Welcome to my Astrophotography Blog!

This is a journal of my adventures in astrophotography -- taking images of distant celestial objects. Please look around and feel free to add your comments, questions, and critique to any of the entries by clicking the "comments" button on the bottom of each entry -- or just say "howdy!

And don't forget to click on the images for a larger view!

So choose either the Red pill or the Blue pill and follow me down the wormhole....

JOhn

Comanche Springs Star Party

Comanche Springs Star Party
Doin' my thang at the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus (where I often become a "red ghost")

Dallas Sky

Rancho Venado Sky

Atoka Sky

Camanche Springs Sky

Monday, May 12, 2008

This is M92 (but of course you knew that)

Another Globular Cluster!
Globs kinda remind me of Reggae songs -- I like them, but they all kinda seem the same and I can't really tell them apart. But Globs are fun to shoot and they are good practice.
I shot this with my old rig -- my CPC 800. You might say "gee John, why the hell don't you slap your camera on that spiffy new rig you just bought? I thought it is supposed to be all kick ass and stuff!"
Okay here's the deal: I really need to take the new scope to dark skies, which means transporting it. But I'm waiting on my cases to arrive so it doesn't get tore up (be here in 4 weeks). Also, I CAN image at home but I need to use a Guidescope for guiding since I can't see Polaris from the house (Guidescope is another 2 weeks). I'm also waiting on a 24v AC converter. Confused? Well, let me simply say I don't have all the pieces in place just yet.
So until the Takahashi gear officially goes "on-line", I'm still using the CPC on available bright targets -- like those loveable Globs (even though I can't tell them apart).
I took this image on Mother's Day (actually, Mother's Night)
Enjoy!

2 comments:

Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

WOW! I like Globulars myself! Something stark and amazing about them. This looks like the opening to STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KHAN when the camera tilts into a starcluster and it's all moving toward us. Cool stuff dude.

Neutronman said...

I actually really like Globulars too. In fact, they look VERY cool under visual observation through a good telescope! They are so bright, one can easily see dozens of tiny pin point stars swarming around the bright cloudy nucleus -- like a swarm of silver bees!

Scientist still debate over the origins of these ancient objects. IN fact, some believe they are not so ancient as first thought. It is believed there are medium-sized Black Holes at the core of these clusters that help bind them all together (like a Galaxy). Basically, they wonder around and "capture" other stars and grow bigger and bigger.

But as they age, tidal forces from passes near to galactic hubs rip away stars from their grasp and they shrink -- leaving trails of stars behind them (like a con trail from a plane).

Science is cool.