Chris Howard's Blog, page 55
November 2, 2018
Triangulum Galaxy, M33, is a nearby spiral galaxy–around 3...
Triangulum Galaxy, M33, is a nearby spiral galaxy–around 3 million lightyears away, with as many as 40 billion stars. It’s the third largest galaxy in our local group, and appears to be bound up in Andromeda’s gravitational pull. It also contains some amazing nebulae and other deep space objects, e.g., NGC 604 is a massive H II region–that’s the bright pinkish blob, the size of a large star, at the lower left side of the galactic spiral. Keep in mind that nearly every star-like point of light in this image is actually a star in the Milky Way, our own galaxy. (WilliamOptics GT81, ZWO ASI071MC: 90 x 60 second exposures, unity gain). https://SaltwaterWitch.com
October 31, 2018
I had several hours of clear skies, still relatively dark before...
I had several hours of clear skies, still relatively dark before the moon rose, and I set up the William Optics GT81 and ZWO ASI071MC color camera to take a bunch of subs of M33 and M45–Triangulum Galaxy and the Pleiades, two of my favorite targets this time of year. The Pleiades, M45, also known as “The Seven Sisters” and in Japanese as Subaru (昴). It’s one of the most identifiable objects in the night sky, but it’s more than just a loose group of stars. Located in the constellation Taurus, the Pleiades is a nearby open star cluster mostly made up of a batch of relatively young B-type stars amid (or behind) a reflection nebula that appears to surround and fill the space between the stars with veil-like sheets and threads. (WilliamOptics GT81, ZWO ASI071MC: 60 x 60 second and 60 x 120 second exposures, unity gain). https://SaltwaterWitch.com
October 30, 2018
October 28, 2018
iOptron Mod - Polar Scope CamI built a prototype polar scope...
iOptron Mod - Polar Scope Cam
I built a prototype polar scope camera, using a 3D printed copy of the polar scope cap for the iOptron CEM25P and a cheap USB webcam. I created a model of the polar scope cap in Tinkercad (tinkercad.com), exported it in STL, sliced it in ideaMaker, and sent it to my Alfawise U20 –I printed it in plain old gray PLA.
October 27, 2018
Supernova Explorer - I spent a few hours dreaming and painting...
Supernova Explorer - I spent a few hours dreaming and painting faraway places and times this morning, partly to take my mind off the horrible things going on today. About 4 hours in Art Rage 5
October 24, 2018
supernatural-demigod:
positive-memes:
Good robots still...
Good robots still exist
The best part is that it’s saying “Like my profile pic?”
Which I find is the most adorable thing ever
October 17, 2018
October 13, 2018
It stopped raining for several hours last night, and I got out...
It stopped raining for several hours last night, and I got out with the astro gear…and then it started raining again. The Wizard Nebula surrounding the open star cluster NGC 7380 in the constellation Cepheus, about 7,200 lightyears aways from us. (16 x 300 second exposures in Ha and OIII, Atik 414EX mono CCD, Astronomik 12nm Ha, OIII filters, William Optics ZS61 + WO Flat F6A f/4.7, CEM25P EQ mount, Orion OAG + ZWO ASI120MM-Mini guide cam, Stellarmate OS (INDI/KStars/Ekos) running on Raspberry Pi 3b+).
