Faint & Fuzzy

Well - comet Holmes is finally fading and so I took the opportunity to photograph the "faint-fuzzy" for probably the last time. I obtained the image below about an hour ago from my light polluted backyard using the 400mm and Canon 1D. The image is a sum of ten 2 minute exposures at f/6.3 and ISO 500. A negative version of the same image shows the low contrast detail better. The comet is barely visable with the naked eye from my location now and requires effort even at that. The bright star left of center in the field is the eclipsing variable Algol. Bye-Bye Holmes . . .

Laurie

My daughter Laurie | Canon EOS 1D | 16-35mm F.2.8 L @ 16mm | 1/160 sec @ F/7.1 | ISO 100 | Two Canon EX550 flashes through 36" Umbrella

Comet 8P/Tuttle

Tonight I did some test imaging of Comter Tuttle through the 400mm lens with a 2X teleconverter making it a 800mm F/5.6 system. Continous 1 minute exposures were made from 01:54 UT to 02:35 UT on December 27th. Below is the sum of thirty seven one minute exposures. The comet is moving quite rapidly in dec (about 7 arcseconds per minute) thus the image of the comet is trailed against the stellar background.


Details: 37 minutes (effective) @ ISO 1600 | F/5.6 | 800mm | Takahashi EM200 Mount


Details: Comet centered sum of 37 images.


Details: Cropped and inverted version of comet centered image

Mars and the Moon

This evening a beautiful conjuction bewtween the Moon and Mars took place near moon rise. From my house west of the Catalina mountians - here was the view. Canon EOS 5D | Canon 400mm F/2.8L IS @ F/4.5 | ISO 400 1/20 sec.




Below - a view through a 3.5 inch Questar. Canon EOS 1D | ISO 100 | 1/30 sec @ F/16

Ursids 2007

The Ursid meteor shower is underway. The parent comet 8P/tuttle is passing near Earth and the Sun next month and there is an anticipated elevation in the number of meteors that could be seen from dust streams left behind by the comet in years past. As part of the SETI research on the stream I photographed the sky Saturday morning and Saturday evening 8 hours before and 5 hours after the anticipated peak. Below is a sum of the images obtained Saturday morning. The image shows about an hour's worth of integration (5 second exposures at f/2.8 and ISO 1600) through a 16mm lens - centered on the radiant. Only one Ursid was captured (frame upper-right at11:37 UT). In addition several satellites were captured (frame center and frame lower left).


Ursid Radiant from 12:25 UT to 13:30 UT December 22, 2007.


Ursid Radiant from 01:15 UT to 03:00 UT December 23, 2007. No meteors but lots of aircraft and a couple of satellites! Its a crowded sky ain't it!?!