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Archives for March 2024

Comet 12/Pons-Brooks, 3/27/2024, 20h50m EDT

March 29, 2024 by

Telescope/Camera: Seestar S50

Filter: None

Exposure: (60 + 60)x10sec (20min) saved as FITS

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, fair transparency at dusk

Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop

This is another quick grab of Comet 12/Pons-Brooks before it got too far down in the before it was lost to the haze and light pollution over my western horizon. This images is the combination of subs taken over a 10-minute period through two Seestar S50s operating in parallel. As the images were being taken the comet dropped from 19 degrees over the horizon to just 17 degrees. Although the comet was an easy target for the Seestar, it was really tough to see in my 10×50 binoculars.

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging

Comet 12/Pons-Brooks, 3/23/2024, 21h00m EDT

March 29, 2024 by

Telescope/Camera: Seestar S50

Filter: None

Exposure: (60 + 60)x10sec (20min) saved as FITS

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, fair transparency at dusk

Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop

Well, this was fun. I am fortunate enough to own a pair of Seestar S50s that I usually use in in parallel recording data on different targets at the same time, often a series of variable stars. However, in this case I wanted to grab as much data as I could on Comet 12/Pons-Brooks before it was lost to the haze and light pollution over my western horizon, so I used them to image the comet simultaneously over a 10-minute period starting at 9:00pm EDT. This resulted in 60, 10sec exposure from each camera that were then aligned and combined in Nebulosity and processed in Photoshop. Given the challenging conditions I am delighted with the result.

Filed Under: Solar System Imaging, Uncategorized

APM 08279+5255 – Quasar in Lynx

March 18, 2024 by

Telescope/Camera: Seestar S50

Filter: None

Exposure: 181x10sec (30min) saved as FITS

Average Light Pollution: Bortle 8, fair transparency

Lensed Sky Quality Meter: 18.5 mag/arc-sec^2

Software: Nebulosity, Photoshop

This is one of my absolute favorite objects to image and I was curious whether I could capture it with my Seestar S50. The faint 15th magnitude star marked by the red arrow is the distant quasar APM 08279+5255, the most distant object visible in amateur telescopes with an estimated distance of 12 billion light years! To put this in perspective the Universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old and the light from this object has been traveling for 12 billion of those years. The sun is relatively young by comparison, only 4.6 billion years old. When the sun was born the light from this quasar had already been traveling for 7.4 billion years, give or take. At magnitude 15.2 it is a fairly easy photographic target, though locating the exact field can be a bit of a challenge. APM 08279+5255 may also be glimpsed through a large telescope at a reasonably dark site. Imagine that, seeing the farthest observable object in the known Universe with your own eyes! Now that would be neat! In the meantime, I can take a peek at it from my Bortle 8 backyard with my little Seestar S50.

Filed Under: Uncategorized