Observing Highlights 2008

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M45, The Pleiades - Nov 25, 2008 - taken at the Victoria Centre Observatory using a 200mm Newtonian & Orion SS Pro Color CCD camera mounted on an auto-guided EQ6.

Guy Walton

M45, The Pleiades

M1, Crab Nebula - Nov 18, 2008 - The Crab Nebula is the first of the Messier objects and is a favorite astrophoto target.  Photo taken at the Victoria Centre Observatory using a modified Canon 350D dSLR and Meade 14" SCT

John McDonald

M1, Crab Nebula
M42, The Great Orion Nebula - Oct 25, 2008 - taken at Pearson College using an auto-guided William Optics Equinox 120 ED apo refractor.

Prize-winning photo for 2008 - Victoria Centre

Guy Walton

M42, The Great Orion Nebula
NGC 891 Spiral Galaxy - Oct 2, 2008 -  The dust lane and central bulge are particularly clearly seen in this edge on spiral galaxy.  Photo taken at the Victoria Centre Observatory using a modified Canon 350D dSLR and Meade 14" SCT

John McDonald

NGC 891 Spiral Galaxy

M33 the Triangulum Galaxy - Sept 27, 2008 - taken at the Victoria Centre Observatory using an auto-guided William Optics Equinox 120 ED apo refractor.

Guy Walton

M101, Pinwheel Galaxy
Draco Dwarf Galaxy - Sept 20, 2008 - while out at Pearson College observing with my 12.5� dob I had the opportunity to observe the Draco Dwarf galaxy UGC 10822. This is member of our Local Group of galaxies. I was actually planning on observing something else but noticed the galaxy on the page of my Uranometria star atlas.

Bill Weir

Draco Dwarf Galaxy

M101, Pinwheel Galaxy - August 29, 2008 at RASCals Star Party - This is only 14, 5 minute exposures with my new Orion SS Pro Color Camera. The telescope was auto guided.

Guy Walton

 

M101, Pinwheel Galaxy
The Moon on the Morning of August 22nd, 2008 - With all the good weather we were balanced with rain this week. I went outside early this morning to find rain clouds still blotting out the blue sky but the Moon managed to peek out from time to time.

David Lee

The Moon on the Morning of August 22nd, 2008
Jupiter - August 21, 2008  - this evening I had one of the most unique views of Jupiter that I have ever had - the GRS & a shadow transit of Callisto.

Bill Weir

Jupiter - August 21, 2008
The Tea Pot - August 5, 2008 at Mt Kobau - an image of Sagittarius setting with bright Jupiter.

Charles Banville

The Tea Pot
NGC6939 and 6946 - July 25, 2008 - NGC 6929 is a rich star cluster and 6946 a spiral galaxy.  I like the pairing of these two objects. Taken at the Saskatchewan Star Party.

John McDonald

NGC6939 and 6946
NGC 6540 & NGC 6118 - July 21 & 22, 2008 - It is often considered that NGC 6540 is one of the two toughest on the Herschel 400 list of the Astronomical League. This challenged me to see if I could observe it with my lovely little 6 inch dob. On July 21/08, my little scope rose to the challenge.

The other contender is NGC 6118, a low surface brightness galaxy located just inside the southern boundary of Serpens. I observed this object on July 22/08 at the same time in the evening as I had observed NGC 6540 the previous evening. By far, this was a more difficult object to pick out of the background sky.

Bill Weir

 

NGC 6118

NGC 6540

Eastern CygnusEastern Cygnus - July 20, 2008  - the region of Cygnus from the North American nebula to the Sadr region. Two versions of my image are posted on Zenfolio. There is a black and white using the red channel data only to show the red nebulosity, and a colour version. Despite the bright sky, lots of details show up, especially in the black and white version

John McDonald

Bubble Nebula regionBubble Nebula region - July 27, 2008 - The wide field-of-view and the fast and sharp optics my new Borg f/4 Astrograph makes it possible to gather photons from the huge but faint Sh2-157 nebula visible near the top right corner of this photo. I'm told that BN 536 (Lynd's Bright Nebulae) is the faint nebula surrounding Sh2-157.

The colour and context of NGC7635 the Bubble Nebula near the tightly knit open cluster M52 makes for a very interesting field of view. NGC7538 is visible near the top edge of the photo, and makes a lovely smaller cousin to the Bubble Nebula.  I hadn�t realized there was so much nebulous gas in that region until this photo revealed it to me.

Joe Carr

NGC 6118NGC 6118 - July 22, 2008 - In the debate of which object in the Herschel 400 is the most difficult object, this low surface brightness galaxy located just inside the southern boundary of Serpens is the other contender. I observed it also with my 6 inch dob from Pearson College. It was on July 22/08 at the same time in the evening as I had observed NGC 6540 on the previous evening.

By far, this was a more difficult object to pick out of the background sky. Getting the right balance of magnification and contrast was difficult. At 80X magnification and averted vision I was just able to make out it's very faint elongated shape. It had a very even surface brightness.

This is how I saw this galaxy with my 6 inch dob at 80X. To myself anyway, the debate is over.

Bill Weir

NGC 6540NGC 6540 - July 21, 2008 - It is often considered that this object is one of the two toughest on the Herschel 400 list of the Astronomical League. This challenged me to see if I could observe it with my lovely little 6 inch dob. On July 21/08, my little scope rose to the challenge. I was observing from one of the pads of the Godin/Newton observatory at Pearson College. The conditions weren't the best with the 85% Moon above the horizon. Still this highly obscured by dust, globular cluster did reveal itself. It is located in Sagittarius just north of the spout of the teapot.

It was a difficulty observation to be sure, but for being so low to the horizon and with the Moon actually above the horizon I expected it to be more difficult. This is how I observed globular cluster with my 6 inch dob at 160X magnification.

Bill Weir

Eastern CygnusEastern Cygnus - July 20, 2008 - Last night Joe and I spent some time at the VCO. We both set up outside to do some wide field imaging. The moon was lighting up some thin haze in the sky so it did not really get dark but it was still a very nice night, especially for creature comfort. My car thermometer registered 19 degrees when I left after midnight and there was no wind.

I focused on the region of Cygnus from the North American nebula to the Sadr region. Two versions of my image are posted on Zenfolio. One is black and white using the red channel data only to show the red nebulosity. There is also a colour version just before it in the gallery.

Despite the bright sky, lots of details show up, especially in the black and white version of the red channel. A few of the more prominent examples are the crescent nebula in the lower right and the IC 1311 and
1318 near Sadr as well as the North American and Pelican nebulae to the lower left of Deneb.

John McDonald

Lagoon Nebula, M8 June 28, 2008 -  Here is my image of the Lagoon Nebula taken from Pearson College. It was done with my new Equinox 120 Apo Telescope. - Guy Walton
61 Cygni Proper motion - 61 Cygni, sometimes called Bessel�s Star or Piazzi�s Flying Star is a multiple star system in the constellation Cygnus. The system possesses the third largest proper motion after Barnard Star and Groombridge 1830 with 5280 mas/yr. In this image, the motion can be seen easily and there is only 352 days between the two frames.- Michel Michaud
M101 with H-Alpha RegionsM101 with H-Alpha Regions -  May 31/08 - I was checking out a new very dark observing site with my f/5 12.5 inch dob. I was blown away by the view I had of M101. Many H-Alpha regions stood out. This was a quick sketch that I did so that I could identify the prominent ones. Using an image from the NGC Project I'm able to positively identify 6 possibly seven distinct regions. This is how I saw the galaxy at 152X.

Bill Weir

Mars meets PraesepeMars meets Praesepe - May 22, 2008 - Following the successful landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander I give you Mars meeting the Beehive Cluster. I took this image on Thursday night. Notice the elongated shape of Mars caused by its proper motion over the hour I exposed.

Charles Banville

Lunar Eclipse compositeLunar Eclipse - Feb 20, 2008 - Starting at sunset, observers looked to the eastern horizon to observe the last Lunar Eclipse which will be visible from North America until 2010.  Victoria Centre members setup at Cattle Point before 6pm, and observed the eclipse, along with about 100 members of the public.

RASC Victoria Centre Lunar Eclipse 2008 Photos

Herbig-Haro 1 & 2 with NGC 1999 - Feb 3, 2008 - The Universe is full of some wonderful objects. On Sunday Feb. 3/08 I observed a type called a Herbig-Haro object. These objects are nebulae seen around protostars, and are caused by the plasma ejections of the young star colliding with interstellar gas and dust. Using my f/5 12.5 inch truss Dobsonian telescope at 456X, Herbig-Haro 1 and 2 were still only seen as stellar objects. Bill Weir

Asteroid Eunomia (15) - Jan 13, 2008

I imaged my first Asteroid (15) Eunomia, one of the brightest of the year! Hurry up!

I also made a small movie (154k wmv) showing the movement.

Michel Michaud

 

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Observing Highlights 2008
Observing Highlights 2009
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Observing Highlights 2011
Observing Highlights 2012
Observing Highlights 2013

 

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