Wow

Jan 28th

Yesterday and today have been pretty rough. We Finally got an idea of what we needed to do for our posters yesterday and people have been scrambling since to get it done today. On a better note, its Amazing seeing all the people pictures. Its not just the finished product Im impressed with, I mean Entire the processing and what they had to do! Seeing how the images Looked to what they are now...WOW!

Anywho, we are currently playing around with the printer and Not winning most of the time. We take our small victories while we can :P And now have to go....hasta luego

Imaging the Fox Fur Nebula

Here is the final image of the Fox Fur Nebula, the object I imaged the last night at Mt. Bigelow. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, especially because we had to learn the software (MaxIm) during the process. I still think that actually controlling the telescope was much more fun than stacking / making the image! It's a lot less tedious to me!

Processed Images

Here are some processed images from the telescope run of NGC 2419 Globular Cluster in the galatic halo of the Milky Way galaxy. ENJOY!

This is a combined image from the red, blue, and visible light filters.

This is a pseudo color over of the previous image

This a RGB combine image

This is simply an inversion of the light intensity of the previous image. It helps to better see the individual stars.

Ending the trip in Arizona

Unfortunately, we had to end our stay in Arizona. Thankfully though, we had much success observing! The last few days we were in Tucson, we visited Kitt Peak which was really amazing. I think it would be a lot of fun to observe on one of those telescopes. We all went out for dinner at Delectables and the food was amazing! The last night there we all hung out and shared stories. All in all, this trip was great! We had a safe flight back home... although the weather that greeted us was horrible!

Pictures!

I went kinda crazy this weekend and processed a bunch of pretty pictures. Here are a few...

M87 our image bw w/ jet compared to hubble image

M87

NGC 4565 rgb with red toned down

IC 349 Lower Merope Nebula

NGC 1435 Upper Merope Nebula

Is it really over?

We totally had a perfect last night up on Mt. Bigelow. It was a very clear night which gave those of us that had crummy weather the night before to retake some images to work with and they came out beautiful. Spent a lot of the time out on the cat walk and as Joe said, solved our issue of "Waffle Butt." It was much more comfortable and enjoyable then. Isa and on her game calling out for meteors. For the last session we caught sight of at least 12. It was something you could not experience back home. We also got to talk to an astronomer working in the telescope next to us. He was searching NEO's (Near Earth Objects), asteroids and comets that might have potential to collide with Earth. He has in fact discovered 7 comets which also have been named after him, which happens to be most any Italian astronomer has ever discovered.

We're leaving today and returning to the death of winter. It was pretty wonderful and spectacular to be wearing shorts in January. But things are constantly changing and we must return home to finish what we have started. Last night in fact we were able to experience a rain shower in the desert. I have always wanted that experience and hopefully today we will get to see some color out there in the desert as we drive to the airport and fly over the desert.

1/19 Kuiper Day 3

It's been a good evening. The sky stayed mostly clear... perhaps clearer than the first night. I got some good data in blue and red of Bernard's Merope Nebula in the Pleiades. I also got to take a shower which was phenom! Later in the evening, I had an opportunity to take more images of the reflection nebula, however; the Pleiades were too far north for the telescope to reach. If I had been able to get telescope time just a half hour earlier, I would have been able to take more data. Phooey. Oh well, DA says that he has something fun for me to take a look at (yes, yes, ending sentence w/ a preposition, my bad).

The somethings fun were two galaxies. M87, the large elliptical in Virgo with the jet, and the Needle galaxy in color. I ran the last two images of the night. It was sad to close her up for the ninth time, knowing that I may never see or use that telescope again. My trips to the Kuiper have all be memorable and exciting. I hope everyone else has been able to appreciate this experience as much as I have.