Astronomy For Beginners

The Orion Nebula Messier 42

2010-10-14T06:30:00.001-07:00

the orion nebula
Originally uploaded by DaveAW89

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion's Belt. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth.

It was a little bit of hunting finding the Orion Nebula since my finder found the belt, but it's still not quite dialed to perfection. But, there it was (at least I think that's what we saw). Four stars in the middle of this cloud. I cannot wait to be out there when there is no moonlight.

Oh! And, yes, I went over to Sirius. Very Cool!!! Like a spotlight with 4 points coming off of it with the same Wide Field 30mm lens.

What would be the single best EP to really get me into the heart of the Orion Nebula, or others..? A zoom, perhaps?

And, the Moon looked fantastic tonight, as well!

The Dark Side of the Moon

2010-10-06T03:18:00.001-07:00

The Dark Side of the Moon
Originally uploaded by Angela Cichosz Photography

The Dark Side of the Moon, well not the side that cannot ever be seen from Earth, but the rest of the moon when it's a crescent. Not to be confused with the Pink Floyd album of the same name.

Green Comet approaching Earth

2010-10-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

APPROACHING COMET: Green comet 103P/Hartley 2 is approaching Earth for a close encounter on Oct. 20th. At that time, the comet will be only 11 million miles (0.12 AU) from our planet and should be dimly visible to the naked eye from dark sky sites. It already looks great through backyard telescopes.

NASA's Deep Impact/EPOXI spacecraft is en route to this comet for close-up studies and a daring flyby on Nov. 4th.

Periodic comet 103P/Hartley 2 is classed as a young, dwarf comet, with a nucleus roughly 1.14 kilometers across. It belongs to the Jupiter family of comets (comets with periods less than 20 years). The comet was discovered in 1986. Although it then had an orbital period of 6.3 years, an analysis of its orbit reveals the period had been longer in the recent past. During the early decades of the 20th century, the orbital period had been 9.3 years. A close approach to Jupiter in August 1947 (0.22 AU) reduced the period to 7.9 years, while another close approach during April 1971 (0.09 AU) reduced the period to 6.1 years. The comet has been seen at every return since its discovery. The 2010 return is exceptional, as the comet will pass 0.12 AU from Earth on October 20. The Deep Impact space craft will pass about 1000 kilometers from the comet on November 4.

Comet 103P/Hartley 2 will pass 0.12AU from Earth, a mere 11 million miles in October of this year. The near approach allowing even a modest comet to become quite bright. Predictions are that the comet will be brighter than 5th magnitude, easily visible to the unaided eye from a dark site.

Biggest Saturnian Moons

2010-09-20T15:19:00.001-07:00

Biggest Saturnian Moons
Originally uploaded by NASAJPL

Biggest Saturnian Moons

A darkly defined Rhea passes before the fuzzy orb of Titan in this Cassini view of Saturn's two largest moons.

Northern_skies full moon

2010-09-08T02:37:00.001-07:00

Northern_skies
Originally uploaded by This Revolution Is Faceless

There are loads of pictures of the full moon available and with simple instructions any amateur astronomy follower can make their own but this one is particularly evocative.

WISE Captures the Unicorn's Rose

2010-08-26T16:25:00.001-07:00

WISE Captures the Unicorn's Rose
Originally uploaded by NASAJPL

A new cosmic image taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WISE) shows the Rosette nebula located within the constellation Monoceros, or the Unicorn.

This flower-shaped nebula, also known by the less romantic name NGC 2237, is a huge star-forming cloud of dust and gas in our Milky Way galaxy.

We're just blogging this at astronomy for beginners because it's such a beautiful image.

Fireball on Jupiter

2010-08-22T22:52:00.001-07:00

FIREBALL ON JUPITER: An amateur astronomer in Japan has video-recorded a fireball on Jupiter. This marks the third time in only 13 months that amateur astronomy buffs have detected signs of something hitting the giant planet. Will the latest impact leave behind a visible cloud of debris? .

SPACE STATION and SPACE PLANE FLYBYS: This is a good week for satellite watchers in the USA and Canada. Both the International Space Station and the US Air Force X-37B space plane are making a series of favorable passes over North American towns and cities. The spacecraft are easy to find using our Simple Satellite Tracker--an app for iPhones and Android. Visit http://simpleflybys.com for downloads and more information.

Perseid Meteor Shower Peak August

2010-08-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

PERSEID METEOR SHOWER

The annual Perseid meteor shower is underway. Earth is passing through a wide stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, and each time a fleck of comet dust hits Earth's atmosphere - flash! - there is a meteor. Forecasters say the shower will peak on Thursday, August 12th, and Friday, August 13th. You can see Perseids flitting across the sky at any time between about 10 pm on Thursday evening and sunrise on Friday morning. Observers who get away from city lights can expect to count dozens of meteors per hour, especially during the dark hours before dawn.

BONUS: If you go outside a little early on Thursday evening, around sunset, you'll see a beautiful gathering of planets in the sunset sky--Venus, Mars, Saturn and the crescent Moon. It's a nice way to start a meteor watch.

Saturn's small moons Beyond Rings

2010-05-08T09:05:00.001-07:00

Petite Pair Beyond Rings
Originally uploaded by NASAJPL

Two of Saturn's small moons can be seen orbiting beyond the planet's thin F ring in this Cassini spacecraft image

Prometheus Between Rings

2010-04-11T09:06:00.001-07:00

Prometheus Between Rings
Originally uploaded by NASAJPL

Saturn's A ring appears bright compared to the thin F ring, which is shepherded by the moon Prometheus, in this view from the Cassini spacecraft.

WISE 'First-Light' Image

2010-01-09T05:22:00.001-08:00

WISE 'First-Light' Image
Originally uploaded by NASAJPL

This infrared snapshot of a region in the constellation Carina near the Milky Way was taken shortly after NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) ejected its cover. The "first-light" picture shows thousands of stars and covers an area three times the size of the moon. WISE will take more than a million similar pictures covering the whole sky.

Portrait of Bright Spokes

2009-10-24T15:44:00.001-07:00

Portrait of Bright Spokes
Originally uploaded by NASAJPL

The moons Mimas and Pandora join bright B ring spokes in this Cassini captured scene.

First Star Trail Attempt

2009-09-05T22:24:00.001-07:00

First Star Trail Attempt
Originally uploaded by Christopher M.J. Tsorotes

Here's a great demonstrationn of how beginners can take pictures of star trails with no special astronomy equipment::

To achieve this photo I used the following:
My K7

No tripod (I just sat the camera on the ledge)

16 shots in raw plus one dark frame (turned off slow frame NR, then turned it back off tor the dark frame)

ISO 500
f6.3 (Pentax DA16-45)
30" Shutter
Cable Release (I found interval timer inbuilt didn't work properly for some strange reason, I think because of the buffer limits)

Photoshop CS4
Lightroom (to process the raws)
Star Trails (this app really suprised me, its amazing)
Vertus fluid mask

Believe it or not I used absolutely no noise reduction software.

Clever stuff on the astronomy for beginners group.

Perseids

2009-08-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

constellation LEO

2009-06-01T08:50:00.001-07:00

constellation LEO from May 25th 2oo9
Originally uploaded by Sebastian Z.

Constellation LEO from May 25th 2009

Astronomy for beginners Smithsonian Photography Call

2009-05-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Smithsonian click! Photography Call for Entry

Because of our group Astronomy For Beginners interest particularly in astrophotography, please help us spread the word about the Smithsonian Photography Initiative’s call for entries for click! photography changes everything – an online exhibit that invites the public to consider ways in which photography influences every aspect of our lives.

For the months of May and June 2009, and in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, our focus is on ”Seeing Other Worlds". How can photography help us see things that would otherwise go unnoticed in our everyday lives? How does micro- and macro- photography (e.g. from microscopic bacteria to galaxies far beyond the earth) change our perception of the world and our place in it? How do new imaging technologies and software (e.g. MRI’s, CAT scans, Google Earth, etc.) change what we’re able or want to see? click! wants photographs and stories on how photography helps us see things that would otherwise go unnoticed in our everyday lives.

Additionally, for these two months we will be adding new Chandra x-ray photos to our set on Flickr.

Below are some quick links to help members get started:
• About click!: www.click.si.edu/about.aspx

• Submission Guidelines: www.click.si.edu/Contribute.aspx

• Media Release and Call for Entries Badge:www.click.si.edu/Connect.aspx

• click! Flickr Group: flickr.com/groups/click-photography-changes-everything/

• Smithsonian Commons Photos from the Chandra X-ray Observatory:www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/sets/72157608016866848/

• Engage in an online discussion about photography at our blog, THE BIGGER PICTURE: blog.photography.si.edu

Please help spread the word through Astronomy For beginners

Luna / Moon / Lune

2009-04-09T01:39:00.001-07:00

Luna / Moon / Lune
Originally uploaded by Cristóbal Alvarado Minic

Full moon last night was gorgeous

Too cloudy to see Comet Lulin

2009-02-25T02:56:00.000-08:00

It's been far too cloudy for the past three days to see Comet Lulin where I live. How about you?

Thunderstorms are expected to drown out one of the most exciting evenings for local astronomers.

Suzanne Willis, interim chair for the Department of Physics, said Comet Lulin, discovered in July of 2007, will be most visible to the naked eye tonight between the hours of 8 and 10 p.m.

Willis said Lulin, which is located near the orbit of Saturn, will make its nearest pass by earth before leaving our range of visibility for good. Sadly for the Midwest region, Lulin will not be easily detectable through the storms this evening.

“Lulin is now observable to us for the first time, and it will be the last in a matter of a few weeks,” Willis said. “Comets are on very long orbits often for periods of 100 years, Halley’s Comet included.”

Visibility of Comet Lulin is best achieved with a very dark sky and binoculars to enhance details of the comet, Willis said.

According to National Geographic Daily News, Lulin could be on its first pass by the sun.

“As the object is exposed to the sun’s heat for the first time, its ices will vaporize, possibly causing the comet to brighten rapidly or even break apart,” the Daily News reported.

Solar Prominence

2009-01-27T04:57:00.001-08:00

Sun-200901201035
Originally uploaded by David Evans - Coleshill UK

Solar Prominence 20 January 2009, 10:35UT. Taken with 40mm Coronado PST, x2 Barlow and SPC900NC webcam. Inset: image taken by the Pic di Midi Observatory which measures the angular extent of the prominence to be about 23 degrees.

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

2009-01-12T03:40:00.001-08:00

Perigree Moon

2009-01-09T12:09:00.001-08:00

Last month's full Moon over many viewpoints was particularly radient, and it looked bigger than usual. That's because it was the biggest full Moon of 2008 a perigee Moon, 14% wider and 30% brighter than the smallest full Moons of the year.

It's going to happen again at the beginning of 2009.

On Saturday night, Jan. 10th, another perigee Moon is coming. It's the biggest full Moon of 2009, almost identical to the one that impressed onlookers in Dec. 2008.

Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be this weekend.

Perigee full Moons come along once or twice a year. 2008 ended with one and now 2009 is beginning with another.

Another magic moment happens when the perigee Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. This weekend, the "Moon illusion" will amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with because of the Parigree

At perigee, the Moon is only 360,000 km away!

Celestial Body of Three

2008-12-01T04:11:00.001-08:00

Celestial Body of Three
Originally uploaded by CollegeRocker

Occurs a few times w/planets Venus & Jupiter with our moon to form a 'Smile face.' Next time to view such a planetary formation is Nov. 18th 2052!

Jupiter And Venus

2008-11-24T11:22:00.001-08:00

Jupiter + Vénus
Originally uploaded by ComputerHotline

Jupiter And Venus close enough to be captures in one frame during the evening.

Orion Nebula

2008-11-11T01:36:00.001-08:00

dec 30 2007 telescope073
Originally uploaded by AustinDad

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, by beginners in Astronomy as well as professionals in the field. That's because the Orion Nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers and beginners have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the Orion Nebula.

Harvest Moon

2008-09-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

There's been a harvest moon recently, followed by a strange first quarter that puzzled some amateur astronomers but it's perfectly normal for this time of year.

Total Eclipse August 1st

2008-07-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

The total eclipse of the Sun tomorrow will only be visible to those who can be in the arctic circle more or less, but look back here afterwards for some stunning pictures of the Solar eclipse

South side of the Moon with named craters

2008-07-20T14:49:00.001-07:00

Sud de la Lune
Originally uploaded by ComputerHotline

Showing the craters of Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel, Rupes recta (the right wall), Bullialdus, Regiomontanus, Hell, Walter, Tycho, Maginus and Moretus. You might have to click though to the Sud de la Lune ( South of the Moon ) photo on Flickr to see the individual craters named with notes.

The Night Sky with moon

2008-07-02T05:57:00.001-07:00

picture by bluemeanie

Full Moon rising over Devoran Creek

2008-06-20T08:30:00.001-07:00

THEOPHILUS

2008-05-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

THEOPHILUS
Originally uploaded by ComputerHotline

THEOPHILUS.--The most northerly of three of the noblest ring-mountains on the visible surface of the moon, situated on the N.W. side of the Mare Nectaris. It is nearly 64 miles in diameter, and is enclosed by a mighty rampart towering above the floor at one peak on the E. to the height of 18,000 feet, and at two other peaks on the opposite side to nearly 16,000 and 14,000. The border, though appearing nearly circular with low powers, is seen, under greater magnification, to be made up of several more or less linear sections, which give it a polygonal outline. It is prominently terraced within, the loftier terraces on the E. rising nearly to the height of the crest of the wall, and including several craters and elongated depressions. On the E. glacis is a row of large inosculating craters; and near its foot, S.W. of Madler, a short unrecorded rill- valley. The magnificent bright central mountain is composed of many distinct masses surmounted by lofty peaks, one of which is about 6,000 feet above the floor, and covers an area of at least 300 square miles. Except a distinct crater on the S.E. quarter, this appears to be the only object within the ring.

The Moon and Pleiades

2008-05-02T04:55:00.001-07:00

Lune + Pleiades
Originally uploaded by ComputerHotline

The Pleiades, also known as M45, the Seven Sisters, SED, or Subaru (in Japan), is an open cluster in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters, and is probably the best known, and is certainly the most obvious to the naked eye. It is sometimes referred to as the Maia Nebula, perhaps erroneously considering that the reflection nebulosity surrounding Maia is intrinsic.

The cluster is dominated by hot blue stars which have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud that the stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will have dispersed due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-21T03:41:00.001-08:00

Lunar Eclipse
Originally uploaded by Stephen Downes

The day after. It wasn't cloudy in Canada then

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T00:14:00.001-08:00

Lunar Eclipse
Originally uploaded by leppre

Tonight at 3.00am GMT

Total Lunar eclipse over the UK

Quadrantid Meteor

2008-02-17T13:38:00.001-08:00

Quadrantid Meteor
Originally uploaded by cowboyEricGVSU

The full moon rise

2008-01-22T11:05:00.001-08:00

The moon tonight
Originally uploaded by Andyrob

Full moon rises over London

harvest moon in the Wairarapa hills

2007-09-26T02:45:00.001-07:00

harvest moon in the Wairarapa hills
Originally uploaded by dubh

Aurigid Meteor Shower Viewing

2007-09-03T09:05:00.001-07:00

Aurigid Meteor Shower Viewing
Originally uploaded by retro traveler

Astronomy for beginners with Google Sky

2007-09-02T06:04:00.000-07:00

The new addition to Google Earth contains much of interest to Astronomy for beginners, and is a gret complement to Stellarium

Here's a video which gives a taste of the software:

Aurigid meteor shower - Astronomy for beginners report

2007-09-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

Astronomy for beginners is very excited that sight reports of vivid meteor activity on September 1st were received from Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, California, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and western Canada. That list will grow as photographs, video and eyewitness reports are accumulating all the time.

Lunar eclipse astronomy for beginners - No moon tonight...

2007-09-01T07:52:00.001-07:00

That's no moon...
Originally uploaded by retro traveler

Astronomy for beginners youTube Video of Stellarium

2007-08-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

I needed to record a screencast video of Stellarium for Astronomy for beginners today. Then I thought I might as well upload it to youTube so here it is on the blog as well. The compression probably kills it, but you can get a general idea of what the desktop planetarium can do for you.

The Stellarium software is describe further down

Astronomy For Beginners on Flickr

2007-08-19T04:05:00.000-07:00

With an ordinary camera, the amateur astronomer will be able to take quite respectable pictures of objects in the night sky and then post them to the Astronomy for beginners Flickr group. The camera can be either digital or film, but must have a 'manual' setting so that longer exposure times can be catered for. A tripod of some sort will also be necessary, and a remote shutter is handy to prevent camera shake causing blur.

Already I have received some feedback explaining the twin comet tails in more detail, or rather correcting the way I had written it in the Comet Facts article.

Driftwords explains:

One tail is neutral particles (dust) and the other consists of electrically charged gas (plasma). The charged particles (the "ion tail") are affected by the magnetic field of the sun, which is typically directed across the path of the comet, whereas the neutral particles simply show where the comet has been.

It's like a long steam train. The carriages behind the loco simply follow the track, whereas the smoke from the engine will be carried sideways by the wind as well.

Astronomy for beginners Wiki

2007-08-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Here on the astronomy for beginners blog, should you as a reader, wish to respond to one of the articles then you can do so by leaving a comment on that post. Just click where it says "0 comments" or "3 comments" or whatever, and start writing. But if you wanted to write an article yourself then you'd have to start up your own blog. How many blogs do we need about astronomy for beginners?

Additionally, if you spotted a mistake in my writing, or an incorrect fact, there's not a lot you can do about it. You could point it out by leaving a comment as above, or you could email me, but it may well be something reasonably trivial and you decide it's simply not worth the bother. The moment passes.

So I've started up an Astronomy for beginners wiki over at wikispaces. This is not meant to replace or detract from the blog, it's just a complementary addition.

On the wiki you can just click the "edit page" button and change the text right there and then. You can also create new articles of your own, and link pages together using wikitext links. That's enough about it for now. If you have any queries you know how to ask.

Astronomy for beginners - Comet Facts

2007-08-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Comet Facts

I've gathered a few comet facts to publish here on astronomy for beginners. Of course comets are often only visible for a short number of days in a normal year, but when a particularly important comet passes by then it makes for quite an astronomical occasion.

Fact1: A comet is a conglomerate of particles bound together by ice (not necessarily H2O water ice, it could be dry ice (CO2), for example)

Fact2: When a comet approaches the sun the ice melts and releases the particles from the main body.

Fact3: The tail of a comet always points away from the sun.

As the picture below shows, there are in fact two tails, both curved, and they are 30 MILLION kilometres long. That's a lot of fine particles. The theory is that the solar wind is responsible for the blue gas and gravity alone for the larger particles.

LunarPhase Pro

2007-08-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

LunarPhase Pro

Astronomy for beginners - Free Software

2007-08-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

Since you're reading this online I'm assuming you already have a computer, and that's a good thing because starting out in astronomy for beginners with a computer is a huge step forward over what we had in the past.
You still need a planisphere for when you're outdoors looking at the real sky but now you can also study the heavens at any time of day or night, winter or summer no matter what the weather by running awesome computer simulation software. There are lots of packages available which cost anything from $19 to thousands, but now I'm going to let you in to the secret of open source software. Open source software is written by people who are happy to release the code whoich makes it work out into the public domain. That means it's completely free and legal for you to download it and run it for nothing. And often it works even better than the commercial software.

Stellarium

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic night sky in three dimensions, just like what can be seen with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope but without any danger of cloud cover obscuring the stars. Another amazing thing about Stellarium is that all the documentation, questions and answers are available on a great Wiki with community support. To get started, all you have to do is download Stellarium for Windows, Linux or Mac, set your location from the map in the configuration window, (the default is Paris) then use your mouse or arrow keys to look around. Use the page up and page down keys to zoom in and out. Zooming on nebulas or planets is very interesting!

Astronomy for beginners

2007-08-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is the first post to Astronomy for beginners and it's not about buying a telescope!

The great thing about astronomy for beginners is that all you really need to get started is a pair of eyes. Without a telescope or even a pair of binoculars it is easily possible to begin a hobby which will provide a lifetime of fascination and maybe even a career. I'll show you how.

Start close to home

The nearest astronomical body to the earth is of course the moon. Get used to noticing the phases of the moon because that's going to be important later on. Recognise Venus the 'Evening Star' (which is of course a planet), and the basic star constellations like the Plough and Casseopeia (the “W”). Contrary to popular belief, beginners can go a long way with amateur astronomy before buying any expensive equipment at all.

Buy a planisphere.

There's only one item of equipment which is vital to amateur astronomy for beginners, and that is a thing called a 'planisphere'. You may know that better as a map of the stars, an atlas of the heavens or a constellation guide but the proper name is planisphere. It's made of overlapping sheets which are circular in shape, and you rotate them according to the date, time and location in order to see a map of what should be visible in the night sky.

You can buy a planisphere for only about ten dollars but my advice is to make sure you buy a plastic one and not one made out of paper or card. There's a good reason for this and it's because of the conditions in the night air. Often it's cool and a little moist. Dew forms. If your paper planisphere gets wet then it's ruined, and in my experience they usually last about one day or a week at best. So really, one of the most important pieces of advice on astronomy for beginners is simply to buy a plastic planisphere. Here's one place you could buy a really good one - Deluxe Planishpere @ telescopes.com