Saturday, September 17, 2011

Same Stars Diffrent Night

Went out the other night to catch super nova 2011fe close to it's peak intensity and to work on my imaging techniques. I got the super nova again just fine. Not sure if my images are any better though. I think maybe the are a little less noisy but I'm not really sure.

Here is M101 and Super Nova 2011fe. I think you can tell the super nova is a tad brighter than the image from a few weeks ago but again I'm not totally sure.


I think this may be my most detailed image of Jupiter yet.


Here is m8 a.k.a. the Lagoon Nebula. It was the first deep space object I tried to image about a year ago. I think this image is much better than that attempt which you can see here.


And Comet Garradd is still up. I think this image is a bit better than the one from a few weeks ago as well.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

Exploding Star, Comet, Whirlpools and Jupiter's Pimple!

Went out to look at and take pictures of the new super nova 2011fe. Had lots of fun and met a few other guys, Warren, Corey and Dave, out doing the same. My images didn't turn out as well as I hoped but I got something. Lucky for me Warren had some pointers and I if all goes well my next outing should get me some better images. And Dave gave the rest of us coordinates for Comet Garradd so I managed to get some pictures of it too. Again not so great but better than my first attempt at a comet picture!

M101 aka the Pinwheel Galaxy and Super Nova 2011fe.


In case you couldn't spot it here is where SN/2011fe is. By the end of the week it is supposed to be bright enough to see through binocular!


And here is Comet Garradd.


M51 aka the Whirlpool Galaxy. Cool even if it is a pretty bad image with butterfly stars because of tracking issues. At least you can make it out right?


Check it out, Jupiter has a pimple! Actually That's Jupiter's moon Io just starting to peak out from behind it. Dumb luck. Not sure if it's cool or not to have Io stuck on Jupiter's side like that. Mostly I think it's kind of cool. Oh, and this is probably the best image of the night even though I wasn't set up for taking images of planets. I would have taken more shots but my camera battery died right after this. Stayed for a bit longer just looking through eye pieces and chatting with the other guy. All in all a fun night!