NGC 3324 Revisited | JWST View

2025-01-29Jim R 7 Comments

Located in the southern skies, NGC 3324 lies close to the great Carina Nebula complex. I’ve never had opportunity to see it with my eyes. Telescopic views show it about 9100 light years away. This image of Carina shows a small yellow box in the lower right corner as the location of NGC 3324. For a sense of size, Carina is about 4 full moons wide making 3324 rather small in diameter. Within the small yellow box is a smaller pink box. The subject of this post lies within that boundary.

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Moon Occults Spica | 27 Nov 2024

2024-11-27Jim R 8 Comments

I had hopes for clear skies this morning to witness the Moon’s occultation of Spica. Mostly cloudy skies prevented seeing most of the event. An opening in the clouds came by 20 minutes after Spica reappeared and I was able to get this shot.

A larger patch of clear sky was overhead as I waited for the Moon and Spica. A stream of satellites was going over me toward the southeast. I assumed it was a group of Starlink satellites. I saw a similar stream of them two weeks ago. I quickly reset my camera from the Moon and tried to capture some of the stream before they went out of view. The bright star is Arcturus.

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

2024-10-11Jim R 9 Comments

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has passed between Earth and the Sun during the first days of October. This orbit diagram from Gideon van Buitenen shows the recent path. Visit his page here for much more detail.

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ISS Solar Transit | 19 Feb 2024

2024-02-192024-02-19Jim R 7 Comments

Two weeks ago I posted about a solar transit by the ISS. It was difficult to see on the screen. It was not quite in focus. Today, I tried again with better results. The solar filter on the camera was made in 2016 from a pair of eclipse glasses, an orange juice container, and duct tape.

I took more care this time to get the focus and exposure set properly. This video is slowed down a great deal from real time with iMovie. The transit took about 1 second in real time. The station moved from 1 o’clock to the 8 o’clock position.

Apollo 11 Plus 55 Years

2024-02-082024-02-08Jim R 7 Comments

July of 2024 marks the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. That event is one of the monumental achievements of mankind. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on another body of the solar system while Michael Collins orbited the Moon and awaited their return from the surface. Plans are under way to return a human presence on the Moon and eventually Mars. I am certain I will live to see the return to the Moon. Mars is a much bigger challenge. At age 77, I am running out of years.

The space program has always interested me. I saw the efforts to launch satellites as we raced the Russians in order to be first. I saw Sputnik fly over. Some launch failures were spectacular. Successes were thrilling. I was impressed with the challenges and the dangers. Each manned flight got my attention. This book took me back through those days of the early flights leading up to the Apollo missions.