Reality, anyone?

So ask any leading physicist, cosmologist, philosopher... three simple words, What Is Reality? You may be surprised how difficult this question is to answer, and the variety of answers available. This latest episode of BBC Horizon's "What is Reality?" seeks to provide support based on scientific reason/evidence and truth. Enjoy!

Perhaps we forget where we live?

A recent TED talk video, by acclaimed author Naomi Klein entitled 'Addicted to risk' sums up our societies major challenge; breaking the narrative. I hung off her every word, her writing style is very much the same. It is imperative that we change our ways, or face the consequences of our actions. For those who may believe in some higher-power or meaning or soul, perhaps you should ponder why we seek to damage life, and not protect it. The real miracle is that natural equilibrium (mother nature), the universe, has evolved a species capable of questioning it's own existence - Carl Sagan.

Astronomy is really the study of finding that meaning, and I think provides the evidence for why we must protect our species. Think of how quickly our species has advanced in such a short amount of time, as we perceive it. I only hope the shift from short-term gains, to long-term progress is made, though unlikely in my lifetime.

Please devote 20 minutes of your life to this talk:

What's the biggest number?

Under warm skies

(12/12/10) Re-tweak w/ CS5 - M33:

Well before the snow arrived (/sigh), here's a past attempt at the Veil Nebula from DRAA's observing site this past October. Only 5 of 8 were stacked, this target requires significant exposure and guiding for longer frames; 30 sec @ 1600ISO. It's a tad over-stretched, though unfortunately necessary, to bring out those red & green emission bands. It's twisted structures (see photo)  are the aftermath remnant of a Supernova estimated to have exploded 5,000-8,000 years ago. Current best estimate of distance is 1,470 light-years.

Also had the usual opportunity that evening to catch Andromeda in the EP. Out of 12 frames taken, 6 were scored and stacked. Sitting 2.5 million light-years distant (2.5x10e23 km): 

M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) - 6x30sec, ISO800, DSS/CS4

Messier 50, an open star cluster in Monoceros. 3,000 light-years distant, estimated formed 78 million years ago, the orange-yellow stars are cooler/smaller and possibly older, with a surface temperature of 3000-6000K. The blue stars however are much more luminous, with surface temperatures reaching 18,000K (17,726 Celsius):

M50 (Open cluster) - 14x30sec, ISO 800, DSS/CS4

Spotlight: M42 & M33

I'll be highlighting two of my favourite DSO's. After having such luck with snapping both back in October, I've decided to give a couple prints as Christmas gifts. Being a junky for teaching & learning, I thought it best to write a description for both M42 & M33.

Orion Nebula (Messier #42)
Distance: ~1,344 light years (12,715,221,755,148,596 quadrillion kilometers) from Earth 

Taken Oct. 10, 2010

Orion The Hunter is a prominent constellation located in the South-West sky (of Canada) and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the Canadian winter night sky. Its name refers to Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. The Orion Nebula (also known as M42) is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion’s Belt (three middle stars), commonly referred to as Orion’s Sword. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye under clear dark skies. This nebula is the closest region of new star formation to Earth, where infant stars are constantly formed from hot stellar Hydrogen gas. The nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across in size (227 trillion kilometres). Its central region of gas is over 9,700° Celsius, where intense radiation and collapsing gas moving at speeds of 40,000 Km per second are forming new stars and solar systems; similar to how our own solar system (the Sun and planets) were formed over 5 billion years ago. The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky and is among the most intensely studied celestial objects dating back to written records from 17th century early astronomers. The Orion nebula has revealed much about the processes of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust over thousands and millions of years. Astronomers have directly observed proto-planetary disks (new solar systems), brown dwarfs (a type of cold-dead star), and intense and turbulent motions of the gas as life-cycle of new stars are born.

Triangulum Galaxy (Messier #33) 

Distance: ~2.7 million light years (25,780,490,537,782,680,000 quintillion kilometers) from Earth

We see the galaxy now, as it was, 2.7 million years ago!

Taken Oct. 10, 2010

The Triangulum Galaxy (also known as M33) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum. Discovered by Italian astronomer Giovanni Hodierna in 1654, it was thought to be a nebula, until 1764 when Charles Messier re-classified the object as a galaxy. It is sometimes informally referred to as the “Pinwheel Galaxy”, a moniker it shares with other similar spiral-shaped galaxies. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies (galaxies within 3 million light years of Earth), which includes our own galaxy the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and about 30 other smaller sized galaxies. With a diameter of 50,000 light years, it is the third largest galaxy within our local group. It is estimated to contain 40 billion stars, compared to our own Milky Way Galaxy which contains 300-400 billion stars. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye under dark clear skies (looking North-West in Canada). In 2007, a Black Hole about 15.7 times the mass of the Sun was detected in this galaxy using data from the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Black Hole, named M33 X-7, is the largest stellar mass black hole yet discovered.

Cosmology is my religion

A recent article on Universe Today's website, reminded me of a recent BBC Horizon video "What Happened Before The Big Bang?"  In it, several of the world's leading cosmologists are interviewed on their best-theory of what is 'the big bang', what could have happened to cause it, or what is the Universe itself. Worth an hour out of your day to give this Horizon episode a serious watch...

Loving Photoshop

I suppose like most things in life,  real experience trumps any how-to guide. While I've done much reading on subjects like curves and stretching colour channels, just having a real image to play with has taught me a lot about Photoshop CS4's abilities.

6 x 3min subs, ISO 800, Guided, DSS/CS4

Another photo from Oct. 10, of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) after much adjustment in CS4 and stacking with DSS. I actually had 22 subs in total, but after falling asleep around 5am, the sunrise recked a number of frames. I awoke around 6am to frost covered-everything!

Sunrise trails... come on PHD!

RAW 180 second, ISO 800

Star clusters are majestic objects to view visually, especially through large dob's. I'm working on several in processing.

Messier 50 (Open Cluster) (10 x 30 sec, ISO 800, unguided, DSS/CS4

Welcome back, Orion

Us North American's can always tell winters coming when Orion the Hunter starts to rise in the midnight sky.  I was fortunate enough this past weekend to enjoy a great dark site, around 80 Km north of the GTA.  Around 2:00am and battling frosty-ice forming on my equipment, I set my scope on M42 (Orion Nebula) and took 51 minutes of exposure (3 minute subs x 17).  Since I'm learning, I realize now I should have removed the 0.63 focal reducer I had been using to capture other DSO's.  But alas, this would mean a shutdown of the mount, a re-balance, re-alignment & polar alignment.  So being cold and tired, I opted to live with the halo artifacts visible in the photo below.  I haven't performed any processing/stacking on this image as of yet. It's 16 bit mono, and still needs to be de-mosaic'ed for RGB. But, the result was impressive, M42 is so bright, its easily visible.  The trick is learning and planning for exposure time with M42.  A beautiful target however, hopefully before the snow falls around here, I'll have some other opportunities!

Update: After a better run at stacking/processing with DSS, here's the composite. Next I'll be fixing those halo artifacts using the wonder that is Photoshop. I already started on the left side.

Likely the final version for print:

AP targets for October

I've recently come across a website by George Moromisato "Neurohack" which contains a wonderful monthly listing of astrophotography targets. Well not just for AP, but also for visual, too.  I was able to complete all of his September targets visually. But now I'm setting myself a challenge to photograph each target, if nothing more than for the memorization of where target's are and some AP settings.

I was elated to find that George also posts much of his AP settings/know-how for specific targets, and he's produced wonderful images, including several of my favourites also.

Targets for October

object	type	location	mag	size	skill
NGC 7293 Helix Nebula	pn	Aqr 22H 29.64m -20°50.22'	6	12' × 10'	Beginner
NGC 7331	sg	Peg 22H 37.1m +34°25'	9.5	9.7' × 4.5'	Intermediate
NGC 7479	sg	Peg 23H 5m +12°19'	10.8	3.9' × 3'	Intermediate
NGC 7606	sg	Aqr 23H 19.1m -8°29'	10.8	5.8'	Intermediate
NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula	dn	Cas 23H 20.7m +61°12'	10	15' × 8'	Intermediate
Arp 319 Stephan's Quintet	cg	Peg 22H 36m +33°57.9'	13.6	11' × 8.5'	Advanced
NGC 7662	pn	And 23H 23.9m +42°32.1'	8.3	0.5' × 0.5'	Advanced
Sh2-142	dn	Cep 22H 47.3m +58°8'	10	30' × 30'	Advanced
Sh2-155 Cave Nebula	dn	Cep 22H 56.8m +62°37'	10	50' × 30'	Advanced

So it's been awhile...

I'm blaming wonderful Canadian Fall weather for my lack of posting... ;)  Ton's of news lately, among the most pervading: Gliese 581g

Here's what I've been up to, I'll post a few more after processing.  These have all been captured under light polluted skies of Ajax, though much is gained by steady seeing conditions.

First image is M27 'The Dumbbell Nebula'. Image taken; 5 x 60 sec. subs, ISO 800, processed DSS. Canon XS, CGEM-8 w/ KWIQ Ag (PHD guiding and Nebulosity 2)

(M27) RAW image, after 5 x 60 second stacked in Nebulosity 2

After processing darks/flats/bias applied & Photoshop CS4

M22 star cluster Image taken; 2 x 120 sec.subs, ISO 800, CGEM + KWIQ Ag

(M22) 2 x 120 second stacked, un-processed

M8 Lagoon Nebula Image taken; 8 x 10 second, ISO 800, unguided, RAW stack

My dream vacation: Chilean Atacama (Cerro Paranal)

Boasting some of the clearest skies on Earth, the ESO site at Paranal is surely any Astronomers dream vacation. Especially for North American amateurs who miss out on many exquisite deep sky objects simply because our view of the Southern skies is never visible. This latest EsoCast has got me itching to travel south - South American style. Some day soon, I hope :)

Great weekend!

Had a great time this past Saturday at Star-B-Que, and managed to take a few short exposures.

M57 "Ring Nebula" (ISO 1600, 30 second, Canon 1000D)

M17 "Swan Nebula" (ISO 800, 30 second, Canon 1000D)

NGC 7662 "The Blue Snowball" (ISO 1600, 20 second, Canon 1000D)

Wonders of the Solar System (and beyond...)

I recently stumbled on a new mini-docu series, hosted by Professor Brian Cox.  As most of his fans will attest, he's a younger Stephen Hawking in some ways - his passion is real, as is the subject he presents!  This five part series, "Wonders of the Solar System" covers five topics, and will be released in NA on Sept. 7 (perhaps it's time to purchase a Blu-Ray player :)  Enjoy!

Has anyone seen my black hole? Oh thanks Hubble!

Now that Hubble has new optics, its returning images that are just spectacular. Here's a short life story in the evolutions of black holes; truly one of nature's most fascinating realities.

Galaxies (above), like our own Milky Way contain many billions of stars (~400 billion for ours).  Supernova occur when a star's mass (above left image, lower left Supernova) cannot maintain their equilibrium of exploding and imploding. The result is a blast, which for several minutes, is brighter than the entire galactic core, where billions of other stars exist.

Some times, collapsing star's form ultra-dense stars called neutron stars. The Crab Nebula (above right) is the result of a Supernova with enough matter left to form a Pulsar (type of neutron star, left image).  The Crab Pulsar is believed to be about 28–30 km in diameter; it emits pulses of radiation every 33 milliseconds. Pulses are emitted at wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to X-rays. Occasionally, its rotational period shows sharp changes, known as 'glitches', which are believed to be caused by a sudden realignment inside the neutron star. The energy released as the pulsar slows down is enormous, and it powers the emission of the synchrotron radiation of the Crab Nebula, which has a total luminosity about 75,000 times greater than that of our Sun.  Consider, our Sun loses ~4 million tons of mass per second, which is energy converted to radiation (heat + light); E=mc² and does this continuously for ~9-10 billion years!

There's a lot we know, and don't know about Black Holes but in summary, with tools like Hubble, we've found real evidence to support Einstein's prediction of this mind-boggling phenomenon. Black Holes are so heavy and exert such tremendous gravity, that not even light (or any form of matter/radiation) can escape it. Since we can't actually see a black hole, we can only infer it's effects on matter surrounding them.  Typically you need at least 10 solar masses (that is to say, 10 times the mass of our Sun) to collapse inwards, in which at a certain threshold a hole in the fabric of space & time is created.  These two images above are images in X-ray and Infrared radiation, where matter is being heated and pulled into a black hole.  It is now assumed that at the center of every galaxy in our Universe, exists a black hole, as the effects of gravity can be observed from their motions around the galactic center.  Supermassive black holes get even more interesting! 

So where does a black hole go? I suppose a better question is, where is... where?

Some major firsts

So last's nights CSC for DRAACO (member's only observing site) was the best it's been in a several weeks, and since I was anxious to meet some fellow DRAA members, I made the trip out with my CGEM.

What a wonderful experience, and great observing site! I met several DRAA members experienced in astro-photography, and it was great to chat about my aspirations - whilst being reminded how much I need to learn (that's a good thing for astronomers).

After several attempts at polar alignment, I was fortunate enough to have the experience of another CGEM user to help me obtain an accurate go-to alignment, sufficient enough that I could punch in several Messier objects and the scope slewed right to them.  What a wonderful view - I was able to see the spiral arms of M31, as well M81/M82; a must see for anyone interested.

Moonrise came around 12:40am, so it was time to pack up.  On my list of things to purchase is a better flashlight, I'm afraid my eco-friendly *shake shake* flashlight just won't cut it.  I'm almost certain I lost an EP cap somewhere in the grass; hence the learning curve!

Can't wait for the next clear sky opportunity.