Satellites and Domes

I took a timelapse of the northern sky from the porch of the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope and got lots of satellites as the morning twilight was about to start.  In this view a bright satellite glints sunlight (it may be an Iridium flare - it must have been pretty bright) as another one runs almost parallel to it almost straight over the Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall Telescope.  Also visible is the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope dome and the Spacewatch 36 inch dome in that order from right to left.  Low in the sky to the left is the planet Jupiter setting in the west in the constellation of Gemini.  Near the top center is the Big Dipper.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my Canon 70D and an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 1600.

The Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak

We had two nights to start the year on the 4-meter Mayall telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona.  We were lucky to have 2 clear nights with some of the best sub arcsecond seeing for that telescope.  Here are two HDR combines of the same 5 images of the telescope.

The first image is a Fattal combine and displays the colors more vividly.  The 5 images used my 10mm fisheye lens at f/2.8 and ISO 3200.  The shortest exposure was 1/500 seconds and the longest 1/30 seconds with the cameras nominal exposure at 1/125 seconds.

The second image is a Mantiuk '08 combine which displays the view of the 4-meter telescope and the inside of the dome fairly close to what the human eye sees the scene.

Lunar Halos on Kitt Peak

In case anyone is wondering why I'm not doing any observing early this evening, the sky over Kitt Peak is covered by a thin haze and the first quarter moon is producing a very bright halo in the sky. This image includes the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope dome in an image with my 10mm fisheye lens on my 70D with an exposure of 8 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.  The 22 degree halo is quite prominent in this image.

I took a little hike over past the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope and got this heavenly picture of the lunar halo around the dome.  You can see that they were open, though I can't imagine they are getting any useful data....  The exposure was 20 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600 with my 10mm fisheye lens on my 70D.  Not only is the 22 degree halo prominent, but I think you can also make out the 46 degree halo faintly, especially in the preview image.

And finally at the top of Kitt Peak, here is the 4-meter Mayall telescope under the moonlit sky.  This exposure with my 10mm lens on my 70D was 20 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.  It almost looks like daylight in this image, but I can assure you, it was just a long exposure in the moonlight.  The 4-meter was also open despite the cirrus all over the sky.  The faint 46 degree halo appears to visible in this image as well which convinces me that it really was visible.

4-m Mayall Telescope

The 4-m Mayall Telescope on Kitt Peak is prepared for a night of observing asteroids. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens as we set up for the start of the night.  The exposure was 8 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.

4-Meter telescope in moonlight

The 4-meter Mayall Telescope atop Kitt Peak is bathed in moonlight as we use it to observe Near-Earth Asteroids observed with the WISE spacecraft.  This shot is taken with a 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 120 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.