I Haven’t posted any images recently even though there have been a couple of nice ones (due to laziness), but this one prompted me to get writing.
It’s that time of the year again when Orion is up there waiting to be imaged. This represents over 10 hours of RGB (no H-alpha yet for those in the know), and probably about the same amount of image processing time from my collaborator Noel. Continue reading
Another first for us! Practical Astronomer are publishing our wide field image of the Pleiades on page 62 of the February 2007 issue (volume 2, issue 2).
We have three images in the 2007 yearbook 🙂 :
Page 38 is the 4 frame Hyperstar image of M31 as one of the top 10 images of 2006
Page 72 is a Hyperstar image of M13 as a summer object
Page 97 has the Virgo Cluster as “deep sky delights”
I’m thinking ahead about the deep-sky object that I will concentrate on for the short summer nights. I am really impressed with the image of the Veil nebula on Davide de Martin’s Skyfactory site where he has processed this superb image using Palomar POSS II data.
I think I’d really like to give this one a good try, however that field of view (FOV) of 4.2 x 4.4 degrees would mean a 2-frame mosaic with the Sky 90/M25C combination, and I’m not too happy about spending that much time on just one object, especially with short evenings.
However, Steve Cannistra has also imaged the Veil region with a set up that has a very similar field of view to mine and although it doesn’t get the whole of the region in the frame, it still makes a very impressive image.
Taking all things into account, I will try to get a very deep single-frame image of the veil region using the one-shot camera and the usual Hutech IDAS light pollution filter.
I know from the previous work I carried out on the Witch’s Broom region of the veil with the Sky 90/SXV-H9C combination that the one-shot is fine for this purpose.
The only thing that I don’t know is how good (or not) the one-shot will be at picking up the faint stuff between the Eastern and Western veil regions. I guess the only way to find out will be to image the thing this summer 🙂
I’m going to be posting more about the Veil Nebula project and you can follow my progress in the Veil Nebula Category or by clicking on the links below [which also happen to be from the Veil Nebula category]:
The diagram from Cartes du Ciel will give you an indication of where the Veil Nebula is in the night sky:
It took over a year of posting images before it finally happened! Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD) have chosen our picture of the nebulosity around the supergiant star Gamma Cygni as picture of the day – today! Continue reading
Southampton City Council plan to fire giant lasers across the county which could ruin our view of the night sky – we hope it won’t but when you want dark skies firing a laser isn’t going to help.
An article has been published about this on ThisIsHampshire.Net. Use your favourite search engine to find even more people concerned about the laser gateway.
Read about the laser gateway on the council website. The laser gateway is due to be turned on to coincide with the 95th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
Now wasn’t this a genius idea from the Southampton Council. A laser “gateway” spreading out in 4 directions for over 15 miles – and the really great thing about this laser lightshow is that according to the Southampton Council “spokeswoman” – there would be no light pollution. Amazing! See the comment from a spokeswoman for Southampton City Council below:
We conducted extensive consultations on the scheme. The designers assure us that lasers generate virtually no light pollution.
All that will be visible will be a pencil thin 2.7mm beam which will not affect star gazing in the way that street lighting or illumination from sports fixtures do.
The project, which is the brainchild of Southampton Partnership would see lasers shining from the Civic Centre clock tower which would be visible for up to 14 miles from the city centre.
So let’s spend about a microsecond analysing this statement shall we? A pencil thin laser beam of 2.7mm I would also agree would cause no light pollution. Also to someone with average eyesight it would be just about invisible from ground level, some 50 feet away from the beam – hardly the stuff that’s going to attract much attention.
Of course the “spokeswoman” wouldn’t have realised that you couldn’t see a 2.7mm diameter beam at 50 feet – but then again, that’s not what we would have seen anyway. As anyone who has worked with lasers knows, there will be considerable scattering off dust, particles and water vapour in the laser’s path all of which will blow the beam up to diameters much greater than 2.7mm – that’s what will allow you to see the beam from ground level, and from several miles away from the source. Even if there were no scattering particles in the air at all – there is the natural divergence of the laser beam caused by diffraction from the output aperture, so even if the divergence is a milliradian or so, you will still get a beam diameter of 1 foot at 1,000 feet distance from the source.
It’s not bad enough the Council wants to create its own artistic form of light pollution, they also clearly have no understanding whatsoever about the physics involved either, this actually annoyed me far more than the potential light pollution. Below is a comment I made to the Southampton Daily Echo.
In my opinion, the council’s plans amount to “vandalism” of the night sky. There is a very good chance it will affect us. There will be light pollution with a great big searchlight across the sky. I am very strongly against it.
August 2007 – I am pleased to hear that this ridiculous idea has been dropped – for the moment at least.
The Bournemouth Daily Echo magazine is running an article called “Shooting stars in the New Forest”. The cover picture and article has been written by Faith Eckersall. You’ll find the article on pages 6 and 7.
On the “Best Hotshots of 2006” CD-ROM you’ll find our Heart of the Rose image 🙂
At least there are no cameras 🙂
I’ll be doing three radio interviews for the Southampton radio station Original FM – tune in if you are about.�
OK, if you are in the broadcast area and want to see an unrehearsed LIVE ((please, please, please, don’t let me make a fool of myself)) television interview then tune in to Meridian News on Monday, 20th November at 6.30pm.
Fred Dinenage will be in the studio and the mobile team will be at the New Forest Observatory, asking questions and showing images with their satellite-link van parked outside the house 🙂
Did I make a fool of myself? Yes! Right at the very end I said about capturing images on film. Film? Film? I’ve never used film. Why did I say that? Live T.V. is actually pretty scary – avoid it if you can.
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Please Note: Meridian News retain the copyright to the video clip.
