The Dutch Observatory

Mars in 2007

Some images made in 2007 from Mars.  These images represent my learning curve with astro imaging and the Philips SPC900NC webcam.

This image is my first image of Mars and the SPC900NC.  It was made early in the morning around 9:36 UT from Social Circle.  For details about the capture and processing see the image.

During the end of October and November I was pretty busy with Comet 17P/Holmes.  In the beginning of December I put some effort back on Mars.  Here an image taken on December 9, 2007.

Mars on the evening of December 10, 2007.  The planet now is grown to a size of 15.7 arc seconds and almost 99% of the surface is visible.  Only a few weeks until apparation and opposition.

 Mars on December 12th.

This was Mars at apparation.  Unfortunately the seeing was not good, but at least I was able to get an image from this event.  The size of Mars has grown to 15.88 arc seconds and the phase is now at 100%.

Atlas Rocket Fuel Dump

This image was taken on December 10, 2007 at 7:03 pm EST from the Dutch Observatory.
 

 
Around 7:00 pm I received a call from Jon Wood. His wife Janet, spottet a large “spot” in the sky. We were all thinking of Holmes, but as we researched the event on the web, it became apparent that we were seeing the fuel dump of the upper stage of an Atlas Rocket who had positioned a spy satelite a few hours before and dumped the remaining fuel before re-entry. Thanks Janet and Jon Wood for the call so we could image this event!!

Details:
Camera: Canon XTi (400D)
ISO: 1600
Exposure: 30 sec.
F stop: f/5.6
Focal length: 22 mm

Comet 17P/Holmes

I guess I will start with some images which I made from Comet 17P/Holmes.  I spend considerable time imaging Holmes over a two month period.  First the comet itself, than when the coma extended my field of view, the comet in the evening sky against the constellations and other sky objects.

My first image of Comet 17P Holmes imaged the evening of October 25, 2008 from the Dutch Observatory

Image showing the increase of the size of the comet over a 7 day period

Holmes on the evening of 10/28 with identifying starfield. 
Thanks Clevis for your help with this!

This was Comet 17P/Holmes the evening of 10/31/2007 at 9:06 EST.  We had trouble identifying the location of Holmes because we could not find the double star to the right of Holmes in the catalogues.  Eventually with the help of Bill Gray from Project Pluto, the double was identifed as ES 465 (T.E. Espin’s list of double stars)  Most other catalogues listed the double as a single unresolved star.  Interesting to note that the two stars of the double were observed and measured 7 times between 1907 and 1971 and that in that period the stars moved 1.7 arc seconds away from each other.

The final image from Holms here, is an image taken on its 115th  discovery aniversary date,
November 6, 2007 2:20 UT