Hunter Wilson: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Venus

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Other than seeing various phases, like the Moon, Venus provides little detail to the amateur astronomer.

Varsity Halloween Playoff - Lodi Cloverleaf at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:55:12 GMT

Mach1

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Astro-Physics smallest mount - rated for about 45 lbs, but can handle more that it claims.

I got lucky and made the list for this mount in the spring of 2008.

It really is all they say it is.

Published and Honored Images

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Images of mine that have been selected to be published or honored in other ways.

While competition is not my main reason for imaging, it is nice to know where you stand among other imagers and have your work recognized once in a while.

While I try to keep up with the links to other websites from this collection, I have no control over the other sites and sometimes either the links go inactive or change without notice. I apologize for any dead links that you may find here as time goes on.

Varsity Tournament Lexington vs Southview at Tiffin

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:36:41 GMT

Thanks to the Lexington Football Team for all their hard work and dedication this year. We are all very proud of your accomplishments over the 2008 season.

Never give up.......

Open Clusters

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Open clusters are physically related groups of stars held together by mutual gravitational attraction. They are believed to originate from large cosmic gas and dust clouds (diffuse nebulae) in the Milky Way (or other parent galaxy), and to continue to orbit the galaxy within or near their parent galaxy's disk. In many clouds visible as bright diffuse nebulae, star formation still takes place at this moment, so that we can observe the formation of new young star clusters. The process of formation takes only a considerably short time compared to the lifetime of the cluster, so that all member stars are of similar age. Also, as all the stars in a cluster formed from the same diffuse nebula, they are all of similar initial chemical composition.

Over 1100 open clusters are known in our Milky Way Galaxy, and this is probably only a small percentage of the total population which is probably some factor higher; estimates of as many as about 100,000 Milky Way open clusters have been given.

Experimental

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The PZT QRB

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I recieved the PZT QRB's (Personal Zenith Table Quick Release Brackets) from Wayne on 11-6-08 and had them installed the next day for testing. Unfortunately, it was raining, so some of the images have water dropping into the POD. Most of this is from me opening the dome while installing the QRB's as I checked clearances. I couldn't wait to see how things worked!

Nebulae

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Emission, Reflection, and Absorption Nebulae

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

An emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gas. The most common source for ionizations are high energy photons emitted from a nearby star. These can be among some of the most colorful objects in the sky.

Reflection Nebulae are clouds of dust which are simply reflecting the light of a nearby star or stars. The nearby star or stars are not hot enough to cause ionization in the gas of the nebula like in emission nebulae but are bright enough to give sufficient scattering to make the dust visible.

Besides the luminous bright nebulae, there are dark or absorption nebulae which can be seen because they obscure, or absorb, the light coming from stars or bright nebulae behind them. A famous example is the Horsehead Nebula.

These images will frequently be taken with a widefield scope like my Orion ED80, and almost always with some type of enhancing filter like my Astronomik CLS in order to allow these wonderful objects to show their best.

Galaxies

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Galaxies are seperate star systems like our Milky Way and contain hundreds of millions/billions of stars. The distances to them are incredible and humbling. If distances within our own galaxy are measured in hundreds or thousands of light years (which in and of itself is mind boggling), how about hundreds of millions of light years to some of these? There are probably around 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Big enough neighborhood for you?

Before Edwin Hubble postulated in 1923 that "Spiral Nebulae" were actually seperate galaxies at vast distances, they were thought to be structures within our own Milky Way and the Milky Way was our entire Universe.

Galaxies are classified by shape - Spiral (with subtypes), Elliptical, and Irregular.

Galaxies,with the exception of a few like the great Andromeda Galaxy, M31, are small and dim. You are lucky to have one at magnitude 8 or 9 to image, and most are far fainter.

The Messier Objects

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As I image the Messier objects, I will add them to this collection. Some of the objects will not be the featured object in the image and will simply be found there along with something else - like the Bubble Nebula image.

During the years from 1758 to 1782 Charles Messier, a French astronomer (1730 - 1817), compiled a list of approximately 100 diffuse objects that were difficult to distinguish from comets through the telescopes of the day. Discovering comets was the way to make a name for yourself in astronomy in the 18th century -- Messier's first aim was to catalog the objects that were often mistaken for comets.

Fortunately for us, the Messier Catalog became well known for a much higher purpose, as a collection of the most beautiful objects in the sky including nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. It was one of the first major milestones in the history of the discovery of Deep Sky objects, as it was the first more comprehensive and more reliable list: Only four or five objects were initially missing because of data reduction errors, which could be figured out later though. Today's versions of the catalog usually include also later additions of objects observed by Charles Messier and his collegial friend, Pierre Méchain, but not included in his original list. The study of these objects by astronomers has led, and continues to lead, to important, incredible discoveries such as the life cycles of stars, the reality of galaxies as separate 'island universes,' and the possible age of the universe.

(From SEDS)

Galaxies

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Comets

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A comet is a small body in the Solar System that orbits the Sun and, when close enough to the Sun, exhibits a visible coma (or atmosphere) and/or a tail — both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the comet's nucleus. The nucleus itself measures a few kilometres or tens of kilometres across, and is composed mostly of rock, dust and ice.

Comets originate in the outer solar system; they are thrown inwards towards the Sun by gravitational perturbations from planets or nearby stars. They have a variety of different orbital periods, ranging from a few years, to 50 or 100 years, to thousands of years, while some are believed to pass through the inner Solar System only once before being thrown out into interstellar space.

Short-period comets are thought to originate in the Kuiper Belt, which lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Long-period comets are believed to originate at a very much greater distance from the Sun, in a cloud (the Oort cloud) consisting of debris left over from the condensation of the solar nebula. Asteroids originate via a different process, but very old comets which have lost all their volatile materials may come to resemble asteroids.

There are a reported 3,354 known comets as of November 2007, of which several hundred are short-period. This number is steadily increasing. However, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total comet population: the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer solar system may number one trillion. The number of naked-eye comets averages to roughly one per year, though many of these are faint and unspectacular.
(From Wikipedia)

Imaging comets can be both rewarding and challenging, as they are sometimes fast moving objects that may be difficult to track during an exposure.

Stereo Images

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

These are some attempts I have made at synthetic stereo images using the technique of J-P Metsävainio.

While not accurate in scale or distance, it makes for very interesting images, nonetheless.

The images are mean to be viewed cross-eyed and while the effect can be seen within the gallery, to view them properly, I suggest downloading the original file and then viewing them.

Varsity 10-24-08 Lexington at Ashland

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:11:00 GMT

Freshman 10-23-08 Bucyrus at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:09:00 GMT

Varsity 10-17-08 West Holmes at Lexington

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:03:00 GMT

Band Senior Night 2008

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:05:00 GMT

Narrowband Images

hwilson429@aol.com (Hunter Wilson) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Most, if not all, of these images are taken during a bright moon.

Narrowband imaging is a very useful technique that allows detail to be seen in objects that otherwise could not be detected. The Hubble telescope uses narrowband imaging with it's "Hubble Pallet" of three wavelengths of SII, Ha and OIII applied to the RGB spaces.

Narrowband imaging also allows you to image when you otherwise could not, like with a full moon or severe light pollution because the narrowband filters effectively block almost all of the unwanted light, leaving only the object.