Stuff in the Sky

[Canuck from Kansas]

Finally had a clear night and found Comet 12P/Pans Brooks.

Always a thrill to see a new comet for the first time !
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Was also actually, to my surprise, able to capture a couple of images, but it is so low one my horizon, about 18 degrees, that it's tough to get a good image.

Sony Alpha 77 at 600 mm, 4 x 30 second exposure



Zenithstar 80, heavily cropped (about 100%) to remove some color casting, unfortunately, not able to bring out the tail but you can see the nucleus, which almost appears as a double nucleus. I could be capturing a fracture, Pons-Brooks is cryovolcanic, meaning it's nucleus fractures due to solar radiation, creating fissures and causing it to spray cryomagma into space (https://www.space.com/devil-comet-hidden-spiral-icy-heart)



Cheers

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

@Canuck from Kansas how did you do with the eclipse?

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

@Canuck from Kansas how did you do with the eclipse?

Not sure, have not processed yet, but I don't think anything very good - don't have an appropriate solar filter and it never got dark enough even with dark filter, so I think everything is/will be over-exposed.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Was not sure if you were in path of totality. It would be nice to get more practice in with solar eclipses. Years and decades in between is not conducive to staying sharp.
I totally forgot to increase the contrast in camera and use a polarizing filter. Yet, I know it was likely not to help that much. I did luck into the craziness of stacking two polarizing filters on last solar eclipse to create a strong ND/solar filter that actually worked well. But not enough of a view to worry this round.

Please post if you got anything. Day astronomy phase over.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Did anybody else see the north lights last night? This is semi-coastal WA. 3 hour show. I had to learn on the fly so was glad it was a long one !

I expected it to be short so I stuck with no tripod for the first 2 hours.

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Did anybody else see the north lights last night? This is semi-coastal WA. 3 hour show. I had to learn on the fly so was glad it was a long one !

I expected it to be short so I stuck with no tripod for the first 2 hours.

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Beautiful!! Been waaaaay too many years since I have been able to see an aurora. Hopefully moving a bit further north will help, I need to see them again. Thanks for posting.

NOAA Alert: Severe geomagnetic solar storm warning issued

A significant space weather event has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue a Geomagnetic Storm Alert.

www.earth.com

Cheers

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

Thank you. My best ever event. I have not seen a good aurora show in a super long time and it was always just greens, but I recall some strong storms with superb naked eye viewing. The red was throwing me. Unexpected.

The moon is too strong. I wonder how it would have been in no moon sky..

Spooky to ponder.

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Thank you. My best ever event. I have not seen a good aurora show in a super long time and it was always just greens, but I recall some strong storms with superb naked eye viewing. The red was throwing me. Unexpected.

The moon is too strong. I wonder how it would have been in no moon sky..

Spooky to ponder.

Spooky is a good word. When I was on Baffin Island, they were directly overhead, reds, greens, blues, sliding across the sky. Like many, I swear I could hear them, sort of hissing. Spooky is a very good word