A delicately violent celestial shell game

A delicately violent celestial shell game

Another article with that explores nebula bubbles and compares planetary nebula and SNR (Super Nova Remnant). I am (and have been for about a month now) feeling under the weather so though the sky was clear tonight, all I could do was take a nap, grade some school work, and then do somethings on the computer. I visit the doctor next week so hopefully I get some answers. I need to get my pep back. I love my age (45) but sometimes it sucks to realize your not 25 anymore . . . Enjoy the link to Bad Astronomy.

Here is the link to the Chandra info and images on SNR 0509:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/snr0509/

Here is the Hubble information:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1018a/


Here is the Hubble Image:
































Now, I think the image from Hubble is fantastic but what I really enjoy is the movie that NASA put together which you can see over at this link.

Observing Session December 12th, 2010 Messier 1, The Crab Nebula

Here is the next object that I sketched on December 12th, the Crab Nebula or Messier 1. Though not a grab and get your attention object for many the first time they observe it, it is what it represents that is so wonderful! This is a Supernova remnant that exploded in 1054 CE and seen by Arab and Chinese Astronomers of their day. It is 11 ly across and has a neutron star/pulsar near its center that spins at about 30.2 times per second, sending out pulses of radiation in many forms.

Observing December 12th 2010

Well I got out to a dark site last night, and though I only spent about 5 hours there, and though I didn't do anything with the Herschel 400, I did get some observations of some new and old objects in. I'll post up what I observed later today (I have a root canal and dental surgery today in about an hour so it will depend on how I feel after that). My favorite object though was NGC 1360, which I observed after visiting NGC 1535 again. Here is my sketch and observation of that image:


































I did this sketch with the Ultrablock Narrowband Filter to give a comparison of what I first saw vs. what I saw with the OIII filter and using averted vision.

AMAZING wide-angle time lapse night sky video!

This is really, and I mean REALLY cool! This is from Stéphane Guisard's website and was taken on December 5 in Chile at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Check it out!!!!

AMAZING wide-angle time lapse night sky video!

YouTube of the Video above (see it here, max the screen, it is the best view)

The following links are from the bottom of the post at Bad Astronomy. These are also from Stephane's site also:

Star Trail from the Equator

The Darkest Sky

Check these out! They are really interesting, at least to me.

Lunas Eclipse on December 20th and 21st, 2010 Viewing Together in Salt Lake City area

This post is meant more for local people in the Salt Lake City area. Sorry if your outside of that but I encourage you to do something similar where you live if you can see this event on December 20th and 21st.

So I am just wondering if anyone is wanting to meet locally to view this lunar eclipse, weather permitting? Naked eye is probably best but I think I may just bring my 10inch scope out to see what the view is like on some craters as the eclipse moves across the moon. If your interested please reply so I can gauge interest and perhaps pick a good spot in the Salt Lake Valley to view this. Your can see from this table from Wiki (we are the MST -7 UTC or second column from the left) that it will be a late night if you want to view this. You can see the beginning stages from 10:27p.m. til 12:40a.m. with totality starting at 12:40a.m. and lasting until 1:17a.m. That's about as late as I'll go because I have to work the next day. Anyone interested?

Event	PST (-8 UTC)	MST (-7 UTC)	CST (-6 UTC)	EST (-5 UTC)
Start penumbral (P1)	9:27 pm (*)	10:27 pm (*)	11:27 pm (*)	12:27 am
Start umbral (U1)	10:32 pm (*)	11:32 pm (*)	12:32 am	1:32 am
Start total (U2)	11:40 pm (*)	12:40 am	1:40 am	2:40 am
Greatest eclipse	12:17 am	1:17 am	2:17 am	3:17 am
End total (U3)	12:53 am	1:53 am	2:53 am	3:53 am
End umbra (U4)	2:02 am	3:02 am	4:02 am	5:02 am
End penumbral (P4)	3:06 am	4:06 am	5:06 am	6:06 am
(*) before midnight on Monday night, December 20

November 2010 Observation and Sketch of Messier 31

I guess I need to find more material to post because I just am not having any luck with the weather. I had planned on doing some observing on Sunday night from my backyard but instead of clear weather, we had a very thick fog that came and went. Now the inversion but what is really smaug is settling into the valley and the pollutants are not good for any mirror. So my mountain sites just aren't coming around for observing yet for the winter, so not much else has happen. I did get down to the family cabin as we had yet another member of the family pass away (two in a month). So I got some time in and here is what I produced. Not much, and I am not happy with it. I can tell how far I've come from sketching large objects like Messier 42, or the Double Double or Messier 31. Yet when I sketch these and other large objects it tells me how far I have to go to being a really good sketcher and that is a FAR way away. That's okay because I really do enjoy doing it.

Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy and a few companions. As mentioned I used a wide field view and then the 14mm and 10mm Pentax for this sketch.
































I did a further update of the sketch tonight and think I like the version below a little better. You can decide and leave a comment if you want.































Sigh, as soon as the weather pattern changes I'll be out, even if it is with a waxing moon since I need about 20 open clusters. Anyone else getting out this winter?