North America Nebula

Rising early on Saturday morning to see the last of Comet Panstarrs and M31, I decided to shoot the North America Nebula (NGC7000) before the comet rose high enough to photograph.

It's a large nebula complex spanning approximately 2 degrees x 2 degrees.  Noting that the moon is approximately half degree in diameter it shows how large this nebula complex is.

The following photo was taken using my William Optics 80mm diameter apochromatic telescope with a 0.8x reducer, resulting in an effective focal length of 436mm at f/5.

WO 80mm with Canon EOS300D

12 x 5mins @ ISO800

Processing in ImagesPlus and Photoshop

I made fairly extensive use of multi-layer processing with the high-pass filter at various strengths, blended into the main image to help enhance certain features of the nebula and make it more 3-dimensional.

Jerry

Comet Panstarrs & M31

Dragging myself out of bed at 3am to photograph the comet was well worth the effort.

The mornings have been so still and clear and the comet has been steadily inching closer to the M31 galaxy in Andromeda.  I found the best time to observe was between 3.30 and 5am.

The weather looks like it's taken a turn for the worse from this weekend, so your last chance to get a good view of the pair may well be on Friday night / Saturday morning.

Jerry

Comet PANSTARRS from Slate Fell, Cockermouth

Inspired by other CAS members' images of PANSTARRS I thought I would have a go at capturing the comet in the skies above Cockermouth. As the skies were clear (again) last night I packed a small rucsac with camera, tripod and binoculars and headed up to the top of Slate Fell, which overlooks Cockermouth.

I quickly orientated myself and found PANSTARRS in the northwest using my 15 x 70 binoculars. Then I set up my DSLR on a tripod and, not being an expert on astroimaging, just starting playing around with some settings in manual mode. I started out at a wide angle and using an exposure time of 20 seconds. Once I'd found PANSTARRS in the frame I tried to fine tune the focus and exposure time. Then moving the camera slightly so that the comet was near the centre of the frame, I zoomed in to a longer focal length and tried again.

Anyway, I was reasonably pleased with the results . . .

PANSTARRS above Cockermouth from Slate Fell

When I got the images onto my computer I realised that I had also got M31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) in the same frame. The galaxy was about 10 degrees above the comet that evening and will be moving closer, on 3rd and 4th April it should be in the same binocular field of view!

Slate Fell turned out to be a pretty good observing point and not too much of a hike in the dark from the Embleton Road. There was still a fair amount of light pollution from Cockermouth to the West and even looking East towards Keswick as in the image below.

Looking East towards Keswick and Skidaw

If you're looking for a really nice image of PANSTARRS check out Stuart's latest image over on his Waiting for ISON blog. I won't spoil the surprise for you, just go and have a look!

Comet Panstarrs from Sandale

Finally, after many fruitless attempts, I bagged Comet Panstarrs on the Thursday evening like many other Cockermouth-based astronomers.

 All exposures were taken with a Canon 300D mounted on a tripod.

PANSTARRS: CAS Members get in on the act!

Finally we are having some success in the Cockermouth area viewing the elusive comet PANSTARRS. With the forecast looking good for the next few nights and the moon rising late in the evening there is still plenty of opportunity to get out there and find it.

A couple of CAS Members have reported sucess;

Phil comments;

Got it! Saw it this evening (28 March) just after 8pm. Quite close to M31 and just a bit brighter. A classic comet, with a fairly well defined nucleus and fan tail, pointing upwards away from the horizon. I found it with the help of the chart here 

Well worth looking for if the next few nights are clear. 

Phil

Robin managed to capture this image from his garden;

C/2011 L4 Panstarrs: Robin Leadbeater (Stack of 10 images)

Robin says;

Still an easy binocular object, visible from around 19:45 UT using alpha and beta Andromedae (Alpheratz and Mirach) as pointers, visible well before the comet). This snapshot (stack of 10 images)  taken from the back garden at 20:24 UT  27-3-2013

I've seen the comet on the past two evenings. A really nice sight last night (28th March) when the sky was darker before the moon had risen. Very clear in my 15 x 70 binocular and also visible in a small pair of 10 x 35 binoculars.


Don't forget there is plenty of advice and updates on PANSTARRS over at Stuart Atkinson's 'Waiting for ISON' blog on the dedicated PANSTARRS page.

When you find it, why not leave a comment on this post?

Good luck and clear skies,

Meeting Report: March 2013

A big thank you to Robin for an excellent talk on Tuesday evening. Robin is a CAS stalwart and has given us many fascinating talks over the years. "T Tauri: A Star is Born" was no exception.

Covering a number of bases including; the basics of spectroscopy, the lifecycle of stars, variable stars and the physics of star formation, the talk was a real detective story tracking down the explanation for an unusual observation Robin made while helping a PHd student with his research.

Above all, once again, Robin demonstrated the real contribution to science amateurs can make in astronomy. The talk prompted plenty of discussion and I'm sure everyone who came along learned something new. I am certainly looking forward to hearing about Robin's next project!