NGC 7810 & Crew with Asteroid ...

Back on 2012/11/10:

I was really just looking to test out the camera and off-axis guider.  The skies were clear, but I needed to dodge the trees and found this on the fly.  Turns out there was an asteroid that +Mike Rector helped me find as 771/Libera.

I put the image down for a while as I didn't get the time for fundamentals like calibration files and a good processing routine down.

Turns out there are more hidden gems in this image.

According to WikiSky and some of the UCAC3 catalogs in SkyCharts/CdC, some of the dimmer but still recognizable stars are mag 17.5 or dimmer or beyond.  I count at least 10 by quick count and according the CdC there are the following in this FOV:


Here's the full resoluion version to look at - http://www.astrobin.com/full/33398/B/?real=&mod=

This is the CdC chart with NGC and PGC catalogs

Click for larger version

or link to Interactive WikiSky chart:
http://goo.gl/99Bhs

Here's a full list of what may be visible in this photo:

Catalog	RA	DEC	Type	Name	Magn.
PGC	00h02m11.03s	+13°10'21.4"	Gx	97	m:	PGC:97
PGC	00h02m54.28s	+13°01'13.6"	Gx	215029	m:	PGC:215029
PGC	00h01m55.54s	+13°14'13.6"	Gx	78	m:	PGC:78
SAC	00h02m59.47s	+13°02'30.6"	Gx	NGC	7810	m:13.00
SAC	00h01m59.46s	+13°11'30.6"	Gx	NGC	7803	m:13.10
00h03m38.38s	+13°14'06.2"	As	(771)	Libera	m:	13.5
NGC	00h03m05.48s	+13°01'30.5"	Gx	NGC7810	m:14.00	sbr:13.74
NGC	00h02m05.46s	+13°10'30.6"	Gx	NGC7803	m:14.00	sbr:13.74
PGC	00h02m01.41s	+13°11'11.2"	Gx	NGC7803	m:14.08	PGC:101
PGC	00h03m00.65s	+13°02'48.2"	Gx	NGC7810	m:14.28	PGC:163
PGC	00h02m07.35s	+13°11'17.8"	Gx	108	m:15.30	PGC:108
PGC	00h01m54.86s	+13°13'09.2"	Gx	89	m:15.90	PGC:89
PGC	00h02m26.69s	+13°10'31.3"	Gx	134	m:16.08	PGC:134
PGC	00h01m56.48s	+13°11'17.1"	Gx	92	m:16.78	PGC:92
PGC	00h02m33.83s	+13°19'15.6"	Gx	1426263	m:16.86	PGC:1426263
PGC	00h02m45.45s	+12°57'59.2"	Gx	73211	m:17.30	PGC:73211
PGC	00h03m06.31s	+13°18'51.2"	Gx	1426100	m:17.66	PGC:1426100
PGC	00h02m59.39s	+13°09'29.7"	Gx	1422500	m:17.76	PGC:1422500
PGC	00h01m19.61s	+13°22'49.7"	Gx	1427699	m:17.77	PGC:1427699
PGC	00h03m33.75s	+13°10'16.1"	Gx	1422807	m:17.84	PGC:1422807
PGC	00h01m50.32s	+13°15'38.9"	Gx	1424891	m:17.90	PGC:1424891
PGC	00h02m57.77s	+12°59'35.1"	Gx	215030	m:17.90	PGC:215030
PGC	00h01m32.42s	+13°16'57.4"	Gx	1425381	m:18.04	PGC:1425381
PGC	00h03m08.86s	+13°13'17.6"	Gx	1423969	m:18.18	PGC:1423969
PGC	00h01m49.45s	+12°54'34.2"	Gx	1417100	m:18.40	PGC:1417100

What's truly amazing is HOW many fine details are hidden in a 'quick' 30 minute exposure of a simple, boring area of the sky.

Trying to dig deeper on some galactic stats I found this site:
http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc78.htm#7803

Here the larger and brighter (closer?) galaxy, NGC7803 is estimated at 250 MILLION light-years distant.  Some of the other's I cannot find stats for.  Does this mean they are not measured???

Thanks for reading to the bottom, bonus candy for you!

Mike

Saturn 2013 is underway!

1st of the season in poor conditions

#2 from Friday am was mostly average at best..

Finally a respectable M81/M82

I had to try my budding DSLR skills again.  I had to, the moon was new, the weather is cold with low humidity and the seeing poor (aka no planets).

I fought the typical equipment issues and unforeseen weather, the weather didn't kill me too bad, just a bit.  Clouds came out of no where for 30min then went away.

I learned some things, such as how to tie a knot in your power connectors:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plug-Extension-Cords-Together/

The UPS didn't protect the USB connectors from loosing sync, so I had to realign and then later I unplugged the focuser as the focus was soft, and ooops, that was the mount again not the focuser, so I gave up.

Sigh.  I'm learning that ISO1600 is less noisy but good signal over the 6400 I was using before.  Mixing ISO's isn't very good, I won't do that again.

Guiding could be better, but I was good for subs up to 5min.

I know I can do even better now that I have some good experience under my belt.  I also have the AC-adapter for the camera now too, so I can go hog-wild!!

Full res is here:
http://www.astrobin.com/32575/

Previous work with the 6" and NO experience here:
http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-1st-light-with-new-setup-m81m82.html
I think I may have to sell the 6"!!!

Thanks for looking and reading!

Strange S-shape feature on Jupiter 20130119

Around the L2=70 area in the SSTeb (Lower Right). Also there is GRS Jr near the 3 white ovals. I caught a rare winter steady skies. To me the key has been low surface winds and minimal temperature drops. Despite a mild jet stream these 3x(20s@RGB) sequence came out well!

Jupiter 2013-01-04, 04:18.0 UT - first of 2013

High Resolution Asteroids Ceres and Vesta

My collimation is quite out due to some slag in the optical train that I think I have since fixed.  I was hoping to replicate and beat the previous work I've done on Ceres (http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2009/04/moon-m45-mercury-then-saturn-and-ceres.html)

Believe it or not, Ceres is not much smaller in angular size than the Jovian Moons and is shown in my recent 2012 feeble attempts to not have a stellar airy disk.  Vesta shows a bit more oblong / elongation and I'm not 100% convinced it is real as my collimation was out by too much for my taste.  I hope to try again in 2013 with better conditions!

2012 Solar System Mashup - Venus' year!

What a Joyful 2012 and best wishes for an awesome 2013!

Click image for large view, 

Click HERE for a 2560 x 1600 masterpiece desktop wallpaper

Click image a labeled version of the same resolution as above img click

This is my fifth consecutive year and all previous are here: http://maphilli14.webs.com/solarsystemreviews.htm

This was Venus’ year beyond a doubt.  There was a transit that I was able to view and share with the world on our marathon +Virtual Star Party .  For me it was extra sweet as I added some seasoning to the Year of Venus with a wide field nestled in M45 Pleiades and a false color shot in InfraRed and UltraViolet.  For these yearly reviews that I’ve been doing since 2008 (Inspired by +Mike Salway ) I have always tried to pick the best single photo of a subject and represent it as a sort of mock up solar system family photo.  I felt like having three shots of Venus broke this standard I hold myself to.  I decided that the transit alone wasn’t enough to break this.  What forced my hand is that Venus is “the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology))

What  made this fact important to me?  Well if you know me, my fourth child was born mere weeks after the transit.  Somehow it seemed fitting that my personal live overflowed into the grandness of this event.  Somehow these events blended a busy and energetic year for me and it stuck, a trifecta of Venus to sweeten 2012’s photo!

Other amazing things that rounded out my personal year were being featured in Google’s Virtual Star Party featurette as well as having the illustrious, Chris Go visit my house with many other local amateur Astronomers for a warm get together, the day after Google visited!

For the rest of the year’s fun, I found a love of the small things in the solar system this year.  I captured a record number of non-planets too.  Two comets, and four asteroids and two dwarf planets.  I had the pleasure of photographing Eros near it’s closest approach during a Google+ hangout with Dr. Pamela Gay ( +Pamela Gay ) !  Later it turns out that there was another asteroid lurking in the same field!  Yes a two for one with Eros and Tyche at the same time!

While I missed Mercury this year, I got Pluto which has been missing for me since 2009.

I had lofty goals of shooting Eris, the Pluto killer, but perhaps this is a 2013 goal now.

Noteworthy is that this composite photo consists of 17 separate observing sessions.  New objects not photographed for me before were, both Phobos and Diemos on the Mars opposition, as well as Eros, Tyche, Libera (a unplanned surprise near some galaxy clusters), both comets, and the grand Venus transit, which I missed with my 1st child in 2004!!!

Here’s the full list of images, some of which I will need to individually post in the coming months of 2013:

Sun and Venus:

20120605 (Transit - Virtual Star Party - http://youtu.be/t79iec2b-3M )

http://goo.gl/sG278

Venus in False Color:

20120813 (Morning)

Earth, Venus near M45:

20120402 (Evening)

Luna:

20120831 (Full)

Mars, Phobos and Diemos

20120307

Others: http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/05/mars-catchup.html

Comet Garradd (c/2009 P1)

20120328

http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/05/comet-garrardd-c2009-p1-from-back-in.html

Comet Hergenrother (168P)

20121012 - http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/11/comet-168phergenrother.html

Eros and Tyche:

20120202

http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/02/asteroids-eros-and-tyche.html

Pamela didn’t get the Virtual Star Party Uploaded to YouTube :~(

Libera:

20121011 (Accident when photographing NGC7803)

Ceres, Vesta and star compare:

20121213

Jupiter:

20121215 (http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/12/j2012-12-1503-26rgbmp.html )

Europa:

20121025 and animation!

http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-animation-method.html

Io:

20121014

Ganymede:

20120911

Saturn:

20120430

http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/2012/05/astronomy-solar-system-saturn-2012.html

Uranus and Neptune:

20120909 (Virtual Star Party - http://youtu.be/nejyLEznKWo )

Pluto in M25:

20120716 (Virtual Star Party - http://youtu.be/EeMZyRDayGY )