The CAYAS: Chat About Your Astronomy Stuff

[ProtoJeb21]

This is a thread where people can chat about their astronomy studies, observations, careers, or other stuff. Users can post observation logs (well, typed versions anyways), photos of what they were observing, or things like stellar light curves, spectroscopic data, and information collected from observations. I'll be posting stuff too, as well as adding my astronomy photos to this post. Here are some now:

JUPITER:

SATURN:

NEPTUNE:

VENUS:

INTERSTELLAR OBJECTS:

Edited May 1, 2016 by ProtoJeb21
Photos Galore!

[Frida Space]

Seems cool!

I'm currently working on two research projects. I founded with a few friends from school an extragalactic supernovae hunt project. We take weekly images of a dozen patches of sky with 2-6 galaxies in each and compare the images we take every week and see if a supernova shows up! We haven't been able to discover one yet but we've already performed follow-up observations of more than a dozen supernovae, which is still valuable science stuff. We're currently building our first supernova lightcurve. If anyone's interested, you can track our progress here: www.facebook.com/ardinglynova (I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules by doing shameless self-advertisement?) Sometimes we also take pretty pictures of nebulas and planets.

One of our most recent supernovae:

In addition, I'm working by myself on a project to measure the period-luminosity relationship in Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) variable stars in the near-infrared (NIR) bandpass. I'm focusing on DCEPs in the Large Magellanic Cloud: being all at the same distance, any difference in apparent magnitude between them is indicative of a direct difference in absolute magnitude. The same obviously cannot be said for the Milky Way's Cepheids: one may appear to be much brighter than another one, but it might just be much closer and in reality dimmer. By considering extragalactic DCEPs in the LMC, I know that they are all more or less at the same distance from us. I'm also using raw data online to enrich my database, as I don't have enough time to perform direct photometric analysis of hundreds of stars.

I'm sorry I cannot post any images or graphs but, especially for the second project, it's part of an external assessment, and so I don't want to release any stuff on the web before submitting it, or else I might be found guilty of plagiarism or things like that. But once I've had it reviewed, I'll definitely make a post to help others trying to do the same, as it is a very, very exciting project available to anyone really.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Frida Space

[ProtoJeb21]

I've been observing Jupiter and experimenting with my CCD camera for the past 2 hours, and I have some images. Please note that they were taken with a classical Cannon camera help up to the telescope lens and zoomed it. Also take note that the only moons visible were Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. Io was either in front of or behind Jupiter.

The first pic was taken without Auto Flash and at about 13x zoom. All of the others used Auto Flash with maximum zoom (which is 32x).

[Atlas2342]

Well, I saw Jupiter and the ISS once...

[ProtoJeb21]

Alright, a few more things from my observing:

While trying to get my telescope's focus back on Jupiter, I stumbled across a small but relatively bright (compared to most other background stars) red star. Since this was a decently bright red dwarf in Leo, I believe this star was Gliese 436. This was my first red dwarf I have ever seen! Keep in mind that I was using an 8" aperture SkyWatcher collapse-able Dobsonian telescope, so I could see stars down to magnitude 12.3. Gliese 436 is about magnitude 10.5, so it would've looked brighter than most background stars.

I've edited one of my pictures of Jupiter that I posted earlier. This new picture has labeled Jupiter, the 3 visible moons, and the place where Io should be. Here it is:

[Jovus]

16 hours ago, Frida Space said:

Seems cool!

I'm currently working on two research projects. I founded with a few friends from school an extragalactic supernovae hunt project. We take weekly images of a dozen patches of sky with 2-6 galaxies in each and compare the images we take every week and see if a supernova shows up! We haven't been able to discover one yet but we've already performed follow-up observations of more than a dozen supernovae, which is still valuable science stuff. We're currently building our first supernova lightcurve.

I, uh, might have uses for your data. Do you have supplementary survey data, like luminosity functions or metallicity?

[Frida Space]

7 hours ago, Jovus said:

I, uh, might have uses for your data. Do you have supplementary survey data, like luminosity functions or metallicity?

As part of my project I'm only looking at the period of oscillation and the apparent magnitude of each star, no more, although I'm aware there are several other parameters (e.g. metallicity, as you say) that can influence the relationship... However, as it is my first project of this type, I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible  

EDIT: oh, were you referring to the supernovae? Unfortunately our facilities currently allow us to perform only photometric and astrometric analysis

Edited May 1, 2016 by Frida Space

[Jovus]

Yes, I meant the supernovae. I still might have uses, depending. I'll need to contact my professor. (It'll take months before I get anything rolling, since I'm on another continent and not currently working on the project, so don't hold your breath.)

[YNM]

A few of my past observation results, resolution halved, taken on 1.5 m focus, 127 mm diameter telescope with a DSLR camera (either APS-C or APS-H) behind it (mind you, no tracking) :

Moon and Jupiter, taken on the 2015 Moon - Jupiter - Venus conjunction. Not using any telescope, just telescopic lens.

Spoiler

 

Saturn, taken on 12 July 2015. All images of Saturn that I have always get that reflection.

Spoiler

 

My only observation of the listed as bright (read : elusive) Messier 4. Blurry due to lack of tracking. Taken on the same night as the image before.

Spoiler

 

Messier 6, Butterfly Cluster. Taken on the same night with the two previous images.

Spoiler

 

The view of it's neighbor - Messier 7, Ptolemy Cluster. Same night as the three previous.

Spoiler

 

Something near either M6 or M7 - TBH I do not know what this one is. Can anyone help me ? Taken on the same night as previous image(s).

Spoiler

 

Observation of Jupiter at March 8 2016, in preparation of tomorrow's solar eclipse. Taken with my friend's camera but on my telescope

Spoiler

Edited May 3, 2016 by YNM
Finishing the post - hope you guys enjoy it ! RAW or JPEG available.

[Frida Space]

11 hours ago, Jovus said:

Yes, I meant the supernovae. I still might have uses, depending. I'll need to contact my professor. (It'll take months before I get anything rolling, since I'm on another continent and not currently working on the project, so don't hold your breath.)

No problem! I'd be happy to help in any way I can

[ProtoJeb21]

If anybody is wondering where Neptune is in my pictures, look closely for a tiny, pale blue dot. Also, I'm nearly finished testing a theory of mine, but I won't be able to do any observing because it's going to be cloudy and rainy for the next several days. Bummer. 

HOWEVER...

Once the weather improves and my testing is complete, I'm going to try and find my first exoplanet using my 8" telescope and the transit method! The target is just a random, but rather bright, background star. I'll have to figure out how to track it. But I also may do some observations of the stars HD 125612 and HD 114783 to see if I can detect their planets.

Edited May 2, 2016 by ProtoJeb21

[cubinator]

I asked for a sextant for my birthday (or maybe it was just implied I wanted one?) so if that happens I'll be able to plot the positions of the planets. Reading about the planets' orbits and playing a game involving them is not enough; I must discover them myself! I don't think I know enough math right now to do it, but as the planets take a long time to orbit I'll do it for more data points.

On 5/1/2016 at 9:33 PM, ProtoJeb21 said:

Wow, I've never seen Jupiter rotating that fast before! 

[ProtoJeb21]

4 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Wow, I've never seen Jupiter rotating that fast before! 

You won't believe how hard it is to keep the camera steady. It's like a docking clamp on phys-warp.

[cubinator]

Just now, ProtoJeb21 said:

You won't believe how hard it is to keep the camera steady. It's like a docking clamp on phys-warp.

You know, there are mods actual tools designed for that.

[ProtoJeb21]

3 hours ago, cubinator said:

You know, there are mods actual tools designed for that.

Well, I figured out how to get my CCD camera connected to my telescope, so no more using a wobbly regular camera! I'm going to take some pics tonight, since the weather isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Edited May 2, 2016 by ProtoJeb21

[YNM]

3 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

You won't believe how hard it is to keep the camera steady. It's like a docking clamp on phys-warp.

28 minutes ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

Well, I figured out how to get my CCD camera connected to my telescope, so no more using a wobbly regular camera! I'm going to take some pics tonight, since the weather isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Hmm... Do you actually have a CCD camera or a DSLR ? AFAIK a CCD camera works pretty much the same as eyepieces, while DSLR requires a T-ring adapter.

[Robotengineer]

There was a pseudo-star party at the uni near me where we got to see Jupiter and the moon through 8" SCT's, had great seeing, Jupiter was crystal clear and you could see the great red spot and Europa's shadow on Jupiter. Lucky I was there too since I was the only person who could find Jupiter without a finder (batteries were dead). Got this pic of the moon with my phone's camera (the moon was full but was cropped by my poor camera placement).

 

[YNM]

I remember looking through Celestron C8 with 5 mm eyepiece (magnification over 400 x). Looking at Jupiter, oh...

Very gorgeous, if you don't mind the chromatic aberration around it (due to high magnification). And we had to align the finder with that view left unseen for long !

[ProtoJeb21]

I have a 3-night window for some good observations. Tonight, I'm going to be checking the sky around the star HD 89744, the Guide Star for IDR-1, for the IRVEES program. In case you don't know what IRVEES is, check here.

I'm going to take some photos of HD 89744 and the surrounding stars to get a good view of what stars are in the area. I'm also going to need help calculating their size and distance. Does anybody here know how to do that?

[ProtoJeb21]

I've been busy tonight. Here are a bunch of pictures of the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter:

 

[benzman]

This is a photo I took a few years ago of the transit of Venus, projected through my 4 1/2 inch reflector.

[ProtoJeb21]

I did some observations of Saturn on 6/7/16 with my 8" Dobsonian reflector. I was able to spot some color contrasts, the Cassini Division, and three moons. Titan was the first and easiest to identify, being the magnitude 8 dot about 2-4 Saturn radii (in the sky) away from the ringed planet. There was a moon of magnitude 10 somewhat behind Saturn. However, I'm not too sure if it was either Rhea, Dione, or Tethys, since those moons are nearly identical. Finally, there was a magnitude 11-12 dot near Saturn's rings, which was either Enceladus or Mimas. No pictures because none that I took were even good.

[ProtoJeb21]

I went to a nearby star party on 6/11/16 at the same observatory where I'm doing my IRVEES project. There was a busy sky with Luna, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Antares, the Big Dipper, and the ISS. Here are some of my photos from that night:

I got the best images of Mars I ever took. Mars looked really good through the telescopes there, as I was able to see both ice caps, the northern dark regions, and the equatorial dark belt.

Also, those final images of Mars were taken through another 8" telescope - the same aperture as mine. The difference in quality was because that telescope had a better eyepiece. 

Edited June 12, 2016 by ProtoJeb21

[ProtoJeb21]

I have some tweaked astronomy photos!

http://imgur.com/a/WiwiT

(Stupid Imgur album issues...)