Archive for June, 2009

Lyrid Meteor Shower June 14-16, 2009

Thursday, June 4th, 2009
A Meteor Zips thru the Night Sky © 2009 John Chumack

A Meteor Zips thru the Night Sky © 2009 John Chumack

Hi All,

Get ready for another Meteor shower, this one called the Lyrids.  Lyrids appear to radiate out of the Constellation of Lyra.  Look East – North East around Midnight, you will see Lyra around 45 degrees above the Eastern Horizon,  just above or west of the Constellation of Cygnus the Swan or Northern Cross.

The Lyrids do not produce large numbers of Meteors, but it is worth watching. You may see around 10 meteors per hour on the night of the peak Monday the 15th of June.  A few meteors may be visible before those dates as well.  They occasional produce some bright ones too!

Get a Lawn Chair, a blanket, a cup of Coffee or Hot Chocolate, and  try to find a dark location away from the city lights.

Telescopes are not needed to see meteor showers.

All you need to see the Lyrid Meteor Shower are your eyes!

A last quarter Moon will be rising around 2:00am and this will like diminish the view and the number of meteors that will be visible.  So enjoy the view while it lasts.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Posted in "How to" Articles, Beautiful Night Sky! | No Comments »

A Beautiful Star Field

Thursday, June 4th, 2009
NGC-7039 Open CLuster & NGC-7048 Planetary Nebula

NGC7039 OC + NGC7048 Planetary Nebula © 2009 J. Chumack

Hi All,’

Here is my shot from last Sunday night  of NGC-7039 Open Cluster & NGC-7048 Planetary Nebula in Cygnus.

I ran across this beautiful star field while in the area imaging the Pelican Nebula(that will come later)…and decide to capture this Star field because of the Cluster and planetary in one field.

To my surprise there is every type and color of star you could imagine in the FOV,
also there many variable stars and a large dark nebula patch at left center and upper right corner.

NGC7048 Planetary Nebula(bottom left corner) is 11th mag…and the open cluster NGC7039(upper right corner) is 7.9 mag, the Cluster has hundreds of fainter members, there are 5 Wein galaxies in the backgraound of the cluster..but these are all hovering around 18th magnitude…not easily visible, even in long exposures.

Canon Rebel Xsi & 5″ Newtonian  scope for a 25 minute exposure, ISO 800, Dark, Flat, and combined in Nebulosity, balanced and gradient removal in Adobe in Adobe.

We had some first quarter moonlight, but I was able to process it out.

Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

Posted in Beautiful Night Sky! | No Comments »