Astronomy

    Another one of my hobbies is Astronomy.  Utah, being a sparsely populated state, provides some of the darker skies available to an amateur astronomer.   Right from my backyard, I can take some very spectacular images using a 'CCD' camera.  When I take this combination down to the desert, the results are beyond belief.

    There is a fair amount of equipment involved in CCD imaging.   First, you have a computer controlled telescope.  This telescope, once aimed, can actually move itself to any star you point to on the computer.  Further, it will actually track the star for you, once it is within the field of view.  Second, you need the CCD camera itself.  This also ties into the computer and actually takes the images.  Finally, you need the laptop itself.  Here is what it all looks like once it is put together:

    CCD cameras are digital cameras for telescopes.  Unlike regular digital cameras, they must electrically cool the imaging chip down to very cold temperatures.  This reduces the 'dark noise' that otherwise would occur with the very long exposures involved.  I most enjoy imaging galaxies and nebulae, but will try my hand at just about anything that comes along.  Below are some of the results of my efforts.

    This is a globular cluster known as 'M3'.

    Here are a pair of galaxies collectively known as 'M51'.

    Here is a large spiral galaxy known as 'M101'.

    This is a nebula known as 'M27', or the barbell nebula.

    Here is a picture of a supernova that appeared, to earth, only a couple of days before this was shot.  Of course the actual supernova itself exploded thousands of years ago, but the light took awhile to get here.  The supernova is the bright spot on the arm of the galaxy.

    Above is an image of the ring nebula.  It is a very faint object that appears as a simple fuzzy circle in even stronger telescopes.  The CCD does a great job of bringing out the detail in the ring itself, and is one of the pictures I am proud of.