Gratuitous AstroPhotos Taken by Me
Shown here to boost my ego
Unless otherwise noted, the images were taken at Goodsell Observatory
Stars
Albireo
Albireo is a double star a the beak of Cygnus, the swan. The two components are gold and blue, making it really pretty to look at and surprising to many people, since stars aren't usually thought of as colorful.
Images taken on 5 June 1997 (top), 7 June 1997, and 27 June 1997 (bottom)
The Moon Occulting Aldeberan
An occultation occurs when a body (like moon moon) passes in front of the other. This picture was taken as Aldebaran reappeared, and it was taken using the new CCD camera (this was kind of the trial run).
Image taken on 29 July 1997
The Pleiades
The Pleiades are one of the loveliest clusters of stars in the night sky. While they have been called the seven sisters, there are really many more than seven, even with the naked eye (most people I know can see around 9 naked eye). Around the cluster is some faint nebulasity, a reflection nebula. It is a stunning blue, but you cannot see it on this image, of course. Again, this image was taken with the funky new CCD camera.
Image taken on 29 July 1997
Nebulae
The Ring Nebula (M57)
The Ring Nebula is supernova remnant. It is made of of a shell of gas with an illuminating star in the middle.
Images taken on 5 June 1997, 16 June 1997, and 27 June 1997.
The Eagle Nebula (M16)
A nice cluster and nebula in Serpens. Pretty. 'Nuff said.
Image taken on 5 July 1997.
The Dumbbell Nebula (M27)
Not having actually looked this up, I'll hazard a guess that this is a supernova remnant. Pretty.
Image taken on 6 July 1997.
Galaxies
The Sombrero Galaxy (M104)
The Sombrero galaxy is seen from Earth at almost edge-on, so we see the prominent dust lane cut the galaxy in two.
This image was take on 9 June 1997.
The Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy is unquestionably my favorite galaxy. It displays very nice spiral structure, and in addition, it shows the results of tidal interaction with its neighboring galaxy, a subject near to my heart. The image is incomplete because, frankly, I missed slightly. Exposure time was around 1 minute to 2 minutes (depending on the filter), so I wasn't going to do another image that night (it takes about 3 times the exposure time to take an image, what with dark frames and processing).
It seems that there is some kind of curse on me with regards to M51. Every time I try to get it, something bad happens and stops me. The bottom image is through a clear filter, hence black and white, and is the best I have managed. I've tried at least half a dozen times. Like a said, there's a curse...
More recently, I managed to get the last two pictures while lab assting for Observation Astronomy. There were clouds moving around, occasionally blocking my line of sight, but these are OK. The curse still seems alive, just weaker.
Images taken on 6 June and 14 July 1997 and 28 May 1999.
NCG 4321 (M100)
M100 (NCG 4321) is the galaxy I studied a few summers back, so I felt obligated to get a picture of it. These aren't as good as I had hoped; there's some fuzziness in the images. I think that the lens on the telescope needed cleaning (or, God forbid, the chip was going bad). Either way, you get the idea.
Images taken on 7 June 1999.
The Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda galaxy is our closest neighboring galaxy (ignoring the Magellenic clouds, which are satellites of The Milky Way), and can be seen with the naked eye, if the skies are fairly dark. Unfortunately, it is edge on to us, so we don't get to see much structure.
Image taken on 14 July 1997
M13
M13 is a globular cluster in our very own galaxy. It is sort of a mini-galaxy that orbits as part of our own galaxy. Globular clusters do not necessarily orbit in the plane of the galaxy, but are members of our galaxy. M13 is located in Hercules, and is a fairly well-known globular.
Image taken on 24 April 1997
The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)
The Pinwheel Galaxy is a splendid example of a spiral galaxy, and also my professor's (Cindy's) favorite galaxy. Ergo, I had to take a picture of it. The blurring in the blue is because the blue exposure was 6 minutes long (ungodly long). Since the tracking doesn't stay exactly on target, there is blurring, and the long the image, the more blurring. The green and red exposures are necessarily less, so the effect is lessened.
Image taken on 27 June 1997 and 7 June 1999.
Planets
Comet Hale-Bopp
Hale-Bopp was by a long shot the most spectacular comet seen here in many years. Add to this the spectacle of Hyucatake last spring, this has been a very, very good year for amateur astronomy. The image here appears sort of washed out because the comet was so bright. The size of the image was not sufficient to show the tail very much, which is a pity. It is ironic that the amateur astronomers had better viewing and imaging on this comet than did the professionals with big telescopes...
Image taken on 24 April 1997.
Our Moon
Earth's moon is the fourth largest satellite in the solar system and by far has one of the largest moon/planet mass ratios (Pluto and Charon have a larger ratio, but whether Pluto is a major planet is debatable). The moon is in a spin-orbit lock with the Earth, so it always presents the same face to us (in other words, it rotates exactly as fast as it revolves around the Earth). The phases are caused by differing geometries with the Sun-Earth-Moon system, meaning we see different amounts of lit surface.
The Moon is best viewed around quarter phase, when the shadows cast by the mountains are largest, creating a nice 3D look. The crater in the third image below is the crater Tycho in the Southern portion of the Moon.
Image taken on 28 May 1999.
Venus
Venus is the second closest planet to our Sun and has by far the hottest surface temperature. It's surface is obscured by thick clouds, so we can't see the planet itself in optical wavelengths, but the clouds do make Venus highly reflective and very bright.
Image taken on 28 May 1999.
Mars
Image taken on 28 May 1999.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and currently the focus of much of our planetary exploration. There is evidence that there may have once been water on Mars's surface, which in turn indicates that there might have once been life there. Given this possibility, it is no surprise that we are so interested in sending a manned mission to Mars.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It, like the other 3 large (Jovian) planets is composed mostly of hydrogen gas. With an orbital radius of about 5 AU (1 AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun), it is close enough to actually resolve it into a disk (unlike, say, stars). Unfortunately, I rather over-exposed the image as far as Jupiter is concerned (there is actually "bleeding" along the columns in which Jupiter appears, do to too much light...), so no details (like the famous Great Red Spot) are visible.
The smaller star-like objects that appear in a line with Jupiter are three of the 4 Galilean moons (I can't tell you which off hand. The four are: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa). These moons (somewhat larger than our own) are each interesting and unique, and are currently the subject of a great deal of research (Europa may have oceans under its ice and Io has extraordinarily active volcanos, for example). They were also an important argument used by Galileo to unseat the Geocentric (Earth-centered) model of the solar system. Pretty wonky moons, all together.
Along these line, we currently have a probe visiting Jupiter. You can visit the Project Galileo (the name of the probe) site.
Images taken on 27 June and 14 July 1997
Saturn
Saturn is the second Jovian planet, and the second largest, to boot. Saturn is most famous for its satellites, especially its magnificent ring system. Seriously, if you have never seen Saturn with your own eyes (plus the help of a telescope) get out and do so. It is incredible. Saturn also has over 20 moons, including the large Titan.
Saturn is not as bright as Jupiter, but it is still too bright to get a good picture of with our equipment.
Image taken on 19 October 1997.
Uranus
Uranus, another Jovian planet, is the 7th from the sun. It has a great deal more methane and ammonia in its atmosphere, creating a blue-green color. Like all Jovian planets in our solar system, it has both moons and rings. Unfortunately, they cannot be seen in this image.
Images taken on 27 June and 14 July 1997.
Comments? Questions? Please, feel free to send me mail. I'll do my best to answer any questions.
John Weiss Last modified: Wed Feb 9 11:56:53 MST 2005