Comet Siding Spring, Photometry references and NGC 7790 images for determining Transforms.

It is wet in Spain so I used T30 (at Siding Spring) in Australia today to image Comet Siding Spring.

On Tuesday last I imaged NGC 7790 which is one of the recommended star clusters for identifying the transformation coefficents for photometry specific to a telescope and photometric system. I have a number of references for photometry and variable stars being a member of the BAA Variable Star Section , the AAVSO and have the following books as references:

1. A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis by Brian D. Warner - you need to be careful there are two Brian Warners - both involved in photometry! (Neither is Marilyn Manson who is actually another Brian Warner) Published by Springer 2006

Brian has made a You Tube video explaining what he does.

2. David Levy's Guide to Variable Stars.  David Levy 2005 Published by Cambridge University Press

I attended a talk by David some years ago which was very well received - this video is about him.

3. Understanding Variable Stars John R. Percy 2007 Cambridge University Press

Last year he won the AAVSO Education Prize.

4.  Observing Variable Stars, Novae and Supernovae. Gerald North 2004 Cambridge University Press.

I came across this ebook by Gerald - I have the real thing in my astronomy library somewhere!

Back to NGC 7790. Here are the B and V images I obtained with my C14+SBIG

 

To be continued...

Day 181 Friday 26th September 2014 Exoplanet Transit using a remote telescope in New Mexico.

I came across an interesting video on You Tube about monitoring an expolanet using iTelescope.net This is a telescope that I use regularly - perhaps I should have a go at generating a light curve of a transiting exoplanet. 

The weather continues to be poor - rain and cloud so no astronomy possible locally.

Day 180 Thursday 25th September 2014. Rainbows and Lightning.

No astronomy today as storms hit. Torrential rain and later on a bright rainbow with a secondary arc visible from my observatory.

The best was to come later in the evening with a replay of the Martian invasion in War of the Worlds. The storm was uncannily similar to the storm viewed from Tom Cruise's back garden! It went on for over an hour - at least! The video lasts for almost 4 minutes. I am not sure whether that first lightning flash looks more like a nuclear explosion or a Martian tripod!

Stills taken from the video

September Images of Comet C\2014 E2 Jacques, Pluto, Neptune and several galaxies.

Comet C\2014 E2 (Jacques)

 

 Pluto in Sagittarius

 

Neptune in Aquarius

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Day 178 Tuesday 23rd September 2014 The Autumnal Equinox,NGC 7790 and 200 galaxies imaged.

It has been generally cloudy for the last week and I have not had the opportunity to use a telescope. It was promising last night but cloud descended once more. At 6.50 this morning however it was clear (with a little Autumn chill to the air) but the morning was approaching. Orion was very bright and the Pleiades were overhead. Auriga was high in the sky with the "kids" very clearly visible even though it was nearly dawn. Sirius was blazing away at magnitude -1.44 as the brightest star in the sky with Canis Major below it partially disappearing behind the mountain horizon. The Plough was North of East standing on its tail. Sirius was outshone however by Jupiter which was was brilliant at -1.91 and high above the Eastern horizon - below and to the left of Canis Minor and Gemini and above and to the right of Leo.  Procyon was visible at magnitude 0.4 between Jupiter and Sirius. By 7.30 a.m. the only objects visible in the sky were Sirius and Jupiter. Venus had not yet risen. At 0825 the Sun rose above the mountain as shown - I am having difficulty typing this as the Sun rose very quickly and my eyes have not yet adjusted from the glare. The positions of Venus at mag -3.93 and the Moon with a phase of less than 1% are shown.

 I used the position of the Sun and Jupiter to adjust the SkyX  horizon photo ( that I had stitched together  from single images) and recorded the settings as below

The sky is very clear now (08:36) - I hope it stays that way into the night. We shall see!

It was clear and an imaging run gave me images of just less than 200 galaxies. I also had my first run on the cluster NGC 7790 using B and V filters as an initial step in determining transformation coefficients for my photometry work. I need flat, dark and bias frames for these and several nights of further images of the cluster to average out the results.

Messier 35 Open Star Cluster

 This galactic star cluster is an excellent object to observe and image. Messier listed this in 1764 but Burnham refers to a Swiss astronomer de Cheseaux recording it in 1745 - number 12 on his list. However did Bevis know about M35 first - see the image of his atlas below. It is worth reading about Burnham and how he became poor in later life with readers of his books confusing him with a more prominent astronomer of the same name.

LA Remote image M35 and NGC 2158

M35 Central below

NGC 2158

 This is the Atlas Celeste by Bevis showing M35

Day 176 Sunday 21st September Tarantula's Neighbour NGC 2044

Day 175 Saturday 20th September 2014. Tarantula's Neighbour NGC 2042

Day 174 Friday 19th September 2014. Tarantula's Neighbour NGC 2093

Day 173 Thursday 18th September 2014 Tarantula's Neighbour NGC 2100