Principal Goals Observe and photograph Uranus as it reappeared from behind the bright lunar limb at approximately 6:51 p.m. after being occulted (hidden) by the Moon earlier in the day.
Photograph Jupiter and a few deep sky objects.
The Sky Very hazy skies diffused and hid the Moon until about thirty minutes later. Even then sky haze caused considerable scattering of moonlight into the surrounding sky.
This factors and bad seeing made the Moon tremble" and fluctuate widely in brightness. Viewing or photographing Uranus appeared hopeless!
Later, some quick photos of other sky objects (list below) were made though cloud holes, poor seeing and variable haze. Poor skies made these efforts frustratingly difficult to accomplish and bedeviled attempts to judge focus and exposure.
Surprisingly some images came out better than expected!
(All images, though processed and trimmed, are single frames unlike many photographers who stack frames.)
Equipment
Telescope: Tele Vue 127 mm, f/5.2 APO refractor sometimes used with Tele Vue 4x Powermate (to expand focal length for lunar and Jovian images).
Mount: Portable, Losmandy GEM 8 equatorial mount
Mount not well polar aligned due to poor skies.
(All photos unguided.)
Camera Body: Canon Digital SLR, EOS 5D II
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Visual Appearance We are now accustomed to seeing fantastic images taken by space telescopes or sophisticated earth-based equipment. However, this belies and fools what one can visually see through modest telescopes. Still, many objects, if properly chosen, can "wow us" if seen through a good instrument.
In fact, the images below give approximate representations
of their visual appearance through a small or
moderate aperture telescope under clear, dark skies!
Do they have any "wow" factor? You judge? And will these images encourage better participation in future AAC star parties? Hope so.
The Photos
Each of the following six photos contains a brief summary of the object, exposure information, an observational challenge and a question to answer.
Pass your mouse cursor over each image to bring up
labeled or different version
Also be sure to click image for a larger version
CLICK LINKS TO LOAD EACH PICTURE PAGE
- Pleiades Star Cluster (M45)
- Beehive Star Cluster (M44)
- Orion Nebula (M42)
- Jupiter
- Waxing Crescent Moon
- Serendipity: Crescent Moon and Uranus!
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