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!

3D Flying Crane

Or is that crane fly in 3d?


Here a close up of the body.

Deep Space Nailbula

I got this back in December the first night with my new 8" telescope. I just got around to processing all the photos I took of it recently. It's my first nailbula. What is a nailbula you ask?


It's what happens to your nail when it gets stuck between bits of the German Equitorial telescope mount! Ouch! Astronomy is dangerous! I think I end up with a new cut or pulled muscle every time I am out with my telescopes. Who would have thought.


And in 3d because I know you all want to see nailbula in the 3rd dimension!

Beach Block Face

Just relaxing on the beach.

And in 3D!

It's Cinco de Mayo...

...a fitting day to post a picture of the Sombrero Galaxy (aka M104). It's not a very good picture but I was talked into posting it. Now to go get a better picture of the Sombrero Galaxy! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Riding a Robot!

Me riding an industrial robot arm powered by a friend in the streets of Baltimore. Found this looking through old photos and videos and thought it was worthy of a post. It was years ago and believe me I tried to figure out how I could get it to my place but the thing probably weighed a ton or more. It was there for a few weeks before it finally disappeared. Still sad I couldn't find a way to get it home. Still I got to ride on it -:]

Saturn at Opposition

Saturn at Opposition on April 4th which is when planets line up in this case Sun-Earth-Saturn. This Puts Saturn closest to Earth and high in the night sky and very bright because we are looking directly at Saturn's full day lit side. Though because of our orbits we are almost always looking at it's day light side. It was also the brightest it has been in 3 years because it was in opposition and it's rings are showing more and reflecting more light at us. This is by far the best picture of Saturn I have taken yet.

Nice Green Clip

I like this rusty green clip.


I also like it in 3D. To bad everyone doesn't have a nice 3D display. It looks much better in full color. The red/blue really kills the greenness of it.

Ringed Planet Reprocessed

There is a new version of Registax and it seems to work a bit better. At least it seems to pull a bit more detail out of the same images than the previous version. Here are the same two images of Saturn using the new Registax 6.

A little sharper right?


Starting t o look a bit over processed but I think it's still a bit crisper than before.

Look at that Ring

Yeah! Better pictures of Saturn.


Not sure which I like better but they are much better than any other pictures of Saturn I have taken so far.

Found a pic of Saturn

I was looking around at some of the images I took over the Xmas-new years holiday and found this image of Saturn. It's pretty heavily processed but I figure it's one of the better images of Saturn I have right now. Though I hope to get a better one in the next week or few.

Tsunami hardly found in SF

So for everyone that was wondering what it was like here at Ocean Beach, San Francisco during the 2011 Tsunami here is a little movie I made from video and photos from that morning. I am talking through the first few shots going on about how normal it all looks for O.B. and it really does look normal for around here. The regular swell which I say is 10-15 feet might have only been 8-12 feet but it was by no means huge for O.B. maybe on the medium creeping into the bigger side. It makes it really hard to see the Tsunami at all.

Well there you have it. Not to exciting. Here is a video that is slightly more exciting someone shot down in Half Moon Bay near Mavericks.

Riding Tall Ships

We went for a ride on a tall ship a few weeks back. Fun! I scaled these images a bit on the page and they look a bit blurry so click on them and see the nice big clean versions.

There were two, this is the Hawaiian Chieftain. We were on the Lady Washington. I think the Lady Washington was used in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It did look a lot like a pirate type ship.


It was pretty rainy and not to windy most of the trip. The rain and clouds were kind of fun.


Look at all the rigging. We got to help haul the sails up and do some other menial sailor jobs like coiling the rope and such.


You can find Linda enjoying her self in some of these though I don't think she enjoys me taking pictures of her.


I love all the rigging. They were climbing up in it to put it up and down and make some adjustments to it. I am very tempted to volunteer for a week or two to learn how to do it and to climb up in the rigging.


An even wider shot with sailors up on the masts and all that fun. You can find out more about these particular tall ships, how to book a ride or volunteer and all that here. This is the end of this really tall post just like the ships!

SF Ladybug

In 3D!

Cat in a box

Oh my.

Our Micro Panther Playing Fetch

I think our micro panther, also known as Inky, got jealous of his sisters fetching internet fame and decided to show off a little. He doesn't normally play fetch but every once in a while he gets the bug.

Darker Skies in Southern Arizona

We went down to southern Arizona where my Mom grew up. She has some friends that had a great place with pretty dark skies and nothing blocking the view in any direction. here are a couple of the pictures from our visit

Andromeda Galaxy aka m31. I tried out a lens that doubles the telescopes field of view so i could see most of Andromeda Galaxy. it causes some distortion on the outer edges of frame.


Orion Nebula (m42) again. Much brighter in dark skies which helps create a lot more contrast. Cant wait to get back out in dark skies again!

Jupiter!

Jupiter and 3 of its moons as seen from Phoenix.

New Telescope!

I got a nice new telescope a few months back but have not had a chance to use it until last night. We are at my Mom's in Phoenix where it is less foggy, wet and it actually seems a little darker but probably not. Anyway here are the goods. Be sure to click on the images fot the larger versions.

M42. Very first picture!


M42 after a little more fiddling.


Same image unedited.


Moon.


Eskimo Nebula.


Eskimo Nebula a bit closer and tweaked.

Took some pictures of Saturn too but I need to stack them and dont have the software on my travel computer.

Pistol the Fetching Kitty

Pistol loves to play fetch. She will play for 5 or 10 or 20 minutes at a time and beg and cry when we wont play with her. As a matter of fact she is begging right now....

...and I'm back. We must spend hours a week playing fetch with her. She wants to play first thing after eating in the morning and is always begging us to play all night. I really love having such a cute fetching kitty!