PHYS397R - Spring 2015

PHYS397R-Astrophotography

(1 credit - Spring 2015)

In this course you will learn about and do Astrophotography through course work and nighttime observations. You will use cameras and telescopes to photograph a range of celestial objects from the Sun, the Moon, the Planets, Constellations and very distant objects like Star Clusters and gaseous Nebula. You will also take images of star trails over Oxford College buildings like Seney Hall or the new Library. Your goal in this course is to capture a range of beautiful photographs that you will put on display in Pierce Hall at the end of the semester.

These are the objects that we photographed and studied in the Spring of 2015.

Observation Night #5 -- Sat. April 5'th 9:30-11:30pm
     Venus, Orion Nebula, the Full Moon, Star Trails and Jupiter
Observation Night #4 -- Sat. March 28'th 9:30pm-12am
    Jupiter, Waxing crescent Moon and Star Trails over Allen church and Cherry Tree
Observation Night #3 -- Tues. Feb. 10'th 8:30-10pm
     Jupiter w/o great red spot
Observation Night #2 -- Sat. Jan. 24'th 8-10pm
   Comet Lovejoy, Pleiades Star Cluster and Star Trails of Constellation Canis Major.
Observation Night #1 -- Wed. Jan. 21'st 7:30pm
   Comet Lovejoy, Pleiades Star Cluster and Star Trails of Constellations.

Major Planets Visibility - Spring 2015

Jupiter - Great viewing during the early-mid evening hours all spring.
Saturn - Only visible in early mornings, 3-6am.
~~Mars~~ - Not high enough at night to be visible this spring.

Comet Lovejoy - We are very lucky this spring to have a rare and special event happening in the night sky early in the semester! Comet Lovejoy will be passing close to Earth and will be very bright and easily visible with any of our telescopes. This comet was only discovered in 2014 and we will make efforts to photograph it. For complete details on it's position and brightness, see this page.

Observation Night #5

Sat. April 5'th 9:30-11:30pm

Venus, Orion Nebula, the Full Moon, Star Trails and Jupiter

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

Observation Night #4

Sat. March 28'th 9:30pm-12am

Jupiter, Waxing crescent Moon and Star Trails.

(Oxford College Campus)

After more than 3 weeks of very poor weather, we finally had a very clear night under the stars. Starting at 9:30pm we used the large 11" telescope to photograph Jupiter and the Moon. The great red spot was visible on Jupiter and the Moon was 57% illuminated. We also took photos to make star trail photographs. First, Christella photographed a beautiful cherry tree in full bloom. She took more than 100 photos, with a Northward view of the night sky over the tree. Anmol photographed the night sky looking westward over the methodist church on campus. Later, after finising with the telescope, John and I ventured out into the heart of campus and photographed the (under construction) new science building and Seney Hall, finishing up at 1:20AM.

Click on your name to download your files

1. Anmol -- Moon Photos + Church Star Trail Photos

2. Christella -- Moon Photo + Cherry Tree Star Trail Photos

3. John -- Moon Photo + Seney and New Science Building Star Trail Photos

4. Naveed -- Moon Photo

PHYS397 - 2015-03-29

Observation Night #3

Tues. Feb. 10'th 8:30-10pm - Jupiter

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

We used the large 11" telescope to photograph Jupiter and the Galilean Moons. It was a moonless night, very clear, and eventually cold, great for observing. The students individually took .avi movies of Jupiter, and back in class they will process them to produce single sharp images. On this night, the great red spot was not visible, but the Moon Europa was in front of Jupiter and cast a clearly visible shadow on its's surface.

Click on your name to download your raw .avi movie file, then choose one of the class movies as well as the wide angle image.

1. Christella (100MB), Anmol (57MB), Naveed (116MB) and John (109MB)

2. Class Movie #1 (172MB) and Class Movie #2 (209MB)

3. Wide angle image of Jupiter and the Galilean Moons.

Wide angle image of Jupiter and 3 of the Galilean Moons (2/10/15)

To learn how to process your .avi movies of Jupiter, follow the instructions on this page.

Observation Night #2

Sat. Jan. 24'th 8-10pm - Comet Lovejoy, Pleiades Star Cluster and Star Trails of Constellation Canis Major.

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

Click HERE to download all images from Observation Night #2

PHYS397-S15- Observation Night#2 - Jan.24,2015

Observation Night #1

Wed. Jan. 21'st 7:30pm - Comet Lovejoy, Pleiades Star Cluster and Star Trails of Constellations.

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

The first project will be to photograph the Pleiades Star Cluster. The Pleiades is the nearest star cluster to Earth, 400 light years away, and is visible to the naked eye under dark skies.
The first project will be to use the Celestron 11" telescope and the Canon DSLR camera to photograph Comet Lovejoy. Comet Lovejoy will be located very high in the sky in the early evening. It will be near to the Pleiades star cluster, at the approximate coordinates of RA 03h04m and DEC +24Deg.
You will also take star trail images (over 20-30 min) of a constellation of stars as they across the night sky. This is done without a telescope, just with the Canon cameras mounted on fixed tripod. From the star trail photos your will directly observed the affect of the Earth rotation. The true colors of the stars should also be clearly visibly; reddish for colder stars and bluish for hotter stars.

Constellations to photograph.Constellation Orion -- Anmol and Christella

Constellation Cassiopeia -- Azizat

Constellation Gemini -- Naveed

Constellation Auriga -- John

If time permits, we will also take closeup images of Jupiter using the large 11" telescope.

Click HERE to download all images from Observation Night #1

PHYS397-S15-ObservationNight#1-Jan.22,2015

These are some possible observing projects for Spring 2015.

Observing Night #1 - Full Moon, Jupiter and Comet Lovejoy.

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

We will use the Celestron 8" and 11" telescopes to photograph the full Moon and the planet Jupiter.

We will take full Moon photos with the Canon cameras, and zoomed in images on Lunar features using the ZWO camera. The first full Moon of the semester occurs on Tuesday Feb. 3'rd, and this would be the target date for observation night #1.
If time permits, we will also take closeup images of Jupiter using the large 11" telescope. On Feb. 3'rd, Jupiter's great red spot will not be visible so we will be photographing the 'other side' of Jupiter.

Observing Night #2 - The Orion Constellation and Nebula, Star Cluster M79 and the Crab Nebula.

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

We will spend the evening studying and photographing the constellation of Orion. Orion is one of the most recognizable, popular, and fascinating constellations to study in the night sky.

We will then use the large 11" telescope to take photos of the Orion Nebula. The Orion nebula is a diffuse gaseous region, over 1300 light years from Earth, where new stars are still being formed. Because the Orion Nebula is so large, we will used the Canon cameras to take a large collection of still photos that we will process later back in class.
Finally, we will use the large 11" telescope to take photos of the globular star cluster M79. M79, located about 41,000 light years from Earth, is a small star cluster located just outside of the disk of the Milky Way. In the night sky, it lies just below the Orion constellation.
If time allows, we will try to photograph M1, the Crab Nebula. M1 is a supernova remnant located 6,100 light years from Earth. It is located just above the Orion constellation.

Observing Night #3 - Jupiter and the Great Red Spot

(Oxford College Soccer Field)

We will use the large Celestron 11" telescope to photograph the planet Jupiter on a night when the great red spot (GRS) is near the center of the Jupiter as seen from Earth.

Because Jupiter is constantly rotating, on most nights the great red spot is not centered on Jupiter during normal observing hours of 8-10pm. The list below for "Jupiter great red spot transit times" indicates the exact times when the GRS will be in the center (or transit) of Jupiter, so we need to choose one of the time and dates listed. For example, on Thursday March 12, at 10:10 pm, the GRS will be perfectly centered, and since it takes Jupiter approx. 10 hours to rotate around, the GRS will be visible for a few hours before and after 10:10 pm. In addition, if we go out on March 12'th, we will also be able to photograph the passing of one of Jupiter's moons, Io, pass in front of the planet.

Observing Day #4 - The Sun

(Dr. Segre's office - looking out the open window!)

We will use two different telescopes to study many features of the Sun.

The Coronado Solarmax II 60 - Has a red filter that is sensitive to light from Hydrogen atoms in a region slightly above the solar surface called the Chromosphere. This scope is very good at revealing the detailed features of convection cells, filaments plages on the Sun's surface. Information on understanding the Hydrogen Alpha solar pictures can be found at spacew.com
The Nexstar 8" Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope - Views the Photosphere of the Sun in visible light, good at located sunspsots, but not much more detail.

Observing Night #5 - Star Trails over Oxford College Buildings

(from the Oxford Quad)

We will take star trail images (over 45min-1hr) over buildings on campus.

Possible buildings to photograph include Seney Hall, the college Library, Language Hall... To make star trail images we will use the Canon cameras mounted on a fixed tripod.

Observing Night #6 - Light Spectroscopy of Stars in Ursa Major

(Oxford College Soccer Field, after March 1, 2015)

We will use the large Celestron 11" telescope and an RSpec diffraction grating to measure the light spectra from several bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major.

Ursa Major is a great constellation to study because there are many bright stars that range greatly in temperature from cold Dubhe, at T=4500K, to hot Alkaid, at T=15,000K. Measuring the light spectra from 5-6 bright stars can be done quickly, in less than an hour, but post processing of the spectra back in the lab will require several hours of work.