Thomas H. Caldwell » Astrophotography

Asteroid Vesta and more.

THC — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 14:31:02 +0000

A 15-second exposure with ISO 3200 shows Vesta near Pollux and Castor.

May 9, 2016 Mercury transit of the Sun. Mercury is the dark dot at the bottom of the photo, other dark areas are sunspots.

A closer view.

The August 21, 2017 Great American Eclipse. Not a total eclipse where I live, but that’s okay, I did see a total eclipse in 1970. It was very cool!

Double Double in the constellation Lyra.

THC — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 20:56:29 +0000

A telephoto lens and some enlargement clearly shows that the “star” (Epsilon Lyrae) above and a little to the right of Vega (the brightest star in the photo) is actually a double star. This is not a line of sight pheonomina, they actually orbit one another. Amazingly, at higher power, each of these stars turns out to be a double. These doubles are also gravitationaly connected. It’s a double double! But it gets even better than that, one of those four stars is again a double!!

Comet Pan-STARRS

THC — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:55:40 +0000

The comet Pan-STARRS is now visible from the northern hemisphere. This comet was discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, hence the name.

Jupiter

THC — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 03:25:27 +0000

Jupiter is the brightest object in this photo and is currently located in the constellation Taurus. Just below and also to the left of Jupiter is the open cluster Hyades which is about 150 light-years away. In addition the open cluster Pleiades, which is about 400 light-years distant, can be seen just above the tree branches (right of center).

Andromeda Galaxy

THC — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 12:48:40 +0000

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the star-like object (located just left of center) with a faint cloudy streak passing diagonally through it. What looks like a star is really the galactic bulge, and the cloudy streak is the spiral disc. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy and is “only” 2,500,000 light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope can see 5,000 times that distance. 5000 times sounds like a lot, but to understand how amazing that number is you have to apply the inverse square law: twice as far means 1/4 the brightness, triple the distance means 1/9 the brightness, and 5000 times the distance means 1/25,000,000 the brightness!

Both of these star pictures were taken with my Nikon D300 (equipt with a 18-200 Nikkor zoom lens) in the face of substantial light pollution.

The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest in the Local Group (a cluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way Galaxy) with perhaps a trillion stars. Our own Milky Way Galaxy comes in second place with about 300 billion stars, and the Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest with around 40 billion stars.

In the below photo the Andromeda Galaxy definately is visable, while the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is, perhaps, just barely visable.

Transit of Venus on June 5, 2012 (no joy)

THC — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 05:27:59 +0000

While I’ve seen a transit of Mercury, I’ve never seen a transit of Venus. The only chances for someone in my generation to witness a Venus transit were on 06-08-2004 and 06-05-2012 (yesterday). I don’t know what happen in 2004 (I guess I had a job), but I was ready this year. Unfortunately, “clouds got in my way”. I was not pleased!

So that I didn’t come away with absolutely nothing, I photographed sunspots the next day when the skies were clear.

International Space Station

THC — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:38:15 +0000

The International Space Station exits the Earth’s shadow.

The three bright stars arcing across the top half of the photo from left to right are Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), Er Rai (Gamma Cephei), and Caph (Beta Cassiopeiae).

Summer Triangle

THC — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:09:40 +0000

Deneb (near top of photo about half way from the left edge to the center), Vega (brightest star in the upper right quadrant), and Altair (near lower edge left of center) together form the Summer Triangle. The Northern Cross runs diagonally from Deneb to Alberio (near center) and is embedded in the Milky Way.

International Space Station

THC — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:37:42 +0000

International Space Station passes overhead.

Constellation Orion

THC — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 01:50:02 +0000

Constellation Orion photographed years ago (on film) using my clock-driven equatorial mount. The Great Orion Nebula (M42) shows up well on the original slide and the Horsehead Nebula can be detected when the image is projected.

Now I need to see what my digital camera can do.