The Meteor Gallery Album of the Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association

VOLUME XL Numbers 9-10 September-October 2015

Perseid meteors from Munson, early morning August 13, 2015

This is a stack of the best meteor images captured over a two hour period, from about 1AM to 3AM. The images are of a region of sky centered on the Andromeda Galaxy, from the V-shaped Hyades to Cygnus. These all appear to be Perseid meteors. The best 20 frames out of more than 800 were stacked to produce this. Taken with a Canon 6D, Rokinon 14mm set to f/3.5, ISO3200, 13 seconds. The camera was on my modified C8 drive base tracking mount and took continuous 13 second exposures with a 2 second delay in between - i.e., four photos per minute. I have three more photo sequences to go through, I'll post any image stacks I can get from those. --Ed Magowan, EAAA President

Pluto at Last!

Rick’s shot through his 10” was taken as New Horizons was speeding by. It allowed him to expand his photographic solar system, shown below….including two asteroids and two comets as well.

NightFall by Wayne Wooten, Canon SX 150, Auto setting, 8/24/2015

AR 2403 on August 25, 2015

60mm Spotting Scope at 20X, Olympus D-595, 2X, Auto setting

Available at WalMart for $60 with tripod, these erect image spotting scopes proved to be great for sun spot observing with the public. Wayne Wooten equipped this one with a 2” Draco Baader solar filter, and it offered a great view of AR 2403 in August 25, with the ability to zoom in up to 60X a big plus for nice solar viewing and photography with my Olympus D-595. I used 2x optical zoom at the eyepiece with automatic setting to capture this nice sunspot grouping.

And Spotting the Moon is a Delight, too!

At 20X, the scope has a 2.5 degree field of view, so you can basically point and shoot without a finder scope. But then you can zoom in to 60X for great lunar detail, the rings of Saturn, etc. My own favorite with it is Albireo, the orange and blue “Gator Star”, beta Cygni at the bottom of the Northern Cross. It is just split at 20X, and the colors become more intense as you zoom in to a .8 degree field of view at 60X. This means it does keep the whole disk of the Full Moon or Sun in the field, even at maximum zoom. This is an ideal beginners scope, with erect images and a pretty good tripod, for $60, and it certainly delighted this viewer.

Rescued from Ivan’s Wrath

After Ivan, several telescopes were salvaged from the sand. The tripod and electronics of this Meade 4.25” Newtonian were beyond hope, the focuser stripped and useless, the secondary mirror blurry, and finder scope lost. But then another similar Meade OTA was donated, with a good focuser, usable tube rings, and nice secondary, despite its primary mirror badly tarnished. So Wayne Wooten combined the two, used scrap optics for the finder scope, and mounted the tube rings on a Vixen block (we have a bunch of these free to club members!) with camera tripod threads, and mounted it on his Quantum mount. With the 32mm Plossl 2” eyepiece, it is a great RFT! Many thanks to our crafty biologist, Melissa Sears, for artistic help with the wood grain contact paper rolling!

Dean Covey zooms in on AR 2403

Taken on the same day, August 25, 2015, as Wayne’s shot with the 60mm, Dean’s shot with a 4” refractor reveals many more details with his Baader filtered view, including some granulation. Below are prominences on the same day, caught by Jonese Johnson with her Smartphone at Pensacola State and featured on Spaceweather.com in August.

Bethanie Lee photographs AR 2403 and Prominence on August 27th

By now, the big sunspot is near the western limb, and associated magnetic fields cause a large prominence to appear above it on the west limb in the solar chromosphere. Taken by Pensacola State student astronomy club member Bethanie Lee on August 27th at 11 AM with Coronado 60, iPhone 5, and iOptron smartphone adapter.

Rachel Oliver captures AR 2403 going over the limb

By the next day, on August 28th, the sun’s 25 day eastward rotation had carried this large spot group toward the western limb, and Pensacola State astronomy student Rachel Oliver used her iPhone 6 to capture it flaring before it vanished on the far side.

Hydrogen Alpha Sun on July 14, 2015 by Chris Bickham

Chris used his iPhone 6 to capture the active disk with the 12mm iOptron Plossl eyepiece and PSC’s Coronado 60. Note the flaring region connecting the two sunspots. Also many dark filaments crawl across the solar disk, like cosmic worms on the desert surface of our star….Dune, anyone….

Merry Edenton-Wooten Captures some Prominences L

Who says you need an iPhone for great solar shots? Merry used her iPod with camera (about equivalent to an iPhone 4, I think) to capture some nice prominences as AR 2403 went over the limb on August 28th. She used a Lunt 60, iOptron Smartphone adapter, and 2X Orion Shorty barlow of more detail. Note the magnetic field lines.

Dean Covey’s Prominences along the Limb on August 27, 2015

While the disk detail is overexposed, the prominences all along the solar limb stand out well in this hydrogen alpha shot.

Waxing Crescent Moon on August 21, 2015

Taken by Pensacola State astronomy student Hayley Thompson at pavilion gaze on August 21, 2015. Orion Eon 72 and iOptron Smartphone adapter, some haze.

First Quarter Moon on August 22, 2015 by Kim Hubbard

Taken the following evening under better sky conditions, the Eon 72 and her Samsung Galaxy 6 reveals even more detail on the first quarter moon.

Crater Ptolemy by Erica George

Erica George’s Smartphone zoomed in on crater detail along the terminator on August 22nd pavilion gaze. Smallest craters here perhaps 2 miles across.

Young Crater Tycho by Jaclyn Kerry

The rays from the formation of Tycho, near the moon’s south pole, extend over half of the moon’s diameter, overlying all the older cratering and lava flows. PSC astronomy student Jaclyn Kerry took this photo with her smartphone, the iOptron adapter, and our 1974 Celestron C-8 after class.

Oddly Shaped Schiller defies explanation

Jaclyn Kerry’s photo shows the very elongated crater, perhaps an oblique impact? Certainly nowhere close to round..about 60x20 miles in size.

Aristarchus, Kepler, and Copernicus by Rebecca Elliff

The three fathers of the heliocentric model are honored here. C-8 and smartphone shot by Rebecca Elliff of the Wednesday night AST 1002 class.

Green Corn Moon by Merry Edenton-Wooten

Merry used her homebuilt 70mm refractor (objective an Israeli surplus aerial recon lens from an AL convention table in 1984), her iPod camera, and the iOptron adapter to capture the August full moon on August 28th. Note the rabbit on the moon’s face, with his nose to the left edge of the photo, and his cotton tail to the right edge (Mare Crisium).

Wayne Wooten captures Waning Gibbous Moon

Restless on the morning of August 31, 2015, Wayne Wooten went out and used Merry’s 70mm refractor and his 30mm Plossl and Olympus D-595 to capture the 18 day old moon, with the rabbit’s tail now in shadow as Mare Crisium disappears into the lunar night.

Don Meyer’s High Resolution Moon Mystery

Shot this at end of my driveway with new ZWO ASI120MC on 7/26 and processed with all the tools Ed taught me... Had some guests, so thought this would be interesting for them. Now I need to match with a moon map to figure out what I got! --Don Meyer Don’s mystery moon shot was identified by Ed Magowan. He notes: “Looks like craters Theophilus and Cyrillus to lower right. Attached are screen grabs from a program called "Virtual Moon Atlas". I downloaded it from Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualmoon/?source=typ_redirect) but there are also other locations to download from, it seems the authors do not have a website where the software is hosted.”

Don Meyer and his scope

Here Don is setting up at our last Fort Pickens gaze in August. Celestron C-8 with all the bells and whistles, looks like.

ISS passes below Scorpius, a mystery in the claws

Saturn sits just right of the scorpion’s claws at 8:16 PM on August 24, 2015 as Wayne Wooten captures the space station passing south of it. Note that delta Scorpii, the middle star of the claws, is still second only to Antares in brightness in this, the brightest constellation in the heavens. Its 50% rise is brightness started in 2004, and is now .7 magnitudes brighter than it was back in 2003. For more, see: https://www.aavso.org/vsots_delsco

Rick Johnston captures Moon and Venus conjunction

Taken on July 18th, note how the two show a very similar crescent phase.

Neil Clark’s Western Adventure: Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

Pensacola State biology professor Neil Clark comes to gazes and helps with our local student club. While he was on vacation out west on July 18th, he captured the waxing crescent moon passing .4 degrees south of Venus. Jupiter sits another 4 degrees to the NW of the pair in the twilight.

On July 20, Wayne Wooten finds the moon well east of the pair of planets, and Venus moving farther from fainter Jupiter in the western twilight.

Crescent Venus with 48X zoom only

To approximate what Galileo saw through his early telescopes, Wayne Wooten can zoom in to about 48X with the 1” aperture of his Canon SX 150 camera. Here is Venus in the twilight on July 20, 2015. Tripod mounted camera, 1/200th second exposure.

On the same evening, here are Venus to left and Jupiter in twilight.

Mike and Helen Kern at Pickens Picnic

We love welcoming new members and teaching them to choose and use their telescopes. This 4” Newtonian is a great starter scope, and gave nice views at Battery Worth.

John Arnold looks forward to a great night at Pickens

John Arnold earned this Celestron C-8 and equatorial mount from the EAAA loaner program for his great support for our club public stargazes over the last three years, and used it to earn EAAA educational level II with his fine observing log. One of the great successes of our loaner program is teaming a new member up with just the right telescope for their experience and needs, and John loves his C-8, and uses it to conduct his own neighborhood gazes as well as participating in many club ones.

Malone Calvert heads south with Messier scope replica

While the 8” Meade Newtonian on a Criterion RV-6 mount is a fixture at many EAAA gazes, it is a little big to take south to Australia, so in the background is Wayne’s replica of Messier’s comet hunter, now down at Ayer’s Rock in Australia with Malone, seeing things down under that Wayne and Charles Messier can only dream off. Bring back good pictures, Malone!

Ron Fairbanks and Steve Huber checking out the Sun with the Lunt 60

At the Fort Pickens Picnic, we observed solar activity before sunset with Wayne Wooten’s Lunt 60. At last he got the iOptron mount fixed (dec motor burned out and replaced by iOptron, $120) and it now finds and tracks objects quite nicely, with GPS for setting up an daylight. Note to the left of Ron is the 1989 62mm RFT refractor built by my Michael Wooten when he was only eight years old. Using a 62mm Navy surplus objective from C&H Sales, and a 32mm Erfle eyepiece from a surplus Army tank periscope, it represents great optical recycling, and a functional union of our military deparments to a degree rarely achieved in the government itself…theodolite stand also US Army surplus, used by me at U of Florida in 1967 to make a video of the launch of the first Saturn V.

Two Jewels in the Scorpion’s Tail

Taken by Chris and Gina Gomez, here are M-6 (above) and M-7 below in their 8” astrograph. Visible with naked eyes just to upper right of the stinger of Scorpius, both are also fine sights in binoculars. M-6 is often called the Butterfly Cluster, and M-7 was cataloged by Ptolemy in 200 AD.

Jared Lee and his 8” astrograph

Here Jared and UWF astronomy club representative Jon Ellard discuss Jared’s new rig, similar to the one that Chris and Gina are using. This gaze was at the pavilion on July 25, 2015.

Dave Cochran helps SmartPhone the Moon

Student chapter president Dave Cochran used the iOptron Smartphone adapter on the Orion Eon 72 refractor to capture the first quarter moon with a guest at our pavilion gaze on July 25th. This rig is ideal for both capturing high quality apochromatic images of the whole moon with no zoom, yet being about to use the camera’s zoom feature for amazing close ups that showed up on many a Facebook page the next day.

Wayne Wooten’s Nova 500 gets high marks

In the search for the perfect starter scope, Toys R’Us EduScience Nova 500 is a best buy, according to Wayne. It features nice 1.25” 26mm and 9.6mm Plossl eypeieces, a 114mm f/4.5 parabolic mirror, a sturdy alt-azimuth mount with Vixen dove-tail coupling, and nice slow motions. Light and portable, it is a steal for $130 at the local Toys R’Us in University Mall. He especially likes that the mount can also accommodate his Vixen mounted Lunt 60 and Eon 72 refractors for public gazes, and with the 26mm eyepiece at 20X, he can still cradle the OTA like a baby and use it as an RFT to sweep the Milky Way out at Fort Pickens.

The Pelican Nebula, IC 5070, is overhead now

Just east of the more famous North American Nebula, and north of Deneb in the summer Milky Way now high overhead, this star forming region is much fainter than the North American, but still very photogenic in the 8” astrograph of Chris and Gina Gomez.

Cassiopeia and Perseus mean fall is coming

Here Chris and Gina Gomez’ turn toward the Autumn skies, with the W of Cassiopeia just above their 8” Orion astrograph, and Perseus and the outer arm of our Galaxy to the right of the scope. Yellow Capella of Auriga is the bright star rising in the lower right corner of this image.

Heart and Soul Nebula with the Double Cluster

Perseus’ magnificent Double Cluster lies close to the very photogenic Heart (upper left) and Soul (lower center) Nebulae in this long exposure by Chris and Gina Gomez.

The Heart Nebula by Team Gomez

This closeup shows the obvious reason the Heart Nebula (to lower left here) was so named. It is also known as IC 1805 or Sh2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing gas and darker dust lanes. Estimated distance to Earth is 7,500 light years.

The California Nebula and the Pleiades

This shot by Team Gomez shows the California Nebula in Perseus, and just south of it in western Taurus, the famed Pleaides star cluster. The California, or IC 1499, is faintly visible to the naked eye if you use a Ha filter, I hear, but M-45, the seven sisters, is the finest sight in binoculars in the entire sky, in my estimation.

NGC 281, the Pac Man Nebula

Everyone who has played computer games gets this one by Team Gomez.

NGC 6334, the Cat’s Paw Nebula

Again, Team Gomez has a fine portrait of a star forming region.

M-31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy

Team Gomez captures the beautiful spiral structure of the closest spiral to our own Milky Way, at about 2.5 million light years distant. For most of us, it is the most distant object we can spot with our naked eyes. Note M-32, its elliptical companion, just to upper left of the nucleus of this fine island universe.

M-33, the Pinwheel Galaxy

In adjacent Triangulum, it is a little fainter and farther away than more famous M-31, but seen face on, a finer spiral for photographers like Chris and Gina Gomex. Look at the many colorful H II regions in its spiral arms, much like those in our own Galaxy in the previous photos.

The Super Blood Moon Eclipse on September 27th

Photo by EAAA member Gary Wiseman on Feb. 20, 2008, the last similar evening eclipse.

About 8 PM on Sunday, September 27, 2015, the Super Moon (a full moon at perigee, when the moon is closest to earth and largest in our sky) will start to enter the Earth’s shadow. By 9: 10 PM CDT, it will be completely inside our shadow, and will stay totally eclipsed for about the next hour. We call this one a “school kids’ eclipse”, since observing it will be in convenient evening hours for all the family to enjoy in their yards. If you want a closer view of the events, plan to come out (clear skies permitting, of course!) to Pensacola State College where the Physical Sciences Department and the student chapter of the Escambia Amateur Astronomer’s Association will host a public star gaze from 8 PM – 11 PM to watch this colorful event. We will be setting up telescopes around the planetarium on Airport Blvd across from Taco Bell, and not only let you look through them, but take photos of the event to share with everyone on Facebook and other media through your Smartphones. As is our tradition, for observing this leisurely event, we will be serving milk and cookies to the public. There is no charge for any EAAA event; join us in looking up!

7 PM, Saturday, October 3, 2015, Hagler Auditorium (Room 252) at Pensacola State College

Have you every wondered why some times there is a lot of buzz about UFO's (unidentified flying objects) but others there seems to be nothing happening in the sky? There may be a reason for that and it may have a lot to do with our brains and the way that we perceive things of which we are uncertain and things that frighten us because of a plausible explanation. "UFO: The Phenomenon" explores the history of UFO sightings, even into prehistoric times, and demonstrates the modern view of UFO's, extraterrestrials, and the possibility that Earth is being visited by aliens. We examine the reports to identify where the sightings normally occur, what the typical report contains, the physical makeup of "aliens" as described by those purporting to have seen them. In addition we visit the UFO phenomenon's affect on everything from lifestyle and media to architecture throughout the world. This presentation, sponsored by Pensacola State College and the Escambia County Amateur Astronomers, will feature one half of the time in the presentation, followed by an open forum with audience interaction on their sightings, beliefs and theories; persons will be allowed to present their stories in a 60-second time frame after which the moderator and audience will interject science, ideas and opinions. P. Clay Sherrod, Director of Arkansas Sky Observatories, one of the nation's oldest private observatories, will give this overview in an exciting audience participation Forum on Saturday evening, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. in the Hagler Hall Auditorium on the campus of Pensacola State College; it will represent more than a decade of public presentations by Sherrod on the PSC (and previous PJC) campus. Common misconceptions and identification mistakes will be presented, showing how may times common events and objects can be mistaken for alien spacecraft, and Sherrod will discuss the psychological influence that the UFO revolution has had on lives throughout the world. Examples of reported UFO's will be shown, some never before seen, as will many "Photo-shopped" enhancements of objects and scenes as hoaxes; among them will be the famous 1987-1991 Gulf Breeze UFO hoax that made world headlines for several years before accomplices came forward to reveal the nature of the true "UFO's" and the originator behind the hoax. Nonetheless, people are genuinely convinced that they ARE indeed seeing "flying saucers" in the sky, virtually every night. The reasons as to how normal and otherwise responsible citizens are seeing these are presented, along with the social ridicule stigma that associates with many who do report legitimate sightings.

The presentation is free and open to the general public; it is an ideal forum for students and families for further exploration. It is sponsored by the Physical Sciences Department and the PSC Student Astronomy Club.

Join us for a Fun Night Under the Stars!

The Escambia Amateur Astronomers Association Will Hold Free Public

Star Gazes on the following dates:

Big Lagoon State Park Star Gazes for 2015 are scheduled for Saturdays; March 14, April 11, May 9, June 6, July 11, August 8, September 5, October 10 The gaze is free, but normal park entry fees will still apply. Participants must enter park before sunset, the gate is locked at that time. Fort Pickens Star Gazes at Battery Worth for 2015 are scheduled for Fridays; April 17, May 15, June 12, July 17, August 14, September 11, October 9 The gaze is free, but normal park entry fees of $8.00 will still apply.

Gulfside Performance Pavilion Star Gazes for 2015 are scheduled for both; March 27 & 28, April 24 & 25, May 22 & 23, June 19 & 20, July 24 & 25, August 21 & 22, September 18 & 19, Oct 16 & 17 Free parking is available in the Casino Beach parking lot, near the Beach Ball Water Tower.

Members Telescopes and Binoculars will be set up for views of: the Moon, Planets and other Celestial Objects.

Clear skies permitting, Members will begin setting up their Telescopes for these events just before sunset.

The Astronomy Club meets on the first Friday of each month at 7:00 PM, building 17, room 1775 at Pensacola State College. For more information about the Astronomy Club, or for scheduling a star gaze for a school, scouting, or other social event at your location;

Contact Dewey Barker after 4:00 PM at (850) 450-7767 for any questions. Please be sure to visit our website at www.eaaa.net or go to: http://rlwalker.gulfweb.net/astronomy/index.html to view our calendar of events and club members’ Astro - Photos