Monday, October 20, 2014
Relive the Comet Siding Spring - Mars Encounter
Here's the YouTube video he made
http://youtu.be/ehufS2GcWO0
Here's the link to the recording of the live hangout form the encounter that night.
https://plus.google.com/events/c37ac7ps3n0va5j6tibeblnkpfc
The NASA Siding Spring site has links to Flika albums of the encounter
http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/
Terry Lovejoy's Animation
http://vimeo.com/109365734
Via Dan Fischer, all five recorded webcasts, if you have a spare 5 hours!
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNDMAfxLRrs
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5kyLAnAgzo
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voBNsmkE7Ig
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9PV3dz5LYM
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1iyxouD38g
ESA blog, the spacecraft are all okay. Mars Express images not expected until Thursday.
http://blogs.esa.int/mex/
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, Mars
An Image of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring - Taken from the Martian Surface!
https://twitter.com/nivnac/status/524111689399406592/photo/1
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, Mars, robot
My Image of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring just before closest approach.
Stack of 3x30 second luminance images taken with iTelescope T9.
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, iTelescope, Mars
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Live Webcasts of the comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring Encounter with Mars October 19.
Simulated in Celestia: Mars and comet C/2013 Siding Spring on October 19, at 18:51 UT when the comet is 138,800 Km from Mars. From Earth they will be a mere 1' 51" apart (that's one arc minute 53 arc seconds, about the width of a human hair).If you are clouded out on the night of closest approach, there are a number of live webcasts of the event on the early evening of the 19th. You will see a fuzzy blob and a bright bob, but this is a scpecial occasion, so there wll be a lot of interesting discussion.
There is a Google Hangout in Australia. 11:00 UT (around 10 pm AEDST)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c37ac7ps3n0va5j6tibeblnkpfc
Sunday, October 19 at 6:45pm in UTC+02
http://www.astrowebtv.orgLive webcast from Slooh
http://www.space.com/19195-night-sky-planets-asteroids-webcasts.html
A much bigger list, including NASA and ESA, borrowed from Yasser Mohammed
here.
1) NASA :
http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/
http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/comet-siding-spring/
http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/october/nasa-prepares-its-science-fleet-for-oct-19-mars-comet-encounter/#.VEH5JPmSwxU
2) Slooh Observatory :
The Slooh Community Observatory will broadcast a double feature about Comet Siding Spring's close pass by Mars on Sunday (Oct. 19). The first Slooh webcast will start at 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT), and the second will begin at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 Oct. 20 GMT)
http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/comet-siding-spring-swings-by-on-a-close-approach-to-mars
3) Virtual Telescope :
The Virtual Telescope Project will host a webcast on Oct. 19 starting at 12:45 p.m. EDT (16:45 GMT)
http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2014/10/09/comet-planet-comet-c2013-a1-siding-spring-meets-planet-mars-19-oct-2014-online-event/
4) Europe Space Agency :
ESA Livestream with lots of experts ( starts at 10:50 PT / 17:50 UT)
http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Mars_Express_ready_for_comet_encounter
5) Telescope from Australia :
Amateur astronomer Peter Lake, will broadcast from the iTelescope.net Observatory (Q62) at Siding Spring, though closest approach won't be visible from Australia (broadcast starts at 03:00 PT / 11:00 UT)
http://www.itelescope.net/
https://www.facebook.com/events/679638335464865/?ref=4
6) Living Maths live feeds from South Africa :
Mr S will be interviewing NASA Astronomers and local Astronomers about the Comet that is currently making an appearance. We will talk about chasing comets and even catching them. The Hangout will last 1 hour and afterwards we will take out the telescopes and explore the stars outside. This should be an evening you won’t forget. The event will be streamed live on the Living Maths website at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
http://www.livingmaths.com/event/nasa-interview-19-october/
https://www.facebook.com/events/649993841786622/?ref=4
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, public outreach
Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring Edges Closer to Mars (17-18 October)
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| Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring amidst the rifts of the Milky Way on 17 October (you have to click on the image and embbigen it to see the comet at all) Mars is just out of the field at bottom right, you can see the glow. Stack of 6 x 30 second luminance images taken with iTelescope T12, SUMMED in Image J. | Images stacked on the comet and SUMMED in ImageJ then cropped down to show the comet (fuzzy blob centred) |
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| Siding Spring on 18 October, the comet has come over the dust clouds, so is easier to see. Mars if now in view at the bottom of the image grossly overexposed. Stack of 2 x 30 second luminance images taken with iTelescope T12, SUMMED in Image J. Definitely click on the image to embiggen. | Images form the 18th stacked on the comet and SUMMED in ImageJ then cropped down to show the comet (fuzzy blob centred). the tail is mucg clearer now. |
Tomorrow comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring comes closest to Mars. Watched by a flotilla of spacecraft from Mars, and a batallion of amateur and professional observers.
Hopefully the weather will hold. Friday night was clear but I missed observations as I was picking up EldestOne during optimum observing time. Tonight was cloudy, but the robot scopes at iTelescope picked up the comet for me.
Unfortunately, my kids have used up all the high speed bandwidth, so despite having heaps of pictures, downloading them takes forever. You can see my images of the comet near the butterfly cluster here.
Here's hoping tomorrow night is clearer.
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, iTelescope, Mars
Monday, October 13, 2014
Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring Rendevous With Mars (19 October 2014)
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| Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) and Mars as seen at astronomical twilight (an hour and a half after sunset when the sky is fully dark) facing west on 19 October, the night of their closest approach when they will be less than 18 arc minutes apart. Click to embiggen | Animation of C/2013 A1 and Mars over the nights of 13 October to 22 October as seen at 9 pm ACDST from Adelaide. Similar views will be seen at equivalent times elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. Click to embiggen |
Binocular scale image showing the path of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring and Mars during October. Click to embiggen and print. A printable black and white PDF chart of this image is
here. The large circle is the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. The comet is far too dim for binoculars now, but the chart will help orienting yourself for the high resolution chart below. Unless you have been living in a cave this past year you will know that in less than a week comet Siding Spring comes close to Mars.
The pair are at their closest on October 19, when at 18:51 UT they will be a mere 1' 51" apart (that's one arc minute 53 arc seconds, about the width of a human hair). Unfortunately, this will only effectively be seen from Africa. From the Australia the closest the pair get is a bit under 18' before the comet is too low in the sky for effective observation.
Simulated view in Celestia of Siding Spring passing Mars. Although the tail appears to pass between Mars and Phobos this is a rendering artifact. The comet is well beyond Demios (the dot near the centre).
Passing 138,800 Km from Mars, comet Siding Spring comfortably misses the red planet. For comparison. Mars's outermost Moon Demios circles the planet at around 20.000 km from Mars's surface (on the other had, the average Earth-Moon distance is 384,400 Km).
A small flotilla of spacecraft are getting ready to either observe or avoid the comet (see this cute "I'll Save you Robots" graphic as well, and this graphic of the planned orbital observations) . While the comet itself will miss Mars, the planet may be enveloped in its coma, and there is the possibility that cometary dust and debris will damage the spacecraft. Nonetheless, we are preparing for a bonanza of space based observations.
Chart
of the path of C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) and Mars from 13 September to
November, as seen from Australia at the end of Astronomical
twilight. The large rectangle is 4 degrees by 2.5 degrees and the small rectangle the approximate field of view of a Newtonian scope with a 10mm eyepiece. Click to embiggen and print.As well as all these spacecraft, amateurs and professional alike are eagerly watching the comet. in the lead-up to the encounter, and will be watching the encounter itself and its aftermath.
The comet was relatively bright (around magnitude 9) and passed through some stunning astronomical territory. Now it is around magnitude 11 and still in interesting, if crowded, skies, but not as spectacular as before.
The rich stellar backgrounds make seeing the comets tail somewhat difficult against the crowded stars.As of writing only reflecting telescopes with an 8" mirror or better have been able to pick up the comet visually in eyepieces from 30 mm to around 10 mm. Imaging systems will have better luck picking the pair up, and some DSLR images have picked up the comet (very faintly, see also here - warning, big image).
Whether using a DSLR camera with telephoto lens, or a CCD imaging system,
You may need to do a MEDIAN combine when stacking images to bring the tail out at its best (messes up the pretties but you can do a separate image emphasising the clusters and so on).
As well as the standard exposures, if you have R, B or V astronomical filters and can take some images with them that would help the science missions as well (allowing definition of dust to gas ratios etc).
The biggest challenge will be getting images of Mars and Siding spring in the same frame.
With the comet around magnitude 11, and Mars at magnitude 0.9 the difference in brightness is enormous. You will have to take a series of really short exposures to avoid over exposing Mars, and a series of longer images to bring out the comet (see below for more details).
Another problem is that for any eyepiece/CCD camera frame that gets both Mars and the comet in the same frame Mars will be tiny (at least from Australia, from South Africa, larger magnifications will allow both the comet and Mars in the same field).
Mars imaged for 1 second using the Ha filter on iTelescope T9. Kinda small and not much detail.
Whichever approach you use, you can't get the comet without over-exposing the planet, so you will have to assemble images from separate exposures (ie maybe shoot 10x60 second exposures for the comet and say 2-3 0.1 second exposures of the planet).
Obviously some practise will be required to get the exposure parameters right before the night of the actual encounter.
Now that the Moon has left the early evening sky, this is a good time to test your imaging out on the comet and Mars. Locating the comet may be a pain if you don't have an automated GOTO scope. On the 17th the comet is one degree from the 13th magnitude globular cluster Pal 6, which may make a nice test of your equipment.
Despite the difficulties, this will be an historic encounter, and well worth the effort if you have medium to high end astronomical gear.
If you are clouded out, there may be live coverage from iTelescope and the Virtual telescope (watch this space).
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, Conjunction, Mars, telescope
Friday, October 10, 2014
Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) and the Butterfly Nebula (M6) on October 7, 8, 9 2014
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| 7 October 2014, Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) approaching the Butterfly Cluster (M6), stack of 10x 30 second luminance images (summed in ImageJ) with iTelescope (Q62) T12 0.1m f/5.0 Astrograph SBIG STL-11000M, North top. Image cropped to 800x600 from original. Click to embiggen | 8 October 2014, 9 x 30 second luminance images. Other details as for the 7th. | 9 October 2014, 3 x 30 second luminance images. Other details as for the 7th. Cloud seriously messed up the exposures :-( |
I now have a set of images for C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) approaching the Butterfly cluster (M6) from the 7th to the 9th. They are not ideal, due to a combination of Moonlight, cloud and Moonlight AND cloud. iTelescope T12
Labels: astrophotography, C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, iTelescope
Thursday, October 09, 2014
Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) and the Butterfly Nebula (M6) on October 8, 2014
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| Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) approaching the Butterfly Cluster (M6), stack of 9x 30 second luminance images (summed in ImageJ) with iTelescope (Q62) T12 0.1m f/5.0 Astrograph SBIG STL-11000M, North top. Click to embiggen, seriously, it is so worth it. | Crop of central region showing the edge of M6 and the comet more clearly. Click to embiggen |
While I was busy taking images of the Lunar Eclipse, the remote telescope iTelescope T12 was silently collecting images of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) as the eclipse faded. Pity the clouds came over, I ended up with only 9 of the 20 planed images, and no colour frames (sad face). Nonetheless, the results are pretty stunning.
Labels: C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, iTelescope
Monday, October 06, 2014
Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring and Ptolemy's Cluster (6 October 2014)
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| Comet Siding Spring near the Ptolemy Cluster in the tail of Scorpius. Stack of 20x30 second exposures using iTelescope T12, SUMMED in imageJ, click to embiggen for the full glory (it's big, but worth it) the comet is a timy smudge near the middle right. | Single 30 secomd fram with brightness increased, the comet is the fuzzy blob near the centre (clcik to embiggen for best effect). |
Comet C/2013 A1 Siding spring is fading as it heads for its rendezvous with Mars. It is currently travelling through some rather spectacular parts of the tail of Scorpius.
So naturally the light of the almost full Moon is messing up imaging. Thankfully iTelescope T12, as well as being a widefield instrument that allows imaging broad vistas, is very forgiving of Moonlight.
In the full image the comet is difficult to distinguish, unlike the images back in September. The combination of fading, Moonlight and a crowded stellar field all make it a more difficult object.
Over the next few days the comet moves through some georgous skies, as the Moon gets brighter. But on the 8th, when the comet is near the Butterfly cluster (M6), there is a total Lunar Eclipse, so this will make imaging the comet and it beautiful surrounds easier.
I have a backlog of Siding Spring images to process, so you should see some nice ones shortly. I've also done some colour imaging, but I suck at that.
Labels: astrophotography, C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, iTelescope
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Comet C/2013 A1 12 September 2014
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| C/2013 A1 on 12 September 10:12 pm ACST. Image is a MEDIAN stack of 5x60 second luminance exposures taken with iTelescope T9, with light contrast enhancement. Click to embiggen. | C/2013 A1 on 12 September 10:12 pm ACST. Image is a SUMMED stack of 5x60 second luminance exposures taken with iTelescope T9, with light contrast enhancement. Click to embiggen. |
Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring has passed it's closest approach to Earth and will now slowly fade as it heads for its close approach to Mars on October 19.
While it never got very bright it still looks very nice in telescopes. It has a nice little fan shaped tail. In the coming weeks it comes close to some rather nice deep sky objects.
Images taken with iTelecope T9 0.32-m f/9.3 Ritchey-Chretien + Focal Reducer Resolution: 0.8 arc-secs/pixel FOV: 13.6 x 20.4 arc-mins.
Labels: astrophotography, C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, comet, iTelescope
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