Astronomical Images - March 2024.
A difficult galaxy target.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
The Northern Lights, as seen in Lancashire.
Let's not dwell too much on the sequence of events leading up to this target not being in the image below. Instead, I'll just say...
Here's a really difficult target, taken under less than ideal conditions in terms of cloud cover. The galaxy PGC 41063 in Canes Venatici.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
Like most things that haven't made it to the NGC catalogue, it's not simple to glean any details regarding this galaxy. My suspicion from the size and the faintness is that it is over 100 million light years away.
There is another galaxy in the bottom of the image that didn't even make it to the PGC catalogue. The brightest stars in the image are magnitudes 8.1 and 8.4, way below naked eye visibility.
On my way to the chosen spot, I thought I might have glimpsed some auroral activity through the trees. When I arrived where I wanted to be, this was rather less than obvious. For some reason, I chose to image the comet first, with the 85mm lens.
It was closer to sunset than last time I imaged it, and there was a big fat full moon getting higher by the minute. I dropped the exposure time from 2.5 seconds on the 17th, down to 0.8 seconds.
Here's the full frame picture.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
The two bright stars to the left are the brightest stars in Aries, Hamal (magnitude 2) at the top and Sheratan (magnitude 2.6 below). The comet is to the right. There is cloud in the bottom right, but the red glow is an artefact of the gradient reduction tool I used in Astro Art 6 to get rid of the vignetting. Some flat frames would have been better.
I'm also including a cropped image for a better resolution view of the comet itself.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
Despite the relative lack of cloud, the tail of the comet seems smaller than the image from the 17th. This maybe just due to the brightness of the sky.
To my surprise, I couldn't see the comet in the 2.1x42 binoculars I had with me.
I moved on to take some wide-angle shots, to see if there was any evidence of aurora. There was no sign of any. Here's one of those pictures, with the comet near the centre of the image.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
It's a difficult spot, just a few lighter pixels above and to the right of the central telegraph pole. The aforementioned Hamal and Sheratan are above and to the left of this pole.
The difficultly of seeing the comet in this image consoles me somewhat regarding my failure to see it in binoculars.
After my failure to take that award winning comet shrouded by aurora image I initially envisaged, I thought I would wrap up by taking some more wide-angle constellation shots (something I wouldn't normally consider with a full moon in the sky).
Turns out, these look just a tad more detailed than you might see with the naked eye on a really dark night. Here are two merged together...
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
This features Auriga, Gemini, Taurus and Orion, it's quite a big chunk of sky.
(It also has one of those meteor things in it, to the right of Orion. There is also one in the wide angle comet image above. I'm beginning to wonder if these are meteors, or alien landing craft concentrated around Bluntisham).
This is another of those comets mentioned in the press as potentially naked eye visible, I was less optimistic. And it wasn't.
Here's the picture I eventually had to make do with, still with cloud drifting across the field of view.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
The comet is to the right of the image. If you view this right, you may see the tail of the comet extending up beyond the streak of cloud above it.
I cropped the image with the comet to the right in order to get the galaxy M33 in the view. It's a hard spot in the top left.
Pons-Brooks is a recurring comet with a period of 71 years. It is a quite bright comet, and could potentially have been naked eye visible in a good dark sky site with better visibility. It will be around for a while yet, but it is getting lower in the encroaching twilight. By the time we get to April, I think it will be quite hard to see/image.
To get an idea of the scale of this image, here's a single frame image of Orion's belt and sword taken with the same settings while I was waiting for a break in the cloud northwest.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
The settings are:
2.5 second exposure, ISO 3200, f/2, 85mm focal length.
The comet image was generated from 20 of these.
Spanning 3 of these, there is what I believe to be a meteor:
This is two pictures combined, taken at 19:47. The aurora is plain to see.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
You may have noticed floating twigs near the centre of the image. This arises because the two pictures were taken viewing through a gap in the hedge, and I managed to have bits of hedge from both pictures in the overlap.
If you tap the image to big it you go to a version in which I have made an attempt to remove this twiggage. You can see a bigger version WITH TWIGS here. I prefer the merge with the twigs in, rather than an essentially made up column in the middle of the picture.
By 20:00, the greenness had definitely faded, so I had a wander down the road to a drier location. Turns out the green had turned to red. Here's two images taken at 20:17:
You can see the cloud moving, but not the aurora. It does change though. it has faded in the second picture.
By 20:26, it appeared to have all but gone.
Remember, you can see the best images from previous years in earlier posts on this blog.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
The Northern Lights, as seen in Lancashire.
30th March 2024.
I was struggling to find a reasonable deep sky target I hadn't previously imaged, before plumping for C21, a galaxy in Canes Venatici.Let's not dwell too much on the sequence of events leading up to this target not being in the image below. Instead, I'll just say...
Here's a really difficult target, taken under less than ideal conditions in terms of cloud cover. The galaxy PGC 41063 in Canes Venatici.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
Like most things that haven't made it to the NGC catalogue, it's not simple to glean any details regarding this galaxy. My suspicion from the size and the faintness is that it is over 100 million light years away.
There is another galaxy in the bottom of the image that didn't even make it to the PGC catalogue. The brightest stars in the image are magnitudes 8.1 and 8.4, way below naked eye visibility.
24th March 2024.
Huge red aurora alert around sunset. After a rushed tea (politeness permitting), I set off with the camera and tripod and a couple of lenses. I had visions of a spectacular image of comet Pons-Brook floating in a sea of auroral activity.On my way to the chosen spot, I thought I might have glimpsed some auroral activity through the trees. When I arrived where I wanted to be, this was rather less than obvious. For some reason, I chose to image the comet first, with the 85mm lens.
It was closer to sunset than last time I imaged it, and there was a big fat full moon getting higher by the minute. I dropped the exposure time from 2.5 seconds on the 17th, down to 0.8 seconds.
Here's the full frame picture.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
The two bright stars to the left are the brightest stars in Aries, Hamal (magnitude 2) at the top and Sheratan (magnitude 2.6 below). The comet is to the right. There is cloud in the bottom right, but the red glow is an artefact of the gradient reduction tool I used in Astro Art 6 to get rid of the vignetting. Some flat frames would have been better.
I'm also including a cropped image for a better resolution view of the comet itself.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
Despite the relative lack of cloud, the tail of the comet seems smaller than the image from the 17th. This maybe just due to the brightness of the sky.
To my surprise, I couldn't see the comet in the 2.1x42 binoculars I had with me.
I moved on to take some wide-angle shots, to see if there was any evidence of aurora. There was no sign of any. Here's one of those pictures, with the comet near the centre of the image.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
It's a difficult spot, just a few lighter pixels above and to the right of the central telegraph pole. The aforementioned Hamal and Sheratan are above and to the left of this pole.
The difficultly of seeing the comet in this image consoles me somewhat regarding my failure to see it in binoculars.
After my failure to take that award winning comet shrouded by aurora image I initially envisaged, I thought I would wrap up by taking some more wide-angle constellation shots (something I wouldn't normally consider with a full moon in the sky).
Turns out, these look just a tad more detailed than you might see with the naked eye on a really dark night. Here are two merged together...
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
This features Auriga, Gemini, Taurus and Orion, it's quite a big chunk of sky.
(It also has one of those meteor things in it, to the right of Orion. There is also one in the wide angle comet image above. I'm beginning to wonder if these are meteors, or alien landing craft concentrated around Bluntisham).
17th March 2024.
I spent an hour or so on a footpath near my house with the Sony camera, 85mm focal length lens and tripod in a place with a decent Northwest view. I was waiting for the clouds to clear to get a picture of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.This is another of those comets mentioned in the press as potentially naked eye visible, I was less optimistic. And it wasn't.
Here's the picture I eventually had to make do with, still with cloud drifting across the field of view.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
The comet is to the right of the image. If you view this right, you may see the tail of the comet extending up beyond the streak of cloud above it.
I cropped the image with the comet to the right in order to get the galaxy M33 in the view. It's a hard spot in the top left.
Pons-Brooks is a recurring comet with a period of 71 years. It is a quite bright comet, and could potentially have been naked eye visible in a good dark sky site with better visibility. It will be around for a while yet, but it is getting lower in the encroaching twilight. By the time we get to April, I think it will be quite hard to see/image.
To get an idea of the scale of this image, here's a single frame image of Orion's belt and sword taken with the same settings while I was waiting for a break in the cloud northwest.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
The settings are:
2.5 second exposure, ISO 3200, f/2, 85mm focal length.
The comet image was generated from 20 of these.
Spanning 3 of these, there is what I believe to be a meteor:
3rd March 2024.
I happened to be in Lancashire when I had a notification from Pete regarding favourable Auroral activity across the country. Out I went with camera and tripod.This is two pictures combined, taken at 19:47. The aurora is plain to see.
(Click/Tap the image to go to a better resolution version)
You may have noticed floating twigs near the centre of the image. This arises because the two pictures were taken viewing through a gap in the hedge, and I managed to have bits of hedge from both pictures in the overlap.
If you tap the image to big it you go to a version in which I have made an attempt to remove this twiggage. You can see a bigger version WITH TWIGS here. I prefer the merge with the twigs in, rather than an essentially made up column in the middle of the picture.
By 20:00, the greenness had definitely faded, so I had a wander down the road to a drier location. Turns out the green had turned to red. Here's two images taken at 20:17:
You can see the cloud moving, but not the aurora. It does change though. it has faded in the second picture.
By 20:26, it appeared to have all but gone.
That's the end of the March 2024 images.
Remember, you can see the best images from previous years in earlier posts on this blog.
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