Morning Milky Way and Zodiacal Light

 At 5 am on Friday morning the sky was clear and calm.  The sky brightness to the east was measured as 21.45 mpsas, which is pretty good.  Jupiter is rising in the east and Orion is already high in the southeast.

Zodiacal Light and the winter Milky Way over Snowshoe Mountain

 This image was taken with an Olympus 8mm f/1.8 fisheye lens.  On the left, Jupiter is embedded in the triangular glow of Zodiacal light, which continues to arc upward from left to right.  On the right, the winter Milky Way arcs upward from right to left past Sirius and Orion.  The ridge line of Snowshoe Mountain is silhouetted against green and red airglow.

 This vertical fisheye image extends up past the zenith and into the northwest sky, just catching the eastern end of Cassiopeia.

 This image was obtained with a Laowa 7.5mm f/2 rectilinear lens and a Hoya Sparkle-6 filter.

The Moon fades, the Milky Way reappears

 After several days of deluge the sky was clear on Thursday night and last night.  There is now a window of darkness between the end of astronomical twilight and the rising of the waning Harvest Moon.

The last-quarter Harvest Moon was captured sinking behind the trees on the Bristol Head ridgeline yesterday afternoon:

 Later that evening (Friday) the Milky Way was once again an impressive sight:

 This photo was obtained with an OM-5II camera and an Olympus 8mm f/1.8 fisheye lens.  A digital low-pass filter was applied in post processing to suppress the faint stars.  This is a fisheye lens, so the view extends from the southern horizon up past the zenith and into the northern sky.

The next two images are also fisheye views with similar processing. 

view to the northwest

 

view to the north east

Three objects of interest are circled in the image above.  The planet Saturn is visible on the right.  In the middle, the galaxies M31 (Andromeda Galaxy, top) and M33 (Triangulum Galaxy, lower) are circled.  The Andromeda Galaxy is easily visible to the unaided eye with a dark sky like last night.  At a distance of 2.5 Million light years (Mly), it is the farthest easily seen object with the naked eye.  The Triangulum Galaxy is slightly farther away at a distance fo 2.8 Mly.  At magnitude 5.8, it is theoretically visible to the unaided eye under extremely dark conditions.  I tried, but my aging eyes could not pick it out last night.  The sky was nicely dark at the end of the observing session, with a measured sqml value of 21.62 mpsas in the eastern sky.

Harvest Moon ascending

 The weather gods were either distracted or being benevolent on Saturday night.  Clouds covered the western sky, but the view to the east stayed clear long enough to catch the rising Harvest Moon.

All pictures were with a 60mm f/6 refractor.

Anticipation....

 

There it is...

Through the trees

Harvest Moon, 99.7% full

Harvest Moon preview

The full Harvest Moon occurs today (Saturday) at 10:50 am MDT, but the prospects for viewing at moonrise this evening currently do not look good.  Last night there was a break in the clouds that allowed a preview as the Moon cleared the Snowshoe Mountain ridgeline at 7:45 pm.

These images were obtained with an Apertura 60mmED f/6 telescope.

 

25 September, 99.6% full

Autumnal Equinox

The Autumnal Equinox, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator in the southward direction,  marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.   This year it occurred on Tuesday, 22 September. 

Here are two pictures taken on the day before the equinox (summer), and the day after (autumn).

On the road to Love Lake.  Monday.

 

Snow on the La Garitas. Wednesday morning

Observe the Moon night

 Saturday, 19 September, was "International Observe the Moon Night" for 2026.  This is an event conceived and promoted by NASA.  The date is chosen to occur close to the quarter-moon phase. 

After many days of rain, which raised the water flow in the Rio Grande by a factor of 6.7, Saturday morning started out with a rainbow and the promise of clearing skies.

Saturday morning double rainbow

 Venus is near peak brightness low in the eastern sky around sunset.  These images were obtained with a Sightron infini D50 refractor (50mm f/10.4) and a 1.5x MDB (Magic Dakin Barlow).  Obtaining a sharp image is challenging because of atmospheric turbulence at this low elevation.

Venus 30 min before sunset. sum of six images

Venus 15 min before sunset, single exposure (1/125 s, ISO 800)

Venus setting into the Bristol Head ridgeline 15 min after sunset

 

southern region

northern region

The Lagoon Nebula

 The Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8 or M8, is a bright emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius.  It lies very near the core of the Milky Way in a region with several other bright nebulae such as the Trifid Nebula (M20), the Omega Nebula (M17), and the Eagle Nebula (M16).

These images were obtained last week with an Apertura 60mmED f/6 refractor and an Olympus E-M5iii camera.

 First, an unfiltered "natural color" image:

Lagoon Nebula (bottom) and Trifid Nebula (top)

The next image of the same region was obtained using an Optolong L-eNhance dual narrowband filter that selects the wavelengths for H-alpha, H-beta, and OIII emission.

Milky Way and globular clusters

 Some photos from Tuesday (08 Sep) and Thursday (10 Sep).  The Milky Way image was obtained with a Sony A7iii camera and a Laowa 15mm f/2 lens.  The other images were obtained with an Apertura 60mmED f/6 refractor and an Olympus E-M5iii camera.

Milky Way and air glow over Bristol Head.  120 s, ISO 1600, Sparkle-6 filter.

 Globular clusters exist in the galactic halo of the Milky Way and are some of the oldest objects in our galaxy.  They are spherical, gravitationally stable clusters of stars with hundreds of thousands or even millions of members.

The globular-cluster images are 1-deg square field-of-view. 

Globular cluster M4 in Scorpius

Globular cluster M5 in Serpens

Globular cluster M10 in Ophiuchus

Globular cluster M12 in Ophiuchus

Globular cluster M13 in Hercules

Globular cluster M22 in Sagittarius

A daytime partial occultation of Jupiter

 Some stars and planets are bright enough to be seen during broad daylight, if you know where and how to look.  A good example occurred today when the moon passed in front of the planet Jupiter (an occultation) in the middle of the day.  From my location here in Creede, the occultation was partial, meaning the Moon obscured only part of Jupiter's disc.  Maximum occultation occurred at about 1:14pm MDT, at which time 29% of Jupiter's diameter was obscured.

The following images were obtained with an Apertura 60mmED f/6 refractor.  Clouds nearly obscured the event, but a hole opened up just as the Moon was passing Jupiter.  I missed the beginning, but managed to see the exit and very nearly the maximum occultation.

Jupiter (left) about 2 hr before occultation

 

The Moon and Jupiter about 1 hr before occultation

 

Jupiter partially obscured.  About 1 min past maximum.

About 13 minutes past maximum

Saturday Milky Way

 The sky brightness was 21.44 mpsas.  There were some wispy clouds along the southwest horizon.  The camera was a Sony A7iii with a Laowa 15mm f/2 rectilinear lens and a Hoya Sparkle-6 filter.  Exposures were 58 s at ISO 1600.

Vega (top center) over the Bristol Head ridgeline

 

The Milky Way and other sights

 Another clear evening, nicely but not impressively dark with a measured brightness of 21.4 mpsas. After capturing the Milky Way with a Laowa 7.5mm f/2 rectilinear lens on an OM-5ii camera, I photographed some deep-sky objects using a Rokinon 135mm f/2 Nikon-mount lens adapted to a Sony A7iii camera.

Milky Way rising through southern airglow. no filter

digital 3x3 median filter

 The dwarf planet Pluto is currently at magnitude 14.5 east of the Milky Way in the constellation Capricornus .  I was able to capture it with a 2-min exposure at ISO 100.  This was an inadvertent test of the ISO invariance of the Sony A7iii.  The exposure was pushed 4 stops in post-processing.

Pluto (circled). 2x enlargement. 

 Farther east, the asteroid (9) Metis is making a close pass (1.9°) to the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293).  Metis is the 35th largest asteroid with dimensions on the order of 200 km.  It was discovered in 1848.

(9) Metis (circled) and the Helix Nebula (LR) in Aquarius. 30 s, ISO 1600

 The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is now becoming well positioned for viewing in the late evening.

M31. 62 s, ISO 1600

 

M31, 3x3 median filter

The Double Cluster in Perseus. 30 s, ISO 1600

Caroline's Rose (NGC 7789), an open cluster in Cassiopeia

Venus, Saturn, Neptune

With the Moon gone, Venus is once again the brightest object in the evening sky, shining at magnitude -4.5.  It is now a fat crescent and will get slimmer as it approaches peak brightness in a couple weeks.  While setting behind the Bristol Head ridgeline, it is bright enough to illuminate the trees in front of it.

The following images were obtained with a Sightron infini D50 refractor and a 1.5x MDB (effective focal length 905 mm).

Venus setting behind Bristol Head

illuminated trees

crescent Venus, 1/1000 s, ISO 1600

 It is hard to get a sharp image of the planet with just a single exposure like this because of atmospheric effects, especially when it is so low in elevation.  The standard practice is to take tens, hundreds, or even thousands of images (in video format), then select and stack the sharpest fraction of video frames to produce a final image.  

  Astronomical twilight ends shortly after 9 pm (MDT) and the moonless sky is dark enough again to photograph constellations.  The following images were obtained with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens.  Sky brightness was a modest 21.38 mpsas.

Cassiopeia and the Double Cluster (lower middle). Softon filter.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). Softon.

M31 (top) and M33 (bottom)

 The image above was obtained with no optical filter, but a low-pass digital filter (3x3 median) was applied in post-processing.  M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy, is the largest member of our Local Group of galaxies.  M33, the Triangulum Galaxy (also sometimes called the Pinwheel Galaxy), is the third largest member after our own Milky Way Galaxy.  It is about 2/3 the size of our galaxy.

M33 is right on the verge of naked-eye visibility from an exceptionally dark site with good eyes. At a distance of 2.9 million light-years (Mly), it is likely the farthest object that can be seen without optical aid.

 The planet Saturn is currently on the boundary line between the constellations Pisces and Cetus.  It is rising above the ridgeline of Snowshoe mountain in the late evening.

Saturn (LL), Neptune (circled) and the Circlet of Pisces (upper right)

 The Circlet of Pisces is an asterism formed by a ring of seven stars in the constellation Pisces.  The planet Neptune currently shines at magnitude 7.8.  This puts it within the range of binoculars when aided by a good star chart.