Planet Dahlia

. . . and its moons.

* [For first time visitors]:
Typo in the title? Nah. It's just that I would not let a tiny T spoil an avantgardistic alliteration.

Astronight in Seanhenge

Travelling around 100 million miles ...

... the astrophysicist is tonight. All night.
Focusing on Comet Garradd.
We shall see.

More information here & here & here & here.

Moon, Light & Shadow

Clouds, clouds, clouds tonight. And rain. Nothing to be seen here of tonight's full moon, unlike some days ago, when the astro-physicist before for one night travelling a bit deeper into what humans commonly call our (sic!) universe, focused the observatory's telescope on the almost full moon.
If I remember correctly, the photo contains of 14 shots, and its original size is 80 x 90 centimetres.

Click to enlarge.

So much for the light, and here comes for the shadow.

Crescent Nebula

Please click to enlarge

NGC 6888 (Crescent Nebula)

Dedicated to those (earthlings)
who think they were the cream of all universes
and even those not yet discovered.

*

An ideal couple, the astrophysicist and I,
I watch the wor(l)d, he observes the sky.

Eyes travelling 30 million light years

'Clear' sky. So our astrophysicist yesterday went on sightseeing-tour. Today he sent an email ("colours will follow").

Galaxy NGC 3628

Life, laughter and the unexpected

This morning Miss J. and the astrophysicist returned from a trip to the Baltic Sea, bringing fresh warm rolls for breakfast, plus - not for breakfast, though - twelve sea-washed pebbles and two beautiful stones they had found at the beach and carried more than one kilometre to their tent. They will embellish our stone garden, and one is supposed to become my worry stone. :)


Well, collecting pebbles and stones was not really a reason for making this trip. The astrophysicist thought the partial eclipse might not be observable where we do live, but did not want to miss it. Right he was, as here we had clouds, clouds, clouds.


The breakfast? Oh yes, it was marvellous. And Mrs. J. decided that we'll have a trip to the Baltic Sea to watch the next eclipse - in 73 years.

We shall be 128 then, Miss J. and the astrophysicist 99 respectively 103. No doubt it will be great fun, the more as our mother will be accompanying us.


Well, unless something unexpected is going to happen, 'cause life, laughter and death not seldom are close-knit, as we got reminded by a tiny noise on balcony.

Eyes travelling 23 million light years

What would an astro-physicist do in a starlit night?
Sleeping?
No. He'd let his eyes travel. Last night it was a 23 million light years trip to M51.



Object details

NGC Number:
5194/5195

Object Type:
SA(s)bc
(HII: Sy2.5)

Constellation
Canes Venatici

RA/Dec:
13h 29m 52.7s
+47° 11' 42.62''

Distance:
23 kly

Apparent Dimension:
11.2' x 6.9'

Visual Brightness (V):
8.1 mag

Date:
16.02.2008
01:50 bis 03:15

Equipment:
Cass. 50cm f/10
SBIG STL-6303E

Detail screens:
L: 4 x 300sec
R: 4 x 300sec
G: 4 x 300sec
B: 4 x 300sec
(Binning: 1x1)

Temperature:
CCD-Chip: -25°C
Draußen: -3°C

Software:
CCD-Soft
ESO-MIDAS
IRAF
MaxIM DL