JUPITER-VENUS CONJUNCTION MARCH 2012

stack of 7 light frames

showing the beautiful pair through binoculars

captured the pair of two bright planets with the Sun just above the horizon!

Here I have shared some pics of conjunction of two bright planets Venus and Jupiter that I captured through my Canon EOS 550D Camera.

Galactic Center and Surprising Fact!

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Exposure: 5x20 seconds
ISO: 3200
Date: 1st March 2012

I was amazed after knowing how genius were the ancient Indian astronomers! Our earth taking the moon orbits around the sun. The sun taking all the eight planets, asteroids and comets orbits around the center of the Milky Way. In that sense the Center of the Milky Way is the native (“mool” in Hindi) where all the stars of the Milky Way orbits around. Modern science knows this fact in recent times whereas the ancient Indian astronomers knew this fact thousands of years ago! That’s why they’ve named this part of the sky as “Mool” means The Native or The Nucleus. Isn’t this surprising?  

MOONRISE SEQUENCE AND MOON TRAIL

I had shot a sequence of the rising moon during Leonids 2011 to make a time-lapse movie. I captured 65 images and then made a time-lapse movie using the Picasa Image Editor. At that time I had no idea how to create a star trail. I loved to see images of star trails by other astrophotographers but never attempted to learn how to create them.  Yesterday I downloaded software called “Star Trails Version 1.1” for a free and tried for the first time to create star trails. I had not any sequence of images taken earlier except the one I shot the rising moon during Leonids. After using it and creating different images I found the software is very easy to use. I made a sequence of the rising moon and also a moon trail!

Comet Garradd Close to Messier 92

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd was just 36' SSW of the beautiful Globular Cluster Messier 92 in Hercules on the morning of 3rd February 2012. To capture it in my camera I used sky-watcher 102mm short-tube refractor on EQ5 mount. The mount wasn’t operated with motors to take longer exposure but I decided to take few images of shorter exposure with high ISO and later stack them using the deep sky stacker.

Camera: Canon EOS 550D

Telescope: Sky-watcher 102mm f/5 refractor

Mount: EQ5 without motors

Exposure: 13x4 seconds at ISO 3200

I guided the telescope manually keeping my eye in the view finder and keeping the globular cluster in the centre of the cross hair. I had to re-centre the cluster every time I take another shot!

COMET GARRADD'S CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MESSIER 92

Comet Garradd's locations near M92 from Feb 1 to Feb 6

On February 3^rd early morning the bright comet C/2009 P1 Garradd will be just 36’ SSW of the beautiful Globular Cluster M92 in Hercules. It will be a good opportunity for astrophotographers to capture this close encounter of a comet and globular cluster. 

COMET C/2009 P1 GARRADD 17 JANUARY

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd, Canon EOS 550D at 250mm, Exposure 3x8 Seconds, ISO 3200

This pics shows comet C/2009 P1 Garradd taken on the early morning of January 17. The comet is shining with magnitude 6.7 in the constellation of Hercules. I took 6 images out of which I could stack only 3 images using the Deep Sky Stacker. I am still learning how to stack and process images.