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.

End of the Night : (

Unfortunately, we are coming to the end of our last observational night. It's flying by! I'm so happy we get to image our objects for another time. Now I have three sets of images in all three filters. The final stacked image will look amazing (hopefully!). It's been fun stargazing on the catwalk with everyone and it's kinda sad it's coming to an end.

Cougar vs. Bear!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7MuFDVEUro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ByFv5pGdA

Cuddle Bunny

Tonight is our last night using the telescope, which makes it a sad night. However, the night was very clear and we were able to see all of our objects really good. We also spent a lot of time (Isa, Erin, Adam and I) out on the catwalk looking at the stars. We noticed that every time we sit on the catwalk for a while we get WAFFLE BUTT because of the spacing in the floor up there. When WAFFLE BUTT gets too bad you have to get up and do a few laps. So this time we brought up a sleeping bag to sit on and WAFFLE BUTT stood no change against that :). We have also separated into cuddle buddies while we are looking at the stars Erin and Adam are the more lame of the cuddle buddies and like usual Isa and I are the best, which is why we are called the cuddle bunnies hahaha. Also when we were looking at stars professor Arion walked down below us and when we asked if it was a bear he replied, " RAWR!!!!". That was the closest we got to seeing a bear on the trip. We also made up a game where we could find our own constellations. We found some pretty cool stuff such as Erin's boat called the "S.S. Martin", Isa's "Deer", and the one that I found which was called "ADAM"!!!!!! The night is going by fast so now im going to image my object which is ngc2068 in a third color so i can get a better stacked image of it. It has been a very successful and exciting trip!!!

Much more like it

Tonight has turned out to be a lot better. Clear skies and so I was able to retake some exposures of my NGC 2419 globbular cluster. They turned out much much better than the previous night. I was even able to get some using the blue and red filters that then I can combine with my exposures using the visible filter. So I am pretty pysched. I nearly fell asleep out on the cat-walk alone. I ended up getting cold and having to come down and sit in the warm control room. Then later we: Joe, Isa, Erin, and myself were out on the cat-walk and Isa has been asmazing at calling out meteors. We ended getting one that lasted nearly 5 secs. We seriously thought we were going to see it hit the ground. It was pretty amazing. We'll probably head up there again and enjoy the skies.