Draconids 2011 in Trelleborg

During autumn we are able to observe a rather spectacular show by the Draconids meteor shower which occurs every year and lasts between the 8th to 10th of October. I was invited that evening on a dinner at my parents. What I almost forgot was to bring my camera …  This year the 8th of October fell during their peak day. Once I arrived I installed my camera in the backyard.

I’ve got around 4 or 5 successful shots of them, even though the light polution from the neighborhood was really unbearable! Regardless, it is a beautiful astronomical event and even if you’re scheduled for dinner, you can always let the camera do the job for you!

The camera was set on ISO 500 with an apperture on 4.0 and the shutter speed fixed on 10 seconds. At the beginning I had my camera shooting towards the constellations of Draco and big dipper, and later I turned it towards Cassiopeia.

Draconids 2011 in Trelleborg

The Draconid meteor showers radiant is in the middle of the constellation of Draco (there fore their name) and extends across the night sky in all directions. The meteors are debris from the comet of Giacobini-Zinner (a.k.a. 21P).

However, the first image on the top is not a Draconid but rather an airplane flying by as it appears in a long exposure with it’s periodic blinking of lights on the wings. It was an image taken while I was testing my camera settings, but I thought it looked quite nice with the highly illuminated facade of the house.

Draconids 2011 in Trelleborg

Neutron Star Collision

Every single thing you can sense around you is made of matter. Every single atom in your body, was once forged inside the nucleus of a star for a very long time ago, even before our solar system existed.

We are products of star fusion, supernovas. But recently astronomers discovered in simulations, we might also be parts of even more rare events of collision of stars, which explains the rarity of heavy elements such as gold, platinum, uranium and so on.

This rarity is what makes gold so precious to humans and used throughout history as currency. Something that not everyone possess or is able to acquire in large quantities. The reason to that?

Neutron stars.

First you need a binary system… Not like our own solar system, but a system with 2 stars orbiting around each other. That’s is not extremely common either. But also in this recipe we need these stars end up as neutron stars at the end of their lives and finally a dramatic end…. A collision between them.

Now that is more of a rare event.

Although this might sound almost like impossible, the vast amount of space and the tremendous amount of star systems created over time in a galaxy, results mathematically having these events not to be as rare as we thought. To a human being,  100 years is experienced as a very long time. In astronomy on the other hand, you’ve got ridiculous huge numbers of distances, time span and forces. Something that the human mind cannot comprehend pure mathematically… It is not as far as the neighbor house around the corner, or your monthly salary, or the age of your children, or the number of pages of your favorite book. We talk about billions of years, or distance of the speed of light covered over thousands of years away, and so on.

And like Carl Sagan said… The amount of stars in our galaxy are much more than the amount of sand grains from all beaches on earth put together.

The fore the human body need some of these rare elements in order to function. Remember that stars can fuse only as heavy elements as iron (Fe), heavier than that and you’ll need even stronger and violent forces. Ones that would be expected by the death of stars or by colissions. And some of these elements are made by supernovas and now even believed by neutron star collisions.

So, if you consider proposing to the one you love and give her a ring, then explain to her. “My love, this ring is rare and unique. So unique, that two neutron stars had to collide for it to exist and now finally be placed on your finger”. I’m sure you will make her feel special, as much as that neutron star collision.

The theoretical predictions got now to be put in practice and observed by astronomers.

Read more:

• Astronomy – Cosmic crashes forge gold
• Human body periodic table

Kepler 19c - An artist's impression

NASA’s Kepler telescope discovered a double earth-sized planet (Note: not earth-like) and was given the name “Kepler 19c”.

The remarkable with this discovery is not only that this exoplanet in particular is tiny in comparison to previous discoveries of super sized Jupiter-like planets, but also due to the indirect discovery while studying another nearby exoplanet at the same planet system, transiting their star 5 minutes later than anticipated.

That brings our solar system in mind with our family member Neptunus, which was discovered indirectly and mathematically by studying the motion of the neighboor planet Uranus due to the unusual orbit around our sun. A conclusion was therefore made, that another object should exist nearby disturbing gravitationally its path around sun.

When the orbit of the theoretical planet was predicted, astronomers rushed to their telescopes trying to find it. And so a Thursday night the 23 of September 1846 the little blue dot was first seen visually by the astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Galle.

Discovering new worlds has always been part of the human history. From the myths and hopes of the existence of the lost isle of Atlantis, the discovery of new continents by the famous voyagers such as Marco Polo, Cpt. James Cook, Americo Vespucio, and so on, to the discovery of new planets within our solar system and finally today to entirely new worlds far beyond in space within our galaxy!

Kepler’s mission is to study constantly the same narrow field of around 145 000 main sequence stars and by their change in brightness reveal if these stars are inhabited by planets orbiting around. The technique is quite “simple” by using the transit method (a star’s magnitude changes when an object passes in front of it, lowering the brightness a tiny fraction). However, using this technique got its limitations as the passing object got to be on the same plane as our solar system. Objects passing in different paths will be never discovered by using this method!

Other methods are: Radial Velocity, Microlensing, Astrometry, Pulsar Timing and Direct Imaging.

The current number of exoplanet discoveries has today been altered to 520!

For more information please visit the links bellow:

• NASA: Kepler webpage
• Facts about Kepler 19 star
• The Planetary Society – How We Discover Exoplanets

Ben Canales webpage

Astrophotography itself can be divided into subsessions and there fore astrophotographers invest both in time and money in different sets of cameras and other equipment. For example a deep-sky astrophotographer would prefer an IR modified DSLR camera or a CCD camera, while a planetary astrophotographer would prefer video cameras or high quality webcameras. But regardless type of equipment or the money you spend into that, an astrophotographer must have a sense of an artist’s eye, big luck and enormous amount of patience. Surely good and expensive equipment makes life easier, but you are not a true amateur astronomer if you dont love nature and got people around you that support your interest wholeheartedly.

I personally admire Ben Canales work in landscape astrophotography. Ben gave me inspiration through his photos in investing my thoughts into landscape astrophotography and this season I’m going to try out and see if I can find motives. For a couple of months ago, I passed by Lund’s cathedral and watched the moon raising between the two clock towers. It was so beautiful but unfortunately I didn’t carry around my camera at that point. However, I’m planning in doing so by timing it at a later point. Another try I did, was with the dome at the observatory of Jävan and the constellation of Cassiopeia in background, but I was never pleased with the end results.

Regardless, please visit Ben Canales webpage located at: http://www.thestartrail.com/

Sunspots - Visible Light Filter

As we finally enter September month followed by darker and still warm nights, I decided to assemble my telescope during a semi-cloudy day and take a few shots of the sun. To my surprise the surface was covered with several sunspots, more than it has been in a long time.

The image to the left was taken with my Canon EOS 50D at ISO600, shutter speed 1/8000 and a temperature balance 7000K. The sunspots visible here are 1281, 1282, 1283, 1277 and 1279.

The 17th of September we will have our annual celebration of “Kulturnatten” (culture night), which means many institutions at Lund’s university will have open house from morning to night. The physics and astronomy department will offer laser shows, barbecue,  exhibitions of light and other experiments, star gazing through telescopes and much more. Everyone is welcome to visit us, regardless of age and of course both food and drink and everything else is for free!

More information about the cultural night in Lund, can be found here:

• MAX-lab culture night 2011
• Naturvetenskapliga fakulteten – Kulturnatten 2011
• Lunds Stads – Kulturnatten 2011

Krankesjön

Astrophotography requires these days a remote location in order to avoid city lights and other sources of light polution originating from suburbs, traffic, illuminated roads, commersial signs, small villages and so on.

The best way to decide wether or not a location is spared from that, is by checking an overview map focusing on the light polution given by sattelite data. There are numerous of sattelites orbiting earth and one of the most popular websites giving you that opportunity to review your local areas situation is the “Night Sky In The World“.

From where I live, the best closest location spared by light polution are the shores of the lake “Krankesjön” 15-20 minutes from where I live by car. Fortunately the area is a nature reserve and some streets are off limits due to military excersises, limiting the traffic. Besides the closest civilization is made of very small villages at a distance of 10 to 20 km from the lake. Occasionally the military police makes a visit during the astrophotography sessions wondering what business we have in the area. Sometimes they’re interested knowing more about astrophotography but most of the times they check your ID number and move on.

Today I went out by car for the second time to investigate this location and find a better spot from where I could assemble my telescope. During my trip I came across a Danish group of bird viewers and exchanged a few words about their cameras and their telephotography techniques.

By night south part of Sweden is very light poluted due to the geography. Small villages and cities are growing by population every year and the situation gets worse as times passes. A map provided by my astronomy society Aquila (ASAK) shows the whole picture on what magnitude stars you can see by naked eye.

Light Polution of South Sweden

The map was created by Lars Lindh, amateur astronomer and astrophotographer and member of the Aquila astronomical society in Kristianstad. His webpage can be found here.

The link bellow shows the location of lake “Krankesjön”.

http://maps.google.se/maps?hl=sv&ie=UTF8&ll=55.699937,13.481855&spn=0.031874,0.104628&z=14&vpsrc=6&output=embed
Visa större karta

Niklas HenricsonPhoto: Sara Frostberg Lowery

The last few years I’ve made occassionally appearance on TV, radio and news papers regarding astronomy and science related news and happenings, but in difference to these interviews, I’ve been asked this time by “Lunds Lokaltidning” to say a few words about this blog in particular.

A big thanks to Sara Frostberg Lowery for taking time and effort visiting me at home last week. It was a nice relaxing interview as we both talked about my background and this big interest around astronomy and astrophotography.

In difference to most blogs covering fashion, movies, life experiences, music and so on; this blog is ofcourse dedicated to astrophotography and astronomy related news and history. That became interesting for the local newpaper who started recently a campain of interviews dedicated in local blog authors resided within our community, Lund.

If you’re interested reading the article click this link bellow.

Lunds Lokaltidning – Med blicken riktad uppåt

A google-translated version can be found here.

Jävan observatory

During 1930:ies there were countless of meetings at the university of Lund regarding the problems in lacking an observatory. The old observatory at the park of Lund was outdated, old and fell victim of the growing city and therefore light polution.

It stood clear that astronomers were in serious need of a new observatory to perform their observations and provide students with a better place. They started investigating local areas outside the suburbs of Lund during 1940 and finally found a hill located near the village of Genarp. The new place was decided to be hosting the new observatory and it was not that far away from the university (30 minutes by car), but far enough to avoid light polution at night time. It wasn’t until September 1965 the university received the telescope mirror and in October 1966 the observatory was finally operating for the first time.

During planing it was decided that the observatory would have two domes, one at west and one east, both having the ability to look south at meridian. The main instrument was a Nasmyth-Cassegrain telescope provided with a spectrograph table, cooling system. The entire system’s weight was estimated to be 3500 kilograms. The main mirror is parabolic and 61 cm in diameter and weights around 98 kilograms. The hyperbolic secondary mirror is 16 cm in diameter and was made of Duran glass with aluminmum surface.

The main goal of the observatory was to study the magnitude of thousents of stars on one single shot through photoelectric photometry. 1973 the telescope had a spectrographer to enable studies in spectrum for individual stars.

As the decades passed by, the cities around Genarp (including Genarp village itself) grew larger. A new era in astronomy started enabling astronomers to either travel out of country to remote locations, or connect to an observatory across the world through internet. Jävan observatory was hard to compete to the new technology and the evergrowing cities around light poluting the skies.

This observatory stopped beeing operable at the late 90:ties. Regardless, for an amateur astronomer the hill location is perfect still for observations. The forest around the hill has grown wild and large pinetrees are covering the low horizon and most of the light polution is hidden behind the forest trees.

A friend of mine and myself went there one night (8th of May 2011) and began observing the night sky together. It was a beautiful night sky full of stars. We tried taking a few pictures on globular clusters towards south, but that night was windy causing pollen to raise in the air and therefore it was far from ideal in regards to astrophotography.

Niklas Henricson

I thought I’d write something regarding my summer activities. Amateur astronomy is very quiet during the summer season due to the light skye for the most part, the quick changing weather circumstances from day to day, but also because for a common Swede the summer season is dedicated for the anual vacations from work and studies. My family and I decided to visit Scotland this year, which was very beautiful. We decided to visit the major cities such as Glasgow and Edinburg, but also the country side of Scotland, such as lakes (Loch Lomond, Loch Drunkie) and parts of the Scotish Highlands. Scotland got rich scientific and engineering history. One interesting story is that of Scotsman James Watt (known from the unit Watt written on every light bulb you buy at stores). Watt was a poor engineer fighting with his economy issues most part of his life. He owned a little store selling his navigational instruments in Glasgow, but barely made any money that suffice for his family living at the time. Years passed and James suceeded getting an employment at the university of Glasgow, enabling him to access the university workshop.

Just as other innovators, James did what most people did not. He had passion in details and improvement. He analyzed the classical steam engine and found some basic flaws and weaknesses in the current system. At the time steam engines were very small and used for the most part in the Scotish country side, helping miners to pump out water from the coil mines.

James found out that Newcomen’s model of steam engine had very low efficiency. After some long nights and big efforts James finally found a way to improve the steam engine and win a high degree of efficiency at low cost. To make a long story short, his solution revolutionized and changed the world. His ingenious methods and solution to the steam engine was a major turning point in history changing the way of living. It is what we call today as the industrial revolution.

His steam engine was used hence in the railways bringing people and wares closer to each other, as well as commersial and the military fleets across the world. Brittain was back then the biggest empire in the world. The sun was always up shinning somewhere in the Brittish empire on the earth.

James Watt statue, Glasgow

Thanks to James Watt’s efforts, we use today a unit called “Watt” in the S.I. system to honor his name. The unit Watt tells us what amount of efficiency (work) we get during a certain amount of time. Before that, it was common to use horsepowers (hp) but horsepower was a smaller unit in order to express efficiency large machines.

1 W = 0,0013596216 hp or vice versa 1 hp = 735,49875 W. That is why car salemen are using still horsepowers to impress potential buyers, instead of using Watt… People are more impressed when they hear thousents of horsepowers efficiency on the engines, rather then a few tens.

Regardless in daily life we’re using Watt in light bulbs.

Now the question is what does Watt mean for astronomy?

Astronomers are using mostly Watt to express the electromagnetic radiation efficiency on certain amount of area. Watt/square meter (W/m²).

Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to visit the Royal Observatory of Edinburg, but I will try and write about the local observatories of Skåne were I live and see if I ever fufill my dream visiting other famous observatories across Europe.

On my next article I will write about the forgotten observatory of Jävan, located in Genarp, not very far away from where I live.

Have a look on how you work with curves and levels in Adobe Photoshop in order to enhance non visible light data on your stacked image with two simple steps.