# 209 | Mars With Features
While Mars was at its closest to Earth on October 29th, it is not at opposition until November 7th. Unfortunately, cloudy conditions across Canada have significantly reduced the amount of Mars observing that amateur astronomers have been able to do this apparition.
Expert planetary imager Darryl Archer sent SkyNews this fantastic Mars image that was taken early on the morning of October 29th. Features such as Syrtis Major (the Africa-shaped area at the centre) and Hellas (the light coloured circular area near the upper-middle) can both be seen with most telescopes on a night of good seeing.
Darryl used a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope from his home in Kitchener, Ontario. A number of images were taken with a Phillips ToUcam webcam and then processed and combined afterwards to make the final result.
For more information on Darryl's planetary imaging techniques, see his article "Planetary Parade: An Imaging Project" in the November/December 2005 issue of SkyNews.
# 208 | Mars Rises in the East
On Saturday, October 29, 2005, Mars was at its closest point to Earth for 2005—only a mere 69 million kilometres away from Earth. While Mars comes to opposition every 26 months, we won't have another encounter this close with it until 2018.
Not sure how to find Mars? This image, taken by Steve Irvine from Big Bay, Ontario on October 29th, shows two easily found star clusters that can be used as a guide to finding Mars (the bright "star" near the centre). The Pleiades, a small cluster that looks very much like a spoon, can be found to the left of Mars. The Hyades, the V-shaped cluster (appearing sideways when viewed on the eastern horizon), is seen slightly to the left at the bottom-centre. Both clusters can usually be seen even from urban centres.
Steve used a Canon 350D camera at ISO 1600 and took a 20 second exposure at f/4.
# 207 | The Pleiades
The Pleiades, one of the most commonly known star clusters, can currently be found low in the east at 9:00 p.m.. Part of the constellation Taurus, the Pleiades can be used as a guidepost for finding Mars this fall. Look for a bright red "star" to the right of the Pleiades to locate the Red Planet.
Martin Bernier of St-Liboire, Québec used his Meade 10-inch SCT operating at f/4 and a Canon 300D at 400 ISO to take three 10-minute exposures of the Pleiades on October 3, 2005. The images were combined afterwards on his home computer.
# 206 | M31
When observing at a location devoid of light pollution, M31, the Andromeda galaxy, appears as a elongated fuzzball to the naked eye. When viewed through an 8-inch or larger telescope, one or two spiral arms become visible. Dark skies and nights without moonlight are the key to seeing the most detail possible when observing faint deep sky objects.
Jon Gunning of St. Thomas, Ontario recently imaged M31 from the RASC London Centre's dark sky site in Fingal, Ontario. Jon used a Takahashi FSQ106 and a Canon 20Da digital camera and took three 10-minute exposures at 400 ISO and then combined them afterwards using MaxDSLR and Paintshop Pro.
# 205 | Europe's Annular Eclipse
St. Catherine's amateur astronomer Les Marczi travelled to Valencia, Spain to watch the October 3, 2005 annular eclipse. To the excitement of the eclipse chasers, the weather cooperated and a fantastic show was seen by all.
Les travelled with a 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope and a Canon S1-IS digital camera and produced this composite, showing each stage of the eclipse, upon returning home.
# 204 | Marvelous Mars
Planetary observers have patiently been awaiting the 2005 opposition of Mars. With the red planet being higher in the ecliptic as compared to 2003, Canadian observers should have better views of the Mars this apparition.
Expert planetary imager Darryl Archer took this extremely detailed image of Mars on September 28, 2005 from Kitchener, Ontario. Darryl used a 14-inch Celestron SCT coupled with a Phillips ToUcam webcam and combined a colour image (450/2500 frames) with an I/R image (350/2500 frames).
# 203 | The Hunter Returns
Anyone who has been staying up late (or rising early) to observe Mars has no doubt noticed that some of the winter constellations can also be observed at that time.
Peter Boytang of Edmonton, Alberta caught Orion, Taurus and the Moon rising above the eastern horizon early on the morning of August 28th.
Peter took a 30-second exposure at ISO 400 using a tripod-mounted Canon EOS 10D digital camera equipped with a 17mm lens set to f/5.6.
# 202 | Ghostly Green Glow
Aurora aficionados were delighted to see a bright aurora occur late on Saturday, September 10 and last until almost sunrise on September 11th. Although quite strong and illuminating the sky in a ghostly green hue, the aurora was for the most part without structural definition and difficult to photograph.
Garett Mosher attempted imaging an aurora for the first time that night and captured this picture from Square Lake in Nova Scotia. He used a Canon EOS 20D digital camera mounted on tripod and took a 30-second exposure using ISO 800 with an 18mm lens set to f8. A quick burst of light from a handheld flashlight illuminated the foreground, adding a nice touch to the image.
# 201 | The Cat's Eye Nebula
Aptly named, the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is a planetary nebula found in the constellation Draco. Appearing visually as a small yet bright circular green-coloured disc surrounding an 11th magnitude star, a plethora of colours appears when the nebula is imaged with a camera.
Rock Mallin took this image from his observatory near downtown Ottawa, Ontario on September 4, 2005 with his MallinCam II Colour Video CCD camera and a 16" Meade SCT. Using a Hauppauge WIN TV PVR USB 2 as a capture device, 194 one-second exposures were stacked with Registax 3 and processed.
# 200 | Jupiter's Last Hurrah
The next few days present the last opportunity to catch a glimpse of Jupiter before it sinks into the sunset. On September 7th, the crescent Moon will join Venus and Jupiter to form a striking scene. A flat, unobstructed horizon will be essential to seeing this grouping since it occurs very low in the sky.
Rick Stankiewicz took this image of Jupiter and Venus from Keane, Ontario on September 1st. He used a Nikon Coolpix 995 digital camera set to 100 ISO. A number of exposures were taken at f4.5 with exposures varying between 1/4 to 8 seconds.