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.
 

Looking South

Galaxies and Clusters

The Moon had not yet risen on December 22nd when I saw a clear evening sky. One annoying neighbor light made sky darkness less than ideal. Also, at this time of year many nearby houses with bright Christmas lights add to suburban sky glow. At my location the worst light pollution conditions are at low southern altitudes where I planned to capture a few targets.

It was a cold 26 degrees when I carried Seestar outside to begin imaging. On nights like this I can do the initial Seestar setup inside before moving Seestar outside. In warm comfort I turn on the power, establish connection to my tablet, wait for any firmware updates to load, raise the viewing arm,  install the dew shield, and turn on the dew heater. It then takes only a few seconds to move Seestar outside, place it in its usual level spot, and immediately return inside to control the remaining initialization. I really appreciate how Seestar takes all of the suffering out of observing! 

The first southern sky target this night was galaxy NGC1300 in Eridanus. As the 30-minute exposure shown below progressed, I was thrilled to see this barred spiral galaxy gradually become visible in spite of considerable sky glow in that part of the sky. The small fuzzy ball to the upper right of NGC1300 is elliptical galaxy NGC 1297.

Next, I moved to capture a pair of interacting galaxies in Canis Major. Once again, a 30-minute exposure allowed the galaxies to eventually appear. The larger, more circular shaped galaxy is NGC2207. Close by to its lower left is smaller galaxy IC2163 which has been captured by NGC2207's gravity. IC2163 has actually passed by NGC2207 and will begin circling behind over the course of tens of million years. The two galaxies orbit each other and will eventually merge. It's incredible to be able to see this interaction even though the image is small! If you Google the Hubble Telescope image of these galaxies, you can see this interaction in amazing detail. 

The southern constellation Puppis contains two Messier objects I wanted to add to my collection. Where does that odd name come from? The ancient astronomer Ptolemy created a huge constellation of mostly southern stars called, Argo Navis - the ship of Jason and the Argonauts in their search for the Golden Fleece. Later, this original constellation was broken into three smaller parts called Carina, the keel, Vela, the sails, and Puppis, the stern. (Puppis is a Latin term.) M93 was the most impressive of two Puppis open clusters I captured this night. The 10-minute exposure is shown in the next picture.

Also in Puppis is relatively unremarkable open cluster M47 shown below. This is a 5-minute exposure.

Discouraged by light pollution to the south, I turned north toward Ursa Major which was beginning to rise to a decent altitude. There I targeted the unusual Messier object, M40, with a quick 5-minute exposure. M40 is not a galaxy, nebula, or star cluster. Instead, it's an optical double star - two stars not actually orbiting each other but coincidentally appearing close together along our line of sight. The upper star is about 1,000 light years away, and the lower star is 470 light years away. The angular separation of the stars is about 53 arc seconds. If you enlarge the image and follow a diagonal line starting with the star pair and moving upward, you can barely see two tiny galaxies. First along this diagonal line is NGC4290. Next is smaller NGC4284. As I understand it, Messier was looking for these fuzzy nebulae and added the double star to his catalog when he couldn't find the dim fuzzies.

As you can see in the image above, Seestar has no trouble resolving two stars separated by 53 arc seconds. I wondered how close two stars could be and still be seen by Seestar as separate. After a quick search through some of my Seestar images I found an example of two stars 14 arc seconds apart that were clearly separate. Maybe I'll find another pair slightly closer, but I doubt clear separations less than 10 arc seconds are possible. Nevertheless, Seestar's resolving power is remarkable for such a small aperture! 

After imaging M40 I went outside for a quick sky check and noticed hazy clouds forming in the north. The temperature had dropped to 23 degrees, and it was time to quit.
 

24-Hour Relay

Youthful Energy

While taking a nostalgic look through my running scrapbook, I came upon an event I'd almost forgotten. On June 14-15, 1980, in Lynchburg, VA, I participated in a 24-hour relay as part of a ten-member team. The event was organized by endurance icon, Steve Bozeman, a former marine and multi-ironman veteran. Two teams of ten runners competed to see which team could cover the most distance in 24 hours on the Brookville High School track. Each team member ran a mile and handed a baton to the next runner. After all ten team members had run their first mile, the tenth runner would hand off to the first runner who would run his second mile and begin the second relay cycle. This procedure went on for 24 hours with no breaks or runner substitutions.

The average age of our team was 33 years old. The other team was composed of younger guys.  If all runners on our team ran 6 minutes per mile, our team would cover 10 miles in an hour and 240 miles in 24 hours. We ultimately fell short of 240 miles because our team average ended up greater than 6 minutes per mile. Although we finished behind the younger guys who did about 244 miles, we managed to cover a respectable 221.75 miles in 24 hours.

Running started at 8:20am on June 14th. I was the 6th runner in our team's running order and took off with energy and enthusiasm when I first received the baton. I had done no special training or speed work to prepare for this event. Having lost all feeling for pacing, I went out at what I thought was just under 6 minute/mile pace. It turned out I ran with too much enthusiasm because, with a nearly all out effort, I did my first mile in 5:22. Afterward my legs were tight and my breathing violent. The consequences of this foolish pacing wouldn't become apparent until hours later.

After the first mile roughly an hour would pass before I needed to take the baton for my second mile. It might seem that an hour's rest between mile runs is a generous recovery time. This was true for the first few hours, but, gradually, it seemed like the hour was passing too quickly. After handing off the baton I would walk at least two or more very slow laps to cool down and recover. At this point I would still be too charged up to sit or lie down. All too soon it would be time to begin preparing for the next mile. I would walk/jog another couple laps to loosen up. Consequently, less than an hour between relay legs was available for substantial rest.

Soon the baton slapped into my hand for the second time, and I was off for my second mile. This time, again foolishly, I competed with a younger runner from the other team and pushed myself to a 5:21 mile. Afterward, my legs were really tight and my breathing desperate. The strain of the first two miles must have knocked some sense into my knucklehead because I did the third mile in a more reasonable 5:49.

At that point, finally, I thought a good plan would be to pace more wisely and run each mile closer to 6 minutes. The plan worked for the next 3 miles which I ran in 5:41, 5:43, and 5:52. During the 5:52 sixth mile, however, serious back cramps began. The cramps felt like two giant hands squeezing my lungs so I couldn't breath properly. My legs felt reasonably good, but breathing was painful, and it hurt to take a deep breath. The effect of cramps was immediately evident. My notes for the next 5 miles say: 7th mile in 6:04, cramps in back and chest ; 8th mile in 6:37, back cramps affect breathing ; 9th mile in 6:21, cramps loosen a bit ; 10th mile in 6:04, cramps hit on last lap ; 11th mile in 6:26, cramps improving. Cramps caused by my initial fast pace worsened during the heat of the day when there was no escape from the blazing Sun.

Next is a picture of me during a relay leg on the Brookville High School track. You can see the baton in my right hand. I was 31 years old and weighed 145 pounds at the time, 20 pounds lighter than I am today 44 years later. The lyrics to Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" come to mind.

After each run I tried to cool down, rest, drink, and warm up for the next run. Although I brought a folding lounge chair, it was really difficult to sit for any appreciable time after running. Any small advantage gained by sitting would be completely cancelled by muscle tightening. By the time I was ready to sit there wasn't much time remaining before I needed to get up moving again to prepare for the next mile. As the day wore on it became increasingly difficult to get going during the first running lap. I would groan through slow, achy, crampy initial laps until everything loosened enough to run the remaining laps at respectable pace.

Here's another picture taken during the hot day. You can see developing sunburn on my shoulders. Notice the speaker on the track in the background. The younger guys provided music ranging from the Beach Boys to the theme from Rocky.

Near sunset it was time for my 12th mile which I ran in 6:11. After sunset I temporarily felt better in the dark. The 13th mile was covered in 6:16. The 14th mile was 6:13. I noted extreme tightness during the 6:18 15th mile. Somehow I managed a 6:09 16th mile. At this point, a couple hours after midnight, heavy fatigue set in. The 17th mile was 6:31, the slowest since cramp-plagued mile 8. Things got even worse. My notes for the next two miles said, "fading fast". Near my 4:00am low point before dawn, miles 18 and 19 were both covered in 6:43. These were my slowest miles of the entire relay.

During the night many runners would finish running, drink something, then crawl into a sleeping bag until their next turn came up. They would rise groaning, and hobble out stiff-legged to run. Several times we had to wake up teammates by shaking and shouting. I stayed awake the whole 24 hours because I couldn't relax enough to sleep between relay legs. Each time I rose from the lounge chair was agony.

During my 20th mile the Sun rose and I ran 6:28. As the day brightened my 21st mile was covered in 6:30. Now the end was in sight! Sometime close to 7:45am on June 15th I ran my 22nd mile in 6:13. It was my last mile because 24 hours arrived by 8:20am before my next turn came up.      

So, after 24 hours, taking into account precise times instead of the rounded times mentioned above, I had run 22 miles at an average pace of 6:10.1. Although another teammate and I tied for the fastest individual mile time of 5:21, I had only the fourth best overall average among my teammates. On our team the best two overall individual averages were about 5 seconds under 6-minute pace for 24 hours. They did it by sensible pacing. If I could somehow return in a time machine to run this event again, I wouldn't start out with the crazy, all out effort I expended in the first miles. If I had run the first few miles at 5:50 pace, I might have avoided the debilitating cramps that plagued me for the final 17 miles.

I can't remember what I ate or drank during the relay, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the best possible fuel. Modern energy gels were certainly not used, and I didn't drink Gatorade. I probably drank apple juice. Afterward I had lost 7 pounds.

During the entire event I kept a record of all the quarter mile laps I completed either running or walking. Total laps came to 180, so I covered 45 miles during 24 hours. Once upon a time I had the strength and energy to complete this unique event.   

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.