# 289 | Mercury and the Moon
Mercury can currently be found hovering atop the western horizon about 40 minutes after sunset. Observers should look for a bright "star" close to the horizon.
Two other planets can also easily be seen. Venus, shining brilliantly high above Mercury captures the eye's attention immediately after sunset. Saturn, higher and to the left of Venus, can be found once darkness begins to fall. Look for a yellow-hued "star" near the Sickle of Leo.
On May 17, Steve Irvine of Big Bay, Ontario, captured this image of Mercury and the thin crescent Moon hovering above Georgian Bay. Steve notes that smelt fishermen passing by were also captivated by the tranquil scene.
Image specifications: Canon 350D, 100mm lens at f/2.8, ISO 200, 1-second exposure, 10:03 p.m., EDT.
# 288 | Markarian's Chain
Spring is galaxy observing season for amateur astronomers. The anticipation of a clear sky and a moonless night in April or May leaves many galaxy observers excitedly waiting for darkness to fall.
The area of sky between Leo and Virgo is a galaxy observer's treat. Even panning this area without a star chart can reveal numerous faint fuzzballs.
Markarian's Chain is a collection of galaxies within this portion of the night sky and is one of the highlights of any deep sky observing session.
Pierre Tremblay of Quebec City, Quebec, shot this image remotely from New Mexico, U.S.A. on April 17, 2007.
A Takahashi TOA-150 mounted atop a Paramount GT-1100 and an SBIG STL-11k CCD camera with Astrodon filters was used (RGB = 5 x 180 seconds, L = 15 x 300 seconds)
Look closely to count the number of galaxies which can be seen. The amount may surprise you!
# 287 | M82
Galaxies M81 and M82, located in Ursa Major, are two of the night sky's most impressive pairing of galaxies. When viewed together, the two give the appearance of a cat's eyes starring from space.
Although it is difficult to see any visual details on either galaxy, the cigar-shaped M82 becomes alive with subtle intricacies when long-duration images are taken.
Using his robotic observatory located north-west of Toronto, Serge Theberge created this stunning photo of M82 after compiling nearly 10 hours of data taken over the course of seven days in March 2007.
# 286 | Fly Me To The Moon
Living in urban areas can sometimes create problems for astrophotographers. As many are aware, light pollution certainly has an effect upon an image. However, another problem often occurs—airplanes flying across the sky.
Occasionally however, a streaking airplane can help create the image. Aspiring astrophotographer Marc Fitkin of Toronto, Ontario was recently taking some images of the Moon when a 747 suddenly transited the face of the Moon.
While an airplane may often leave tiny red dots across an image, it is a rare occasion when one travels directly across the actual subject on the image!
Taken with a Canon 30D, 1/1250 second, Canon 300mm EF f4L IS lens at f/5, ISO 800, tripod mounted.
# 285 | The Moon Meets the Bull
Two of the most pretty star clusters—the Hyades and Pleiades—can currently be seen hugging the western horizon shortly after dusk. Both within the constellation Taurus (the Bull), the clusters contain enough bright stars to make them visible shortly after sunset, creating a fabulous naked-eye treat.
Adding to the beauty, Venus has been slowly creeping upwards through Taurus over the past few weeks and on April 19 and 20, the thin crescent Moon provided the icing on the cake for the celestial treat.
From his home in Big Bay, Ontario, Steve Irvine captured the scene on April 19 using a Canon 350D equipped with a 18-55 mm zoom lens (set to 30 mm at f/5). A 4.5 second exposure at ISO 200 was taken.
Steve notes that it was difficult to capture the star clusters without overexposing the crescent Moon. Keen eyes will find them in his image.
# 284 | The Moon Meets Saturn
On March 28, observers in western Canada had a front row seat to watch the Moon as it glided within 0.5° of Saturn. Although the Moon did not occult Saturn, those on the West Coast can watch that occur on April 25.
From Vancouver, Saturn will disappear behind the Moon at 3:29 a.m., PDT. The Moon will be only 3 degrees above the horizon and therefore an unobstructed view to the west will be required to see the event.
From Calgary, Alberta, Bob Betnenia was doing some lunar imaging and as an after-thought attempted to capture both the Moon and Saturn in the same image.
Bob used a Vixen ED80 on a Vixen Porta Mount and a Canon XT digital camera. A 1/100-second exposure at ISO 800 was taken.
# 283 | M51
Messier M51, a spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici, appears to be two galaxies connected to each other. Recent observations have shown that the smaller and more faint galaxy on the left is further away.
The spiral arms of M51 can be detected under dark skies with an 8-inch or larger telescope although due to its low surface brightness, M51 can be difficult to locate. Low to medium power will show the most detail.
Martin Bernier of St-Liboire, Québec took this image at the end of March using a Celestron C9.25 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an ST2000XM CCD camera mounted atop a Losmandy G-11 with Gemini.
LRGB=150-30-30-30 minutes.
Acquirement and pre-processing was accomplished with CCDSoft and the final processing was done with Photoshop CS.
# 282 | The Old and the New
The advent of affordable and good quality digital cameras has opened up an entire new world for many amateur astronomers. Those, who at one time may have found astrophotography too complex or expensive, can now achieve instant results with a digital camera. And if the image is of poor quality? Simply delete it and take another shot!
Having owned a Criterion Dynamax 8-inch telescope since 1977, Bill Magee of Hinton, Alberta decided it was finally time to try his hand at astrophotography.
After creating a home-made adapter to connect his Canon A75 digital camera to his telescope's diagonal, Bill started taking a number of images of the Moon using the eyepiece projection method with a 50mm Ramsden eyepiece.
As he discovered, a significant amount of lunar detail can be captured by a novice astrophotographer.
# 281 | The Leo Trio
With spring having now arrived, galaxy observing season is officially underway. The constellations Leo and Virgo are rising at a convenient time for amateur astronomers and contain numerous galaxies that can easily be observed.
The appropriately named Leo Trio, located just below the body of Leo the Lion, is comprised of M65, M66 and NGC 3628 (top, right, left respectively). Like all deep sky objects, the grouping is best observed under a dark sky but urban observers can still glimpse all three. An 8-inch telescope or larger and a moonless night is recommended.
From within the glow of Toronto, Stef Cancelli created this two-piece mosaic of the Leo Trio using data imaged between March 11-18, 2007.
Equipment and image specifications:
SBIG ST2000XM CCD camera with an IDAS LPS filter.
LRGB = 240, 240, 240, 240 minutes, unbinned.
Takahashi FS-102 at f/6.
Takahashi EM200 mount.
Processed with MaxIm DL, PixInsight LE and Photoshop CSII.
# 280 | Saturn
Saturn is one of the highlights of the night sky. Many may have experienced the joy of showing someone Saturn through a telescope for the first time. The view will often illicit many "oohs" and "ahhs" and occasionally a person will be in complete disbelief at what can be seen.
With Saturn now becoming situated at a convenient time of night for observing, amateur astronomers have the perfect opportunity to show the Ringed Planet to those who have never seen it.
From his backyard in Kitchener, Ontario, on Saturday, March 17th, Darryl Archer captured Saturn using a Celestron C14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ToUcam webcam.
Although the seeing was less than ideal, Darryl took two sets of 1000 frames and combined them afterwards using Registax and Photoshop.
Sharp-eyed viewers may be able to locate three of Saturn's moons in this image.