Breezy March Sun

Afternoon Session

Good opportunities for solar observing are rare. I have to take advantage of each one, even if conditions aren't ideal. Such was the case on March 18th when gusty wind threatened to blow my laptop light shield box off the observing table. Wind speed diminished a bit in the afternoon, so I risked poor seeing and began imaging at 3:15 pm, EDT.

Several sunspots and filaments were distributed across the solar disc as you can see in the 11-panel mosaic below.

Significant prominences were located only in the lower right quadrant displayed in the next 7-panel mosaic.

Individual sunspot groups show well in the next two close views. First, single umbra sunspot 4030 appears near center. Curious, dim, triple umbra sunspot 4028 is to the lower right. (Click on images for a larger view.) The enlarged image shows a complex of magnetic arches to the upper left of sunspot 4030. The triple umbra in 4028 resembles a dog face!

The second close view shows a diagonal string of complicated sunspot structure above center. Running from upper left to lower right along the diagonal line are sunspots 4031, 4025, and 4022. Solitary umbra 4021 is below center. 

These images look unexpectedly decent in spite of episodic periods of bad seeing.

Galaxies in Virgo

Plus Extras

Three relatively dark moonless nights happened in late February and early March. Annoying neighbor lights were mostly off during this time, so it was a good opportunity to fire up Seestar and gather more galaxies for my Messier collection. I ended up adding eight Messier galaxies in Virgo to the other 94 Messier objects I've previously captured. Virgo contains a rich distribution of galaxies. Images below show six Messier galaxies together with companions sharing the same field of view.

First is giant elliptical galaxy M87, the brightest galaxy in Virgo. Unlike prettier spiral galaxies, M87 looks like a fuzzy ball. Elliptical galaxies have less overall angular momentum (rotation) than spiral galaxies and thus don't flatten into a disk shape. A massive black hole exists in M87's center. An incredible picture of this black hole can be viewed at this link: https://science.nasa.gov/resource/first-image-of-a-black-hole/ . 

In all the following images I'm disappointed that background sky isn't very black. Light pollution is probably the cause. I can't darken the background without also losing faint galaxy details. The following M87 image is a 25-minute exposure.

The next picture identifies three other galaxies near M87.

Two more elliptical galaxies, M59 and M60, are shown in the next picture along with six other galaxies in the same frame! See them all labeled in the second image below.

Very nice face-on spiral galaxy M61 and three companions appear next. These galaxies are labeled in the lower image.

Tilted spiral galaxy M90 with two dim companions is next. Once again, labels follow. 

The previous three galaxy portraits are 30-minute exposures. The next image is a 60-minute exposure using Seestar's mosaic mode to capture 13 galaxies in one frame! This particular group is named Markarian's Chain after the astronomer who discovered their common movement. Labels identify the galaxies. Unfortunately, I should have centered this field of view more carefully. One remaining member of the chain is missing off the upper left edge. Perhaps I'll try again soon.

Finally, I include one extra image of edge-on galaxies in Canes Ventatici. The largest galaxy is NGC4631 with small companion NGC4627 nearby. The oddly shaped galaxy near bottom is NGC4656 which appears to have a hook-like feature on its left end. The hook is actually another galaxy, NGC4657. See labels below.

At this point I've imaged 102 of the 110 Messier objects. The remaining eight are located in Ophiuchus and Sagittarius. It may be a few months before these constellations rise high enough for convenient imaging.

Galaxies in Coma Berenices

Plus One Nebula

The clear evening of February 21st was a good opportunity to try Seestar's new mosaic mode on the Seagull Nebula in Canis Major. The following 60-minute exposure barely captures the relatively faint elongated Seagull Nebula running vertically down the image's left side. The brighter circular nebula on the right is NGC2327 which features a dark lane cutting into the center that ends on the bright blue star that powers NGC2327. It took much longer than 60 minutes to obtain this image because so many individual constituent frames were rejected due to poor tracking.

As temperature dropped to 27 degrees, I pointed Seestar to galaxy M85 in Coma Berenices. (All galaxy images below are the result of 30-minute exposures.) M85 is the brightest uppermost galaxy in the next image. The bright star just left of M85's nucleus is a foreground star within our own galaxy. Below and left of M85 is galaxy NGC4394.

On February 25th skies were clear and moonless again. I set out to capture the remaining five Messier galaxies in Coma Berenices. Galaxy M88, shown in the next image, is a tilted spiral. A pair of foreground stars appear on M88's lower edge. Three other dim galaxies are arrayed on a diagonal line beginning near the left center edge and stretching down to the lower right. In order, from upper left to lower right, they are NGC4516, IC3478, and IC3476.

The next image below shows face-on barred spiral galaxy M91. Near image bottom is another galaxy, NGC4571. 

Nearly edge-on spiral galaxy M98 is centered in the next image.

One spiral arm appears less tightly bound in face-on galaxy M99 shown next.

Finally, another face-on spiral galaxy, M100, shares the field of view with at least five other galaxies. Near the right edge is edge-on galaxy NGC4312. Near the left bottom edge is galaxy NGC4379. Just left of M100 are two dim galaxies: NGC4322 above slightly brighter NGC4328. The last dim galaxy is NGC783, well separated from M100 to the upper right. Enlarge the image by clicking on it to better see these faint galactic neighbors. 

It was fun to see face-on spirals emerge as exposures continued! Coma Berenices is home to many galaxies! After these two February observing sessions my Messier collection now includes 94 members with only 16 more needed to complete the collection. Galaxies in Virgo are the next obvious targets. These should add eight more to my collection.

New Seestar Features

New Level and Mosaic Mode

Late January clear nights gave me a chance to try two new Seestar features. One was the Apertura Easy Leveler whose red adjusting screws are shown in the first image below installed between Seestar's tripod and base. Seestar must be leveled before every observing session. Accomplishing this by adjusting tripod legs was difficult and time consuming. The new device made leveling quick and easy with a few screw turns. It worked perfectly!

The second new feature was Seestar's mosaic/framing mode. This software upgrade allows users to capture objects too large to fit in the standard field of view. (Seestar's standard rectangular field of view has a fixed N-S orientation with angular dimensions 0.72 X 1.28 degrees, or 43 X 77 arc minutes.) For example, the famous Rosette Nebula, NGC2244, in the constellation Monoceros is too big for the standard field of view. You can see this in the next standard field image where only part of the full circular nebula shows up in a 60-minue exposure taken on February 3rd, 2024.

Mosaic/framing mode works by allowing the observer to expand and rotate the desired field of view on Seestar's included sky atlas before initiating an exposure. As the actual exposure proceeds in 10-second steps, Seestar moves slightly between each step, sweeping out a kind of rectangular spiral of individual overlapping exposures until it has covered the larger field of view. All these separate exposures are automatically combined and stacked to present the final larger image. On January 20th, with light pollution filter engaged, I made my first attempt using mosaic/framing mode and obtained the following 90-minute exposure of the Rosette Nebula.

As you can see, the entire nebula was nicely captured in one mosaic field of view. I have to confess being pleasantly surprised by the result! I must also honestly confess that it took more than four hours of repeated exposures to get 90 minutes of actual stacked images in the final picture! A LOT of 10-second exposures were discarded during four hours because they contained tiny tracking errors. Also, I think the nebula is dimmer than it would appear in a 90-minute standard field exposure because all parts of the nebula were not exposed for the full 90 minutes. This initial experience taught me that I may need to devote an entire night to a single mosaic image in order to get good exposure.

The Rosette Nebula image above was cleaned to remove a satellite track and possible meteor trail. In the original uncleaned image (shown below) the satellite track is in the upper right, and the meteor trail is an interrupted streak below center. Enlarge the image to see the trails more clearly. If you look closely at the enlarged image, you can see a faint extension of the meteor trail before the trail brightens in an apparent meteor disintegration.

On other nights during this late January clear spell I used Seestar in regular mode to capture five more Messier objects for my collection. Two of the five are galaxies shown below. First is a 31-minute exposure of galaxy M63 in Canes Venatici. Two other dim galaxies share the field of view. The smudge above M63 is galaxy UGC8313, and the smudge below M63 is UGC8365.

Next is a 40-minute exposure of galaxy M96 in Leo.

Finally, on January 29th, I tried a 45-minute exposure of NGC2359, also known as "Thor's Helmet". This is a bubble-shaped nebula formed by strong emissions from a powerful Wolf-Rayet star at its center. The image shows green nebulosity, but not the red fringe on the lower left edge which appears in longer exposures with bigger telescopes. I didn't know what to expect when I began capturing this. Then I was astounded to watch the image gradually emerge over 45 minutes!

After these January observation sessions I need to capture only 21 more objects to complete my Messier collection.

January Sunspots

Glorious Sunspot Display

The Sun's activity cycle has now reached a maximum. Sadly, I haven't done any solar imaging for the past three months. Most days have been cloudy. There have been a few frigid clear days, but almost every one was accompanied by strong winds of 12 miles per hour with stronger gusts. Gusts shake my telescope and blow my light-shielded laptop off the observing table. Finally, on January 17th, clear sky arrived with no wind. The temperature was about 42 degrees, much better than recent temperatures near freezing. Five sunspot groups were spread across the Sun.

The following 12-panel mosaic shows the sunspot distribution.

The next image is a cropped section from the mosaic above. From left to right across the top are sunspots 3965, 3962, and the large umbra of spot 3959. From left to right across the bottom are complex sunspot groups 3961 and 3964. This image can be viewed at 100 percent size with no loss of detail.

After capturing videos for the large mosaic above, I captured two more to construct the next 2-panel mosaic of the northeast quadrant containing four of the five sunspot groups. Click on the image to see  good detail in the full size image at 100 percent. The complicated, multi-umbra structure of lower sunspot 3961 is remarkable.

Now inspect individual sunspot portraits. The split umbra of sunspot 3959 below is interesting. Click on the image to enlarge and notice the strange fork-like dark filament whose "tines" point toward the umbra.

Again, click to enlarge complicated sunspot 3961 shown below. I can see seven individual umbras with possibly more not fully dark ones among the magnetic arches reaching across the white active areas beneath. A dramatic dark filament arch on the left adds to the scene.

In the lower right below sunspot 3964 shows a structure somewhat similar to 3961 above, but not quite as dramatic. Notice the white active area penetrating the right umbra like a piercing arrow. 

Finally, some prominences were visible around the solar limb. I processed the 12-panel mosaic above to show a few.

Although seeing wasn't particularly good for this session, I was pleased by the amount of detail available in the images above.

Mars Occultation

Unusual Event

The Moon passed in front of Mars on the cold evening of January 13th! In a completely clear sky the full Moon was nicely placed for imaging well above the northeastern horizon. It was a great opportunity to use Seestar to capture the event, and I had everything setup an hour ahead of time. I've used Seestar many times before and always made sure to level it before imaging. This time, for some unknown reason, I forgot the initial leveling. This stupid, careless mistake probably caused troublesome tracking errors later.

My plan was to begin taking individual photos at about 8:20PM EST before ingress and then switch to video as Mars closely approached the lunar limb. At first, photos were taken using Seestar's 1X magnification, but this seemed to make Mars very tiny. For example, here's a cropped 1X image taken at 8:40.

At 1X the entire lunar disc fit within the field of view. As I took a few more photos, I became concerned that Mars' disc would be too small at 1X, so I switched to 2X. Now the whole Moon no longer fit inside the field of view, but Mars' visibility improved. Unfortunately, tracking errors increased making it hard to keep the Moon from drifting away from center. The next image was captured at 9:05, twenty-five minutes after the previous image.

You can clearly see the Mars-Moon separation decreasing. The Moon always moves west to east relative to background stars. Mars reached opposition on January 16th, and, on this January 13th night, Mars was moving in retrograde motion east to west relative to background stars. So the two bodies were approaching each other for a "head on collision" as seen from Earth. At 9:10, five minutes after the previous photo, the separation continued to diminish.

The Moon was moving approximately 35 times faster than Mars relative to the stars this night, so the Moon was like a 105 mile per hour car approaching a strolling pedestrian Mars. By 9:15 the occultation ingress was nearly ready to begin as you can see in the next photo.

At this point, at 9:15, I should have immediately begun recording video. Unfortunately, I waited before hitting the record button at about 9:16. So when the video began, Mars was already just touching the lunar edge. The video below runs for 43 seconds and does show Mars gradually disappearing behind the Moon. The disappearance itself only took about 26 seconds! Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to follow the disappearance in the center of the bottom lunar limb, but you can see it with some effort. Engage the full screen option. Viewing on a laptop or tablet screen helps. I'm disappointed by the video quality.

More than an hour later, at about 10:27, Mars would emerge from behind the Moon. Since I didn't know exactly where or when Mars would reappear, my second video attempt failed to capture the egress. I began recording about four minutes too late! But I did manage to capture a good photo at 10:31.

Mars' angular diameter was only 14.5 arc seconds in the photo above compared to the Moon's 31.7 arc minute diameter. So the Moon looks 131 times bigger than Mars. Of course, Mars was 5.34 light minutes away while the Moon was only 1.26 light seconds away. Mars was 254 times more distant than the Moon. At the same distance, side by side, Mars' diameter is roughly twice as large as the Moon's.

Finally, although Seestar made it easy to observe this event from indoor comfort, I wonder how much better results would have been if I endured the cold and set up my Nikon Z62 outside on my 130mm refractor. For example, consider images displayed recently in Astronomy Picture of the Day which you can see at the following two links.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2501/MoonMars_Sultan_960.jpg 

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2501/MarsLOc_Jan13.jpg 

Galaxies

Limited Results

December 30th was an unexpectedly cloudless night with a new Moon. Clear conditions were too good to pass up. I knew it would be the last opportunity to use Seestar for a while, so I set out to capture a few galaxy targets on my observing list. Initially annoying neighbor lights were eventually turned off.

Seestar's ability to produce good galaxy images is limited, especially for small dim galaxies. The 50mm aperture is a small light bucket, and, in my particular case, bright background sky prevents capture of faint detail. Exposures longer than about 30 minutes don't seem to yield more detail. (All images shown below are 30-minute exposures.) Seestar's field of view is too large for smaller galaxies which call for more magnification. Nevertheless, Seestar reveals much more than my eyeball can ever perceive at the eyepiece of my telescopes. In spite of Seestar's limitations, I still enjoy finding and examining galaxies I've never seen before.

I began this night by aiming low in the south to elliptical galaxy NGC1316, an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Fornax. In the image below NGC1316 is the large bright central object. Smaller galaxy NGC1318 is directly above center. In the lower left a dim fuzzy patch below a relatively bright pair of stars is galaxy PGC12706. Additional galaxies would have appeared in the field of view if I had moved NGC1316 below center. I missed this good opportunity.

Also in the southern sky was a close galaxy pair in Canis Major. I pointed Seestar there next. Centered in the image below, NGC2293 is below its close companion NGC2292. These two galaxies are separated by only 44 arc seconds! Just to the upper right of the centered pair is another galaxy, NGC2295, flanked closely by two foreground stars in our own galaxy. NGC2295 is about 3.75 arc minutes from NGC2292. It would be nice to see a more magnified image here, but this isn't possible with Seestar. 

Leaving southern sky glow, I moved north to Ursa Major where three galaxies were available for addition to my Messier collection. In the next image nearly edge-on spiral galaxy M108 is large enough to show some dark dust clouds and internal structure. There are three bright foreground stars from our own galaxy directly in front of M108. (Enlarge the image to see these more clearly.)

This night's next Ursa Major galaxy was barred spiral galaxy M109. The image below was good enough to show some spiral arms. Once again, a bright foreground star appears in front of the galaxy's disc. Two other dim galaxies can be seen in the same field of view. To the right of M109, near the right hand edge, is 13.4 magnitude galaxy PGC37553. The dim smudge to the lower left of M109 is 15th magnitude galaxy PGC37700.

The brightest Ursa Major galaxy of the night was M82 shown next. The hint of a dark lane cutting diagonally across the center is just visible in the enlarged image.

By the end of this session I had added three more objects to my Messier collection leaving only 26 more needed to reach the complete 110 total.