I Know Where Freddy Kruger Lives

Saturday, August 29th, 2009.  I spent the afternoon and early evening with family celebrating my youngest daughter Mary's 29th birthday.  The other highlight of my day (night in this case) involved going to Crockett Park with other astronomy enthusiasts (nut-cases according to my wife) and viewing the heavens with our telescopes. 

I had all my astro gear in the SUV and was ready to go when I found out via email that Crockett was closed to astronomy that weekend and so was our alternate location, Great Meadows because of a polo match.  I found out that everyone was going to a place in Loudon County, VA called: "Camp High Road" (CHR).  I looked it up on Google maps and decided to give it a try.

I stayed at Mary's party too long and arrived at CHR after dark.  BIG MISTAKE!  I knew I was in trouble when I turned off of State Rt. 15, went through the samll town of Aldie, which was complete with a redneck sherriff manning a speed trap (I was doing the speed limit).  The town looked like a someone forgot to tell them the Civil War was over, and that they lost. 

Things went downhill quickly when I turned right onto the 'Snickersville Turnpike' (real name) and drove on some winding, barely paved road for 8 miles, climbing uphill the entire time.  I thought: "This would be a great place to film "Blair Witch III". 
At last, I reached the road leading to the CHR and the driving ordeal was over.  WRONG!  It was only beginning.  I ran out of asphalt after 20 feet and was dumped on a bumpy dirt road, complete with grooves and swirling dust. 

Directions from the astronomy club said to turn 'Left' just before the big white CHR sign.  Given the choice I rather would have gone to the camp.  It looked safe.  The left onto a narrow dirt road looked scary.  It was then that I realized:  "This is where they filmed Wrong Turn".  Only question was: Where were the uni-toothed Hillbilly cannibals hiding ?".

I started sweating when I saw ten or so abandoned cars, some on blocks littering the roadside.  As I peered through the mist and dust (real conditions) I saw a dimly lit building in the distance filled with stripped car parts (no lie).  Now I was worried, because I had not seen another living soul since turning off the Snickerdoodle, (or whatever it's called), road.  Then my mind recalled all the scary stories I heard and told as a kid.  As the road narrowed to where trees were brushing against the car on both sides, I replayed all the horror movies I had ever seen like: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, People Under the Stairs, Psycho, Halloween and The Flintstones Movie (the sight Rosie O'Donnell scares the hell out of me)

Just as I was about to carve my own road out of there, I emerged from the woods to find twenty or so cars set up in a field.  One guy with a red flashlight approached, and said welcome to Camp High Road.  I let out a BIG SIGH OF RELIEF, then I asked: "How the hell did you ever find this place ?"  He did not answer.  Personally, I don't think he has left since wandering up this way a few years back.  :)

I set up my telescope in a field near the road and commenced astro imaging.  I only got to take pictures for an hour before the Moon came up and washed the sky out, but the views prior to that time were great.  Because seeing conditions weren't that great, I decided to take some quick, unguided photos of Milky Way Galaxy deep space objects that I cannot see from the house.  The pictures are unmodified and are grainy, but gave me an idea what to take long exposure photos of during my next excursion.

M8 (Lagoon Nebula)

M16 Eagle Nebula)

M17 (Omega, Swan, Horseshoe Nebula)

M22 (Globular Cluster)

M24 (Milky Way Galaxy Center)

M27 (Dumbell Nebula)

Now that I am more confident that Freddy Kruger, the Hillbillies or Rosie O'Donnell aren't going to snuff me out, I plan to return to Camp High Road very soon to take better pictures of the objects I am showing here and some others I missed because of Moonrise.

Hoping Hurricane Earl Goes out to Sea

StarPilot

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M3 Globular Cluster

At long last, I was able to take my telescope and camera out for an evening when there was no wind, little haze and a new Moon.


The picture I am posting tonight is of Messier Object M3, one of the brightest globular clusters in the sky.


Under dark skies M3 is naked eye visible, and under city lights the cluster can be seen with binoculars, if you know where to look.


M3 rises in the eastern sky after sunset and is visible shortly thereafter. This very bright globular cluster is located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is magnitude 6.3 (bright for a cluster) and is a mere 11 light years across.


M3 has been said to contain over 240,000 stars, 25,000 of which are variable stars (the most of any deep space object).


The object is located 33,900 light years from our Solar System, a distance farther than the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, but it outshines the glactic center, at least from our perspective.


Stay tuned for more images from my most recent night under the stars.


Clear Skies at Last!


StarPilot

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Milky Way Galaxy

Northern Virginia is not the best place to view the Milky Way Galaxy, but if you get 20-30 miles west of the city lights, you will be amazed at how much of the Milky Way you can see with the naked eye.

The following three pictures were taken at Crockett Park in Fauquier County, VA on a clear, moonless night on August 31st, 2008.




Picture: Milky Way 1 (Taken looking at the Southern horizon to about 25 degrees skyward)



Picture: Milky Way 2 (Taken looking midway between the Southern horizon and straight overhead)



Picture: Milky Way 3 (Picture taken looking straight overhead)


My primary goal that night was astrophotography, but I'll admit the exposure time on some astro photos ran much longer than I intended, because I was lost in daydreams, or in this case, nightdreams looking at the Milky Way.


For the record, the Milky Way Galaxy contains between 200-400 billion stars and is home to our solar system.

Our star 'Sol' (The Sun) is classified a G2 star, meaning it has a surface temperature of 5740 Kelvin (that's hot). Sol is one of 10 Million G2 stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Our solar system is not located in the center of the Milky Way, but rather on the edge of a small spiral band called the Orion Arm. You can equate that to the galactic center of the galaxy being downtown, and our solar system being in the distant suburbs.


The following picture is an artists conception of what the scientific community believes the Milky Way Galaxy looks like. Of course we cannot know for sure, because we live inside and cannot see an external view.




Recent estimates put the Milky Way at 100,000 light years (ly) in diameter and 1,000 ly thick, which means it would take a human 100,000 years traveling at the speed of light to traverse the galaxy from end to end. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

With current technology, we can travel at a scant 20,000 Miles per Hour. To travel at the speed of light we would have to travel at 186,000 Miles per Second. Even at that speed it would take 1,333 human lifetimes to travel the galaxy end to end. Guess we're stuck with artists pictures of the Milky Way.

The spiral band seen in my pictures is the Orion Arm. The brightest star cloud in picture "Milky Way 1" points toward the galactic center of the galaxy. The Orion Arm blocks us from seeing glactic center with optical telescopes, however scientists have a better idea what the Milky Way looks like by measuring radio waves. Google 'Milky Way' to find a lot of great on our home galaxy.


We are very blessed to be located where we are in the Milky Way, because:

- If we were closer to the galactic center of the Milky Way we likely wouldn't exist because of massive doses of radiation preventing life (as we know it) from thriving. Too, the glare from the glactic center would keep us from seeing anything else in the universe.

- Since we are on the outer edge of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way we have an unobstructed view of many parts of the universe. Had we been located farther inside the Orion Arm, space dust and millions of bright stars would have impeded our view of the universe.


Hope you enjoyed my quick drive-by tour of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Clear Skies

Star Pilot

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Out With The Old, and In With ...

Hi All!

Here are a few photos to round out the year. I've been busy the entire month and haven’t been able to write any BLOG entries.

My star gazing opportunities have been few and far between because of cloudy nights.

Photo 1 is Comet Holmes taken December 14th with a jet flying through my field of view while I was taking the shot.

Photo 2 is the Constellation Perseus portion of the Milky Way Galaxy. The star field is very dense in this portion of the sky. You can see Comet Holmes in the upper-right portion of the picture.

Photo 3 is M42 "The Great Orion Nebula". The Pinkish-Purple colors are the actual colors of the nebula. Some photographers doctor the colors, but you'll not see that with my pictures. I believe in showing what can be seen with the naked eye through a telescope or binoculars.

Photo 4 is M31 "The Andromeda Galaxy. It's our closest neighboring galaxy. The fuzzy spot just below Andromeda is M32, and just above Andromeda is M110, two dwarf galaxies.

Photo 5 is uhmmm ... Mars. It's the best I could do with a shaky camera tripod. I got a new camera tripod for Christmas, but haven't had a chance to use it yet.

That's it for this entry. I've been studying visible constellations for this time of year and am planning some star gazing sessions to locate new (to me) galaxies and other deep space objects.

See you in 2008!

Star Pilot

P.S. – Comments are always appreciated.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night ...

... so I had nothing better to do than raid my astrophotography archive to find pictures to post.

[Image 1] is a picture of Comet 17P/Holmes taken 11/23/2007. The comet is washed out because there was a Full Moon and my neighbor's flood lamp was shining directly at my telescope.

The image was produced using:

Camera: Nikon D80 (Piggyback onto ETX-125)
Lens: Quantaray 70-300mm (@300mm Focal Length)

ISO Speed: 200

F-Number: F/5.6

Exposure time: 48 Seconds

If you want to find out more about Comet 17P/Holmes, here are some excellent links:

http://cometography.com/pcomets/017p_images.html

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17P/Holmes

Now lets have some rainy night fun ...

[Image 2] is a wide field picture I took of the constellation Sagittarius in August 2007.
[Image 3] is a 'film negative' view of Image 2.

[Image 4] is star chart of the constellation Sagittarius I found on http://www.wikipedia.com/

Using Images 4 as a guide, see how many Messier objects you can identify in Images 2 &3, and if you can link the visible stars in the constellation. Actually, connecting the dots (stars) will help you find the Messier objects.

The dense starfield in Sagittarius is the Heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. (This constellation and its many celestial treasures are what hooked me on Astronomy and Astrophotography).

Helpful Star Gazing Hint: In the light pollutes skies of Northern Virginia, I often take wide field pictures of portions of the sky and study them on the computer to learn my constellations and other celestial objects.

Enjoy!

Star Pilot

P.S. - Please excuse the formatting problems. Blogger's editor has a mind of its own.