Clear Sky Chart

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Supernova SN2011dh in Whirlpool Galaxy

On June 5th, I imaged a new supernova in the Whirlpool Galaxy, 26 million light years away. This single explosion is as bright as the foreground stars in the image which are from our own Milky Way galaxy. It's strange to think that this event happened long before humans walked the earth.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Lunar Straight Wall


A lunar fault line that is 110 km long and 1000 feet high.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Mars is Back

Greg and I took this image of Mars on a very cold, clear night. It was 2:30am and -18 degrees Celsius. The polar cap is clearly visible and the dark albedo feature to the lower right is Syrtis Major.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Double Eclipse on Jupiter

I witnessed 2 of Jupiter's moons creating solar eclipses on the "surface" of Jupiter tonight. The black shadow on the far left is caused by the moon Ganymede (right of centre). Europa is far right near the top of the Equatorial Belt and is casting a shadow near the center of the image. Callisto is out of view, far to the right. Io is behind Jupiter.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Jupiter

Moons from left to right: Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Europa

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Friday, May 8, 2009

Friday, April 17, 2009

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spiral Galaxies


M109






M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy (just below the handle of the Big Dipper).


Distance from Earth = 37 million light years.


Diameter = 100,000 light years.



M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy


Distance from Earth = 27 million light years.


Diameter = 200,000 light years.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Globular Clusters

M3 (NGC 5272) is a globular cluster consisting of approximately 500,000 stars located within our galaxy at a distance of approximately 30,600 light years. This cluster is located in the constellation Canes Venatici.


M13 - This globular cluster is almost straight overhead in the constellation Hercules. There are over 150 of these mysterious objects orbiting our Milky Way Galaxy.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Nebulae


On a cold winter's night (-12 degrees C), I ventured outside to capture this photo of the Orion Nebula.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Planets





Saturn and Three of its Moons





Jupiter - Moons from left to right are Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto. I was pleased that the Great Red Spot was visible that night.



Mars (the dark band is Syrtis Major)





Mars and its Two Moons


Venus - Rising before Dawn

Monday, July 16, 2007

2007 - My New Telescope

Greg took these pictures from our backyard. If you look closely, you can see the Milky Way stretching across the sky.