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Observing Log Leyland Observatory

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Observing Log Leyland Observatory Observing Log and commentary Leyland Observatory Len Adam November 2012 1 Thursday 1st November 2012 Thursday 1st November 2012 Will this really be a daylight comet? I have just downloaded the image of the field of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) that is predicted to be a naked eye object in Autumn 2013. I used the 32 inch Mount Lemmon Telescope belonging to the November 2012 University of Arizona that is part of the Sierra Stars network to make the exposure. It was a 5 minute Observations exposure taken yesterday at 11:26 U.T. There is an object at the precise spot indicated by the SKyX chart for the comet that I have circled in the image below. Reference magnitudes would indicate that Len Adam the comet is around mag 17. I plate solved the image in the SKy6 and measured the magnitude using the CCDSoft/Sky6 photometry facility at mag 17.55. (See the image on the next page - bottom left - taken a few days later (very close to the moon) that confirms this is the comet showing exact positions corresponding to predictions) 159 170 163 Comet C\2012 S1 ISON 2012 31 Oct. 11: 26 U.T. Remote image from Schulman 0.81-m. Mt Lemmon Arizona 300s exp. SBIG STX KAF-16803 binned 2x2 0.65 arcsec /pixel. FOV 22.5’X22.5’ UCAC3 Reference Magnitudes Unfiltered mag measured at 17.55 Len Adam 2 Thursday 1st November 2012 Including Magnified view By the 5th November 2012 the comet had moved to here Location on 31 Oct 2012 Image Courtesy of the University of Arizona The Schulman telescope 3 Thursday 1st November 2012 The orbit of the comet is shown below - it is heading for the Sun at a sharp angle to the plane of the ecliptic. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. It is currently 5.6 AU from the Earth – i.e. Over 5 times further away from us than the Sun itself. Not surprising then that it is very faint at the moment . When it gets closer it will get brighter – the warmth of the Sun will begin to melt some of the icy content and a tail will develop. At its closest to the Earth it will be at a distance of about 0.43 AU - around 13 times nearer than it is now. It is predicted to be a daytime comet as bright as the full Moon and could be a good Christmas Comet. 4 Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. Thursday 1st November 2012 I realised that on 26th October I had also carried out a supernova search on 38 galaxies in Auriga that I had omitted from my October log. (No supernovae found) .This is the first image – PGC 16158. PGC 16158 Courtesy of Software Bisque This is the solved image placed behind the SkyX star chart – meaning that labels e.g. Magnitudes are superimposed on the image – an excellent feature. 5 Thursday 1st November 2012 Plate solution for another Auriga galaxy – PGC 16918 showing magnitudes of stars superimposed on the image by the solution. Courtesy of Software Bisque The corresponding DSS image 85s exposure Courtesy of The Oschin Schmidt Telescope operated by the California Institute of Technology and Palomar Observatory. 6 Thursday 1st November 2012 PGC 17954 image superimposed on the SkyX chart and the C14/ST9XE Field of View Indicator. Courtesy of Software Bisque The image of PGC 17954 in Auriga 7 Friday 2nd November 2012 Friday 2nd November 2012 An image of M52 was attempted using the iTelescope.net T20 telescope. T20 Courtesy of iTelescope.net Unfortunately the image was greyed out so I will try for this object on another occasion. (See Wednesday 21st November) 8 Friday 2nd November 2012 SJ O’Meara Hidden Treasures Target NGC 6503 – The Lost in Space Nebula Having purchased the above author’s excellent Hidden Treasures book on Sunday in Manchester , I am locating images that I have previously taken that correspond to some of his targets and finding out more about them. This is a 30 second image taken on 20th April 2011. There was no cooling for some reason as the FITS header shows a 12 degree temperature. The plate solution above shows a plate scale of 2-02 arcseconds per pixel and a Field of View of 17 minutes X 17 minutes. Courtesy of ESA/Hubble and NASA A Hubble view of NGC 6503. The pink glowing areas are starbirth regions . The galaxy is called the “Lost in Space” galaxy by Stephen O’Meara because it is located at the edge of a void (shades of Star Trek). It is only one third the major axis size of our Galaxy and is a Dwarf Spiral Galaxy. Arthur Auwers the German astronomer discovered the galaxy in 1854. It lies at a distance of 17 million Light Years. 9 Friday 2nd November 2012 The location of NGC 6503 in Draco Courtesy of Cartes du Ciel 10 Telescope Image Courtesy of iTelescope .net Friday 2nd November 2012 This is the same M42 image that I previously showed the luminance file for – P44 October Log. 11 Friday 2nd November 2012 This is the “Running Man” nebula – taken from the M42 image above. The images below are interesting sections of the above image for further study. 12 Colour variation of theM42 image. Friday 2nd November 2012 13 Sunday 4th November 2012 Sunday 4th November 2012 A busy morning and evening with observations and images of NGC 1499, 2 comets , 38 galaxies in Auriga, 20 galaxies in Cassiopeia, 42 galaxies in Cygnus and 4 galaxies in Triangulum. I used the T20 iTelescope.net telescope to image the California Nebula (well part of it) in Perseus. I was looking for an emission nebula to image that was well away from the Moon to get further practice using IRIS This is the SkyX chart of the California Nebula showing the Field of View of the T20 Telescope with the solved plate superimposed. North is up in this image The final image after processing in IRIS is shown below Courtesy of Software Bisque Courtesy of Software Bisque Courtesy of Software Bisque 14 The final image with North towards the top to correspond to the solved image in the chart above is shown on the next page. Sunday 4th November 2012 15 Sunday 4th November 2012 Comet C/2010 S1 (Linear) in Cygnus A series of images of Comet C/2010 S1 (Linear) were taken on Sunday night. The first is shown below Photometry I solved the plate in SkyX and measured the magnitude in CCDSoft at 13.91 using a 14th magnitude UCAC3 reference star. Astrometry The position was measured at RA 20h 36m 57s DEC 41d 31m 05s at the date and time shown from the FITS Header. Position of the Comet today – it is almost 6 times the distance to the Sun from Earth. 16 Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. Sunday 4th November 2012 Comet 168P Hergenrother in Andromeda 168P has a period of 6.89 years. It was discovered by Carl W. Hergenrother on November 22nd 1998. Its last Perihelion (before this year) was in 1995. It was at Perihelion this year (2012) on October 1st Other Astrometry Designations The position was measured at RA 23h 40m 30s P/1998 W2 P/2005 N2 DEC 37d 08m 51s This means that This means that it was the at the date and time shown it was the second comet discovered on the FITS Header. This is for second comet in the first half of July the head of the comet. No discovered in 2005. Of course in fact it photometry was attempted. the second half was a rediscovery of of November P/1998 W2 1998. Because this is a short period comet (<250 years) and it HAS returned since discovery it is given the designation 168P Hergenrother. 17 Sunday 4th November 2012 During the Supernova Patrol an image was obtained of three galaxies in Cygnus all within 3 minutes of arc PGC 67235 was the target PGC 67239 PGC 67243 PGC 67235 PGC 67235 18 Courtesy of Software Bisque Plate solution for NGC 6946 Sunday 4th November 2012 Courtesy of Software Bisque NGC 6946 was imaged as part of the Supernova Patrol tonight in Cygnus. 19 Sunday 4th November 2012 NGC 6946 is known as the “Fireworks” Galaxy . 5 Supernovae that have occurred in this galaxy are shown in the above image. Stellar magnitudes in the region are also shown 20 Wednesday 7th November 2012 Wednesday 7th November 2012 The T20 iTelescope.net telescope in New Mexico was given the task of imaging NGC 2264 “The Christmas Tree Nebula” with a 300 second exposure. Image Courtesy of iTelescope .com The SkyX New Mexico Skies site document was opened to check that the choice of field of view was appropriate and that the object was in an appropriate position for imaging at that site. (Altitude) The SkyX report is shown on the left. At 59 degrees altitude it is in a good position. 21 Wednesday 7th November 2012 NGC 2264 22 Wednesday 7th November 2012 As soon as the NGC 2264 run was complete on T20 I started a run on M38 Courtesy of iTelescope.net Courtesy of Software Bisque 23 Wednesday 7th November 2012 M38 is at an altitude of almost 87 degrees. It has dimensions 15’ X 15’ so will certainly not fill the 112’ X 84’ T20 FOV. However the FOV will include Herschel H39-7 which has a FO V of 5 minutes square. Telescope Image courtesy of iTelescope.net 24 Messier 38 including H39-7 Wednesday 7th November 2012 25 Wednesday 7th November 2012 M38 itself from the full image H39-7 from the full image This is also known as NGC 1907 26 A stretched view brings out the red nebulosity in the region Wednesday 7th November 2012 27 Wednesday 7th November 2012 Supernova 2012fm This is an image that I took that missed the supernova – although it had already been discovered.
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