SoVerA @ sovera.org | Southern Vermont Astronomy Group

First Light on Brooks Road

rj — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:09:15 +0000

On Saturday, November 12th, several SoVerA members (Claudio Veliz, Ron Jackson, Vance & Maureen Bell) had a mini star party at the Balch farm on Brooks Road in Chester.

The original impetus for the star party was to watch a -8 Iridium flare that was predicted for 6:21pm. As seen in the photo, the flare was quite a bit dimmer than -8 magnitude.

After the minor disappointment, we turned our eyes (and scope) to Jupiter, M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), M57 (Ring Nebula) and M45 (The Pleiades).

The moon (being near full) was then peeking up over the trees to the east and we finished the night with beautiful views of Luna.

Click the images to view larger versions.

M51 Supernova

rj — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:45:52 +0000

On the evening of the 31st of May, according to archival images currently under review, the first indications emerged of a supernova that erupted (as seen from Earth) in the Whirlpool Galaxy, approximately 37 million light-years from us. On the left is an image of galaxy M51 in 2004, a NASA test ground image.

On the evening of 4 June, 2011, Matt Partalis, and SoVerA Research Group Member Dick Smith took an image (on right) of the supernova as it was fading. There were some slight tracking errors (aka “Astro Gremlins”) in the mount which account for the short star trails, but the supernova is unmistakable, as per the indicator lines. All other trails in the image are of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. If you think of the Whirlpool as an itsy-bitsy tree on the distant horizon that you are viewing from your car, those other stars are like bugs on the windshield…relatively close.

The image was taken using Dick’s 0.5 meter research telescope in Weston, VT.

SoVerA Member Research

rj — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:34:55 +0000

From the 3rd to the 7th of December, 2006, SoVerA President Claudio Veliz and astronomer — and SoVerA IT manager — Jonathan Kemp, conducted a series of observations of what are known as cataclysmic variable stars at MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak in Arizona. These are binary stars that are in a sort of violent, dirty dancing embrace, whereby the more massive, and usually extremely compact, collapsed star (neutron star, white dwarf, or black hole) busies itself by gravitationally pulling mass from its companion.

This is part of a very long term effort that Jonathan is engaged in with Columbia University’s CBA (http://cbastro.org/) to learn more about the evolution of cataclysmic variables and to foster collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers.