# 89 | Solar Observing Season

While everyone aims their telescopes at distant stars at night, our closest star can reveal a plethora of detail during the day when observed with the proper, safe solar observing equipment.

Displaced Canuck Anthony Ayiomamitis used a hydrogen-alpha filter, a specialized solar filter which allows one to see solar filaments and prominences rising from the face of the Sun, to take this shot on June 4, 2003 from Greece. Anthony took his image with a combination of equipment which includes a 14" Celestron SCT, a TeleVue Pronto, a Scopetronix adapter, a Coronado Solarmax filter and a Nikon Coolpix 995 digital camera. Image processing was done Adobe Photoshop.

Note that solar observing can only be done with proper solar filters for your telescope. Contact one of the astronomy retailers that advertise in SkyNews for more details and products.

# 88 | Affordable Astrophotography

Digital cameras are fast becoming the tool of choice for those on a limited budget but still have the desire to do astrophotography. Like with most computer technology, digital cameras are becoming more affordable yet the quality of the product is getting better and better as each new model is introduced.

After seeing last week's M13 Photo of the Week, Charlie Szabototh of Port Elgin, Ontario, submitted his own shot of the globular cluster. Through his 8" f10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, he used a Canon G2 4MB digital camera and attached it afocally to a Scopetronix Maxview 40mm eyepiece and took a 15 second exposure.

# 87 | Globular Cluster M13

With good vision and a dark observing site, one can just glimpse M13 by naked eyes alone as a faint, fuzzy dot. When seen through a telescope though, it becomes transformed into a beautiful city of stars.

CCD expert imager Brian Lula took this superbly detailed image of M13 from his backyard observatory near Princeton, Massachusetts.

Image details: LRGB (30:12:12:12 minutes) using a 20" Ritchey-Chretien telescope, a Finger Lakes IMG6303E CCD camera and Custom Scientific RGB filters.

# 86 | Northern Lights for June Nights

The month of June has had a number of nights where auroral activity has been relatively high.

Steve Irvine took this photo on June 16, 2003 from Big Bay, Ontario. Steve used a Canon A-1 camera with a 28mm lens at f2 using Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 film and took a 30 second exposure.

Steve writes that he has not often visually seen the magenta colour that is in his shot before.

# 85 | The Rosette Nebula

Jean Guimond of Cap-Rouge, Quebec took this beautiful image of the Rosette Nebula using a SBIG ST-10 MXE CCD camera with a CFW-8A filter and a Televue Genesis refractor at f/5 equipped with a Hutech Light pollution filter.

Jean's image is an RRGB 220 minute (R=90, G=50, B=80, unbinned) and processed with MaxIm DL, Ron Wodaski`s Debloomer, and Photoshop.

# 84 | The North American Nebula

Although dark skies and a wide field of view is necessary to see the North American Nebula visually, photographers and imagers are able to capture the red-coloured nebula quite easily.

Brady Johnson took this RGB (15, 15, 30 min.) image taken with an SBIG ST8/CFW8 using a Pentax SMC-K 135/3.5 lens at f/5.6 from near Mount Forest, Ontario in July 2002.

Processing was done in AIP4Win with an exponential contrast stretch applied to each of the R, G and B data sets. The data was then aligned and combined using AIP4Win color processing routines with the color method set to black sky.

# 83 | Texas Trip

Albert Saikaley of Ottawa, Ontario is another SkyNews reader who recently took a trip to find clear and dark skies.

Albert and three friends recently took a three-day drive to the Texas Star Party, held near Fort Davis, Texas, to spend eight clear nights under dark Texan skies.

While there, Albert took this LRGB (L=18x1, RGB=26x2) binned 2x2 CCD image of galaxy M51. Albert used a Celestron C11 SCT at f5 using an ST-7E CCD camera.

# 82 | The Men, the Moon and the Mission

One of the most frustrating things than can happen to an amateur astronomer is to find that a highly anticipated astronomical event is accompanied by an undesirable guest---clouds.

For most, there's not much to do except grin and bear it and wait for the next time. Others though refuse to be thwarted by the weather and go to extreme measures to beat the clouds.

Steve Barnes of Burlington, Ontario awoke the morning of the eclipse to a weather forecast predicting clouds and rain over all of southern Ontario. Steve and some friends, not wanting to miss the lunar eclipse, decided that they would fly to Thunder Bay, Ontario where clear skies were predicted.

After arriving in Thunder Bay after an hour and forty-five minute flight, they rented a van and proceeded to find a good observing location. Clear skies prevailed and they were treated to a beautiful eclipse. Adding to the experience was hearing the drums and chanting of a nearby Ojibwa tribe having a ceremony during the eclipse.

Spending the night in their rented van, the eclipse chasers awoke early and returned home on a 7:45am flight to end their fantastic trip.

Steve took this photo, a composite of three shots assembled in Photoshop, with a Tele Vue 101 refractor at f15 using Kodak Elite Chrome 200.

# 81 | May 15-16, 2003 Lunar Eclipse

Those that had clear skies the night of May 15-16, 2003 were treated to a spectacular lunar eclipse. Visible from all of North America, many astrophotographers waited patiently for the total eclipse stage for their photographs.

Jay Oullet took this partial phase shot at l'Observatoire de la Découverte at Val Bélair, Quebec, which also shows a number of nearby stars. Approximately 200 people turned out to watch the eclipse at the observatory.

Jay used a Canon D30 camera, ISO 100 and a 200mm 1.8 lens @ 1.8 for a 1 second exposure.

# 80 | Alberta Aurora

Edmonton, Alberta, because of it's northern latitude, is regarded as one of the premier aurora observing locations in Canada.

On the night of May 9-10, 2003, the nightsky became ablaze with auroral activity. Clear skies over Edmonton made for a spectacular show for those lucky enough to witness it.

Lance Taylor took this photo of the aurora from an Edmonton suburban backyard. The aurora was so strong it could still be seen even with moonlight interfering.

Lance used Fuji Superia 400 print film and a 28mm lens attached to a Canon T-70 camera. He bracketed exposures during the night between f2.4-4 and in durations of 15-20 seconds.