The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

Transcription

1 The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association VOLUME XLI Numbers 4-5 April-May 2016 Eruptive Solar Prominence by Ron Fairbanks Solar Fireworks on a grand scale in Hydrogen alpha light by Ron Fairbanks. Shot on February 4, 2016 with a Lunt 60 hydrogen alpha scope.

2 Getting set for Lift Off! Just about ten minutes before, you can see this eruptive prominence has already started to lift off the limb. Hydrogen alpha solar observing reminds us just how fast things can change on the surface of our placid home star!

3 Mercury crosses the sun on May 9, 2016 by Dennis Hausch Under partly cloudy skies in Niceville on May 9, 2016, Dennis Hausch captures the smallest planet passing directly between Earth and Sun as the tiny black round dot in lower center of the disk. To its upper left is much larger but not nearly as dark sunspot AR The sunspot is about as big as the Earth, but Mercury only a third as large as us. Also, the sunspot is cooler than the yellow photosphere, but at about 4000K, as hot as the surface of orange Arcturus overhead now in the spring sky. While Mercury goes around the Sun every 88 days, most of the time at inferior conjunction, it passes north or south of the Sun s disk, and no transit is visible. The next one will be in Many of you remember the last transits of bigger Venus, in 2004 and again in It is the Kepler Space Telescopes ability to spot such passes that allows us to find small exoplanets around other sunlike stars. The smallest to date are the size of Mercury!

4 A Cloudy Sun with a dash of Mercury by Rick Johnston While none of us wishes for any clouds on August 21, 2017, Rick s shot with a 5 refractor and Baader astrosolar filter reminds us that they can add drama to solar and eclipse observing, and often the public finds the motion of clouds across the solar disk fascinating and beautiful as well. Many thanks for setting up at Pensacola State and sharing these images of the transit with many of the public and faculty on May 9 th, Rick. If you still need high quality Baader visual solar filters for photography and high resolution imaging, link to:

5 Mercury about to leave the disk by Rick Johnston Taken under clearer skies later in the day, Rick s high resolution shot reveals more detail around the sun spot, just how very black the disk of Mercury appears, and also fine granulation patterns all over the solar disk. Taken with a 4 refractor and Baader Astrosolar Density 5 filter. Also notice limb darkening; when you look directly at the center of solar disk, you can see deeper into the hotter layers down below than when you look at the limb. I have never seen a photo of either Mercury or Venus actually passing directly in front of a sun spot. If we are ever lucky enough to see such an event, it would be a great way to check the old values of the astronomical unit, since the sunspot would be actually on the solar photosphere, and different observers on earth would see the disk of the planet in slightly different positions relative to this spot due to parallax effect.

6 And the ISS as well??? Larry Isenberg caught the sunspot and Mercury in transit, but he also notes the ISS passing in front of the solar disk, just to the lower left of Mercury in this image! Neat! A few other amateur astronomers have imaged the ISS and other satellites passing in front of the disks of the Sun and Moon, so this is a challenge that others might like to try as well. Perhaps we should have a club meeting on just how to plan for and photograph these rare and neat events! One good link for such information is: Other examples of these passes in front of the Sun and Moon are at: GGNI_enUS553US553&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEw jj25xg9obmahwikh4khv_8cesqsaqipq&biw=1440&bih=728

7 A Hole in the Photosphere in Hydrogen Alpha? Taken on April 17, 2016 with Lunt 60 Ha by Wayne Wooten.

8 And in Calcium K ten minutes later. When a new spot appears on the eastern limb of the sun due to solar rotation, it does appear to be a hole or depression in the photosphere. This fine spot was officially designed AR 2529 the next day.

9 The Opake Body of the Sun These observations of newly emerging sunspot caused the greatest astronomer of all time, William Herschel, to think there was a darker, cooler body under the photosphere, perhaps with life on it! Can you start to understand his rationale better now?

10 Closeup of AR 2519 in Calcium K Taken by Wayne Wooten on March 13, 2016, this photo used a 1/20 th second exposure with Canon SX 140 at 4X zoom with Orion Eon 72, Lunt B1200 CaK II filter and 32mm Plossl eyepiece. While I have yet to capture a prominence in this dark purple hue, I still find the faculae accompanying sunspots and other active regions fascinating. Note granulation shows up as well. I am getting better at focusing the unseen on my camera viewing screen, particularly if I get under a dark hood for observing.

11 Full Disk CaK for March 22, 2016 Now AR 2524 has moved into the top center of the disk, and you get a better sense of scale for the Calcium K features. This was similar to the previous shot, but only 2X zoom, and 1/30 th second exposure. Each CaK shot is very exposure sensitive, and must be adjusted manually. 1/15 th second would completely overexpose the disk, and 1/60 th be almost blank. I have found hydrogen alpha photography is easier and more forgiving!

12 Hydrogen alpha sun with smartphone by Richard Olive AR 2529 was quite active on April 17 th when my neighbor used his iphone 6 to capture this nice prominence activity near the western limb. Notice how well he also captures the magnetic fields twisting around near the sunspot as well. Taken with Lunt 60 B1200 H alpha filter and ioptron 12mm Plossl and smartphone adapter.

13 Full Disk Activity by Desirae Glover Taken on the following morning, now the prominences show up nicely off the limb, but here the disk is overexposed by the smartphone using Pensacola State s Coronodo 60 H alpha scope.

14 AR 2529 on the Limb by Desirae Glover on April 18, 2016 But with practice, we offset the sun, and gradually bring it back into the smartphone screen and can get better detail on the disk! Snap quick!

15 Ashley Berg s Photogenic Prominences While AR 2533 in the center was quiet, the magnetic field associated by AR 2535 on the eastern limb gave rise to nice prominences on April 26, 2016 by PSC student Ashley Berg with her smartphone and the Coronado 60 and ioptron adapter. Closeup below by Allan Ward in the same class.

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17 And by Lindsey Blanton The neat symmetry of this pair makes them one of the most aesthetically appealing solar shots ever to me. The day sky has so much to offer, for those who will drag out a telescope and focus on our day star.

18 Mark O Brien captures an eruptive promience Taken on March 28, 2016, this fast moving eruption had completely dissipated into the solar wind by the end of class. Look fast and enjoy the moment! Mark is a new student club member, and bought his own 50mm refractor for solar observing and photography.

19 AR 2546 by Kianna Cutts This huge sunspot was easily visible to all the students in the center of the Sun s disk while using their AL solar eclipse glasses on May 19, 2016, but otherwise the sun was strangely quiet. Alas, is solar activity about to flat line? Will there be no spots to decorate the sun and add zest to the solar eclipse next year?

20 ISS rising in the NW Tennessee Sky Taken on April 17, 2016, Heather Eades 15 time exposure captures the space station moving from Perseus toward Capella at upper left of its trail.

21 First quarter moon at Pavilion Gaze by Savannah Gallagher Taken with her smartphone with Dewey Barker s 5 refractor on May 13, Check out the huge refractors out that evening below.

22 Refractors Moonward! To the right, Rick Johnston has his huge 6 refractor pointed at the moon, while Dewey Barker s 5 to the left made the impressive lunar image above. This was at our Pavilion Gaze on May 13, 2016, with many in the crowd getting great views of the Moon and coming home with impressive shots through their smartphones as well.

23 Dean Covey s fine lunar detail Dean gave a talk on his work with the new Skyris camera on his Celestron C-8 at the club s May 20 th meeting, and shared images such as this to prove its high resolution of details on the disk under a mile across.

24 More fine detail by Dean Indeed, the ability of these cameras to make out low contrast details at high resolution makes us understand why both Dean and Malone Calvert are now singing its praises. For more on the Skyris series, link to:

25 Aristarchus by Marisa Moore-Moreno Student member Marisa Moore-Moreno took this photo from the monitor of our PlanetCam at Pensacola State after the EAAA s April meeting, when fine seeing allowed us great detail for smartphone users. Note the famed lava river, Schroter s Valley, that extends from the adjacent crater Heradotus upward and then curves to the left in the image.

26 Crater Gassendi by Marisa Moore-Moreno This ancient crater is partly flooded, with rilles around it as well.

27 Twilight Gibbous Moon by Bill Clouser On the evening of May 19th, my night class had a chance to capture the almost full moon through the Eon 72 with their smartphones in twilight, when the deep blue sky color was very nice. To the lower right, the crater Tycho has rays that extend over a thousand miles across the lunar surface; it is the youngest of the major craters. Aristarchus is the brightest, at lower left here, with Gassendi almost at bottom.

28 Waxing Gibbous Moon by Shay Spears Taken a few minutes later, as the skies darkened, Shay s smartphone shot had a little better contrast and detail. Can you see the lady in the moon? Her bun style hairdo is at top center, she is looking to the lower left toward Aristarchus, and the huge crater Copernicus is just to the left of her mount and chin. Tycho is a jewel in the rayed necklace found her neck.

29 Mars Returns! Ed Magowan on May 5, 2016 From Ft. Pickens gaze May 5 th.. Mars RGB, poor seeing. Red channel only, less affected by seeing than Green or Blue. Feature map from Meridian. I always liked the older 'Mars Previewer' program, but that one doesn't run on anything newer than XP. Meridian would probably run on a pocket calculator, be nice to find an Android app that works similarly. It had looked like a good evening at Ft. Pickens, but a quick look at Jupiter and Mars revealed a boiling atmosphere. A week later at Pensacola Beach on May 14, the visual appearance was far better, a classic example of great seeing in hazy skies...but the beach is not the best place for serious imaging. My C8 corrector was pretty glopped up by the end of the night.

30 Mars by Don Meyer on May 23, 2016 This shot of Mars was taken at about 10:45 PM CDT, and shows the red planet as it comes to opposition last weekend.

31 Mars through Red Filter by Ed Magowan Taken about two hours later, Ed notes: Meade 2X, 3-element Barlow, only the lens cell. Using the entire assembly places the Barlow too far into the scope. IR blocking filter 1.25 inch nosepiece 5 position filter wheel (1.25), RGB, empty, and BBLPR Pierre Astro Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector 1.25 inch female fitting, with male T-threads on the output end The ADC came from a UK distributor, no one in the U.S. was carrying them, you'd think no one in the U.S. observes or images planets. ZWO recently released an ADC at a great price point, 1/3 or less of what I paid. With Mars and Saturn so far to south, the visual difference is quite pronounced, none of the red limb / blue limb effect. I image in RGB, but it still make a difference, particularly for blue. I haven't done any meticulous calculations to determine my true f/ratio, but it's likely in the f/20 - f/22 range. I start with an SPC900NC, using it to set the ADC, then remove it and install the ASI120MM.

32 Jupiter by Ron Fairbanks on May 7, 2016 On the finest images of Jupiter yet by EAAA members, Ron captures the Great Red Spot on the lower left of the limb, and the shadows of two of the Galilean moons also transiting the disk.

33 Jupiter and Io by Larry Isenburg Like Marisa s moon shots, Larry took this image showing the moon Io to the lower left of Jupiter, with the Great Red Spot on lower left of disk, at the EAAA meeting on April 22, It was off the monitor with a PlanetCam image through the Pensacola State C-8.

34 Jupiter with Great Red Spot by Don Meyer While it has been bigger in the past, I do not remember any time lately it has been as red and obvious, even in smaller scopes. Don took this nice shot on April 10, 2016.

35 Jupiter and Ganymede with shadow transit Malone Calvert used his 12 SCT and Skyris camera to capture the largest moon, Ganymede, casting its shadow on the clouds of Jupiter on May 5, Neat geometry, Malone!

36 Jupiter and Io by Tom Haugh on April 29, 2016 I finally got around to using my Flea-3 planetary camera on a planet. Up till now, I have only used it on the Sun through my H-Alpha scope. This image of Jupiter is the best 5,000 frames of a 10,000 frame video capture through a x2 Barlow. The dark spot visible near the right edge of the planet is the shadow cast by the Galilean moon Io. The moon has not left the disk of the planet and as such is in the image but I cannot reliably pick it out. The planet is displayed in the traditional orientation with south at the top. Unfortunately, clouds moved in before Saturn rose above the tree line so I was not able to include it in last night s test. Tom Haugh Pear Tree Observatory IAU H23

37 Jupiter with Io and Ganymede by Dean Covey Note the high resolution of Deans Skyris allows the sizes of the Galilean moons to be resolved, with Io smaller than Ganymede at top right.

38 Fun Night at Scenic Heights Elementary School When cloudy skies messed up our planned gaze, Tom Riederer and Wayne Wooten set up a meteorite and scope display inside the cafeteria, and presented the teachers with a 50mm refractor for their classrooms and the 2017 eclipse.

39 Cosmic Jewelry Here one of the parents looks at Merry s 8 pound piece of the Barringer meteorite. I was stuck by how the gold in her jewelry almost certainly came to earth aboard such meteorites, since the gold in the earth at formation is now down deep in our core!

40 Big Dobs at this year s French Camp Dave Halupowski captures a 22 here, along the large scopes at French Camp this year. Dewey Barker reports Can't believe a week at French Camp is over and done. Had five good nights of viewing, although the best times were well after midnight. Was on the field until 4:00 AM Tuesday morning, 2:00 AM Wednesday morning, Wednesday night/thursday morning were washed out due to rain. I was back out on the field Thursday and Friday nights and saw the sunrise on both Friday & Saturday mornings. Saturday night was pretty hazy, so I went ahead and packed up, although the moon and Jupiter looked fairly decent through my 90 mm Maksutov. Overall, this was one of the best stargazes I've attended for the past several years.

41 Milky Way from Big Lagoon Amphitheater by Ed Magowan Note Mars and Saturn in Scorpius now. This was taken back in April, so now Mars has retrograded west past the claws and heading into Libra.

42 Orlando DeJesus is looking up! Here is his new astrophotography set up, and its first light..

43 Orion Nebula by Orlando De Jesus Impressive start, Orlando! He wants to thank many in the EAAA for their advice and assistance.

44 Dark Sky at Bear Lake by Rob Bohannon Glad to have Rob back participating in the club. Looking forward to many more dark sky nights!

45 The Lagoon and Trifid Nebula by Chris and Gina Gomez Rising in the early morning M8, M20 The Lagoon and Trifid Nebula along side the open star cluster M21. Really liking the field of view of this scope (SV70T) Full res:

46 And now for the other new Gomez scope! Testing out the RC8 tonight and looking forward to getting up close on some galaxies! And here are some of their newest images to share..

47 Globular Cluster M-13 in Hercules with the RC 8 by Chris and Gina Gomez Well placed for our summer gazes, this fine globular cluster will be a showpiece in our larger scopes for visual observers as well.

48 The Whirlpool Galaxy, M-51, with the RC 8 At the May 20 th EAAA meeting, Chris and Gena compared the resolution of the new RC 8 with their 8 f/3.9 newtonian for deep sky imaging. The increase in detail was certainly worth the longer exposures. More at: M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy TPO RC8", 600 sec x hours and 20 min total integration time

49 Join us for a Fun Night Under the Stars! The Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association Will Hold Free Public Star Gazes on the following dates: Fort Pickens Star Gazes at Battery Worth for 2016 are scheduled for Friday; May 6 th, June 3 rd, July 1 st, August 5 th, September 2 nd, September 30 th Gaze is free, but park entry fees will apply, contact before 4:00 PM. Note: If these dates are clouded/rained out, we may set up on Saturday, please check. Gulfside Performance Pavilion Star Gazes for 2016 are scheduled for both; March 11 th & 12 th, April 15 th & 16 th, May 13 th & 14 th, June 10 th & 11 th, July 8 th & 9 th, August 12 th & 13 th, September 9 th & 10 th, October 7 th & 8 th Free parking is available at Casino Beach parking lot, near the Beach Ball Water Tower. Big Lagoon State Park Star Gazes for 2016 are scheduled for Saturday; April 30 th, May 28 th, June 25 th, July 23 rd, August 27 th, September 24 th, October 22 nd The gaze is free, but park entry fees will still apply, front gate contact: Participants must enter park before sunset, the gate is locked at that time. Members Telescopes and Binoculars will be set up for views of: the Moon, the Planets, and other Celestial Objects. Clear skies permitting, Members will begin setting up their Telescopes for these just before sunset. The Astronomy Club meets on the Third Friday of each month at Pensacola State College, 9 th Ave Campus at 7:00 PM, building 17, upstairs in room For more information about the Astronomy Club, or for scheduling a star gaze for a school, scouting, or other social event. Contact Dewey Barker after 4:00 PM at (850) for any questions. Please be sure to visit our website at or go to: for calendar of events. Join us on Facebook at: Escambia Amateur Astronomers, and contact our PSC sponsor, Dr. Wayne Wooten, at (850) , or him at wwooten@pensacolastate.edu