In late June and early July, all eight planets (I’m including Pluto) were in the pre-dawn sky stretched out in a line starting low in the east northeast and ending high in the southeastern sky. Frequent readers of this blog will know that I was dead set against getting up at the crack of dawn to go star gazing, but this was an event I just couldn't miss. This was especially the case since the three planets I have never been able to photograph will not be visible in the evening sky until the end of the year. So, I set my alarm for 2am on June 26 and was in my favorite star gazing spot in Marymoor Park by 3am.
It was really cool to see the planets visible to the naked eye arrayed before me in the eastern sky. When I first arrived, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were clearly visible. The crescent moon and Venus rose together at 3:25am and joined the other three. Mercury rose at 4:03am but I didn’t see it. Remember that June 26th is one of the longest days of the year and is even longer up here in the Great Northwest. This means that the sky was quite bright by the time Mercury rose. Too bright for my telescope to be able to find it.
Be that as it may, I was able to photograph five of the eight planets including Mars and Venus. This was my first-time getting pictures of Mars and Venus. I missed Mercury. I don’t know why I couldn’t find Uranus but I have photographed it before. I decided to skip Pluto this time because it only looks like a tiny little speck so it wasn’t worth photographing again.
I am always on the hunt for great pictures to share with all of you but on the morning of the 26th, the most spectacular sights I saw were the ones I saw using my good ol’, Mark 1 eyeballs. That was the only way to see the planets together. It was also the only way to see the crescent moon and Venus as they rose together.
I went out again on the night of July 13/14. The night began with the usual number of trials and tribulations. The highway exit I use to get to Marymoor Park was closed so I ended up in Bear Creek and had to wiggle my way through Redmond to get to the park. Unistellar in its infinite wisdom decided to completely rewrite the software I use to control my telescope. It took a while to get it to work right. And there was a supermoon that night that was so bright I could see my shadow. The moon washed out part of the sky.
I wasn’t going to allow a little adversity to stop me. Your intrepid stargazer pushed through all of the obstacles and by a little after 11pm, I was observing the sky and snapping lots of pictures. In fact, it turned into a great night of stargazing. I took over 100 pictures and chose 17 of them for inclusion in this blog posting. Enjoy!
How To Star Hop
Now I would like to continue my discussion on how to find celestial objects – in this case stars – in the night sky. One way to do this is by using parts of well know constellations.
Most people can identify the Big Dipper and it can be used to find other stars. Let’s assume that the Big Dipper is facing up with the handle on the left. The two stars that make up the right side of the dipper form a line that points to the north. Follow that line and you will run into Polaris, the North Star. Polaris is also the tip of the tail of Ursa Minor.
Follow the curve of the Big Dipper’s handle to the left, to “arc to Arcturus,” the brightest star in the constellation of Bootes the Herdsman. Arcturus is also the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere’s summer sky. Continue to follow the arc and you will reach Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, the Maiden.
Orion is just as useful as the Big Dipper. Most people can identify Orion’s belt. Follow the belt downward and to the left until you reach Sirius, the brightest star in our sky and part of the constellation Canus Major, the Big Dog. Follow the belt upward and to the right and you will reach a bright reddish or orange star. That is Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus the Bull.
Betelgeuse is the brightest star in Orion. It is the Hunter’s left shoulder. Go up and to the left of Betelgeuse at about a 45-degree angle and the next two bright stars you reach will be Castor and Pollux. They make up the heads of the Gemini twins.
And that is enough of me pontificating for this blog post. Let’s get to the pictures! I think this post will contain more pictures than any other post!!
Nebulae
I think I got some interesting pictures of nebulae this month. Most of them are in the constellation Sagittarius. It appears that Sagittarius has as many great nebulae in it as Orion does.
The Trifid Nebula appears in the Star Trek original series episode "The Alternative Factor". As the character Lazarus jumps between this universe and another, anti-universe, the Trifid is portrayed as if it were the portal between the two.
The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is in the northwest of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way's Scutum-Centaurus Arm. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'three-lobe'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the relatively dense, reddish-pink portion), a reflection nebula (the mainly NNE blue portion), and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' in the former that cause the trifurcated appearance, also designated Barnard 85). Viewed through a small telescope, the Trifid Nebula is a bright and peculiar object, and is thus a perennial favorite of amateur astronomers. It is approximately 4,100 light years from the Earth.
The Lagoon Nebula (catalogued as Messier 8 or M8, NGC 6523, Sharpless 25, RCW 146, and Gum 72) is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula.
The Lagoon Nebula was discovered by Giovanni Hodierna before 1654 and is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the eye from mid-northern latitudes. Seen with binoculars, it appears as a distinct cloud-like patch with a definite core. Within the nebula is the open cluster NGC 6530. The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000–6,000 light-years away from the Earth.
The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula (catalogued as Messier 17 or M17 or NGC 6618) is in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is by some of the richest star fields of the Milky Way, figuring in the northern two-thirds of Sagittarius. The Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter.
The Bow-Tie Nebula (also known as NGC 40 and Caldwell 2) is a planetary nebula discovered by William Herschel on November 25, 1788 and is composed of hot gas around a dying star. The star has ejected its outer layer which has left behind a smaller, hot star with a temperature on the surface of about 50,000 degrees Celsius. Radiation from the star causes the shed outer layer to heat to about 10,000 degrees Celsius, and is about one light-year across. About 30,000 years from now, scientists theorize that this nebula will fade away, leaving only a white dwarf star approximately the size of Earth. The Bow-Tie Nebula is about 3,500 light years from Earth and is in the constellation Cepheus, the King.
Planets
Now I finally get to show you the planets I spoke so much about at the beginning of this blog entry. One thing to note is that, when viewed from Earth, all of the inner planets have phases just like our moon does. That is why the pictures of Venus and Mars are not completely round.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. As the brightest natural object in Earth's night sky after the Moon, Venus can cast shadows and can be visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. Venus's orbit is smaller than that of Earth, but its maximal elongation is 47°; thus, at latitudes with a day-night cycle, it is most readily visible for up to a few hours following the start of sunset or before sunrise. At times, it has been seen in a completely dark sky. Venus orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days. It has a synodic day length of 117 Earth days and a sidereal rotation period of 243 Earth days. Consequently, it takes longer to rotate about its axis than any other planet in the Solar System. Venus does not have any moons, a distinction it shares only with Mercury among the planets in the Solar System. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid. That’s why it looks so much like a white star.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than only Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, and has a crust primarily composed of elements similar to Earth's crust, as well as a core made of iron and nickel. Mars has surface features such as impact craters, valleys, dunes, and polar ice caps. It has two small and irregularly shaped moons: Phobos and Deimos. Mars has been explored by multiple uncrewed spacecraft, beginning with Mariner 4 in 1965. Mars can be viewed from Earth with the naked eye, as can its reddish coloring. This appearance, due to the iron oxide prevalent on its surface, has led to Mars often being called the Red Planet.
Here is Jupiter again. I am including it because it is part of the “set” I photographed in June and so that you can see how the view of the planet changes over time.
Here is Saturn again. I am including it because it is part of the “set” I photographed in June and so that you can see how the view of the planet changes over time.
Here is Neptune again. I am including it because it is part of the “set” I photographed in June and so that you can see how the view of the planet changes over time. This photo shows just a hint of the of the planet’s blue color.
Comets and Asteroids and Moon
I photographed the C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS comet – also called K2 – twice. The first time was in June and the second one was in July just a day before its closest approach to the Earth. I wanted to show how the comet’s appearance changed over the 2.5 weeks between the two photos. More of the comet’s tail is visible in the second photo.
K2 is the largest and brightest comet in our solar system at this time. At its closest, it was about 170 million miles from Earth. K2 was discovered by the experts at the Hawaii-based Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PANSTARRS) on May 21, 2017. K2 was the farthest active inbound comet ever seen when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured it. It was observed at 17 times the Earth-sun distance. What makes K2 intriguing to scientists is that it came in from the Oort Cloud from an unusually large distance.
Vesta is the first asteroid I have ever seen and photographed! Vesta is thought to be the second-largest asteroid, both by mass and by volume, after the dwarf planet Ceres, though in volume it overlaps with the uncertainty in the measurements of Pallas. The asteroid is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology. Vesta is the brightest asteroid visible from Earth. It is regularly as bright as magnitude 5.1, at which times it is faintly visible to the naked eye.
I spoke early about how beautiful it was to see the Crescent Moon and Venus rising together. Here is a photo of that crescent moon. I just wish I could have gotten a picture of the two of them together.
Stars
I have photos of a couple of double stars this month but before I show them, I would like to talk about the lines you see on all of my pictures of stars…
Diffraction spikes are lines radiating from bright light sources, causing what is known as the starburst effect or sun stars in photographs and in vision. They are artifacts caused by light diffracting around the support vanes of the secondary mirror in reflecting telescopes, or edges of non-circular camera apertures, and around eyelashes and eyelids in the eye.
In the vast majority of reflecting telescope designs, the secondary mirror has to be positioned at the central axis of the telescope and so has to be held by struts within the telescopes tube. No matter how fine these support rods are they diffract the incoming light from a subject star and this appears as diffraction spikes.
Although diffraction spikes can obscure parts of a photograph and are undesired in professional contexts, some amateur astronomers like the visual effect they give to bright stars – the "Star of Bethlehem" appearance.
Albireo is a double star designated Beta Cygni. The International Astronomical Union uses the name "Albireo" specifically for the brightest star in the system. Appearing to the naked eye to be a single star of magnitude 3 (remember, the smaller the number, the brighter the object), viewing through even a low-magnification telescope resolves it into its two components. The brighter yellow star, itself a very close binary system, makes a striking color contrast with its fainter blue companion.
In this photo, the large yellow star is in front of its blue companion, but you can see part of the companion star to the upper left of the yellow star. Albireo is in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan and is 430 light years from Earth.
Mizar is a second-magnitude star in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Bear. Mizar is the middle star in the Big Dipper’s handle. It forms a well-known naked eye double star with the fainter star Alcor, and is itself a quadruple star system. The Mizar and Alcor system lies about 83 light-years away from the Sun.
Mizar is in the center of this photo. Alcor is the bright star near the top of the photo. Both stars are blue stars but Alcor does have a red dwarf companion of its own.
Star Clusters
The definitions for globular clusters and open clusters are below. Once you read the definitions and look at these pictures of star clusters, you will be able to clearly see the difference between globular and open clusters.
Globular clusters are old clusters of stars that have remained in a gravitationally bound system. These clusters are usually roughly spherical and can contain anywhere from a few thousand to a million stars. They are typically on the order of 13 billion years old, meaning they contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy.
Open clusters are much younger and smaller than globular clusters. They are the recent birthplaces of new stars, which form out of clouds of dust and gas, and contain only hundreds or thousands of stars. Though the stars in an open cluster formed together out of the same material, they do not remain gravitationally bound over time and spread out, scattering their stars far and wide. Because they are not gravitationally bound, these clusters can have random and irregular shapes.
One last thing, look at the color of the stars in each cluster. To me, it looks like one or two colors dominates the stars in each cluster.
The Sagittarius Cluster (M22 or NGC 6656) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer. It was discovered in 1665 and became one of the first objects of its kind ever found. Also, it is one of the four globular clusters to host a planetary nebula.
The Sagittarius Cluster has an apparent magnitude of 5.1, so it requires perfect vision and ideally dark skies to see it with the naked eye. Optical devices will help to get a better picture. The cluster will rise high in the southern sky.
The Sagittarius Cluster is about 10,000 light-years away and contains hundreds of thousands of stars, so it’s an easy target for binoculars. It’s in the south at nightfall, above the “lid” of the teapot formed by some of the brightest stars of Sagittarius.
The Wild Duck Cluster (also known as M11, or NGC 6705) is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Scutum (the Shield). Its popular name derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could resemble a flying flock of ducks (or, from other angles, one swimming duck). [I don’t see any ducks. – EE]
Many stars like our Sun were formed in open clusters. The Wild Duck Cluster contains thousands of stars and is just over five thousand light years distant. The stars in this cluster all formed together about 250 million years ago. The bright young stars in it appear blue. Unlike globular clusters, open clusters are generally confined to the plane of our Galaxy.
Messier 52 or M52, also known as NGC 7654, is an open cluster of stars in the highly northern constellation of Cassiopeia, the Queen. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1774. It can be seen from Earth under a good night sky with binoculars. M52 distance from Earth is an estimated 5,000 light years.
h Persei (also known as NGC 869) is an open cluster located 7,460 light years away in the constellation of Perseus, the Hero. The cluster is about 14 million years old. It is the westernmost of the Double Cluster with NGC 884.
NGC 869 and 884 are often designated h and χ (chi) Persei, respectively. Some confusion surrounds what was intended by these designations.
Galaxies
NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years, similar to the distance of M101 (NGC 5457) in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group [of galaxies] but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
I first photographed the Andromeda Galaxy a year ago. I used a much longer exposure this time. I was hoping to get more definition in this photo. It didn’t work. All I got was brighter haze…
The Andromeda Galaxy also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy with diameter of about 220,000 ly approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the Ethiopian (or Phoenician) princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology.
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