Author: Sam

Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat May 24,2004

Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat May 24,2004
Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat May 24,2004
Canon Ftb  Canon 100mm @ f/2.8  Elite-Chrome E200 Push 1 (Photo Oregon) 6 min exposure
Piggyback on Losmandy G11 Mount  Guiding through Takahashi FS78
Taken from Dark Skies at Panther Creek, SW of Veneta, Oregon
5.8-6.0 Magnitude skies 2557′ elevation

Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat was discovered on August 4, 2001 by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Team (NEAT). This comet spent most of its time in the southern hemisphere until May 2004 when it went North and brightened.

Comet C/2001 Q4 NEAT, came within 0.34 astronomical units ( 1 AU = 92,955,807 Miles ) 31.6 million miles of earth.  It reached  perihelion (closest approach in it’s orbit) on May 15, 2004 .  This hyperbolic comet will be flung out of our solar system, never to be seen again.

AU or Astronomical Unit (roughly earth’s distance from the sun)  93,000,000 miles.

I was lucky to have a clear May night in Oregon to image  Comet C/2001 Q4 Neat May 24, 2004.

NGC 891 Edge on Spiral (HV19) Caldwell 23, Silver Sliver Galaxy

 

NGC 891 Edge on SpiralGalaxy (HV19) Caldwell 23
NGC 891 Edge on Spiral Galaxy (HV19) Caldwell 23
NGC 891 Edge on Spiral Galaxy Crop
Silver Sliver Galaxy, NGC 891 Edge on Spiral Galaxy Crop View

 NGC 891:

9/7-8/2007  11:14 AM          Latitude: 43° 48.407′  North      Longitude: 122° 43.528′ West   3252’.   June Mountain  22 miles South of Dexter. OR.          Seeing: E    Transparency: 7  Bortle: 2 SQM: 21.91 . Telescopes / Optics: TEC 140 f/7 prime focus 980mm .   Mount :  AstroPhysics 1200 GTO.   Camera: SBIG ST8XME CFW8) 4½ hours-25°c.  FOV: 48’ x 32’ Filter: LRGB Astrodon e series.   Information:   One of my longest images with lots of data and great signal to noise; ( L-5 min. x 16; L-10 min. x13; RGB- 5 min. x 4ea.) Lots of detail and background galaxies.  See next page for a cropped FOV of NGC 891

NGC 891 Edge on Spiral (HV19) Caldwell 23

NGC 891 is a great Edge on Galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda. This Galaxy is 30 million light years from earth. It shines at apparent magnitude 10.8 and 120 thousand light years across.  At 13.5′ x 2.5 arc-minutes, it shows up nicely in medium to large amateur telescopes.

This Edge on Spiral galaxy’s dust lanes are prominent and show nice detail in long exposures. The dust lanes are similar to out own Milky Way if observed from the same distance edge on.  On a clear summer night, the dark rift from Cygnus down to Sagittarius is now given a different perspective.                                                                                                                                                                                       

William Herschel  discovered NGC 891  on October 6, 1784, this galaxy is a member of the NGC 1023 group of galaxies

The TV Show” Outer Limits” featured NGC 891 Galaxy during the end credits. This famous show also featured the Andromeda Galaxy, M67 Galaxy, M67, the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) and Pinwheel Galaxy M101).