Posts Made By: Peter Kennett

Then come on out to New Mexico for the 7th annual White Sands Star Party! It will be held this year on September 30th and October 1st at the White Sands National Monument (a.k.a. missle range) in Southern New Mexico.

Participants will be allowed to camp directly in the very dark dunes, but not the general public. Also, no one will be allowed in or out from 8: pm to 11:30PM to prevent car lights from interfering with observations. At 11:30 pm all non-campers must exit, and then no one else will be allowed to leave and the rest of the night is DARK and all yours! See the Southern Skies like you’ve never seen before!

There will be guest speakers, trips to the NM Museum of Science History, and free Pizza to participants! Ummmm... PIZZA

And while your in the area, take a trip up to Socorro New Mexico to the Very Large Array (VLA) on October 1st for a free guided tour! You can also swing over and visit the TRINITY test site, where the first Atomic Bomb was detonated in 1945. This is a rare event as the Trinity site normally only offers tours one day a year!

Come on out and enjoy the Land of Enchantment and the incredible Dark Skies of New Mexico!

Website link: www.zianet.com/wssp/
White Sands: www.nps.gov/whsa/
NM Museum of Space: www.spacefame.org/
VLA: www.vla.nrao.edu/
Trinity: www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/TrinitySite/trinst.htm

Peter

Ok, I found my limit. Some trailing

LXD75 8" f/4 SN
Hand guided 30 minutes on a 910mm refractor
Olympus OM-1, Stiletto
Fufichrome 400F Provira

I'll try a better shot this weekend.

This is a shot overhead of the Constellation Cygnus. How many different nebulae can you see?
North American & Pelican - Easy.
Can you spot the Veil and Crescent?
It's amazing what a 28mm lens will show!

30 Minute hand guided with 910mm Refractor.
Olympus OM-1, 28mm lens Piggyback on LXD75 mount.
Fugichrome 400F Provia

Pete

A bit blurry... I must have been way too tired and in need of a lot of caffein. Either that or my scope is out of collimation.

LXD75 8" f/4 SN
30 minutes on Fugichrome 400F Provira
Hand guied 910mm refractor
Olympus OM-1, Stiletto

Here's a shot with my trusty 28mm lens stopped down to f/5 for 20 minutes on Fujichrome 400F Provia. Enjoy!

This is why I haven't been taking any astro photos lately. This is a only a 30 second exposure - and I might add, 30 seconds of pure terror!

The closest and brightest Open Cluster to earth, the Pleiades lies 400 light years away and consists of well over 300 stars. The blue reflection nebula is not part of the cluster but lies in the foreground.

September 8, 2005.
Meade LXD75 8" f/4 prime focus.
35 minute hand guided exposure on Fujichrome 400F Provia.
Guided with an Orion 910mm guidescope.
Photographed with an Olympus OM-1.

CF

September 8, 2005.
Meade LXD75 8" f/4 prime focus.
30 minute hand guided exposure on Fujichrome 400F Provia.
Guided with an Orion 910mm guidescope.
Photographed with an Olympus OM-1.

CF

September 7, 2005.
Meade LXD75 8" f/4 prime focus.
30 minute hand guided exposure on Fujichrome 400F Provia.
Guided with an Orion 910mm guidescope.
Photographed with an Olympus OM-1.

CF

Here's the nasty light that was messing up my Eastern Horizon photros this month! This is the Zodiacal light, which occurs in the early morning hours before dawn. This is NOT an early sunrise, nor anything in our atmosphere.

The Zodiacal Light is actually dust in our solar system! The dust released into our solar system by comets and asteroids undergoes a complex evolution. Initially distributed in the trails that cause meteor showers, the dust eventually disperses into the ecliptic plain (the ecliptic plain, is the plain in which the planets move around the sun). The smallest dustparticles are blown out of the solar system by the sun’s radiation. The larger dustparticles gradually spiral inwards towards the sun, and together form a flattened disc in the ecliptic plain in the inner part of the solar system. This disc of dust is composed of dustparticles with sizes between 0.1 and 100 micrometer.

You need a dark sky to see this, as it is very faint - but can obliterate astrophotos!

September 7th, 2005. 25 minute exposure with a 28mm F/5 lens. Fujichrome 400F Provia.
Photographed in central New Mexico at an altitude of 6500 feet.

CF