Galactic Images Blog

Waning Gibbous Moon © 2009 John Chumack

Hi All,

We are now past Full Moon and for the next few mornings you will see a Waning Gibbous Moon in the South-Southwestern part of the sky.

This is always a pretty site,  the moon against the blue morning sky around 7:00am.

I captured this with a simple point and shoot Sony Cybershot camera.

Enjoy!

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Meteors and Dust Trail © 2009 John Chumack

Hi ALL,

Get ready for another great meteor shower…this one called the Eta Aquarids, as they appear to originate from the  South Eastern  sky in the Constellation of Aquarius.  These Meteors are actually the debri left over from Halley’s Comet.

Even though Comet Halley only visits the inner solar system once every 76 years,  it has shed enough dust particles in its orbit that once a year Earth passes through Comet Halley’s tail debri which brings this nice Meteor shower.  It is a very consistant  shower as you will often see as many as 60 meteors per hour, with long glowing trails.

You will see some meteors starting on the 3rd of May 2009 and maybe until the 10th of May.

The true peak of the shower comes on the morning of the 6th of May, 2009 .

You will need to get out of the city lights for best views, and this is also a very early morning shower,  3am until 6am will be the best time this year.

Once the bright moon sets at 4am, it will be much easier to see the meteors racing out of the southeastern sky, some of the meteors will be moving as fast as 150,000 mph as they hits the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up leaving long glowing trails.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

www.galacticimages.com

Hi All,

Well it figures, just when your ready to go out and view these events the clouds came in over Dayton, Ohio…nothing but rain and clouds on the morning of the 22nd. So I missed the Venus – Moon Conjunction/Occultation and the Meteor Shower peak.

I know that sometimes meteor showers do continue for several nights, but with much lower rates . So I turned on my video sky camera for the next night when it cleared.

I did manage to capture some Lyrid meteors the following morning of the 23rd of April 2009. Here are six of them captured on my video sky camera from my backyard in Dayton, Ohio. This is a 6 hour time lapse shot.

2009 Lyrid Meteors Copyright 2009 John Chumack

Hi All,

Update!!!!
April 2009 Lyrid Meteor Shower & Venus, Mars, & Moon Conjunctions.

Did you miss my previous post on April’s Meteor showers? click here
http://www.galacticimages.com/blog/2009/04/april-lyrid-meteor-shower/

Another Nice event is taking place in the Early Morning hours of April 22nd 2009, it is called a Conjunction of the Moon and Venus(East Coast), but for folks in the Midwest and Western USA it will be an Occultation of Venus By the Moon, which means the Moon will slide right over the top of Venus making it dissapear behind the Moon. Venus will be directly above Mars as well, these are all very low in the East, so find a place with a low horizon to view from.

So while your out looking at the meteors the early Morning hours of Wednesday the 22nd, check out the Planets Venus, Mars, and the Moon, and way off in the South East Jupiter is Visible as well.

Here is a Link to the Exact details provided by NASA, and Spaceweather.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/17apr_lyrids.htm

Map of the sky for the 21st
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/21apr09/skymap.gif?PHPSESSID=2tjfveb8u227bpggg81jht1m64

Map of the sky for the 22nd
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/22apr09/skymap.gif?PHPSESSID=2tjfveb8u227bpggg81jht1m64

Don’t forget to look just before Dawn on Wednesday morning April 22, 2009

Hi All,

Comet Cardinal C/2008 T2 was named after Rob Cardinal, a Canadian Astronomer who discovered it back in October of 2008 while he was looking for asteroids.

Here is my shot of Comet Cardinal C/2008 T2 while as it was passing by M36 open cluster in Auriga.

It is faint and tiny, but has a pretty blue nucleus and inner coma and a faint green outer coma.

While I was doing some data reduction for the MPC on my normal Minor planet submissions, I decided to measured the comet…
I measure its nucleus at 14.7 magnitude in Astrometrica…but with its combined faint outer coma its probably closer to 13th Magnitude visually right now.

This is a tough one  to see for us city dwellers.  Comet Cardinal is estimated to get as bright as 8th magnitude come May and June 2009 when it approaches the Sun…but it will also be very low in the Southwest  by then, becoming a Southern Hemisphere object.

I used my homemade 16″ scope & ST9 CCD captured from my observatories in Yellow Springs, Ohio on 04-17-09. This close-up shot is a 5 minute exposure in LRGB.

Comet Cardinal on 04-17-09

Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

Hi All,

After recieving the notice from the IAU, I went out to my observatories last night to shoot this Supernova in NGC4088,

I also pulled out one of my old B&W images from 1994, of this galaxy.

The new 2009 photo with Supernova is a
25 minute exposure in LRGB with my 16″ and ST9 CCD.

I posted both images.   The Supernova is about 13.5 magnitude in this nice Barred Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major,  its not far from M109.
Best Regards,

John Chumack

Galactic Images

Hi All,

Get ready for the Lyrids Meteor showers this month, it occurs near New Moon this year giving us a great dark sky to observe them this year.  Normally the Lyrids are visible from around the 10th of April until the 25th of April, with the shower peaking on the Nights of the 21st and 22nd of April of this year.

There are several Minor Showers visible as well, Tau Draconids, Gamma Virginids, Librids, and April Ursids, but most are very short peaks, and low counts.

There is even a daytime shower called the April Piscids peaking on the 20th and 21st….unless the meteors are brighter than Venus these would be difficult to see in broad daylight.

The most promising shower this year is the Lyrids on the 21st and 22nd of April.
So Mark your calendars get out your lawn chairs and blankets, some hot coffee and get to a dark site away from cities. The Lyrid meteors will appear to be coming out of the North Eastern sky.

Hopefully we get clear skies for it.

Here is a shot of meteors captured from my Backyard Northeast Sky cam#2 from last Saturday Night in Dayton.

Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com

April Meteor showers

Another nice clear night , on 04-11-09, but unfortunately the moon had risen too soon ending this 65 minute exposure of M101 Face on Spiral galaxy in Ursa Major(aka The Big Dipper).  The galaxy is visible in binoculars from a Dark location on a moonless night, but looks much better in a long exposure photograph.

I captured this spiral with my 5 Inch Newt. scope and a Canon Rebel Xsi set for ISO 400.  There is lots of faint outer spiral arms visible in this image along with many little red  HII regions in the arms.  Note all the little background galaxies nearby.

I’ll have to tackle this object again when I can get another clear moonless night, although its not bad for a 65 minute exposure.

Best Regards,

John Chumack

M101 Face on Spiral Galaxy in Ursa Major

© 2009 John Chumack – Galactic Images

Here is a wonderful wide field shot showing both M97 The Owl Planetary Nebula with M108 (top) Spiral galaxy, both located in the “Bowl” of the Big Dipper(Ursa Major).  This is a 40 minute exposure (ISO 400)with a Canon Rebel Xsi & 5 Inch diameter Telescope.