Fort Worth Astronomical Society
   


Photos By David Jarinko

Subject: C/2000
Notes: C/2000 wm1 aka-the Christmas Comet.  This comet was discovered as an asteroidal object by the now familiar LINEAR team in mid December 2000.  It was later established that this was a comet heading for a Christmas rondeview, thus the Xmas comet was born.  In August the comet began to show a small tail on ccd images.  The comet is presently just visible to the naked eye (9 Dec 01) just south east of Cetus the whale from any dark site.  The comet is rapidly moving south toward perihelion on 22 Jan 02 at a magnitude of 4.5 and A.U. 0.55.  But this will only be visible to the southern hemisphere.  It will then move northward giving everyone a last chance to say goodbye.

The image is a mosaic of 4 separate composite images taken through out the evening of 9 dec 01.  You may notice that some images show streaking stars, this is because the images were combined centered on the comet and not the stars, thus the stars appear to move.  The comet was at mag. 5.1 and each individual shot was about 10 to 20 seconds in length.

Subject: Veil Nebula (NGC 6992)
Notes: I used a 300 mm F 4.5 telephoto lens, PPF 400 film, and an exposure of 30 min.  I made this one post card size for convenience.

Here is an image of the Veil Nebula (NGC 6992).  The nebula was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1784.  It is 2500 lys from earth and is 30,000 years old.  It is believe to be one of the oldest supernova remains visible to us.  The Veil is 3 degrees in diameter and even observatories need special wide field equipment to view it.  It can be seen in most 8" scope with an O3 filter and good eyes.

The final image is a composite of 4 images each composed of 7 stacked images 45 seconds long.  It was taken with  a Cookbook 245 CCD at the clubs dark site 19 Aug 2001.  Come out to the site and view the sky with the clubs equipment.  Say hi if I'm out there, I'll be the one letting my computer view the wonders the the autumn sky.

Subject: Comet 'LINEAR C/2001 A2'.
Notes: Here is the latest comet on its way to the sun, LINEAR C/2001 A2. The comet is the latest visitor to are area of the sky and has brightened much in the past weeks, now about magnitude 7. It is located just east of the star Saiph in ORION and is very low on the horizon at dusk. If you look carefully at the image you can see a small tail. Image is 5 combined 30 second shot wit CB245. For the latest on this comet go to skypub.com, but hurry before it is gone!

Subject: Great Horse Head Nebula
Notes: This is the Great Horse Head Nebula in Orion ( IC434 ). It is a photographic object and is not visible in the average telescope. It is located just below the left star in the belt.

Subject: M16, the "Eagle Nebula"
Notes: M16 in the summer constellation Serpens is some 7,000 light years distant.  M16 is an open star cluster which formed from this great gaseous cloud of dust, and is still in the process of forming new stars. DEC. -13:47 RA.18:18.8.

Subject: M17, the "Swan Nebula" or "Lobster Nebula" in southern hemisphere.
Notes: "M17 is located a distance of 5,000 ly in Sagitarius. The Swan is actually reddish in color, this is due to hot hydrogen gas excited by hot young stars located with in the nebula.  M17 can easily be seen above the teapot.  RA.18:20.8,  DEC. -16:11.0, Mag.7.    The image is a composite 4 30 sec. images added together." 

Subject:  M27,  "The Dumbell Nebula"
Notes: Did you know that, although he didn't know it, M27 was the first nebula discovered by Messier on July 12, 1764? At the time it was just another non-comet to him.  M27 can be seen every night this month high overhead and to the west.  M27 is in the constellation 'Vulpecula'.  Due to our overcast skies this is an image from 2 months ago.  It is a compelation of 4 40sec. images.  Lets all hope for CLEAR SKIES! RA.19:59.6, DEC.+22:43, MAG.7.4."

Subject: Saturn and Jupiter
Notes: Both are a composite of 8 0.2 sec. images taken from my backyard in Hurst with a Quickcam VC.