Astronomy

Updated: Monday, 13-Sep-1999 21:36:46 CDT

No, not astrology, astronomy. The real science. If you believe in astrology then you've likely sustained a severe blow to the head in which case you're probably seeing stars too.

Jupiter (washing out the picture) and some of the Galilean moons. This is what Galileo could have seen looking through his telescope a few hundred years ago. Anyone with a pair of decent binoculars (7x35mm) can see the same thing.

Comet Hyakutake passed overhead during the months of March and April in 1996. Visible to the naked eye, this is what Comet Halley should have been but wasn't. This is a photo my Father took using a 200mm lens. I can't remember what the exposure time or film type was, but this was piggybacked on a telescope with a clockwork drive.

A twenty minute, open shutter, unguided exposure of Polaris, the North Star.

Comet Hale-Bopp

If you were impressed by Comet Hyakutake you should be interested in Comet Hale-Bopp. Discovered in 1995, it's already promising to be better than Hyakutake. With a current magnitude reaching the brightest stars in the sky, Hale-Bopp will be easily visible with the naked eye. The length of the tail is approaching the same amount of sky that the sun sweeps every hour, although this wouldn't be fully visible without binoculars or a time exposed photograph. The best times for viewing should be late February/early March in the dawn sky, and late March/early April in the evening sky.

Here's a time exposure of Hale-Bopp I took March 28, 1997. I used 200 ASA print film and a 43mm f/3.5 lens. Exposure time was about ten minutes. Clearly visible is the dust tail on the right, and the ion tail can just be made out on the left.

Venerable old Luna. Did you know that the Moon is one of the largest moons in our solar system? It's even larger than the so-called planet Pluto! Many urbanites don't realize just how much light a full moon puts out (it can cast shadows). If you have a decent pair of binoculars you can explore features you've probably never realized were there.
Glenlea Astronomical Observatory The University of Manitoba has an observatory about fifteen minutes drive south of the city.

Sporting an 18" telescope (Nasmyth style) recent modernizations have come in the form of CCD cameras being attached to the eyepiece. A CCD camera, or charge-coupled device, is an electronic instrument which has many times the light sensitivity of your eye and enables astronomers to look farther into the heavens. This picture was taken from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's dome, just across the way. Not as splendiferous, it's more than adequate for the amateur astronomy and sports a 14" telescope (Schmidt-Cassegrein?).


The constellation Orion on the left, and M42, the Orion Nebula on the right. The nebula is often mistaken for a star in Orion's sheath, although observation with binoculars shows the middle "star" to be a glowing blob. The constellation picture was 200 ASA film with a 43mm f/3.5 lens piggybacked for ten minutes on a small telescope. The nebula picture was taken from the RASC dome. It's a fifteen minute exposure on 1600 ASA film with a 400mm f/8 lens and camera piggybacked on the RASC telescope. There's treasure everywhere!


To learn more about astronomy you can visit:

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Nine Planets Tour of the Solar System



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