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OBSERVATION NIGHT #5 - The Full Moon - Thurs. Nov. 6th - 7:00-7:30pm

Place: Behind Pierce Hall, Oxford College Campus

 

This was our third and final chance to photograph the full moon. The weather was bad for the first two (see Obs. Night #3 below), but we hit the jackpot on this one. There were perfectly clear skies, a bit windy, but conditions were great. We used the 8" celestron telescope and took pictures with our Canon T4i DSLR camera. Because the Moon image didn't fit completely on the camera screen, we took pictures of the upper part of the Moon, then pictures of the lower part, and the students will have to stitch the two parts together (using the Microsoft ICE stitching program) to make a single image of the full Moon.

 

Sequence of 4 images of the top 3/4 of the moon, and 5 images of bottom 3/4 of moon.

 

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OBSERVATION NIGHT #4 - Star Clusters and Nebulae - Sat. Oct. 25th - 7:45-10pm

Charlie Elliott Astronomy Field, Mansfield, GA.

 Sunset at 7:00pm - Max Darkness starts at 8:00 pm

We will focus this night on observing several deep sky objects including globular star clusters and nebulae. Because these objects are so dim, we will need to go to the dark skies of the Charlie Elliott astronomy field, and we will need a completely moonless night. Photographing deep sky objects is much more challenging than photographing bright objects like planets or the Moon.  Most of the objects below are so dim that not only are they invisible to the naked eye, that are also invisible when visually looking through our largest telescope. Only by taking long exposure photographs through the telescope do the objects reveal themselves.  

1. Telescope + T4i -- Dumbbell Nebula M27 (m=7.1, 6') -- Two-Star align on Altair+Almach.
2. Telescope + T4i -- Globular Star Clusters M15 and M2 (SE, m=6.5, 6.2).
3. Telescope + T4i -- Helix Nebula NGC7293 (m=7.3, 13', below M2) -- Near Formalhaut.
4. DSLR Camera T2i -- Star Trails of Constellation Cassiopeia + Const. Cygnus-- (Jake)
5.               --- NOT DONE ---
6. Telescope + T4i -- Eagle Nebula M16 (m=6.4, 30') -- Align on Nunki.
7. Telescope + T4i --Eastern Veil Nebula NGC6995 (m=5, 60x30') -- Align on Geinah.
8. Telescope + T4i --Western Veil Nebula NGC6960 (m=5, 70x6') 
9. Telescope + T4i  -- Uranus and Neptune (SE) (m=5.7 and 7.8).

Voyager4.5 view of the southern night sky on 10/25/14 at 9pm.

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OBSERVATION NIGHT #3 - THE FULL MOON - Wed. Oct. 8th - 10pm

No course in astrophotography would be complete with taking a picture of the full Moon. This semester, we only get 3 chances. The first one in September was too cloudy to even try, this one on October 8'th turned out to be very cloudy too, but we still went out and tried. While hoping for the clouds to clear Christella took pictures of the clouds moving across the very bright full Moon. In the end, the clouds never cleared and the Full Moon remains elusive, we'll get our last chance next month, on Thursday Nov. 6...

Christella

Wednesday Night Oct. 8'th @ Oxford College 

Click on the links below to download all the raw picture files.

1. Sequence of 150 images of clouds moving across the Full Moon

Clouds Obscuring the Full Moon -- by Christella

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OBSERVATION NIGHT #2 - THE MILKY WAY AND PLANETARY NEBULA

In order to photograph very dim objects like the Milky Way and planetary nebulae, we need very very dark skies. We will do these observations out at the astronomy field in the Charlie Elliot wildlife center, and for maximum darkness, the Moon cannot be up in the sky at all. 

Christella

Saturday Night Sep. 20'th @ Charlie Elliott Astronomy Field. 

Click on the links below to download all the raw picture files.

1. Sequence of Milky Way images

2. Ring Nebula and Swan Nebula Images

3. Sequence of star images around the North Star Polaris

Astronomy Night #2 at Charlie Elliott Field - 9-20-2014

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List of Items for SATURDAY Sep. 20, 2014 - Sunset at 7:36pm - Max Darkness starts at 9:00pm

1. DSLR Camera T4i -- The Milky Way (SW) -- 9:00-9:15
2. DSLR Camera T2i -- Star Trails around the north star Polaris (N).-- 9:00-10:00 (Christella)
3. Telescope + T4i -- Swan Nebula M17 (m=6, 11') and Ring Nebula M57 (m=8.8, 1') (Both up near Lyra) -- 9:45 -10:15
4.          ----  NOT DONE ----
   
5. Telescope -- Saturn (W) and its Moons in 1 photo with T4i -- 8:45-9:00
6. Telescope + T4i -- Globular Clusters M22, M15 and M2 (SE, m=5.1, 6.5, 6.2) -- 9:15-9:45 - Align on Altair.
7. ** Telescope + T4i -- Globular Clusters M13 and M92 (NW, m=5.8, 6.4) -- 20 min -- Align on Vega.
8. Telescope + T4i -- Helix Nebula NGC7293 (m=7.3, 13', below M2) -- 9:45 -10:15
9. DSLR Camera T2i -- Star Trails Looking East -- 10:00-11:00 (Jake)
10. Telescope + T4i  -- Uranus and Neptune (SE) -- 10:30-11:00
11. ** Telescope + T4i -- Double Cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884 (NE)

List of Items for TUESDSAY Sep. 23, 2014 - Sunset at 7:32pm - Max Darkness at 9:00pm

1. DSLR Camera T4i -- The Milky Way (SW) -- 9:00-9:15
2. Align on Star Nunki
3. Telescope + T4i -- Globular Cluster M22, (SE, m=5.1) -- 9:15-9:45.
4. Telescope + T4i -- Eagle Nebula M16 (m=6.4, 30') 
5. Telescope + T4i -- Globular Cluster M28, (SE, m=6.8) 
6. Telescope + T4i --Trifid Nebula M20 (m=6.3, 28') 
7. Align on Star Deneb (or Sadr)
8. Telescope + T4i --Eastern Veil Nebula NGC6995 (m=5, 60x30')
9. Telescope + T4i --Western Veil Nebula NGC6960 (m=5, 70x6') 
10. DSLR Camera T2i -- Star Trails around the north star Polaris (N)
11. DSLR Camera T2i -- Star Trails Looking East 

Click on the links below to download all the raw picture/movie files.