Figure 1 – IC2944, the Running Chicken Nebula, taken on iTelescope 71 in Chile, (c) DE Wolf 2024.
I wanted to post this morning an image that I took last night on a favorite 180 mm Takahashi iTelescope T71 in Chile. There are a number of important points to be made here, but start with the rich diversity and a kind of out of reachnes, for us in the northern hemisphere, exoticism of the southern skies. The image is of IC 2944, known variously as the Running Chicken Nebula, the Lambda Centauri Nebula or the λ Centauri Nebula. It is an open cluster with an associated emission nebula.
If you look closely at the image you will see dark spots resembling dirt. These are, in fact Bok globules, small dense nebulae composed of dust and gas believed to be the sites of active star formation.
When it comes to astrophotography, I am always struck by the contradiction between the joy of creating an image with dramatic dynamic range yet not exaggerated color, and the sublime joy of visual astronomy, where the object hangs in an infinite space, and where the colors are muted by the insensitivity of our photopic or color vision. Nothing beats aesthetically the sense of “looking” through the telescope
OK, I admit it. I was supposed to go to Texas for the eclipse, but decide in the end that the weather forecast was too dismal and stayed home. I should have gone! Is Spain next? So i spent the afternoon with dear friends photographing the partial eclipse in Sudbury with my SeeStar 50s, see Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1 – First eclipse contact, April 8, 2024 SeeStar 50 s (c) DE Wolf 2024Figure 2 – Eclipse Maximum, April 8, 2024. SeeStar 50s (c) DE Wolf 2024
Figure 3 shows a picture of the SeeStar 50s. This is a brilliant device and the cutting edge of what we may be pretty sure is a surging revolution in amateur astronomy. I’ll have more to say about this little robotic telescope in the future. But right now I just wanted to point out the here, resting on my dining room table, we have a basic altazimuth telescope system. A yoke enables the scope to move up and down in altitude, while a rotatable platform enables movement along the azimuth.
Figure 3 – The SeeStar 50 s “Smart Telescope” by ZWO. (c) DE Wolf 2024.
It connects wonderfully with Sir William Herschel‘s (1738-1822) design of his great “forty foot telescope” in 1744. Famously, George III led the then Archbishop of Canterbury into the tube saying, “Come, my Lord Bishop, I will show you the way to Heaven!” For my friends who gently chide me how amateur astronomy appears to be nine parts tinkering and adjusting and one part actually observing, I will point out that Sir William’s telescope was “down” most of the time. There were two speculum mirror, the main one weighing about a ton, and these were constantly being swapped out so that the other could be polished. Nevertheless, the “forty foot telescope” was instrumental [sic] in the discovery of Enceladus and Mimas, the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn.
Figure 4 – Sir John Herschell’s first photograph 1839 showing the altazimuth mount of his father;s “40 foot Telescope” in the public domain By John Herschel – http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/features/ephotos/nphoto3.htm#photo, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7833750
There is an interesting connection with photography. Sir John Herschel, William’s son is famous both as a pioneer of Astronomy and of Photography, His earliest photograph was of the frame of the altazimuth mount of his father’s “40 ft telescope.” This is shown in Figure 4.
One will, of course, wonder what became of this important instrument in the history of science. As a good father Sir John worried about his daughters (see Figure 5) getting hurt playing in the ruins of the giant frame and he had the structure dismantled in 1840 as a safety precaution.
Figure 5 – Herschel’s daughters Constance Anne, Caroline Emilia Mary, Margaret Louisa, Isabella, Francisca (“Fancy”) and Matilda Rose, 1860s, albumen print, unkn. photographer (NPG x44697) in the public domain.
I have been struggling to bring Hati and Skoll back on line. It has been a while and these days there’s always a battle with “customer support” somewhere along the road – well-intentioned and kind people, but always ready to take you off your path. I feel a bit like I am on a mythic trip through the Egyptian underworld! Yet here, in the end I am here, My photographic soul has been weighed by a multitasking Anubis processing many souls at once. I am a kind of modern Jedermann, where few, if any know what I am talking about.
Really observant readers will note the reversion here to an earlier and simpler WordPress webtheme. I’m not sure if I don’t prefer it.
My photographic journey, of late, has been busy exploring infinities: the infinity of space through robot telescopes and the seeming infinity of biodiversity in Southern Florida. I am going to try and catch-up; so apologize for photographs out of time and context. These infinities are what I have called before, “The Enormity.” They represent what is ultimately the blessing of a receptive life on Earth. It is the ever-present dichotomy of how small and how large we are.
So today an image I took this week on an 200 mm Skygems Observatories Telescope in Namibia, a wide-field image that includes both the Flame (NGC 2024) and the Horsehead Nebulae (Barnard 33). I have photographed both of these with a small telescope in suburban Boston skies – heavily light polluted, what’s referred to as Bortle 5.7. Here they are under the skies that primitive man took for granted. I think this is from a wonderful Bortle 1. Like the demise of biodiversity, we have every so slowly, but consistently, brought this terrible light pollution upon ourselves.
Figure 1 – The Flame and Horsehead Nebulae, Skygems Observatories, Namibia, Africa (c) DE Wolf 2024.
