# 169 | Light Pillars
Sometimes mistaken for auroras, light pillars are very similar to Sun pillars (see POW 58 and POW 110) except that they are caused by ground-based lighting.
Often seen in urban areas on winter nights with high humidity, Shane Finnigan of Ottawa, Ontario took this image at 2:45 a.m. on Saturday, January 29, 2005 showing both Jupiter and the Moon shining above the light pillars.
# 168 | Saturn
In addition to being an excellent deep sky imager (see Photo of the Week 167), Frédéric Caron's skill as a planetary imager shows in this detailed image of Saturn that he took on January 15th, two days past opposition.
Frédéric used a Celestron 14" SCT operating at f22 using a Phillips ToUcam Pro webcam. 522 images were stacked and processed using Photoshop and Registax.
# 167 | Galaxy M82
M82, coupled with M81, combine to make one of the most interesting pairs of galaxies to observe. Looking similar to cat eyes staring back at you through the darkness, M82 is an edge-on galaxy, appearing cigar-shaped while M81 is a spiral galaxy that has a distinct oval shape. They lie a little over a half degree away from each other, allowing both to be seen in the same field of view in many telescopes.
This detailed image of M82, showing dust lanes and an active core at the centre of the galaxy, was taken by Frédéric Caron of Victoriaville, Quebec last November. Using a Celestron 14" SCT at f7, thirteen 3-minute exposures at ISO 400 were taken with a Canon 300D camera and digitally combined afterwards.
# 166 | Comet Machholz and the Pleiades
While those in eastern Canada haven't had much of an opportunity to view Comet Machholz, parts of western Canada have been a little more lucky.
From just west of Calgary, Alberta, on January 5, 2005, John Mirtle took this image of Comet Machholz as it was approaching the Pleiades.
With new Moon occurring on January 10th, the next few days will be the best period for observing the comet. More information on Comet Machholz can be found in the January/February issue of SkyNews.
For this image, John used a combination of Kodak LE400 print film and hypered Kodak Tech Pan film, taking 3-minute images through a Celestron 8” f1.5 Schmidt camera and then combining them afterwards on his computer.
# 165 | Seven Sisters
The Pleiades, also known as M45 and the seven sisters, often are mistakenly identified as the Little Dipper by those new to the hobby. Currently seen rising high in the east shortly after dark, the Pleiades are an excellent binocular target and in larger telescopes, faint nebulosity can be seen.
From St. Catherine's, Ontario, Les Marczi used his newly purchased Takahashi Epsilon E-130 Hyperbolic Astrograph to take this image of the Pleiades. Using a Canon 10D digital camera, twenty 45-second images were taken at ISO 1600 and then processed using Images Plus, Photoshop CS and Neat Image.
# 164 | Amazing Auroras
Aurora images from the fantastic displays of November 7, 8 and 9th continue to be sent in by readers of SkyNews.
Chris Gray of Winnipeg, Manitoba took this colourful shot on the night of November 7th using a Nikon D100 with a 17-35mm lens (at the 17mm setting). A 28-second exposure was taken at f3.5 using ISO 800.
A gallery of aurora images from the same auroral storm appears in the January/February issue of SkyNews.
# 163 | NGC 7000
Although it is soon going to disappear from view for imaging during convenient hours, Rémi Lacasse recently finished off the last of the imaging necessary for his mosaic of the North American and Pelican nebulas.
With the luminance layer taken in September, Rémi took the RGB images at the beginning of December. For this incredible 4-section mosaic, taken from his observatory north of Montreal, Rémi used an ST10XME SBIG camera attached to an FSQ106 Takahashi refractor on a Paramount ME mount. Each of the four sections is a composite of a mix 75/25% H-alpha/red, green and blue filters of 80, 20, 20 minutes respectively.
# 162 | Orion Rising
Most likely everyone has witnessed a scene such as this image of Orion rising. Shots such as this one, taken by Shaun Lowe from near Waverly, Nova Scotia, in a sense can sometimes return you to a past moment that has been experienced under the night sky. While on-tripod photography is the simplest form of astrophotography, a spectacular shot can envoke a substantial amount of emotion.
Shaun used a Nikon D70 digital camera set to 28mm and f3.5 using ISO 200 with an exposure time of 30 seconds.
# 161 | M33
Sometimes neglected by observers due to it being so faint, M33 is a good example of an object that shows more detail the longer it is observed. No matter what the size telescope being used, spend some significant time at the eyepiece when observing this small face-on galaxy. Aptly known as the Pinwheel galaxy, sharp-eyed observers from a dark location may even be able to spot this magnitude 5.7 smudge using only the naked eye.
Serge Theberge took this image of M33 from the Toronto RASC's observing location in Thornbury, Ontario on September 10, 2004. Shooting through a Vixen R200SS 8" f/4 Newtonian with a Canon 300D digital camera, Serge took fourteen 10-minute exposures at ISO 400. Darks and flats were also taken and then combined using Images Plus and Adobe Photoshop.
# 160 | An Alignment and an Aurora
On November 10, 2004, Doug Derksen of Brandon, Manitoba had the good fortune of seeing not only a beautiful aurora, but also a dawn conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon occurring as well.
Doug took this shot using a Nikon 601 camera with a 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) set at f 2.8. He took a 30-second exposure using Fuji Provia 400 speed film.