Smoky, it is

 The past couple days we have been getting heavy smoke from the Elk Fire by Lake City.  Last night some stars were visible, but smoke was obscuring portions of the sky.  In spite of the poor conditions, it was an opportunity to try out a new Move Shoot Move Nomad star tracker.

The camera was an OM-5ii with a Panasonic Leica 12mm f/1.4 lens. 

 

Sparkle-6 filter.  Heavy smoke on the southern horizon

Sparkle-6 filter.  Heavy smoke over Bristol Head (left lower corner)

 Here is a picture of the Nomad star tracker:

The Nomad star tracker is the small rectangular box.  It mounts on the lower ball head, which is used to set polar alignment.  The camera is mounted on the upper ball head.  The unit performed extremely well in this initial test. 

 

 

 

More darkness

 The northern sky brightness last night was 21.68 mpsas.  This is nicely dark.  There was some wildfire smoke in the air, but it did not seem to have a significant effect on transparency.

The following images were obtained with a Sigma 56mm f/1.4 lens, some with a Hoya Softon diffusion filter, some without.

 

The constellation Delphinus. Softon filter.

Delphinus is currently high in the sky in the late evening.

constellation Corona Australis. Softon filter.

 The constellation Corona Australis is low near the southern horizon.  The dark shadow in the lower left of the image is the ridgeline of Snowshoe Mountain.

 

The Milky way in Scutum.  Softon filter.

The Milky Way in Scutum.  No filter.

Southern Scorpius.  No filter.

This view of the southern part of Scorpius shows two open star clusters (M7 and M6) and two emission nebulas (NGC 6334 and NGC 6357).

A closer look at M7 and M6:

M7 (LL) and M6 (UR)

 The asteroid (8) Flora is making a close pass near the star Ross 154.  Ross 154 is the seventh nearest star system, and Flora is the nearest large main-belt asteroid (about 145 km across).  The following two images were obtained on Monday and Wednesday and show the progress of Flora relative to Ross 154.

Monday night.  Ross 154 (red circle), (8) Flora (turquoise circle).

 

Wednesday night.

An exceptionally dark night

 Last night astronomical twilight ended near 10 pm and the Moon did not rise for another 45 min.  Between those two times the sky was exceptionally dark.  The SQML meter pointed at the northern sky above Polaris measured 21.84 mpsas.  It rarely gets darker than that.  Even better, none of the neighbors had porch lights blazing.

Two lenses were used: a 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fish-eye for wide views of the Milky Way and a Sigma 56mm f/1.4 for narrower views. 

 

In the middle image above some small puffy clouds were lingering near the zenith.  In the bottom picture the Andromeda Galaxy appears just over the cabin roof.  Some faint green airglow is visible along the northern horizon.

 

The section of Sagittarius displayed above was captured with the 56mm lens and a Hoya Softon filter.  The circle just above center marks the location of the asteroid (8) Flora and the star Ross 154.

Here is a closer look:

Ross 154 (solid red circle), asteroid  (8) Flora (dotted turquoise circle)

 The asteroid (8) Flora was discovered in 1847 and is the closest large main-belt asteroid.  It is currently at magnitude 9.7 and 10.7 light-minutes distant. 

Ross 154 is a magnitude-10.4 red dwarf that is the 7th closest star system at a distance of 9.7 ly.

On the right-hand side of this image is the globular cluster M22, which is 10,000 ly distant.

Region in Sagittarius just above the Milky Way core.

 

A brief look at the Milky Way

 The Milky Way has lately been mostly obscured by the bright Moon and cloudy nights.  Last night there was a brief interval between the clouds dissipating and the rising of the waning Buck Moon.  This image was obtained with a 7Artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 fish-eye lens.  Moonrise occurred about 20 minutes earlier, but the Moon was still well hidden behind Snowshoe Mountain.   The sky, however, was already turning blue with scattered moonlight.

 

A solar storm hit the Earth the same day, but there were no auroras visible from Creede at the time (10:45 pm) this photo was taken.  Here is a photo of the Sun taken earlier in the day:

02 Aug.  Apertura 60mm ED f/6 refractor

 

Buck Moon rising

Until the Moon rises, Venus is still the brightest object in the night sky.  It shines brightly at magnitude -4.1 in the west during twilight.

Venus setting over Bristol Head

 The full moon of July, which occurred yesterday, is known in some cultures as the "Buck Moon". The following images were obtained with a 60mm f/6 refractor and a 1.5x MDB (Magic Dakin Barlow).

Full Buck Moon rising over Snowshoe Mountain

 Thin clouds created a corona around the rising moon.

 

Moony Milky Way

 Early Tuesday evening the 8.0-day Moon was visible through slight haze.

 Near midnight the Moon was setting behind the Bristol Head ridgeline while wrapped in clouds.  There was mostly clear sky in the opposite direction, but it was still glowing blue with scattered moonlight.

Milky Way and Summer Triangle

 

Pegasus rising, with the Andromeda Galaxy (circled)

These last two images were obtained with a Panasonic Leica 9mm f/1.7 lens + Hoya Sparkle-6 optical filter.  A digital 3x3 median filter was applied in postprocessing.

The Moon is back

 Lots of rain and cloudy weather lately—given the ongoing drought, that's a good thing.  There was a brief view of the waxing crescent Moon and Venus during Saturday-evening twilight.  Near midnight, the sky was clouded over.

5.1-day Moon and Venus, 18 July.

 Sunday evening was a lot clearer early on, but it was still mostly cloudy again near midnight.

6.1-day Moon, 19 July

 The image above was obtained with an Apertura 60mmED f/6 refractor.  A 1.5x Magic Dakin Barlow (yes, that's what it is called) was installed near the flange of the Olympus E-M5iii camera to give an effective focal length of 555 mm (1.54 magnification).

Smoky nights

 There are currently a number of large wildfires burning in Colorado.  The smoke density here in Creede varies from day to day depending on wind direction.  Thursday night was clear but with some light smoke in the air.  Outside lights blazing on some neighborhood cabins presented a challenge because of the scattered light in the smoky air.  The views toward the northeast and overhead were the best options for astrophotography.  

In spite of the challenging conditions, this was an opportunity to test an old equatorial mount (purchased in 2019) as a star tracker for wide-field photography.  The mount is identical (I believe) to an Orion EQ-1 mount.  It came as part of a package sold by Celestron as the Powerseeker 60EQ.  The package included the mount and a 60mm f/15 optical tube and accessories.  I had been considering buying the mount separately from Orion for a retail price somewhere above $100 (I don't recall the exact amount).  However, the Celestron package from Amazon was only $73!  So I got the same mount PLUS a telescope for $30-40 cheaper than the mount by itself.  Orion is now defunct.  The Powerseeker 60EQ package is still listed on the Celestron web site, but I can't see it offered for sale anywhere.  However, there is a Powerseeker 70EQ package that appears to have the same mount, with a larger optical tube and a much larger price tag.

The camera for these tests was an OM-5ii + Panasonic Leica 15mm f/1.7 lens.  The mount was driven by a motor that had been purchased many years earlier for use with an Orion mini-EQ tabletop mount.

The sky brightness was measured as 21.60 (pointing away from the neighbor's lights), and the transparency was good in spite of the smoke.  I could easily see 7+ stars in the Little Dipper. 

The Summer Triangle: Deneb, Vega, Altair

 

Arcturus (bottom) and Corona Borealis (above center)

 Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the fourth brightest star overall.  The constellation Corona Borealis is the location of the "Blaze Star", a recurrent nova that is expected to erupt sometime soon, based on previous cycles.  When it does it will probably be similar in brightness to Alphecca, the current brightest star in Corona Borealis.  The cropped image below shows the location of the nova (T Coronae Borealis or T CrB), which is currently a dim magnitude 10, and Alphecca.

 

T CrB is circled.  Arcturus is at the bottom of the frame.

The mount and camera

Astrophotography with an inexpensive 80mm f/5 refractor

Eight years ago I purchased a Meade 80mm f/5 refractor brand new for $90.  The specific retail package was advertised as the Meade "Adventure Scope".  I discarded all the cheap accessories and upgraded the optical tube with a GSO Crayford focuser and some tube rings and dovetails.  This scope is now going to be loaned to the Lookout Mountain Observatory Association in Del Norte for the purpose of developing a way to electronically display images in near realtime at public events.  Before it leaves home, however, I wanted to take some pictures to establish a baseline expectation for what might be achieved.

Here is a picture of the scope from the retail packaging: 

And here is what the new configuration looks like, with an ASIAIR mini control module and an ASI294MC-Pro cooled astro camera:

 The sky was clear enough on Thursday night (02 July) to take some photos using this scope with an Olympus E-M5iii camera, riding on a ZWO AM3 mount.  The moon was rising, though still hidden behind the ridgeline of Snowshoe Mountain.  Because of the rising moon, sky brightness was only 20.5 mpsas.

This scope is an achromatic doublet, which comes with two flaws that affect astrophotography.  The first is field curvature, and the second is chromatic aberration in the form of purple fringing.  To mitigate these problems, these images were obtained with a field flattener and a UV/IR cut filter. 

The sensors in the E-M5iii and ASI294MC-Pro are nearly the same size, so these images should be representative of what can be achieved with the astro camera. 

All of the following images are single exposures of between 30 to 60 sec. 

M8, the "Lagoon Nebula"

 Messier 8 (M8) is in the constellation Sagittarius in the heart of the Milky Way. The cluster in the lower left of this image is the globular cluster NGC 6544, about twice as far away (9800 ly).

Star cluster M21 (near center) and M20, the "Trifid Nebula" in Sagittarius.

 

Open cluster M23 in Sagittarius

Open cluster M25 in Sagittarius

Globular cluster M22 in Sagittarius

Open clusters NGC 6716 and Collinder 394 in Sagittarius

The scope was also used to view a few of the nearest stars.  

Barnard's Star in Ophiuchus

 Barnard's Star, at 5.96 ly, is the second closest star system after the Alpha Centauri system.  It is a magnitude-9.5 red dwarf star.

Ross 154 in Sagittarius

 Ross 154, at 9.71 ly, is the seventh closest star system.  It is a magnitude-10.5 red dwarf star in Sagittarius.

 

61 Cygni

The double star 61 Cygni (in Cygnus) is the 14th closest system, at 11.4 ly.  The two slightly uneven components are each about 2/3 the size of our Sun.  

July 3rd Aurora

 The northern sky seemed unusually bright last night.  The camera revealed that an auroral display was in progress.  The color was not visible to the eye. These images were obtained with a Sony A7iii + Nikon Ai-S 20mm f/2.8 lens.  The time was about 11:30 pm MDT.

The smoke layer on the horizon is from the Gold Mountain fire near Ouray. 

 

There are some large sunspots about to rotate out of view.  Solar activity from this region is probably the cause of this auroral display.

Meade 80mm f/5 refractor + Lunt Solar Wedge.

 The Milky-Way view toward the south shows no aurora, but the eastern sky is starting to brighten with moonlight.

 A view of the Summer Triangle reveals the pink auroral glow on the northern side of the frame.