# 129 | Venus and the Moon
Many may have noticed Venus hovering above the western horizon soon after dark. It's change in position in regards to the background stars is apparent with the naked eye even after a few nights of observing.
Daniel Girard took this image of Venus and the Moon overtop of the Saguenay fjord on March 24 from Chicoutimi, Quebec.
Daniel used a Reflex Fujica camera equipped with a 24mm lens at f3.5 and took a 3 second exposure with Fuji Superia X-tra 800 print film.
Look for a close grouping of Venus, Mars and the Moon on Friday, April 23rd
# 128 | A Long Process
Arguably one of the hardest part of getting an outstanding final image is the processing that is required. It is common to use multiple computer programs to obtain the final result and often there is a steep learning curve for users of many image processing programs.
Len Benschop of Oshawa, Ontario took this image of the M27, the Dumbbell Nebula, in May of 2003 but recently reprocessed it to obtain a better final image.
Len used a Celestron Ultima 2000 C8 SCT equipped with a focal reducer and a Starlight Xpress MX7C CCD camera. Fifteen 22-second images were stacked and processed using AstroArt 2.0 and Photoshop Paint Shop Pro.
# 127 | Splendid Saturn
Many people, upon seeing Saturn through a telescope for the first time, are surprised at the sheer beauty of the ringed planet. If you have the opportunity, show Saturn to those who have never observed it before and be prepared for their enthusiastic response.
Steve Barnes of Burlington, Ontario, with a 12" Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Phillips ToUcam Pro webcam, processed and stacked 500 images using Registax and Photoshop for this image of Saturn.
# 126 | Sunset Conjunctions
A spectacular celestial show has been taking place the past week after sunset. Starting in the western sky and ending in the east, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter all could be seen. Each night the Moon has been slowly making its way through the grouping.
Shaun Lowe took this colourful image on March 23rd from Grand Lake, Nova Scotia. Shaun used a Minolta Dimage 7 digital camera and took an 18 second exposure at f3.4 using ISO 100 with the lens at 30mm. Two quick flashes with a camera bulb illuminated the tree in the foreground.
# 125 | Start Off Simple
Many readers may be intimidated at the thought of trying astrophotography. If you have a digital camera, try carefully holding the camera upto the eyepiece of the telescope and take an image of the Moon. You may very well be surprised how good the result will be!
Joseph Shields simply held his Kodak EasyShare DX4330 digital camera up to the eyepiece of his Dobsonian telescope and snapped this image of the Moon in late January.
# 124 | Moonlight Aurora
The past week has seen some moderate auroral activity. Clear skies on March 9, 2004 enabled Steve Irvine of Big Bay Point, Ontario to take this image of the aurora, which was still easily photographed in the strong moonlight. The foreground is illuminated by the moonlight and shows the aurora giving a red tinge to the snow covered field.
Steve used a Canon A-1 camera with a 28mm f2.8 lens and Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 film and took a 30 second exposure.
# 123 | Moon Dogs
Many readers may have noticed a halo around the Sun or the Moon when there has been thin, high-altitude cirrus clouds covering the sky. The halo is caused by light being refracted through hexagonal ice crystals.
Sundogs appear as bright spots, sometimes coloured on either side of the Sun. When the Sun is low, as it is in Winter, sundogs like 22° from the Sun and show up as intense areas on the inner halo. When the Sun is higher in the sky, sundogs appear just outside the inner halo.
A rarely seen phenomenon is a moondog, similar to a sundog, but caused by the Moon.
On March 6, 2004, Steven Fahey of Calgary, Alberta was able to capture a rare moondog with his Nikon Coolpix 5400. Steven took an 8-second exposure at ISO 100 set at f4.4
# 122 | The Moon Meets Venus, Act II
Looking very similar to the Moon/Venus conjunction that occurred on January 24, 2004, Bill Cole took this image with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera mounted on a tripod at 7:40 p.m. on February 24, 2004 from near downtown Toronto. Bill used the camera's manual settings to take a 2-second exposure at f2.6 at ISO 100 with focal length of 7.8mm.
# 121 | Jupiter
Rising soon after sunset, Jupiter is a planet that reveals something different about itself every night. With it's 9 hour and 50 minute rotation, different features are consistently coming into view. Jupiter's four largest moons, Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, form their own little solar system who's motion can be detected even after observing for only an hour. See the March/April 2004 issue of SkyNews for a detailed chart showing the nightly positions of the moons as well as information on spectacular double and triple shadow transits that will be occurring.
On February 17, 2004, Les Marczi of Welland, Ontario used a 10" Meade LX200 operating at f20 coupled with a ToUcam Pro webcam and a Baader UV/IR blocker to obtain 900 images of Jupiter. Marczi then used the best 600 images taken to process this detailed image of Jupiter and the Great Red Spot. Ganymede (left) and Europa (right) can be seen as well.
See page 18 of the March/April issue of SkyNews for a webcam imaging primer.
# 120 | The Leo Trio
Consisting of M65, M66 and NGC 3628, the Leo trio of galaxies forms a small triangle with all three galaxies within a one-degree field of view. When observed at lower powers under dark skies, the trio is one of the showpieces of the nightsky.
Derek Baker of Burlington, Ontario, with a Canon 10D digital camera at the prime focus of a 130mm Astro-Physics refractor mounted on a Losmandy G-11 with an ST-4 autoguider, took nine 5-minute exposures at ISO 400 from the Haliburton Forest Observatory. The images were then stacked in Registar and processed with Maxim DL and Photoshop.