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Saturn's Crepe Ring.
The Crepe ring is the inner most ring seen in this image. It is very tenuous and is semi transparent. The globe of Saturn can be seen through the rings in this image and it gives a dusky quality to the globe. The Crepe ring was first discovered in 1839 by J.Galle with a 9 inch refractor. The Crepe ring seems to vary somewhat in contrast but should be visible under good conditions with an 8 inch scope. This image was taken under exceptionally good seeing conditions from Houston Texas November 19 2001 with a ST6 CCD and a C14. |
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North and South Equatorial Belt Disturbances.
The
North and South Equatorial belts on Jupiter are currently undergoing a
period of high activity with many complex features. Images taken
12-19-2001 and 12-21-2001 with a C14 and a ST6 CCD from Houston, Texas.
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The Moons of Uranus.
The Moons of Uranus can present quite a challenge to observe with amateur
size scopes. Although Uranus has many moons only a few are bright enough
to see visually and it will take a clear dark and steady sky with a good
size scope to be successful. One's best bet is the moon Titiania with a
diameter of about 1600km and a magnitude of about 13.5. The next two
brightest moons are Oberon and Ariel at about magnitude 14. The
"bright" glare from the planet will make it more difficult than
these magnitudes indicate. Umbreil is next at about magnitude 14.5. The
last of the brighter moons is Miranda. It's magnitude of about 16 makes it
all but impossible to spot except in a 20-30 inch scope under perfect
conditions. This image is a composite of two images, one to capture the
disk of Uranus and the other to capture the moons. |
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Observing Mars.
Seeing fine details on Mars is best done with color filters. The maria
(dark albedo features) are best observed using a red or orange filter that
will enhance contrast of the maria, canals and oasis features. Clouds, ice
fogs, limb haze and the polar hoods will best be observed using a blue
filter. The polar hood on the top of these images (south polar cap) are
composed of ice and carbon dioxide crystals. This image of Mars was taken
on 6/20/01 at 6:10 UT, from Houston Texas with a C14 @ f/60 using a ST6
CCD. |
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The Crater Clavius on the Moon.
Clavius can be seen as the large crater on the left side of this image.
close examination reveals many small craters on the floor of clavius and a
curious partial ring of larger craters. Look for Clavius about 2 days
after half moon. This image was taken with a C14 at f/11 with a st237 CCD
on 4/12/00 from Houston Texas. Exposure time was .03 seconds. |
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Comet Hale-Bopp...4/05/97...50mm...@f/5.6...50sec...
from Danciger, Tx. |
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The Double star Gamma in the constellation Lepus.
This wide double star has contrasting colors and is seperated by 95 arc
seconds. It is about 29 light years from Earth. The primary star is
magnitude 6 and its companion is magnitude 3.5. Color discriptions of this
pair vary considerably and in this image they appear blue and orange. This
image was taken with a C14 and a ST237 CCD on 3/09/01 from Houston texas.
Exposure times were R=G=B=.02 seconds. |
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NGC2392, the Eskimo nebula. This planetary is
called the "Eskimo" from its resemblance of a parka-like hooded
face. The Eskimo is believed to be about 3000 light years from earth and
has a diameter of .6 light years. The central star is about 40 times as
bright as our sun. The bluish-green tint is due to strong emissions at
5007 and 4959 angstroms, the doubly ionized oxygen emission lines. This
exposure is a WRGB of 11 minutes Monochrome, 7 minutes red, 15 minutes
green and 21 minutes blue. A ST5 and a C14 operating @ f/7 was used to
capture this image on 1/09/98. |
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The Open Cluster M11( "Wild Duck Cluster" ) in the Constellation
Scutum. M11 was discovered in 1681 by Gottfried Kirch. It is a very rich
open cluster containing at least 500 stars down to magnitude 14. If one
was in the center of the cluster, the night sky would be filled with
hundreds of stars that were at least 1st magnitude, many of which would be
several times brighter than Sirius. It's total mass is about 2900 suns,
many are red and blue giants, and is about 5500 light years from Earth.
This image of M11 was taken with a C14 and a ST237 CCD from Houston Texas
on 8/7/00. The image is an LRGB with the Luminance channel constructed
from the RGB images. The exposures times are R=G=B=100 seconds. |
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The Globular Cluster M3 in the Constellation
Canes Venatici. A very bright globular cluster that can easily be resolved
with a 6 inch telescope. M3 is about 40,000 light years from earth and has
a diameter of 220 light years. It has a luninosity of 160,000 suns and a
mass of about 140,000 suns. M3 is one of the oldest globulars in the
Milkyway with an estimated age of 10 billion years. This image of M3 was
taken with a C14 @ f/3.8 and a ST237 CCD on 3/27/00 from Houston, Texas.
This is a LRGB image with L=6 minutes, R=G=B=3 minutes. |
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Planetary Nebula M27 in the Constellation
Vulpecula. The "Dumbell" nebula is about 8x5 arc-minutes in size
and is magnitude 8 as seen from earth. It was discoverd by Messier in
1764. The Dumbell is about 48,000 years old and is expanding at a rate of
17 miles per second. This image is a LRGB taken with a C14 and an ST237
CCD @ f/3.6 from Houston, Texas on 8/6/00. Exposure times are L=R=G=B=8
minutes. |
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M57 in the Constellation Lyra. the "Ring
Nebula" is the best know example of a planetary nebula. It was
discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Toulouse. M57 is illuminated
by the blue dwraf star at its center. Its radiation causes a bright
fluorescence in the rarified gases of the nebula. M57 is expading at a
rate of 12 miles a second and at that rate it took 20,000 years to reach
its present size, from its initial expansion. This LRGB image of M57 was
taken with a C14 @ f/5 and a ST237 CCD from Houston, Texas on 8/4/00. The
exposures were L=R=G=B= 7 minutes. |
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L/RGB image of galaxy NGC7184 in Aquarius. Made
from images taken by Al Kelly and Ed Grafton on 7/20/01 with an SBIG ST-9E
and 32" f4 Newtonian from Danciger, Texas. Six 240-second
subexposures in white (IR blocked only), two 240-second subexposures in
red, three 240-second subexposures in green, and three 240-second
subexposures in blue were processed in AIP4WIN. |
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The Globular Cluster Omega Centaurus. The finest example of a globular cluster in the sky. This globular is visible to the naked eye but you will need a southerly location to view it. Located at a declination of -47 degrees, it barely peeks above the trees in south Texas, Florida and the desert southwest regions of the USA. This globular is about 150 light years across and is at a distance of about 20,000 light years. The star density is estimated to be about 25,000 time greater than the star density in the neighborhood of our star the sun. This image is an RGB taken with a 120mm refractor at f/4 with a ST237 CCD. Taken from Danciger Texas on 4/8/00. R=G=B=100 seconds. |
