Lagoon Nebula M8 taken in Cathedral City, CA

The Lagoon Nebula, or M8, is an emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. This nebula is a giant interstellar cloud some 4,000-6,000 light-years from us here on Earth. Currently, the best time to view the Lagoon Nebula in the Coachella Valley is around 2am looking south. It lies near the Milky Way core, and has plenty of beautiful neighboring eye candy such as the Trifid and Eagle Nebula. As with most nebula, this one is best viewed with a high powered telescope and nebula filter.

Equipment used: Celestron Nexstar 6se with wedge + 6.3 focal reducer, Canon 450d

22x180s lights
22 darks
22 bias
22 flats

Processed in DSS

Jupiter in the Coachella Valley, CA night sky 2-4-16

Jupiter just keeps getting bigger and brighter as the days pass, inching its way to opposition on March 8, when it will be at its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any other time of the year, peaking at an apparent magnitude of -2.49, and will be visible all night long. This is a great time to get outside and observe Jupiter and its Moons, as the weather here in the Coachella Valley has been lovely, and seeing conditions have been favorable.

These images were taken on 2-4-16 and the seeing was excellent that night. Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc webcam and a 2x barlow

And lastly, I would like to congratulate the @LIGO team for directly detecting Gravitational Waves today #einsteinwasright

Venus and Saturn in the pre-dawn hours 1-21-16

This is my last post of the night, and involves Saturn and Venus. Saturn is on its way up in the pre-dawn sky and Venus is on its way down. Saturn is at an apparent magnitude 0.53 and peaks on June 2nd at 0.00 apparent magnitude. The rings of Saturn are a crown jewel in our Solar System, and viewing them through a large or small telescope is really out of this world.

Venus, on the other hand has already reached its peak brightness on September 14th, at an apparent magnitude of -4.53 and currently is at a -4.00. Venus is actually taking shape and shining quite bright. The last time I did any imaging of Venus (other than the daytime Venus/Moon conjunction here) it was more of a crescent shape. Venus goes through phases similar to our Moon, because it lies in front of the earth and closer to the Sun. As it rotates around the Sun, different phases can be seen from here on Earth.

Saturn

Saturn

Venus

And in case you missed my previous posts today about Mars, and Jupiter here are the links

Mars - An Amateur Astronomers View 1-21-16

Not only did I take some amazing pictures of Jupiter last night (link here), I also stayed up late enough to catch a couple of the other bright planets, including our nearest neighbor Mars. This was my first attempt at really imaging Mars, and I didn't expect much out of it. Mars is currently at an apparent magnitude of 0.99, and will not peak in brightness until May 22nd at an apparent magnitude -2.06. This is when you should expect some amazing amateur astrophotography pictures of Mars!

Images taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc webcam

Jupiter and the Great Red Spot 1-21-16

Jupiter is putting on an amazing show during the winter months here in the Coachella Valley. The gas giant is currently at an apparent magnitude of -2.30, and gaining in brightness each day until peaking on March 6th with an apparent magnitude of -2.49 for the year. These sets of images show the great red spot and storm bands of Jupiter as it rotates across the night sky. My goal for the evening was to really capture the movements of Jupiter's surface in the span of a night. I think it went quite well, for an amateur astronomer.

The Moon is currently in a waxing gibbous phase, which means its almost a full Moon. The Moon played a small negative factor in last nights observing, but overall didn't affect the images too badly. After this months full Moon, which occurs on January 23rd, I recommend a wonderful opportunity to pull out your telescopes and cameras and view the largest planet in our solar system, as well as 4 other bright planets (Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury) all in our night sky at the same time!

Stay tuned for a future post on exactly when and how to spot Mercury here in the Coachella Valley in the coming weeks. It is currently very low on the horizon at dawn and hard to catch with the mountains and palm trees in the way.

I have pieced together a GIF of this evenings Jupiter pictures showing the planetary rotation and movement of the great red spot. This was a really fun project to put together and I could not be happier with the end results.

Next, we have the images that make up the GIF above. These are all stacked images with Avistack, 1800 frames to produce the final images. Taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6SE and a Phillips SPC900NC webcam. 

Here are my final images of Jupiter for the night. I wanted to catch the moons Io and Ganymede, as well as a close up of the great red spot and a bit more of a magnification on Jupiter in general, enjoy!

The Great Red Spot

Jupiter and Io

Jupiter and Io

Jupiter, Io and Ganymede

That is not all we have for today! My next few posts will be about imaging Mars, Venus, and Saturn! I hope you enjoyed my post and I look forward to your comments and feedback via social media and the likes. Clear skies!

Jupiter Ganymede Shadow Transit and Great Red Spot 1-11-16

The seeing here in the Coachella Valley was excellent last night, so I had the opportunity to spend the night outside with clear skies, and my trusty telescope. It was quite cold outside, for the valley anyways, so hot cocoa was flowing like water. These are definitely my personal best images of Jupiter, so far! I was actually speechless while processing the videos, but that was more than likely the cold temps outside. I am quite satisfied with the results and I hope you enjoy viewing them. Clear Skies!

Image details - Each image is a 1600 frame video stacked in avistack with minor wavelets adjustments at the end. The first image is actually a composite of two, one for Jupiter and another with high gain to show the moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

Ganymede, Ganymede Shadow Transit, Great Red Spot, Europa, and Callisto

Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc + tube extender

Ganymede Shadow Transit, Great Red Spot

Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc + tube extender

Ganymede Shadow Transit, Great Red Spot

Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc + tube extender

Ganymede Shadow Transit, Great Red Spot

Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc + 2x barlow

Ganymede Shadow Transit, Great Red Spot

Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc + tube extender

Io, Ganymede Shadow Transit

Nexstar 6SE + Phillips spc900nc + tube extender

This last image actually shows Io popping out from behind Jupiter

Jupiter, Io, Ganymede, and Europa 1-1-16

I couldn't contain myself New Years Eve and did a bit of backyard telescoping during the celebrations. With wine bottle in hand, the Wife and I set up the Telescope and listened to the symphony of celebrations being orchestrated  in and around our neighborhood. The seeing in the Coachella Valley was not in my favor, and the fireworks and waning gibbous Moon offered no real help either, but I did manage to photograph a half way decent shot of Jupiter and 3 of its moons. I hope everyone has a fantastic New Years, and cheers to 2016 in the Coachella  Valley!

Equipment used was a Celestron Nexstar 6SE, a Philips spc900nc webcam and a 2x barlow

An amateurs view of Uranus 12-17-15

All jokes aside, Uranus is a beautiful planet. It was once considered a gas giant like Jupiter and Saturn, but is now more commonly referred to as an ice giant, much like its nearest neighbor Neptune. Uranus has the coldest atmosphere of all the planets in our solar system, and has an estimated 27 satellites orbiting around it. Uranus also has its own set of rings, but unfortunately they are not nearly as noticeable as Saturn's famous rings.

This picture was taken on 12-17-15 with a Nexstar 6se and a Phillips spc900nc in Cathedral City, California.

A Picture of Saturn on 7-22-15 Webcam + Telescope

I found a picture of Saturn that I took on 7-22-15 and wanted to share it. Saturn was at apparent magnitude 0.37 and was shining brightly towards the south. This image is actually a short 2-3 minute video taken with a Logitech c310 Webcam attached to my Celestron Nexstar 6SE and I used image stacking software later on by processing the video in Avistacks, this is the end results.