I am pleased to announce that Van Macatee’s image of Messier 16, the Eagle Nebula, has been selected as the Charlie Elliott Astronomy September Image of the Month!  Van used a modified Canon T3i, an Explore Scientific ED80, and an Orion Sirius mount.  Van used BackyardEOS to capture the image data and PixInsight for post-processing.  Van has been a member for about a year and a half and is currently serving as Secretary for Charlie Elliott Astronomy.  Nice work, Van!

I am pleased to announce that Joey Hazan’s Milky Way widefield image from July 26th has been selected as the Image of the Month for August 2014!  Joey used a Canon T3i at ISO 1600 with a 20 second exposure.  This single exposure image was taken on Jon Wood Astronomy Field during the Observing session after the July 26th meeting under some of the clearest skies we’ve seen in several months.  Many of you will recognize Joey as he’s been a frequent visitor to Charlie Elliott events.  Joey formally joined Charlie Elliott Astronomy in June and we’re looking forward to his involvement in chapter activities and events.  Nice work, Joey!

This month we are featuring Frank Garner’s Solargraph, an image of the path of the Sun taken with a pinhole camera from March 21, 2014 through June 22, 2014. Congratulations, Frank!

Clear Skies,
Steve Siedentop

This month we are featuring David Whalen’s image of Mars. On May 5th one of his series of LRGB captures turned out very stable and this is the result. Nice details of Mars at CM222 with a nice cloud formation around the Mons Elysium region. Great capture for David. Congratulations!
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Van Macatee captured the Supernova in M82 together with M81 from his driveway in Rutledge GA in the night of January 22-23. It is comprised of 10 subs exposed for 5 minutes each for a total of 200 minutes. All subs were taken at ASA1600. SN2014J is clearly visible in M82. Explore Scientific 80mm APO Triplet, EQ-G Mount, Canon 3Ti, SSAG, Nebulosity, PHD. Processed in Pixinsight.
Thanks Van for letting us use this image as our image of the month!!

We have  several members who have gotten interested in Astro Imaging.  They have setup galleries on our website that deserve being checked out!!!  Some nice images.  Eventhough that any of them does qualify for our Picture of the Month, we have selected for this month our latest member that setup a gallery.   Help me welcome to the gallery Joseph Seymour by checking out his gallery as well as all the others.

Following the imaging session with Thomas Whalen, Lesley Edwards and her dad did visit my observatory to learn how to image the sun. Lesley is 11 years and attends 5th grade at Grayson Elementary. Lesley went also through a 3 hour session and was explained how we do it. What software is used, what controls we use and how. Than we opened the roof of the observatory and Lesley lined up and centered the sun in the scope from the park position, connected the camera, loaded and setup the capture program and brought the sun on the chip. She than set the controls of the camera, set the limits, spend her time on focussing the image and than ran the required frames. Following the capture session we continued the training inside with processing, Registax and Photoshop. She had a good grasp of what happened in the different stages and you all can see she did a great job. To finish it off, she uploaded the image that she produced to her gallery on our website. Gratulations to Lesley Edwards for her Charlie Elliott Picture of the Month!

Our chapter has really been blessed with an increase of members and interested friends. We have seen young people coming over and over to the meetings and observing sessions. This is great in that we can help in growing the next generation of scientists, as well as amateur astronomers. I am really glad that Thomas Whalen and his family did visit my observatory and I could teach Thomas how to image the Sun. Thomas is 12 years old and is a 6 grader at the Trickum Middle School. I am reporting that Thomas made the image from start to finish by himself: He lined up the sun in the scope from the park position, connected the camera, loaded and setup the capture program, brought the sun on the chip and centered it. He also prepared himself beforehand how to capture the sun, by reviewing my presentation on the web. He set the controls of the camera and ran the required frames. Than the lessons continued inside with processing, Registax and Photoshop. It took him a while but you all can see he did a great job. To top it off, he also took the raw data home so he can practice even more…. Gratulations this month to Thomas Whalen for his Charlie Elliott Picture of the Month! http://ceastronomy.org

Clear Skies,
Theo

The coming month’s Image of the month on Charlie Elliott’s landing page is an image made by one of our “relative new” member Steve, Siedentop from Grayson. Steve is not only a very active member and started imaging, he also is active in trying to have the community involved in Astronomy. Great Job Steve!
Theo Ramakers

Another International Year of Astronomy Event!

Thanks to Chapter member Jim Honeycutt the Covington Library will show images made by local amateur astronomers in the region, so far Charlie Elliott Chapter members! The exhibit is open during normal library hours and can be seen in one of the meeting rooms. A sign guiding you to the exhibit is displayed at the entrance.

Images displayed so far are from Jim Honeycutt, Larry Owens, Stephen Ramsden and Theo Ramakers. If you have an image which you would like to add, please go to the library and add it to the collection.

The library will show the images until May 19th. So if you are in the neighborhood, please stop by and enjoy!

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers