Far and Near

Bits and Pieces

I gathered some astronomical bits and pieces in early December before waxing moonlight became too bright. On December 5th Seestar was initially balky, refusing to target and track targets. Eventually, it settled down, and I captured the following 50-minute exposure of open cluster NGC1893 with its accompanying nebula, IC410, in Auriga.

As usual, Seestar delivers disappointing dull red nebula color. NGC1893 and IC410 are about 12,000 light years away, the most distant object observed tonight.

The worst of troublesome neighboring lights glared into my backyard this night. In spite of this annoying light pollution I was able, with some image processing, to get a decent 10-minute exposure of open cluster M50 in Monoceros. This unremarkable cluster is shown next. 

Cluster M50 is about 3,200 light years away, significantly closer than my previous target, NGC1893/IC410. Neighboring light was so severe that I gave up trying for more images on December 5th.

Three days later, on December 8th, it was hard to pass up clear sky. Moonlight was becoming an issue, but, just for fun, I pointed Seestar at Jupiter to see what kind of picture Seestar would produce. (Seestar is really not designed to get good images of planets.) I had to adjust gain and exposure time because Jupiter was so bright. Even with zero gain and short exposure the planet's disc was overexposed showing no detail. Three Galilean moons are visible in the next image, however.

The three visible moons are, diagonally upward from left to right, Europa, Io, and Callisto. The fourth Galilean moon, Ganymede, happened to be transiting in front of Jupiter's disc when this image was taken, so Ganymede and its shadow were lost in the planet's glare. Jupiter was about 34 light minutes away this night, so much closer than the previous two targets.

Even closer still was the nearly first quarter Moon, only 1.22 light seconds away. Seestar produces nice lunar images. The next picture is a single snapshot with no image processing. It can be enlarged to full size without losing detail.

This ends my far and near early December trip from 12,000 light years away to 1.22 light seconds away.
 
  

Cold December Sky

Mix of Seestar Targets

One month of cloudy weather elapsed since my last Seestar session. Clear moonless evening sky returned in early December bringing cold temperatures. It was nice to sit comfortably inside controlling Seestar when it was 27 degrees outside! I captured no Messier objects over the course of two nights. Instead, a mix of targets presented themselves for observation.

On December 2nd only one annoying neighbor light compromised an otherwise dark sky. I began by targeting the Crescent Nebula, NGC6888, located high above the horizon in Cygnus. A 30-minute exposure with light pollution filter engaged revealed the nebula's oval shape. The brightest star within the oval is a Wolf-Rayet star called WR136 whose strong stellar wind compresses surrounding gas. Ultraviolet radiation from the star causes the gas to glow producing the nebula seen below. WR136, about 21 times more massive than the Sun, has evolved beyond the red supergiant phase. Its high surface temperature creates the ultraviolet radiation which powers the nebula.

Next, I tried to capture a closely spaced group of galaxies in Pisces with a 34-minute exposure. The result was too dim and small to exhibit much detail. There are 3 obvious galaxies in the next picture. From left to right they are NGC474, NGC470, and NGC467. The brightest, somewhat fuzzy object near NGC467 on the right is actually the 7.4 magnitude star HD7991, not a galaxy. When the image is enlarged, two other extremely small and dim galaxies are visible as tiny gray smudges below HD7991. The upper one is 16.6 magnitude galaxy PGC4765. The lower one is 15.5 magnitude galaxy PGC4755. (PGC is the Principal Galaxies Catalog, NGC is the New General Catalog, and HD is the Henry Draper Catalog.)

Pretty open cluster, NGC7686 in Andromeda, was my next target. A 10-minute exposure worked well. Most open clusters show nicely with exposures between 5 and 10 minutes. 

Another good target was open cluster NGC129 in Cassiopeia. Only a 5-minute exposure was sufficient for this one.

The final image from December 2nd revealed dim nebulosity in Cassiopeia near the bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae which appears near the left edge. IC59 is primarily a reflection nebula stretched horizontally across image center. It shows only ghost-like traces in the 55-minute filtered exposure below. IC63 is an arrow-shaped emission nebula to the right of Gamma Cassiopeiae. Both nebulae are being worn away by radiation from Gamma Cassiopeiae. (IC is the Index Catalog, an addition to NGC.)

The next evening, December 3rd, was also clear and cold with 26-degree temperature. No neighbor lights interfered this time. The first target this evening was NGC1931, an open cluster with nebulosity in Auriga. The 45-minute filtered exposure below was able to capture glowing red hydrogen gas surrounding four bright blue stars powering the emission. The four central stars are just barely seen as separate if you click on the following image to enlarge it.

When the original NGC1931 image is enlarged by 150%, however, the four central stars can be seen more clearly separated.

The final image from December 3rd is The Flaming Star Nebula, IC405, in Auriga. In the 50-minute filtered exposure below bright star AE Aurigae is in image center surrounded by glowing gas. Radiation from AE Aurigae causes the gas to glow. While I was amazed to see this nebula gradually revealed by Seestar, I was, once again, disappointed by the washed out red color. Most astrophotos of similar nebulae show a much brighter and deeper red color from excited hydrogen. I still don't know how to correct this problem.

As cold winter weather settles in I'm so happy to watch Seestar perform while sitting warm inside at my dining room table!

A Visit to Smithfield

Attractive Historic District

The regional cross country championship was held in Smithfield, VA this year. Our granddaughter's high school team was participating, so we decided to attend and spectate. Only 27 miles from home, Smithfield is famous for its meat curing and packing industry, including well-known Smithfield ham and bacon. Meat processing isn't particularly interesting to us, but, after researching the town online, I discovered an attractive historic district there. It seemed like a nice place to visit and explore at leisure. We decided to go a day early, stay overnight, and enjoy a brief vacation.

Upon arrival we went to the Visitor Center on Main Street and saw the first of eight colorful pig statues celebrating Smithfield's main industry.

We saw only two of eight possible pigs because I failed to read the visitor's brochure before beginning our walking tour. There were more pig statues and historic houses on side streets. If we return on some future day, we'll be sure to visit side streets we missed on this initial visit.

Main Street was a wide, attractive road, often with very little traffic. In addition to numerous gift shops, antique stores, art shops, and cafes/bakeries, the street was lined with historic buildings and homes. For example, the colorful Nelms house built around 1899 by Charles Nelms, a local contractor, was the first of many interesting old houses to catch my eye.

Two houses down from the Nelms house was the Barrow House built after 1873.

At the intersection of Main Street with Church Street we admired the beautiful yellow Thomas House built around 1889. It now serves as a bed and breakfast. Unfortunate electric wires impose on the view. 

We eventually continued walking down Church Street to see more old houses. First up was the Wentworth-Barrett House erected in 1752.

Further down the street was the Delk House built in 1877. 

The King-Atkinson House constructed in 1795 was another old brick dwelling.

The 1897 Holloway House hid behind a big tree. 

The next house, built in 1876, was owned by P.D. Gwaltney Senior who founded the Smithfield peanut business.

The pink 1875 house below has been the home of a few Smithfield mayors over the years. 

The 1886 Goodrich House had elaborate front decorations.

My favorite house was completed in 1901 and built for P.D. Gwaltney Junior who developed Smithfield's meat curing and packing industry. The stained glass windows and elaborate decoration were awesome!

All these old houses made me think that historic Smithfield was a bit like a late 1800's version of Colonial Williamsburg. Of course, Smithfield didn't include reenactors, horse drawn carriages, and closed streets like Williamsburg, but when traffic disappeared at times, it felt like walking through the past.

Next, we went to the Isle of Wight County Museum housed in what was once a bank. The exhibits included a mix of amusing and interesting things. For example, we laughed at the world's oldest ham!

We also laughed at the world's oldest peanut!

The museum contained a reproduction of an old country store as it would have appeared in about 1900. I regret not taking more photos. If you wanted a Coca-Cola in 1900, the syrup would have been deposited in a glass by the following dispenser. Carbonated water would be added later.

The country store also featured an old Sears and Roebuck Catalog, the Amazon of its day, which I would have enjoyed browsing through in detail.

The museum basement (once a bank's basement) housed a nuclear fallout shelter in the 1950's. The basement bank vault now displays a fallout shelter exhibit with an old "duck and cover" video playing on a loop. (Enlarge the images if you wish to read the text.)

It was hard to take pictures through the bank vault bars.

We stayed overnight in the Smithfield Station Hotel located on the Pagan River. This was the view from the hotel restaurant.

Smithfield Station was a pleasant hotel with courteous efficient staff, a nice location, and nice clean rooms. I particularly liked the quiet restaurant with no blasting background music. We could actually hear our conversation without the usual roar of competing noise. There were only two negatives. Unfortunate road construction in front of the hotel took away some of the charm. Late at night we could hear guests in a neighboring room talking for quite a while.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Cockeyed Rooster Cafe. Once again, we enjoyed the absence of gratuitous background music! The omelette and hash servings we had were delicious!

As I mentioned above, the primary reason for going to Smithfield was the regional cross country championship to be held within Windsor Castle Park. After breakfast we went to the park to find good places to watch the races. In spite of its name, the park doesn't contain anything that could be called a castle. Instead, there is a historic old house which at one time was the manor house of a plantation on the grounds. The previous day we walked over a good portion of the beautiful cross country course and became familiar with its nature and level of difficulty. The surface consisted of packed dirt with frequent gravel sections and many small rolling hills. There were a few long wooden bridges along the way, but much of the course passed through lovely woods as you can see in the pictures below.

Five years ago we would have brought our running clothes and run the course ourselves. Sadly, neither of us are able to run anymore. Oh how we missed being able to run this course! It would have been wonderful.

I'm happy to say my granddaughter's cross country team from Jamestown High School won both the boy's and girl's races and qualified to move on to the state championships ten days later.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the races and visiting Smithfield. There's a good chance we'll return someday to have another Cockeyed Rooster breakfast and explore places we missed on this trip.

Seestar at Work

Clear Skies Continue

October in southeastern Virginia usually has a good number of cloudless days, but this year has been unusually clear. October 24th was one such clear night. So many annoying neighbor lights surrounded my backyard that I initially hesitated to use Seestar. Eventually, however, the lights were all turned off, and I set Seestar to work in late evening.

The first target was globular cluster M71 in Sagitta which I added to my Messier collection. The following 10-minute exposure shows the globular among a rich Milky Way background star field.

Another addition to my Messier collection was open cluster M35 in Gemini. The next 10-minute exposure shows larger cluster M35 slightly left of center with smaller, more distant open cluster NGC2158 in the same field of view on the right. M35 is about 3,000 light years away and NGC2158 is about 17,000 light years away. 

Just for fun I commanded Seestar to move to the Bubble Nebula, NGC7635, in Cassiopeia. I was astounded to watch the "bubble" slowly emerge during a filtered 45-minute exposure! Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes or so, rotational tracking flaws showed up on edges of the full frame image. I cropped out the flaws and reduced the image size to produce the picture below. The bubble is being blown by a powerful stellar wind from a massive central star 10 or 20 times the Sun's mass.

November 2nd was another fairly clear night with only some scattered hazy clouds drifting around. My late start this evening allowed Orion to rise above the eastern horizon. Next to Orion's belt is white reflection nebula M78 which became visible in the 30-minute exposure below.

Just before hazy clouds moved in I was able to take a 10-minute exposure of globular cluster M79 in Lepus and add it to my growing Messier collection. 

Unprecedented clear sky continued on November 3rd! Just out of curiosity I pointed Seestar toward IC1396, the "Elephant's Trunk" nebula in Cepheus. As the following 32-minute filtered exposure accumulated I was amazed to see the dark Elephant Trunk gradually emerge on my tablet screen. The edge of the dark cloud is illuminated by a nearby massive star.

I waited long enough for the Sculptor Galaxy, NGC253, to rise well above the horizon and approach its meridian crossing in the south. The next 30-minute exposure is one of the best Seestar galaxy images I've made.

This night's final target was open cluster NGC7380 in Cepheus. This pretty cluster is accompanied by some glowing nebulosity as shown in the next 20-minute filtered exposure.

Seestar is amazing! Through more than 50 years of astronomical observing I always thought there was nothing quite like having actual photons enter my eye through a telescope eyepiece, even if the view usually fell far short of photographs. Seestar has changed my mind. Although the images it produces aren't immediate, in just a few minutes Seestar reveals so much more than eyepiece views, especially in light polluted suburban skies. It also compensates for loss of visual acuity due to age. I'm loving roaming around the night sky seeing things I would never think to try observing through an eyepiece.

More than ever before Seestar images have made me aware of how different a given image can look when viewed on different screens. For some reason the image initially obtained on my tablet screen looks great. This same image looks significantly worse when viewed on my newest laptop screen. After processing in Photoshop on the new laptop, I find the processed image requires even more processing to look good on my phone and older laptop. It seems like each screen has a different definition of black.

My Messier collection is building nicely and now contains 76 out of 110 objects.