Monthly Archives: March 2016

Solar 03/29/2016

imageimageThis was taken through the Astro-Physics 130mm refractor using a Lunt Herschel wedge and an Imaging Source video camera. The Lunt wedge produces a white light image which was converted to something resembling an H-Alpha reddish tone. I have never tried this configuration before and was a little surprised at the amount of detail in the final image. The best of 2000 images were stacked.

Solar 03/25/2016

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This was taken with the Lunt 80mm solar telescope in its “double stack” mode.  In this mode you are able to obtain images with a bit more definition.  A thousand images were stacked to form the final image.

The line in the photo is most likely a solar filament of cooler material on the surface.  It will probably disappear in a few days.

Seagull Nebula – Three Panel Mosaic -Version 2

SEAGULLNEBULAASTROBIN5This nebula is now setting much earlier. I still need a little more imaging in the upper portion. Hopefully the next few days will offer an opportunity to complete the H-Alpha portion of this project. So far the total imaging time is about 15.5 hours.  It looks like a color version will have to wait until next year.

David Earl and his loader

Almost three years ago 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died in a horrific fire in our area. Since then, the county has been making sure that local housing areas are protected from wildfires. Today David Earl was clearing the State Land behind our home and observatory. Thanks David!