Fwd: Astrophotography

[John Metcalf]

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Nathan Waugh <natha...@mail.weber.edu>
Date: August 30, 2014 at 22:32:20 MDT
To: Ian Cox <coxianl...@gmail.com>, Michael Shaw <blesst...@gmail.com>, john metcalf <johncm...@gmail.com>, Braxton Johnston <braxtong...@gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: Astrophotography

FYI.

Thanks,

Nathan Waugh

Weber State University

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Sohl <js...@weber.edu>
Date: Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 5:18 PM
Subject: Astrophotography
To: johnny beans <j_nik...@yahoo.com>, Nathan Waugh - Student Account <natha...@mail.weber.edu>, Jacob Chadwick <jacobjore...@gmail.com>, Sean Hogan <psitr...@gmail.com>

Hi All, 

Some of you (I don't remember who) mentioned that they wanted to be part of my Monday night student astrophotography session at the observatory. Here are the details in the form of two messages that I sent to the six intro-astro students in my PHYS 1040 class. 

You may share this with other physics majors. It would be helpful to let me know if you plan to attend. 

Sohl 

- - - -

John E. Sohl, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Weber State University

1415 Edvalson St., Dept 2508

Ogden, UT 84408-2508

voice: (801) 626-7907, fax: (801) 626-7445

cell: (801) 476-0589

> > > > > > > > >

Hi All, 

Monday, Sept. 1, Labor Day, is the best time to do the astrophotography. 

Start Time: We will meet at 8:00 p.m. (which is almost exactly sunset). It will be too bright to use the telescopes, but it will give us time to set things up and learn about the equipment while we are waiting for it to get dark. 

Ending Time: It will likely be midnight when we get done. 

Location: Just north of the planetarium on the WSU campus and across the street (Edvalson) is a pair of small parking lots. At the back of those is a small white building that is the WSU observatory. There is a radio dish antenna in front of the building. (The dish is a radiotelescope, which we will not be using for our project.) As another reference point, the observatory is just west of the large water retention basin. Park in the upper parking lot close to the building. 

Bring: 

1. Warm clothing. It gets surprisingly cool once the sun sets. We will be standing around a lot and it is easy to get chilled. 
   
2. A notepad or tablet to make notes on about the equipment, exposures, telescopes, cameras, etc. 
   
3. If you have your own camera and would like to play with it, bring it along. If we have time we'll try to use it. 

I will email a list of possible targets later tonight. You will get more out of this activity if you study up on these objects a bit before we observe them. 

Please let me know if you are able to make this session. Given my schedule, it is unlikely that there will be any more chances. 

> > > > > > > > > 

Hi All, 

Here are some possible objects for us to attempt to image. It would be valuable to look up each of these on Wikipedia or one of the thousands of excellent astronomy websites. We will not try to image all of these, but will get at least one of each type. 

First of all, for a first time at attempting astrophotography, we will be doing only black and white images and simple ones at that. The high quality amateur astronomer produced images you see on the Internet take tremendous skill and many hours of work to get a single publication quality image. Still, you will have a good time on Monday night. 

For objects outside of our solar system, we will mostly be looking at objects in the Messier catalog of objects. These are numbered objects that start with a designation of "M" to indicate the catalog. 

Our List: 

Solar System Objects: Moon, Saturn, Mars

We will view Saturn and Mars and maybe try a photo, but it is actually very difficult to image planets nicely with our particular equipment.

Globular Clusters: M10, M12, M15, M3 

Dead stars (planetary nebulae): M57 (the "Ring Nebula"), M27 (the "Dumbbell Nebula")

Galaxies: M101, M51 (the "Whirlpool Galaxy"), M81, M82, NGC 6946, M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)

New star forming regions: M16 (the "Eagle Nebula"), M8 (the "Lagoon Nebula"), M20 (the "Trifid Nebula")

I look forward to seeing you on Monday at 8:00 p.m. at the observatory. 

Dr. Sohl 

[John Sohl]

I cannot handle too many people. If you are going to show up tonight, it would be very helpful to let me know. If it is more than just a couple of you, it might be best to do a separate night for physics majors and alumni. 

John 

- - - -

John E. Sohl, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Weber State University

1415 Edvalson St., Dept 2508

Ogden, UT 84408-2508

voice: (801) 626-7907, fax: (801) 626-7445

cell: (801) 476-0589

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