It seems yesterdays reports that Comet Ison has brightened dramatically are true.Many people have confirmed it as of this morning.The images of it are beautiful, but I have not been lucky enough to witness it yet.
The weather has been cloudy since the morning of the 13th here in Southern Ohio.I am waiting for a chance to get my next image of Comet Ison, so hopefully the weather will break soon.Here are links to a couple different images of Comet Ison from the past two days.Thanks for reading
November 14 SpaceWeather
November 15 SpaceWeather
Space.com Article with Images
Friday, November 15, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Comet Ison and Other Images
I set out this weekend to acquire images of Comet Ison, and several other targets.I wanted to continue to test the new stacking software I recently began using.I took these images on the night of November 9th, and into the morning of the 10th.Each of these images are a result of multiple 30 second images stacked to produce one final image.Thanks for reading, and enjoy.
C/2012 S1 Comet Ison
The Orion Nebula/The Running Man Nebula
The Great Cluster in Hercules
The Perseus Double Cluster
The Andromeda Galaxy
Thursday, November 7, 2013
The Comet Ison Frustration
After Months of waiting on what we were told could be the "Comet of the Century", it seems some are starting to lose hope.C/2012 S1 Comet Ison has not managed to reach the magnitude that was expected at this point, and time is running out for it to brighten, as it inches closer to the Sun each day.Ison will reach the Sun on November 28th, and emerge in our evening skies on the 29th at sunset.I have read a few articles speculating that Comet Ison may not be able to reach naked eye magnitude at this point, which is disappointing, but there are still unknowns.
Comets have been known to brighten unexpectedly, as was the case with C/2012 X1 LINEAR in late October.Comet Linear brightened dramatically from what was previously expected, by a magnitude of 5.5.The result is a 100 fold increase in brightness of the object.There is also some speculation that Comet Ison may be breaking up, and could be gone sooner than we thought.Although this scenario would be unfortunate, the breaking up of a comet can cause a surge of brightness in some cases.Either of these scenarios could still happen, and could result in a brighter comet even if it is short term.We can only wait, and see.
I have had my own frustrations with Comet Ison, or rather the weather causing a complete absence of Ison in my skies.On the night of Tuesday, November 5th, the weather cleared up a bit for some imaging, and I set out to do just that around 2am.I started with The Pleiades star cluster, taking a series of images to be stacked later.At around 3:30am I switched to a few different targets in the Orion Constellation.Comet Ison was due to be visible in my skies at 4:30am.Only ten minutes before I planned to switch over to Ison, a thick layer of cloud began to move in, and by the time Ison was visible the entire sky was lousy with clouds.Including this evening, I have not had a look at Comet Ison since November 25th.I did manage to get a few good images Tuesday, and have included them.As for Comet Ison, I can't wait to see what happens with it regardless of the outcome, as long as the weather allows my to be a witness to it.Here are the images from Tuesday Night.Thanks for reading.
M45 The Pleiades
NGC-2024 The Flame Nebula
Comets have been known to brighten unexpectedly, as was the case with C/2012 X1 LINEAR in late October.Comet Linear brightened dramatically from what was previously expected, by a magnitude of 5.5.The result is a 100 fold increase in brightness of the object.There is also some speculation that Comet Ison may be breaking up, and could be gone sooner than we thought.Although this scenario would be unfortunate, the breaking up of a comet can cause a surge of brightness in some cases.Either of these scenarios could still happen, and could result in a brighter comet even if it is short term.We can only wait, and see.
I have had my own frustrations with Comet Ison, or rather the weather causing a complete absence of Ison in my skies.On the night of Tuesday, November 5th, the weather cleared up a bit for some imaging, and I set out to do just that around 2am.I started with The Pleiades star cluster, taking a series of images to be stacked later.At around 3:30am I switched to a few different targets in the Orion Constellation.Comet Ison was due to be visible in my skies at 4:30am.Only ten minutes before I planned to switch over to Ison, a thick layer of cloud began to move in, and by the time Ison was visible the entire sky was lousy with clouds.Including this evening, I have not had a look at Comet Ison since November 25th.I did manage to get a few good images Tuesday, and have included them.As for Comet Ison, I can't wait to see what happens with it regardless of the outcome, as long as the weather allows my to be a witness to it.Here are the images from Tuesday Night.Thanks for reading.
M45 The Pleiades
NGC-2024 The Flame Nebula
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Review - Celestron Omni Series 40mm Eyepiece 93325
I recently purchased a Celestron Omni Series 40mm eyepiece.I wanted the large 40mm lens for observing deep sky objects, but also because Comet Ison will be getting brighter over the next month.The Omni Series is the lowest priced individual eyepieces available from Celestron, but still high quality optics.Simply holding this eyepiece, and you can tell it is well made.It is metal, with a flip up eye cup, and threaded for 1.25 filters.The 40mm Omni boasts multi coated optics with blackened edges, 4-element design, a 42 degree apparent field of view, and 31mm of eye relief.The Omni Series would be a good choice for expanding your collection of low power eyepieces.
The 40mm Omni Series eyepiece's performance seems to match it's quality.I tested the eyepiece on The Orion Nebula, The Andromeda Galaxy, and Comet Ison.The light gathering abilities of this eyepiece are phenomenal.Both deep sky objects had great clarity, and were very bright.The view of Comet Ison was equally appealing.I will continue to test this eyepiece over the next two weeks, as the weather has been quite cloudy in my area lately, and shows no sign of relenting.
I should also mention that this eyepiece sticks out quite far from the telescope, much farther than any of my other eyepieces,.I actually bumped into it once, and it could be a hazard if you are not careful, possibly breaking the focuser, or even knocking over the telescope.I have not found any other relevant defects, or issues with this product.I am very happy with this eyepiece, especially for the price, and would recommend it to others in the market for a large diameter Plossl eyepiece.Thanks for reading.
The 40mm Omni Series eyepiece's performance seems to match it's quality.I tested the eyepiece on The Orion Nebula, The Andromeda Galaxy, and Comet Ison.The light gathering abilities of this eyepiece are phenomenal.Both deep sky objects had great clarity, and were very bright.The view of Comet Ison was equally appealing.I will continue to test this eyepiece over the next two weeks, as the weather has been quite cloudy in my area lately, and shows no sign of relenting.
I should also mention that this eyepiece sticks out quite far from the telescope, much farther than any of my other eyepieces,.I actually bumped into it once, and it could be a hazard if you are not careful, possibly breaking the focuser, or even knocking over the telescope.I have not found any other relevant defects, or issues with this product.I am very happy with this eyepiece, especially for the price, and would recommend it to others in the market for a large diameter Plossl eyepiece.Thanks for reading.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Comet Craziness
Why do people insist on freaking out each, and every time a relatively bright comet comes around.Just search Comet Ison on Youtube, and you are met with a barrage of cooky conspiracies, and prophecies of end times.Just like C/2010 X1 Comet Elenin in 2011, which was touted as Nibiru, Planet X, a Brown Dwarf, and even an Alien Spacecraft.
The Alien Ship story was rather funny.The whole thing was sparked by one image, pictured at the bottom of this paragraph.The image shows Comet Elenin in the middle, and four bright dots on each side lined up in a peculiar configuration.These eight bright objects are the supposed Alien Fleet.In reality there are only two bright objects in the image, and they are stars.The image is a result of four long exposure images, stacked together to achieve a better, clearer image.Because they are taken over a period of time, the comet's position in relation to the stars has changed.Therefore, when the images are stacked you get a trailing effect.Here is the famed Comet Elenin image.
image credit: Leonid Elenin
Well, they are at it again.The funniest attempt to make C/2012 S1 Comet Ison into a crazy doomsday event is equally ill informed.First the video shows images of eruptions on Europa, a moon of Jupiter.The video claims these eruptions happened on August 23rd as a result of Comet Ison passing Jupiter.The images are unfortunately from 2007, and can all be found on NASA websites, at this link.
Europa Eruptions
The other issue with this claim is the location of C/2012 S1 Comet Ison on August 23rd, 2013.I took this image from NASA's small body database but if you want to see for yourself here is the link as well.
Ison Orbit
As you can see in the image, NASA shows Comet Ison much closer to Mars on August 23rd, so that claim is easily debunked.But wait....there is more.The video then claims that Comet Ison is interacting with Mars.The first image he uses as evidence in this claim can be found here.
Comet Ison and Mars by Ari Koutsouradis
The guy even gets his dates wrong, citing September 10th, 2013, but the Photographer dated the image October 2nd, 2013.Many other image are pictured here, and all can be found in a simple google search for the words "comet ison mars".The claim here, and the title of this video is DID ISON Give MARS a COMA.Yes, this guy is actually claiming that Mars has been transformed into a huge comet, because of interactions with Comet Ison.He uses these images as evidence, due to the vibrant glow around Mars.The effect here is simply caused by the gathering of light during long exposure photography, which is required to capture an image of Comet Ison at this time.These claims are completely fabricated.I would have linked the video here, but I am not willing to drive up hit traffic for this individual.The title of the video is there if you are that curious.
It is not that I take that much offense to this particular person's video, or even conspiracy theories in general.I find them rather entertaining to tell you the truth.The issue I have is that many uninformed people become genuinely concerned, some even making doomsday preparations, as was the cause with Comet Elenin, which coincidentally did not even survive it's encounter with the Sun.I can't even tell you how many people asked me Mayan Calendar questions, and even after explaining the truth in all the stories, some people were still convinced something bad would happen on December 21st, 2012.But, nothing did happen.
Why are people so enthralled with these kinds of stories?Why do people with absolutely no knowledge of Astronomy, or Astrophotography insist on making crazy claims that they have no basis for?I am surprised that these individuals do not expect to be proven wrong, by the first legitimate Astronomer, or Photographer that happens to see their video.If you are going to make a video like this one, at least get the dates right, and give the Astrophotographer credit for the image that they no doubt spent hours working on, before you got your slimy conspiracy tentacles all over it.Thanks for reading.
The Alien Ship story was rather funny.The whole thing was sparked by one image, pictured at the bottom of this paragraph.The image shows Comet Elenin in the middle, and four bright dots on each side lined up in a peculiar configuration.These eight bright objects are the supposed Alien Fleet.In reality there are only two bright objects in the image, and they are stars.The image is a result of four long exposure images, stacked together to achieve a better, clearer image.Because they are taken over a period of time, the comet's position in relation to the stars has changed.Therefore, when the images are stacked you get a trailing effect.Here is the famed Comet Elenin image.
Well, they are at it again.The funniest attempt to make C/2012 S1 Comet Ison into a crazy doomsday event is equally ill informed.First the video shows images of eruptions on Europa, a moon of Jupiter.The video claims these eruptions happened on August 23rd as a result of Comet Ison passing Jupiter.The images are unfortunately from 2007, and can all be found on NASA websites, at this link.
Europa Eruptions
The other issue with this claim is the location of C/2012 S1 Comet Ison on August 23rd, 2013.I took this image from NASA's small body database but if you want to see for yourself here is the link as well.
Ison Orbit
As you can see in the image, NASA shows Comet Ison much closer to Mars on August 23rd, so that claim is easily debunked.But wait....there is more.The video then claims that Comet Ison is interacting with Mars.The first image he uses as evidence in this claim can be found here.
Comet Ison and Mars by Ari Koutsouradis
The guy even gets his dates wrong, citing September 10th, 2013, but the Photographer dated the image October 2nd, 2013.Many other image are pictured here, and all can be found in a simple google search for the words "comet ison mars".The claim here, and the title of this video is DID ISON Give MARS a COMA.Yes, this guy is actually claiming that Mars has been transformed into a huge comet, because of interactions with Comet Ison.He uses these images as evidence, due to the vibrant glow around Mars.The effect here is simply caused by the gathering of light during long exposure photography, which is required to capture an image of Comet Ison at this time.These claims are completely fabricated.I would have linked the video here, but I am not willing to drive up hit traffic for this individual.The title of the video is there if you are that curious.
It is not that I take that much offense to this particular person's video, or even conspiracy theories in general.I find them rather entertaining to tell you the truth.The issue I have is that many uninformed people become genuinely concerned, some even making doomsday preparations, as was the cause with Comet Elenin, which coincidentally did not even survive it's encounter with the Sun.I can't even tell you how many people asked me Mayan Calendar questions, and even after explaining the truth in all the stories, some people were still convinced something bad would happen on December 21st, 2012.But, nothing did happen.
Why are people so enthralled with these kinds of stories?Why do people with absolutely no knowledge of Astronomy, or Astrophotography insist on making crazy claims that they have no basis for?I am surprised that these individuals do not expect to be proven wrong, by the first legitimate Astronomer, or Photographer that happens to see their video.If you are going to make a video like this one, at least get the dates right, and give the Astrophotographer credit for the image that they no doubt spent hours working on, before you got your slimy conspiracy tentacles all over it.Thanks for reading.
Celestron Collimation Eyepiece 94182
I purchased the Celestron Collimation Eyepiece shortly after the purchase of my first reflector telescope.The collimation of a telescope refers to the alignment of the mirrors, and/or lenses of the telescope.If you have a Newtonian Reflector telescope, at some point you will need one of these tools.
There are two main types of collimation tools, The eyepiece style, and the lazer collimation tool.This style can be more difficult to use, but is also very accurate when used correctly.There is not a lot I can tell you about the tool without attempting to explain the process, but I plan to soon make a few videos explaining collimation, and other tasks/skills useful for amateur Astronomers, and Astrophotographers.The tool is made of metal entirely, and comes shipped in a white cardboard box.Sorry, no case for this accessory, kind of a bummer.The price for this tool is usually around $30.00, compared to Orion's version of the same tool priced at $50.Most lazer collimation tool are $80-$100 and above.
I am very happy with the tool, and it only took a few days a fiddling with the process to get the hang of it.The included instructions are fairly detailed, and really helpful when starting out.I would recommend it for anyone who wants to use this style of collimation due to the price, and the fact that it is constructed just as well as any comparable collimation tool.Thanks for reading.
There are two main types of collimation tools, The eyepiece style, and the lazer collimation tool.This style can be more difficult to use, but is also very accurate when used correctly.There is not a lot I can tell you about the tool without attempting to explain the process, but I plan to soon make a few videos explaining collimation, and other tasks/skills useful for amateur Astronomers, and Astrophotographers.The tool is made of metal entirely, and comes shipped in a white cardboard box.Sorry, no case for this accessory, kind of a bummer.The price for this tool is usually around $30.00, compared to Orion's version of the same tool priced at $50.Most lazer collimation tool are $80-$100 and above.
I am very happy with the tool, and it only took a few days a fiddling with the process to get the hang of it.The included instructions are fairly detailed, and really helpful when starting out.I would recommend it for anyone who wants to use this style of collimation due to the price, and the fact that it is constructed just as well as any comparable collimation tool.Thanks for reading.
Review - Celestron UHC/LPR Filter 94123
The Celestron UHC/LPR Filter is a filter generally used for deep sky objects such as Galaxies, or Nebulae.UHC stands for Ultra High Contrast if I am not mistaken, and LPR stands for Light Pollution Reduction.Essentially this filter will block unwanted wavelengths of light, while adding contrast to deep sky objects.
The filter is constructed of the right materials, a metal ring, with glass filter, and has the Celestron logo as well as the filter type painted on the ring.The filter comes in a square sliding box, with is sort of standard.Sometimes filter come in round cases, sometimes square, I personally prefer round, they fit in my carrying cases better.It is priced quite conservatively, the 1.25 is $59.99.I have seen others priced at $89.99 for the 1.25.
The filter performs very well, giving the target a slight blue color, and much more contrast than just using the eyepiece alone.Most dimmer nearby stars will be blacked out with the rest of the background, any washing of the sky caused by light pollution is greatly reduced with this filter.The downside to a filter like this is that you will need a large scope, or at least a large eyepiece such as a 32mm in order for the filter to be very useful, due to the darkening effect.I have a 127mm that it works quite well with using a 20mm or larger, on my 15 mm it is just a bit dim in my backyard.The 15mm is fine in a dark site situation.
I am pretty happy with the filter, it is made well and does what it is supposed to do.I also did not need to break the bank to get it.I would recommend this filter who wants a good UHC/LPR filter, and does not have alot to spend on one.Thanks for reading.
The filter is constructed of the right materials, a metal ring, with glass filter, and has the Celestron logo as well as the filter type painted on the ring.The filter comes in a square sliding box, with is sort of standard.Sometimes filter come in round cases, sometimes square, I personally prefer round, they fit in my carrying cases better.It is priced quite conservatively, the 1.25 is $59.99.I have seen others priced at $89.99 for the 1.25.
The filter performs very well, giving the target a slight blue color, and much more contrast than just using the eyepiece alone.Most dimmer nearby stars will be blacked out with the rest of the background, any washing of the sky caused by light pollution is greatly reduced with this filter.The downside to a filter like this is that you will need a large scope, or at least a large eyepiece such as a 32mm in order for the filter to be very useful, due to the darkening effect.I have a 127mm that it works quite well with using a 20mm or larger, on my 15 mm it is just a bit dim in my backyard.The 15mm is fine in a dark site situation.
I am pretty happy with the filter, it is made well and does what it is supposed to do.I also did not need to break the bank to get it.I would recommend this filter who wants a good UHC/LPR filter, and does not have alot to spend on one.Thanks for reading.
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