The New Toy

Hello all, I got a new camera for my telescope just before Christmas. I have gone out a couple times and taken some images with it, and finally have compiled them and done a little processing on them. Now you get to see the results.

Here you have the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101. This galaxy is similar in shape to our Milky Way Galaxy. This is 60 frames at 15s each.











Here you have the Owl Nebula, M97. It gets its name because it kind of looks like the face of an owl. This is 52 frames t 10s each.











Here is M79 which is a globular cluster. A tightly bound grouping of stars. This is 30 frames at 1a each.











Here is the Leo Trio of Galaxies, also called M66. These galaxies aren't that close to together in actual distance, they just appear in the same small field of view. This is 20 frames at 3s each.










Here is the Whirlpool Galaxy, also called M51. This is 2 galaxies that are combining due to gravitational attraction. This is 60 frames at 10s each.









This is an open cluster of stars called M37. This is 30 frames at 1s each.











This one is a little harder to see, but it is called the Little Dumbbell Nebula. It is right in the center. This is 10 frames at 10s each.











Here is the Flame Nebula. It is in Orion and near the Horsehead Nebula (which you will see later). This is a complied image of 60 exposures at 3 seconds each.










Here is the Horsehead Nebula, and you can just see the Flame Nebula off the the side. This exposure is 10 frames at 30s each.










Isn't God amazing!

Sorry it's been so long

Okay, so my brother gave me a hard time about not updating this in a VERY long time. So, you will get the quick info session about what has been going on since the last posting.

In May, Beverly and I went to Germany for our big vacation of the year. It was a lot of fun. We spent the first week in the Munich area and Berlin. Then the second week we spent in the Bonn/Koln area where my brother is at. IT was a blast hanging out with him, and visiting more of Germany. We went to the fairy tale castle in Germany.




Later in the summer we went the Albuquerque to deliver the church hand bells to a place that does work on them. On the way there we went to the Very Large Array. And on the way back we went the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. All of that was a lot of fun. Even though it was a quick weekend trip.

After that not much happened that I can recall until November when Beverly and I went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. Beverly wanted to see the leaves changing colors, and so that seemed to be a good place to see it. Neither of us had ever been to the North Rim and I thought it was much nicer than the South Rim, but it is much farther to get to. In the Zion area there were leaves changing colors which was nice.


The other big thing in November for me was that I got my Christmas (and the next Valentine's Day, Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, etc., etc., etc.) present down in Tucson when we went down for a day to get dinner and dessert for Beverly's birthday. I got a CCD camera and new edition Hyperstar from my telescope. I have used it a couple times so far and am trying to learn how to use it. I had a trial version of a program that I need to use to take my first images, but it expired, and I cannot afford to get the full version yet. And regretfully, I cannot access the pictures without the program due to the type of ile they create. So, once I get that program (eventually) I will post images from that.

Then the holidays came, and David was home from Germany. It was cool seeing him. He purchased my old laptop and I got a new MacBook Pro (GO MAC!!!!!!!! and those comercials rock! Check them out at apple.com/getamac/ads).

Finally, I just remember that a few weeks ago I got a 1965 quarter as change when I bought something at a post office. It sounded funny as te lady was getting the change out. I was very excited when I saw it, but to make sure I called my good friend in Tucson, Ben, and asked him for confirmation, he is a numismatists. He confirmed that it was a solid silver quarter (1965 was the last year of solid silver quarters), and informed me that just in silver it was worth $2.25.

So there you go David, and anyone else that was wondering what has been going on. God Bless!