophotography. He met the American astronomer and astrophotographer E. E. Barnard, and the two became lifelong correspondents, competitors, collaborators and friends. Wolf wrote a long obituary for Barnard upon his death in 1923.
-- Max Wolf's Later Life and Death
Heidelberg University became well known for astronomy under Wolf's leadership. Wolf himself was an active researcher, contributing numerous papers in many areas of astronomy up to the end of his life. He died in Heidelberg at the age of 69. He was survived by his widow and three sons.
-- Comets and Novae
Wolf started his career as a comet hunter and continued to discover them throughout his life. He discovered or co-discovered several comets, including 14P/Wolf and 43P/Wolf-Harrington.
Wolf won a competition with E. E. Barnard on who would be the first to observe the return of Halley's Comet (P1/Halley) in April 1910.
Max discovered Nova Aquilae 1927, a classical nova. He also discovered or co-discovered four supernovae: SN 1895A, SN 1909A, SN 1920A, and, with Reinmuth, SN 1926A.
-- Dark Nebulae
One of the many significant contributions Wolf made was in the determination of the nature of dark nebulae. These areas of the sky, thought since William Herschel's time to be "holes in the sky", were a puzzle to astronomers of the time.
In collaboration with E. E. Barnard, Wolf proved, by careful photographic analysis, that dark nebulae were huge clouds of fine opaque dust.
-- Star Catalog
Along with E. E. Barnard, Wolf applied astrophotography to the observation of stars. The Bruce double-astrograph was originally designed to hunt for dim asteroids, but it was found to be ideally suited for the study of the proper motion of low-luminosity stars using much the same technique.
In 1919 Wolf published a catalog of the locations of over one thousand stars, along with their measured proper motion. These stars are still commonly identified by his name and catalog number.
Among the stars he discovered is Wolf 359, a dim red dwarf that was later found to be one of the nearest stars to the Solar System.
Max continued to add proper motion star discoveries to this catalog throughout his life, with the catalog eventually totaling over 1500 stars, many more than all of his competitors combined.
These stars are significant because stars with low luminosity and high proper motion, such as Barnard's Star and Wolf 359, are usually relatively close to the Earth, and thus the stars in Wolf's catalog remain popular subjects for astronomical research.
The methods used by E. E. Barnard and Wolf were continued by Frank Elmore Ross and George Van Biesbroeck through the mid-20th. century.
Since that time photographic plates have been gradually replaced with more sensitive electronic photodetectors for astronomical surveys.
-- Asteroids
In 1891, Wolf discovered his first asteroid, 323 Brucia, and named it after Catherine Wolfe Bruce.
He pioneered the use of astrophotographic techniques in order to automate the discovery of asteroids, as opposed to older visual methods, as a result of which asteroid discovery rates sharply increased.
In time-exposure photographs, asteroids appear as short streaks due to their planetary motion with respect to fixed stars. Wolf discovered 248 asteroids in his lifetime.
Among his many discoveries was 588 Achilles (the first Trojan asteroid) in 1906, as well as two other Trojans: 659 Nestor and 884 Priamus.
Max also discovered 887 Alinda in 1918, which is now recognized as an Earth-crossing Amor asteroid.
Wolf's then-record number of discoveries was surpassed by his pupil Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth on the 24th. July 1933.
Final thought from Ian Dury and the Blockheads:
"There ain’t half been
some clever bastards ..."