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

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Return of the Western Veil

Hello astro fans! You may recall that I imaged the Western Veil a couple of months ago. At that time, I was still using my noisy Nikon camera and was unable to autoguide (for longer exposures).

Well, here is my second attempt at this target. This time I was armed with my QHY8 camera and autoguiding was in full effect. I shot 18 x 10min exposures (3 hours) worth of data.

I also framed differently to include the faint nebulosity just under the main Veil at top. You will notice a subtle "triangle" shape in the lower left nebulosity -- this is called Pickering's Triangle. I never knew it until somebody complimented me for resolving it so well (I just thanked him and acted like I knew what I was doing).

Pickering's Triangle was discovered in 1904 by Williamina Fleming of the Harvard Observatory while examining photographic plates of the region. The object was named in honor of her boss, astronomer Edward Charles Pickering. I think that was overly nice of her. I think it should have been called Williamina's Triangle. I mean come on! Williamina found the damn thing!

Who knows, maybe she was bucking for a raise.

Anyway, it is a very cool big ol' supernova remnant in the Cygnus area.
Here again was my first attempt for comparison...

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