Amazing video zooms in onto spiral galaxy NGC 1637 in Eridanus

This video starts from a beautiful view of the whole Milky Way galaxy, and zooms in on the spiral galaxy NGC 1637 in the constellation Eridanus near Orion.

http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1315a/

Comet PANSTARRS and the new moon

Object: Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) with the New Moon Crescent
Date: Tuesday 12 March, 2013 7:30 PM / starts 1 Jamadi-Al-Awwal, 1434 H.
Location: Lake Elsinore, California
Equipment:

• Canon Rebel XT with Tamron 55-200mm lens on a tripod.

Description:
Comet PANSTARRS and the new moon crescent featuring a conjunction over Lake Elsinore.

Images:

Closeup - 200 mm at f/5.6, 1 sec exposure and ISO 800.

The pair setting behind the mountains over Lake Elsinore.

135 mm at f/4, 2.5 sec exposure at ISO 800.

Closeup of the Comet: (Day 2) 13 March 2013 on S Main Divide road off of Highway 74
200 mm f/5.6 2 sec exposure at ISO 800.

Observation Log:
I drove from Murrieta to Lake Elsinore to the observation point on Grape Street. After offering the Maghrib (sunset) prayers at 7:03 PM I setup the camera and tried some test shots. At 7:23 PM I saw the crescent moon appear as the sky got slightly darker. Any prayers we make upon sighting a new moon are surely accepted, so I immediately raised my hands and made a few special prayers. I then started to look for the comet using my Orion WorldView 10x50 binoculars. At 7:27 PM I sighted the comet, Alhamdulillah. I could also make out the tail as you see in the pictures above! By 7:30 PM I was able to spot it barely with the naked eye, too.

I took a total of 46 pictures, bracketing around the optimum exposure, as the camera indicated. I also tried different zoom settings and some vertical shots. Finally at 7:53 PM the comet followed the moon and set behind the mountains.

The two pictures above are the best of the 46 shots I took. No processing was done except for reducing the image size and adding the text, and jpeg compressing of 75%.  Unfortunately, blogger seems to compress it more, thus reducing the quality even more.

A couple was also observing at the other end of the parking lot. Closer to me was another guy just hanging out in his truck. I walked up to him and showed him the comet with my binoculars. He was thrilled and very pleased. Another guy walked up from the road with his dog and asked "what kind of resolution do you need to take a picture of that?" as he started to play with his little iPhone. Resolution??? What you need is aperture, and the ability to control the exposure time.

Day 2: I drove with my family to a turnout on N. Main Divide off of Ortega Highway (Hwy 74). I was able to observe the comet with my binoculars briefly before it disappeared behind the mountain. This location was not very good. Then we quickly got into the car and drove to the other side of Ortega Highway on the next turnout on S Main Divide. From there we were able to see the comet for about twenty minutes or so. The last picture above was one of the better ones from the ninety pictures that I took from S Main Divide.

Subhan Allah. And Alhamdulillah these pictures turned out to be rather good.

New moon 12-Jan-2012 / 1 Rabi-Al-Awwal 1413H

Object:New Moon Crescent
Date: Saturday 12 January, 2013 5:40 PM / starts 1 Rabi-Al-Awwal, 1434 H.
Equipment:

• Motorola Droid 3 camera

Description:
New moon crescent witnessed by myself (Tasmin Ahmad), and my sons Zeerek and Taiqoor at 5:40PM in Murrieta, California.

The new moon signals the start of the Islamic month of Rabi-Al-Awwal in the year 1434 A.H.

Blue Moon over Lake Elsinore

Object:Blue Moon over Lake Elsinore
Date: Friday 31 August, 2012 8:11 PM
Equipment:

• Canon EOS Rebel XT with Canon 18-55mm zoom lens

Description:

These are my pictures of the blue moon over Lake Elsinore. To take these pictures, I made a pre-planned stop on my way home near the Lookout Roadhouse on the mountains overlooking Lake Elsinore on the eve of the Blue Moon.
Blue moon is not really blue. It just means that it was the second full moon in one Gregorian calendar month. Most of the time there is one full moon in a Gregorian month, but because the lunar month is 29.5 days long, sometimes there are two full moons in a month.

The images were taken on a tripod mount. Some tweaking was done in gimp to enhance the images.

Images

Single frame of the blue moon over Lake Elsinore; minor contrast and brightness adjustments were done; the image was res-sized and jpeg compressed with gimp.
Exposure: 20mm f/5.6 1/8s ISO-800

Panorama created with eight frames that were stitched together using canon's stitching app; levels and curves adjustments were done to remove the stitch seams; the image was res-sized and jpeg compressed with gimp.
Exposure: 20mm f/5.6 1/8s ISO-800

Venus transit of the Sun - June 5, 2012

Introduction

On June 5, 2012 between about 15:00 and 15:30 Venus will start to move between the Earth and the Sun. Depending on your location on our planet, you will see the planet appear to move across the face of the Sun as a small black dot. This event happens once every 120 years, and occurs in pairs, eight years apart. For all of us alive today, this is the last chance to view this event, as most probably, none of us will be alive the next time it occurs.
More Information:

• Transit of Venus Simulator
• Local Transit Times | Venus Transit

The planet Venus is about half-way between the Earth and the Sun, which means the Sun is twice as far as Venus. If the Sun were as far a Venus, the Sun would appear to be much bigger, and our Earth would be very very hot.

Now consider this: out Earth is about the same size as (just a little smaller than) the planet Venus. If you see the transit of Venus across the Sun, you will be able to get an idea of how small our Earth is, compared to the Sun.

In Islam, these events serve as a signs from Allah, The God. They show us the huge and magnificent mechanism that He has created, and set to work in perfect balance. The mechanism has been working for billions of years, and will continue to work for a while, until the arrival of the pre-determined time for it's end.

For Muslims, it is a time for reflection, and a time to turn to Allah in prayers, in humility, and with thankfulness for everything.

Insha Allah (Allah willing), I will post the results of my attempt to view the transit as edits to this post.

Equipment

Below are pictures of my equipment rigged up for solar observation. The totally amateur image projection rig was made for $0.00, with material found in our home. I made the projection rig because it can be harmful to look at the sun directly, especially with binoculars or telescopes, unless we have proper solar filters. (Sorry for the fuzzy quick & dirty pictures, I took them with my cellphone in less than adequate lighting conditions:)

Orion WorldView 10x50 binoculars Solar Observation Rig

Orion WorldView 10x50 binoculars were rigged with foam sheet pieces on the objective (for aiming hole), and the eyepiece (for the target where sun's image from the aiming hole is to be projected). The projection screen was cut-out from a 3-hole file folder that had smooth white surface on the inside. The objective lens was covered with two circular discs cut out from a foam sheet, with holes in the middle. The projection screen was supported with a channel made out of an open manila folder, with the sides folded up to give it some rigidity. Some blue painter's tape was used for later easy dis-assembly with no tape residue. Scotch tape was used to fix up the projection screen.

Aperture Control

The smaller hole can be uncovered as shown, to increase the light going into the lens, thus brightening the image. I was not sure how big a hole (aperture) I need, so I made it configurable.

First Light

Here is the first-light image of the sun captured with my cellphone camera. Later pictures with my digital Rebel XT show sun-spots too (coming soon)!

The Transit Day

On June 5, 2012 at about 3PM local California time, I setup my fancy wancy solar projection system inside my minivan, with the sliding side-door open. Placing it inside the minivan minimized the wind-induced shaking of the precious delicate equipment (the manila folder channel supporting the projection screen). Unfortunately, unlike my trial run at home a couple of days ago, I had trouble finding the proper camera position to take snaps of the image on the projection screen. I ended up craned with my neck bent against the top of the door frame, pressing hard against it, to get the image into the minimum focus range of my Tamron 55-200mm lens.

I managed to get several pictures of the ingress, and post-ingress states. But I could not capture the Venus ring of fire.

After the ingress had ended, I moved the setup to outside the main entrance to my office building. All the office folks came out and we had a small outreach event. My boss had his family come over from home to witness the transit, and upon his invitation, a neighbor in the office building also came to see the transit.

All the folks were amazed to hear that the little dot (planet Venus) is about the same size as our Earth. And since the Sun is twice as far as the planet, if the Sun were right next to Venus, it would be several times bigger (I held my hands about two feet apart to show them approximately how big it would be). Then I asked to consider how small the earth is in comparison. They all said that it puts things into perspective, and shows how insignificant we really are.

Pictures of the Venus Transit of 2012

Post-Ingress image captured using my Motorola Droid 3 camera

The little dot inside the white circle is Venus. You can also see some sun-spots in the white circle (which is the Sun). Sun-sports are cause by giant fire storms on the surface of the sun.

More pictures to come later Insha Allah...

Collimating the Orion WorldView 10x50 WA Binoculars

Introduction

In January of 2011 I purchased a pair of Orion WorldView 10x50 WA nitrogen-filled binoculars from ebay. My old trusted Oberwerk 7x50’s were stolen in Flagstaff, AZ a few months before.

Unfortunately, when they Orion’s arrived, I found them to be horribly out of collimation. I used them a little during day time, sometimes with one eye shut. But for star-gazing, they proved impossible to use. I could only use them as monoculars!

I searched the web for any tips on how to collimate them, but could not find any guided instructions for accessing the hidden collimation set-screws. These binoculars have a nice feel to them as they are rubberized, but due to the rubber skin, the collimation set-screws are not readily accessible. Orion customer support told me to use a hair-dryer to heat up the rubber casing to loosen it up, but they said they do not have any instructions for collimating the binoculars.

After getting helpful insights from several articles describing the pros and cons of collimating binoculars by tweaking the collimation screws, I decided to take the plunge and try to figure it all out myself. (There seems to be a strong religious divide between those who completely oppose touching the collimation set-screws, and those who consider it a valid option.)

I hope this article helps others whose Orion WorldView 10x50 WA binoculars have received a bump and become slightly un-collimated. Severe collimation problems cannot be resolved using this method.

Collimation Instructions

DISCLAIMER: The author of this blog will not be responsible for any damage or undesirable outcome from following the instructions herein. Follow the instructions at your own risk.

Here are the instructions for accessing the collimation set-screws in the Orion WorldView 10x50 WA binoculars:

The second collimation set-screw is hidden under the rubber flap next to the focus knob. (I call this the second set-screw because an article on Cloudy Nights website refers to them as such.)

Peel up the rubber flap covering the second collimation set-screw and bend the flap upward.

Tweaking this screw will move the image along one axis (probably between top left and bottom right.) Both The set-screws are rather difficult to turn, perhaps they are in rubberized screw holes to prevent the nitrogen in the body from leaking out?

The other (first) collimation set-screw is near the eye-piece, hidden under the rubber casing, where you hold the binoculars with your hand while observing with them. It is not accessible as it is. I had to make a cut in the rubber casing along the edge close to the eyepiece, as shown in the picture. After finishing the collimation I plan to glue the rubber casing back and I am confident that the cut will be hardly noticeable. I hate to take such drastic measures, but in this case it was either this (evil) action, or throw away the binoculars and shell out more $'s for a new one (worse evil). You can hold-off on cutting the rubber casing, and just try tweaking the second set-screw. Hopefully you will achieve good-enough collimation without having to touch the first set-screw.

After making the cut I peeled up the rubber flap on top, and found the first set-screw hole. Turning this set-screw moves the image along the other axis, orthogonal to the axis of the second set screw.

To properly collimate the binoculars, they must be mounted on a binocular mount, and trained on a faraway object. The best target is a star that is not very bright. So I mounted the binoculars on my home-built binocular mount and focused on a star near the North Star, so that the star field would move little during my collimation episode.

My home-made binocular mount shown here with the good-old Oberwerks that I lost.

My binocular mount is the coolest mount ever! It provides two-axis mirror movement centered near the center of the mirror.

During the collimation process, sometimes I had both eyepieces focused properly, and sometimes I used the right eyepiece diopter to un-focus it so my brain would not merge the two images together (so I can detect small collimation errors). After a few tries, I was able to achieve good collimation with very small eye strain. Now I see single stars instead of pairs of stars! Woohoo!

The exit pupil after the collimation shows round pupils, and no cat's eye, although there is some obstruction in the view around the edges. So, the light path is less than perfect, but I can live with the small light loss. Look out stars, here I come (wife and kids permitting).

Nova Erupts in Sagittarius

A possible nova PNV J17452791-2305213 just discovered:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/Nova-Erupts-in-Sagittarius-148454005.html