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Supernova #29

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  At 1:30 AM on the morning April 28, it was time to pick a new set of target galaxies during my nightly search for supernovae. My sidereal clock displayed 15:31, so I chose to get a headstart on 16h galaxies. Late April is still considered Galaxy Season, but when 16h is approaching the meridian, the densest part of the Realm of the Galaxies is three hours over to the west and fading fast.  Looking due south at 16 o'clock sidereal time, you'll see the early summertime constellations (Scorpius, Ophiuchus, and Hercules) just east of the meridian, and the tail end of the springtime constellations (Libra, Corona Borealis, and Boötes) on the west side. Seasoned backyard astronomers know that 16h is where we transition from observing galaxies to seeking out globular star clusters that have been hiding from us for months. But while globular clusters are great targets to view in the eyepiece of backyard telescopes, they are not the apple of the eye of supernova hunters! For me, when t...
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Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1

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  Are you a collector of comets? Are you keeping a list of all the comets you've looked at or taken pictures of with your telescope? If so, is Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 on your list of comets that you've already seen? It should be! If not, make it so! Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 (which I will hereafter refer to as "Comet 29P" or just "29P") is not your ordinary comet. No, it's not interstellar, like Comet 3I/ATLAS . It's not inhabited by aliens. That's not what I mean by "not your ordinary comet." No, what I mean is that, unlike other comets, 29P has a nearly circular orbit, out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It constantly displays a coma, throughout its entire journey around the sun each year. Its average distance from the sun is 562,417,500 miles, and the difference between its furthest point (aphelion) and closest point (perihelion) is only 50.3 million miles. Both aphelion and perihelion are farther away from the sun than ...
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The Blood Moon of March 3, 2026

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Total eclipse phase at 4:33 AM While the rest of the world is sharing their eclipse photos, probably composed when the International Space Station was crossing the moon during maximum eclipse, or, perhaps when the Blood Moon was setting over some dramatic scene, like Joshua Tree National Monument, or the Golden Gate Bridge, I share with you here my humble submission from the back yard.  No, I didn't travel anywhere exotic. Nor did I wait to capture the eclipse with an airplane or the ISS passing through the field of view. My picture is just your run-of-the-mill, totally-eclipsed moon, against its natural background of ho-hum stars in the constellation Leo.  The morning of March 3rd, here in Tucson, AZ, was balmy. Around 56° F. Skies were perfectly clear. There was no wind. I was looking forward to this eclipse because I haven't shot a lunar eclipse since the partial one we had back on September 17 of 2024 . Prior to that, I think I have to go back to May 15, 2022, to find imag...
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Update on Comet 3I/ATLAS

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My, how time flies! Seems like only yesterday I was writing about 3I/ATLAS in my Blowin' in the wind post . Can you believe that was more than a month ago? But time is flying much more quickly for Comet 3I/ATLAS, as it speeds away from us faster than any object in the solar system. Since January 21, the comet has covered nearly 130 million miles en route to its rendezvous with Jupiter. That means it has traveled about 4 million miles per day! Hmmm. A small comet that was already quite dim, moving 130 million miles further away from us ... it's a wonder we can still see it! Wait. Can we still see it? Well, I'll tell you what. My image above, using the 11-inch SCT and HyperStar at f/2, is a stack of twenty-five 15-second exposures, or just a little longer than 6 minutes. It's tough to see the comet in this picture. I couldn't see it in the 15-second subs and I wondered what happened to it. Did it finally veer off course like the headlines warned back in December?  Aft...
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Comet C/2024 E1 Wierzchoś

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  After traveling for millions of years from the Oort Cloud , the comet C/2024 E1 Wierzchoś rounded the sun on January 20th at a distance of 85 million miles. That's just slightly closer than the earth is to the sun, so, by cometary standards, E1 Wierzchoś was doomed to underperformance from the outset.  As if its closest-approach (perihelion) distance wasn't bad enough, our indifferent planet refused to cooperate during the comet's only known apparition through the inner solar system. Earth was already moving out of range when E1 Wierzchoś reached its closest distance to us, as recently as February 17th. These unfortunate circumstances produced the unsatisfying result (above) that I captured only two days following the comet's closest approach to earth. The image is a stack of 8 frames totaling two minutes of exposure time at f/2 with the 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The orbital view (above) from JPL's Small Body Database Lookup site shows the path of ...
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Graham Chapman [1941 - 1989]

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Graham Chapman wasn't the oldest member of the British surrealist comedy group "Monty Python," but he was the first of the six members to pass away, back in 1989, at the young age of 48. Terry Jones would follow him in death on January 21, 2020, but all of the others are happily still with us. Why do I bring this up in February of 2026? Because just a few days ago, I finally completed my project of getting images of all six asteroids named after Monty Python members. It took me nearly four years to get them all. Ironically, asteroid (9617) Grahamchapman was the last of the six that I shot. All six asteroids were discovered by the Uppsala-ESO Survey at La Silla . The first four asteroids named for Monty Python members were discovered on the same night: March 17, 1993. The final two were discovered a few nights later, on March 21, 1993. The asteroids named after the Monty Python Six are as follows: (9617) Grahamchapman (9618) Johncleese (9619) Terrygilliam (9620) Ericidle ...
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Fun with the sun

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  Sunspots of February 3, 2026 Okay, hold on a sec. Let me be perfectly clear: The sun is the most dangerous celestial orb in the sky, and I DO NOT want you to think that my title "Fun with the sun" means that you can treat the sun, er, lightly. NEVER look directly at the sun with your eyes, not even for an instant!  You know that guy, Andrew Huberman, who says you should go outside immediately after waking up in the morning and look in the general direction of the sun to reset your sleep cycle? DO NOT FOLLOW THAT ADVICE! Make no mistake. The sun is no toy! And, sure, we have all accidently looked directly at the sun from time to time, giving us black spots in our vision for the next several minutes. Experiencing that once should be enough of a warning for you to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!  Sunglasses don't protect you, either. Do not be misled. Sunglasses were not designed to let you gaze upward at the sun. Not even during partial solar eclipses. Too much harmful radiation can...
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