Stuff in the Sky

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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Another blast from the past. SN2024 is a supernova that blew off in NGC 4216, a spiral galaxy located near the center of the Virgo cluster, some 40 million light years away.

SN 2024gy was the result of a white dwarf in a close binary system gobbled up enough material from its companion "to exceed the Chandrasekhar Limit and undergo rapid gravitational collapse and runaway fusion" [1]. It was first spotted on 04 January 2024 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who seems to have quite a knack for finding supernovae, he has discovered greater than 170 [2], that, I believe, puts him as the individual leader in the clubhouse; Tim Puckett, whose private observatory in Georgia, has no fewer than 360 supernovae, but he takes advantage of crowd sourcing to manually examine his images [2]. SN2024gy, when first observed had an approximate magnitude of 16.3, but continues to brighten to a current approximate magnitude of 12,6 [1].

NGC 4216 with SN 2024gy: 42 x 240 second light exposure; 35 x 240 dark exposures; multispectrum broadband filter (cropped approximately 100%). SN2024 gy is the large white dot in the right side of the galaxy. Note, all the other stars in the image, including the star that appears to be at the bottom of NGC 4216, are very much in the foreground, within our own Milky Way, in the hundreds and thousands of light years away versus 40 million for SN2024.

NGC 4216 w SN2024Gy-PS-cropped-labelled copy.jpg


1. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/the-night-i-met-the-crab-pulsar/
2. https://www.science.org/content/article/amateur-astronomer-may-worlds-top-supernova-hunter

cheers
 

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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NGC 1097 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Fornax. A super massive black hole lies at the center of the galaxy. It is thought to be at least 10 times more massive than the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way. A ring of star-forming dust and gas surrounds the black hole. Three supernovae, SN 1992bd, SN 1999eu, and SN 2003B, were detected in a span of 11 years, a high number in such a short span of time. NGC 1097A is a box-shaped satellite galaxy that interacts with NGC1097; they will likely one day merge.

NGC 1097 is difficult for the Canuck Observatory to image, it is very low on the southern horizon and only for a short span before power lines and trees get in the way, so, apologies for the crappy image, but it's the best we can do.

NGC1097 and NGC 1097A: 10 x 240 second light exposures; 30 x 240 dark exposures; multipectrum broad band filter:

NGC 1097 - Cropped - PS copy.jpg

cheers
 
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@Dryflyphotography

Life of the Party
Noticed this ridiculously bright thingy in the sky last night. I struggled with the extreme dynamic range in my camera and eventually experimented with slowing my exposure to 8 seconds by reducing my ISO and widening my aperture, and then using my hand to cover up the upper portion of the lens to cover up the moon for the first 6-7 of the 8 seconds in order to bring a better exposure balance across the shot. I liked one of my many tries...Moonrise - Tunnels Beach - Ron Raport.jpg
 

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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Noticed this ridiculously bright thingy in the sky last night. I struggled with the extreme dynamic range in my camera and eventually experimented with slowing my exposure to 8 seconds by reducing my ISO and widening my aperture, and then using my hand to cover up the upper portion of the lens to cover up the moon for the first 6-7 of the 8 seconds in order to bring a better exposure balance across the shot. I liked one of my many tries...

Very nicely done!!
 

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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NGC 1851 is a large, bright (magnitude 7.14) globular star cluster in the constellation Columba. It was first described by James Dunlap on 29 May 1826. NGC 1851 is 39,500 light years from our sun and 54,500 years from the galactic center. Chemical analysis of bright giant stars in the cluster reveal 2 distinct and separate clusters, indicating NGC 1851 has had a complicated formation history.

NGC 1851 is very low on my southern horizon, so unfortunately could only capture 4 exposures while it was within my field of view and still had to crop out some power line interference shadows in the image.

NGC 1851: 8 x 360 second light exposures (taken over 2 nights); 15 x 360 second dark exposures, multipectrum broad band filter:

NGC 1851  - PS - Cropped copy.jpg

Information from SkySafari 6 Pro.

Cheers
 
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Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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My bigger birding lens (Nikon 600mm f4) gets some moon work in at times, but need to step up with the distant stuff that is so cool on this site- @Canuck from Kansas
View attachment 104810

View attachment 104803

Outstanding!!

You would be amazed at the deep sky objects you can capture with that lens. Just point it at Orions Belt, set iso to 1600 or so - without tracking, you will only be able to take about 1" exposures, but you might be able too pick up the Flame nebula - just go a little below the belt and you will get the Orion Nebula

The Winter triangle (Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Sirius) almost standing on its apex. Orion's belt are the 3 stars in a row (right to left Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka), with Orions Nebula in what appears to the naked eye as a hazy star cluster below Alnilam.

Taken last night with Sony Alpha 77 (APS-C) @ 40 mm; iso 1600, 20 second exposure (zooming in shows some star trailing, so 20 seconds was actually too long):

Winter triangle - Orion-PS copy.jpg
 
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Gyrfalcon22

Life of the Party
Outstanding!!

You would be amazed at the deep sky objects you can capture with that lens. Just point it at Orions Belt, set iso to 1600 or so - without tracking, you will only be able to take about 1" exposures, but you might be able too pick up the Flame nebula - just go a little below the belt and you will get the Orion Nebula

The Winter triangle (Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Sirius) almost standing on its apex. Orion's belt are the 3 stars in a row (right to left Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka), with Orions Nebula in what appears to the naked eye as a hazy star cluster below Alnilam.

Taken last night with Sony Alpha 77 (APS-C) @ 40 mm; iso 1600, 20 second exposure (zooming in shows some star trailing, so 20 seconds was actually too long):

View attachment 104947
Thank you! Hope to get a good clear night sometime here soon and give it a go. I do shoot with my Olympus mirrorless 2x crop instead of reg crop or full frame so that is not a plus, but love experimenting. The camera has a high resolution mode option but has to be with very still objects only as it takes 8 frames/shots in a grid and stitches them, but there is just enough delay ....I think 2 seconds, for the moon at high power to blur up.
 

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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Just downloaded a new toy. I know I can be slow to catch up on the latest gizmos, but I've been missing out big time. Got this Stellarium app to locate the Pons/Brooks comet but can see this becoming a problem...

View attachment 106241

Stellarium is great, you can also identify various satellites (Starling, etc), the Space Station and just about everything else that is visible up there. You should bee able to see 12P/Pons Brooks with a good pair of binoculars or a small scope. It's difficult for me here in North Carolina, too close to the horizon in the evening when it sets and light when it rises - changing the clock tonight won't help any.

Have fun with Stellarium.

Cheers
 

Gyrfalcon22

Life of the Party
12P/Pons Brooks comet anyone? any luck? finally some clear nights here but the moon is phasing brighter
 

Canuck from Kansas

Aimlessly wondering through life
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Not here; too low on the horizon in the evening for me, and somewhat cloudy, and then rises after sunrise. Cool possibility, if you're in the path of totality for the eclipse, you may get a view of it then.

cheers
 

RRSmith

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Aurora Alert!

This just popped up in my email from Spaceweather.com:

A BIG CME IS COMING: Two sunspots erupted at once on March 23rd, producing a powerful X1-class solar flare. A bright halo CME is now heading for Earth. Models suggest it could reach our planet during the early hours of March 25th, bringing a chance of strong geomagnetic storms and mid-latitude auroras. Follow this developing story @ Spaceweather.com.
 

RRSmith

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NOAA SWPC has just issued a G3 geomagnetic storm watch for the early hours of March 25th. I think I am screwed with cloud cover as well. The bright moon is going to suck as well.
 
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Gyrfalcon22

Life of the Party
NOAA SWPC has just issued a G3 geomagnetic storm watch for the early hours of March 25th. I think I am screwed with cloud cover as well. The bright moon is going to suck as well.
Lunar eclipse March 24th/25th midnight. Start 10pm (24th-tomorrow) -almost a full one a tad after midnight. That would help the show some.

 

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Brian Miller

Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting Cutthwoat Twout
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Update: looks like the CME is arriving much earlier than anticipated. There’s a G2 storm warning now until 9 utc tomorrow.
Received via HF radio:
NOAA Geomagnetic Activity Observation and Forecast
The greatest observed 3 hr Kp over the past 24 hours was 8 (NOAA scale G4).
The greatest expected 3 hr Kp for Mar 25-Mar 27 2024 is 5 (.67NOAA scale G2).

We had some good training for passing message traffic under challenging conditions during the WA-OR-ID regional HF Ecomm training net today.
 
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