New Galaxy Image Sets from ATEO-3

Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, the 12.5" f/9 Ritchey Chretien (ATEO-3) located at Deep Sky Chile has been very busy as of late producing additional image sets for Starbase. The latest additions to Starbase from ATEO-3 are image sets of Messier 83, the "Southern Pinwheel Galaxy", and NGC 1313, also known as the "Topsy Turvy Galaxy".

Messier 83 - the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy imaged on ATEO-3 and processed by Franck Jobard from Deep Sky Chile, now available for download from Starbase.

Messier 83 or M83, also known as NGC 5236, is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light-years away in the constellation borders of Hydra and Centaurus. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille discovered M83 on February 23, 1752, at the Cape of Good. Charles Messier added it to his catalog of nebulous objects (now known as the Messier Catalogue) in March 1781. It is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky and is visible with binoculars. Its nickname the Southern Pinwheel derives from its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in the northern constellation Ursa Major.

Starbase image set "M83 - Lum (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" has over 10 hours of Luminance image data and set "M83 - RGB (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" consists of 3 hours each of Red, Green, and Blue image data. 

Image Set Rates:

• M83 - Lum (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is only $24.40 USD for Education and $30.50 USD for Standard. 


• M83 - RGB (2021): Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is only $21.60 USD for Education and $27.00 USD for Standard.

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NGC 1313 - the Topsy Turvy Galaxy imaged on ATEO-3 by Franck Jobard and processed by Utkarsh Mishra from Deep Sky Chile is now available for download from Starbase.

NGC 1313 is a field galaxy and a barred spiral galaxy discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on 27 September 1826. It has a diameter of about 50,000 light-years or about half the size of the Milky Way. NGC 1313 lies within the Virgo Supercluster. NGC 1313 has a strikingly uneven shape and its axis of rotation is not exactly in its center. The galaxy also shows strong starburst activity and associated super-shells. NGC 1313 is dominated by scattered patches of intense star formation, which gives the galaxy a rather ragged appearance. The uneven shape, the ragged appearance, and the strong starburst can all be explained by a galactic collision in the past. However, NGC 1313 seems to be an isolated galaxy and has no direct neighbors. Therefore, it is not clear whether it has swallowed a small companion in its past.

Sources: Wikipedia.

Starbase image set "NGC 1313 - Lum (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy" has over 8 hours of Luminance image data and set "NGC 1313 - RGB (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy" consists of over 7 hours of Red, Green, and Blue image data.

Image Set Rates:

• NGC1313 - Lum (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy is only $20.00 USD Education and $25.00 USD Standard.


• NGC1313 - RGB (2021): Topsy Turvy Galaxy is only $18.40 USD for Education and $23.00 USD Standard.

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Access Starbase

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Deep-Sky Targets for New Moon - April 2021

The New Moon is fast approaching! Here are some deep-sky target suggestions for imaging on the Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) remote telescope locations by Insight Observatory's partner, Telescopius.com...

	M4 - Globular Cluster Constellation Scorpius Mag.: 5.40 - Size: 36' RA 16hr 23' 35" DEC -27º 28' 30" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 87.1º at 05:29 hrs
	Tr 16 - Open Cluster Constellation Carina Mag.: 5.00 – Size: 10' RA 10hr 45' 06" DEC -60º 16' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 87.1º at 05:29 hrs
	M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy Constellation Ursa Major Mag.: 7.90 – Size: 28.8' RA 14hr 03' 12" DEC 54º 20' 58" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 70.0º at 02:34 hrs.
	M67 - Open Cluster Constellation Cancer Mag.: 6.90 – Size: 25' RA 08hr 51' 17" DEC 11º 48' 59" ATEO-2A - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 67.5º at 21:22 hrs.
	M8 - Lagoon Nebula Constellation Sagittarius Mag.: 5.00 – Size: 45' RA 18hr 03' 41" DEC -25º 37' 00" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 84.9° at 07:09 hrs.
	M3 - Globular Cluster Constellation Canes Venatici Mag.: 6.30 – Size: 18' RA 13hr 42' 11" DEC 28º 22' 34" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 84.1º at 02:13 hrs.
	IC 2948 - Bright Nebula Constellation Centaurus Mag.: 7.00 – Size: 1.3º RA 11hr 39' 24" DEC -64º 31' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 56.0° at 00:45 hrs.
	HCG 44 - Galaxy Cluster Constellation Leo Mag.: 10.00 – Size: 16.4' RA 10hr 18' 00" DEC 21º 48' 43" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 77.5º at 22:49 hrs.
	NGC 3324 - Gabriela Mistral Nebula Constellation Carina Mag.: 6.70 – Size: 16' RA 10hr 37' 18" DEC -59º 19' 59" ATEO-3 - Deep Sky Chile - altitude 60.8° at 23:43 hrs.
	NGC 5033 - Spiral Galaxy Constellation Canes Venatici Mag.: 10.20 – Size: 10.7' RA 13hr 13' 27" DEC 36º 35' 36" ATEO-1 - SkyPi Remote Observatory - altitude 87.7º at 01:44 hrs

Help support Insight Observatory's educational outreach efforts by submitting your deep-sky image requests today on our Personal Image Request (PIR) application or logging in to your ATEO Portal account to request on our Basic or Advanced Image Request forms.

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NGC 5907 - Galaxy with a Tail

NGC 5907, also known as Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, is a warped spiral galaxy about 150,000 light-years across and is located in the constellation Draco around 50 million light-years away from earth.

Back in 2019 after completing my project on the M63 Sunflower galaxy, I decided to search for new objects to image using Insight Observatory's 16" f3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector, ATEO-1, remote telescope. While I was surfing the internet, I came across an interesting galaxy. I made sure that it is visible in the northern hemisphere as ATEO-1 is located in the dark skies of New Mexico. I researched a bit more about this edge-on galaxy and found that tidal streams create a loop around this galaxy. I found a couple more images where there were two loops wrapped around the galaxy. I was really excited to capture this galaxy remotely as it was one of a kind and I could not find a similar galaxy that had two loops. I made a decision to capture this galaxy and I decided to email Michael Petrasko and Muir Evenden, Co-founders of Insight Observatory. As the tidal streams were very faint, it would mean investing a lot of imaging time. We started out and collected 5 hours' worth of luminance data with ATEO-1.

NGC 5907, also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy in the constellation Draco displays its tidal loop and stream. Imaged on ATEO-1 with 29 hours of luminance image data combined with color image data from the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. Image data was acquired by Muir Evenden and processed by Utkarsh Mishra and Michael Petrasko.

After capturing 5 hours' worth of image data from ATEO-1, I thought we could get some hint of the double loop but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, although a wisp of the upper tidal stream was visible. I decided to research this a bit more and I found out that this stuff is very faint and probably needs 20-30 hours of exposure to reveal the kind of details I was looking for. Unfortunately, ATEO-1 was shut down for many months due to maintenance so I had to continue this project when it was back online. Michael reminded me about this project that was lagging behind so I decided to get back to work on it.

NGC 5907 was imaged on ATEO-1 with 29 hours of luminance image data.  Image data was acquired by Muir Evenden and processed by Utkarsh Mishra and Michael Petrasko.

After a couple of days, I read an article from Sky and Telescope magazine that astronomers found that those double loops actually do not exist. My mind was completely blown and I shared this with Michael. This subject was getting more interesting day by day. I also came across a couple of images that showed that the loops do exist. I was really looking forward to working on this data and thanks to Michael and Muir, they managed to grab another 10 hours' worth of data for me. I jumped on my computer to process it and I was expecting the double loop to pop up now but there was still no sign of it. I was unable to believe that even after 15 hours of exposure time with this really fast equipment under some of the darkest skies of the US, the double loop did not show up. I asked Michael to change the binning to 2x2, doubling the CCD camera's sensitivity. The data comprised of around 10 hours of bin 2x2 and 5 hours of bin 1x1. I then asked Michael if he could try imaging more data. The weather cooperated and we were able to gather 5 more hours of data. Once again, I looked on my screen with the expectation to see the double loop in my data, however, it looked like the image data was showing me something else. I processed the data and inverted it and found that the tidal streams were going downward and forming a structure similar to a tail.

I had many doubts regarding all the stuff that we captured so I quickly approached my friend Xavier Strottner. He has discovered many objects in space so I thought that he would have better knowledge and understanding of this. I had a great conversation with Xavier and he clarified all my doubts. He shared a few research papers with me so that I can read and understand more about this galaxy.

Inverted images of NGC 5907 imaged by the Dragonfly Telephoto Array (top) and ATEO-1 (bottom).

After working on 20 hours of luminance data, I started questioning whether the loops existed as they should have shown up.  I just had one more doubt that maybe we are not going for enough exposure length so I requested that Michael and Muir image 1200 sec sub exposers with binning 2x2 and erase all of my doubts regarding this double loop. Soon we were able to capture 4 hours' worth of 1200-second image data and combine it with the rest of the data taken over the last year. I compared the 4 hours with the 5 hours we captured earlier in 2019. I could not find much of a difference between both. I requested Michael combine all data and make a master stack of it. After 24.5 hours of imaging time, there was still no sign of those double loops. However, I was very happy that we, amateurs, could capture the extremely faint tail that probably no one could do except the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The Dragonfly telescope is an array of 48 lenses in two clusters of 24 and is equivalent of a 1.0 m diameter f/0.4 refractor. I also contacted a few astronomers working on these tidal streams to see if maybe they would publish a scientific paper on this in the future about our latest imaging on this data.

I would like to thank Michael, Muir, and Xavier for providing excellent support throughout this project. I really enjoyed working together as a team. This project has really inspired me to image the entire tidal stream survey and I am looking forward to doing more such projects at Insight Observatory using ATEO-1.

Personally, I also assume that "Team Insight" has only managed to capture the faint stellar tail in the amateur astrophotography world. 

Utkarsh Mishra
Lucknow, India

**All 29 hours of image data for NGC 5907 are available for download from Insight Observatory's image set repository "Starbase".

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The Sky Show

Barnstable High School Senior Astronomy students, AKA, "Astro Junkies",  are recently focused on a unit called “The Sky Show” which challenges each student to learn the taxonomy of the heavens.

Barnstable High School astronomy students study the use of Insight Observatory's Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO).

Similar to Zoology, where each organism is assigned a Class, Phylum, Order, Family, Genus, and species classification, each object in the nighttime sky is given a classification designation as well. As students learn about open star clusters, globular star clusters, spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, irregular galaxies, double stars, planetary nebulae, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, dark nebula, variable stars, planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, they will select a specific celestial object that they would like to research and image with a partner. Together, they will search the skies, using the website Telescopius.com, to find “that image” that speaks to them and their specific interests.

Barnstable High School astronomy students research and select their deep-sky object to image on the ATEO remote telescope network.

Insight Observatory provides a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about deep-space objects, telescopes (reflectors vs. refractors), and the nighttime sky (in both celestial hemispheres). Students truly enjoy being part of the imaging process. Ownership, which is key to learning, helps create crystallizing memories that will resonate with students for many years to come. If educators are thought of as being in the “memory-making business,” then Astronomy provides the magic for making this happen.

Michael Gyra - Astronomy Teacher, Barnstable High School, Barnstable, MA

 A few images of deep-sky objects acquired by Barnstable High School seniors (Astro Junkies) - M1 imaged on the 16" Dream Aerospace Systems f/3.75 astrograph reflector (ATEO-1), NGC 1499 imaged on the 5" f/5.8 refractor (ATEO-2A) and NGC 2024 imaged on the 12.5" f/9 Ritchey-Chretien (ATEO-3).

More images of deep-sky objects were taken by the Barnstable High School senior astronomy students. Sh2-279 was imaged on ATEO-3, M31 was imaged on ATEO-2A and IC 1848 was imaged on ATEO-1.

A special thank you to Mr. Gyra and his senior astronomy students, AKA, "Astro Junkies", for utilizing Insight Observatory's Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach for the second consecutive school year with their class projects. If you are an educator interested in accessing Insight Observatory's ATEO remote telescope network for a classroom project using its intuitive Educational Image Request (EIR) form, please Contact Us.

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Southern Galaxies Now In Starbase

There are new image sets available on Insight Observatory's Starbase for downloading! Franck Jobard co-owner of Deep-Sky Chile and Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, ATEO-3 captured around 8 hours of luminance image data of galaxies NGC 1365 and NGC 1316-17-18 located in the southern constellation, Fornax. The image data was acquired in November and December of 2019. ATEO-3 is a 12.5" f/9 Quasar Ritchey Chretien, that is available for image requests on our Educational and Public Image Request forms as well as image sets for subscribing to in Starbase. Between gathering data for Insight Observatory's educational programs, Franck is currently in the process of capturing many hours of red, green, and blue image data through the 12" RC. This data combined will make for excellent color image processing of the galaxies.

NGC 1365 imaged on ATEO-3, 12.5" f/9 Quasar Ritchey Chretien - 8 hours of image data acquired by Franck Jobard and processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

NGC 1365 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Fornax cluster. Within the larger long bar stretching across the center of the galaxy appears to be a smaller bar that comprises the core, with an apparent size of about 50″ × 40″. This second bar is more prominent in infrared images of the central region of the galaxy, and likely arises from a combination of dynamical instabilities of stellar orbits in the region, along with gravity, density waves, and the overall rotation of the disc. The inner bar structure likely rotates as a whole more rapidly than the larger long bar, creating the diagonal shape seen in images.

NGC 1316-17-18 imaged on ATEO-3, 12.5" f/9 Quasar Ritchey Chretien - 8 hours of image data acquired by Franck Jobard and processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

NGC 1316 is a lenticular galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax It is a radio galaxy and at 1400 MHz is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky.

NGC 1317 (also known as NGC 1318) is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Fornax, in the Fornax cluster. It was discovered by Julius Schmidt on January 19, 1865. It appears to be interacting with much larger NGC 1316, but the uncertainty of distance and scales of tidal distortions make this uncertain.

Source: Wikipedia NGC 1365 and NGC 1316-17-18.

ATEO-3 Starbase Image Set Subscriptions:

• Standard: $0.20 per minute of image set exposure time
• Education: $0.17 per minute of image set exposure time

To learn more about Insight Observatory's Starbase CLICK HERE. To access Starbase, please log in or signup here.

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Primary Sources

How do we know that the sun is a star? -- and, that we live in a galaxy full of stars?

How do we know what the distances between those stars are?

How did we conclude that the moon and planets are illuminated by reflected sunlight, and, not through their own, intrinsic illumination?

How do we know how big the universe is, and, of what materials it is composed?

By guesswork? By simple reasoning? By concluding what we want to conclude?!

No -- never...

Vintage Engraving, Early Spectroscopy Using Prisms -  Drawing by Luisa Vallon Fumi

The answers to some of those questions come by way of Newton, Galileo, Herschel, the telescope, and the spectroscope - (and, yes - true, genuine, unadulterated genius, at least, in the case of Newton).

To understand these things, one has got to have some grasp, of the long hours of hard work, done by many people - sometimes, extended out, over several generations.

But, all of it was done, methodically, one step at a time. Those steps are preserved in records - written at the time, by the very people who took those steps - and exist in the various university libraries, public archives, etc. These documents, and others like them, are known as, "Primary Sources", or, "Original Sources". One notable example of an original source document, is Galileo Galilei's letter to the Duchess of Tuscany, on what he had observed through his telescope, which, has been, ever since, preserved by the Royal Archives, in Great Britain, and is available for public view. Most any college or university has a Primary Source repository, or access, to one.

One, major distinction, in perusing any primary source, is its wonderful lack of hype, sensationalism, opinions, fake news, and, perhaps, best of all (in my opinion) -- no "pseudo scientists"!

Insight Observatory's network of remote robotic telescopes - ATEO-1, ATEO-2A, and ATEO-3.

Astronomers - professional, amateur, and citizen, alike - are, still, today needed to make observations, visually, or photographically of the night sky. One way to do this is by the use of remote, robotic telescopes and astrographs, like those, here at Insight Observatory.

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

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Messier 63 - The Sunflower Galaxy

As the spring night sky looms overhead, there are a plethora of galaxies and galaxy clusters for targeting with the Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) at Insight Observatory. One such galaxy is Messier 63, the "Sunflower Galaxy" located in the constellation Canes Venatici. One of Insight Observatory's Starbase dataset subscribers, Utkarsh Mishra, processed roughly 10 hours (color) and 6 hours (monochrome) of data integration of the galaxy acquired by ATEO-1, the 16" f/3.7 Astrograph reflector located in New Mexico. Utkarsh's processed image of Messier 63 is one of the best we at Insight Observatory have ever seen. We were very excited to see his final processed color and monochrome images of the galaxy. It is the first time an image from ATEO-1 has been processed with so many integration hours.

Color LRGB image of Messier 63, The Sunflower Galaxy - 6 hours of data from ATEO-1 processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

Although M63 only has two spiral arms, many appear to be winding around its yellow core. The spiral arms shine with the radiation from recently formed blue stars and can be more clearly seen in infrared observations. By imaging flocculent spiral galaxies like M63, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of how stars form in such systems.

Messier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain and was the first of 24 objects that Méchain would contribute to Charles Messier’s catalog. The galaxy is located roughly 27 million light-years from Earth. It has an apparent magnitude of 9.3 and appears as a faint patch of light in small telescopes. The best time to observe this galaxy is during the month of May.

Monochrome Luminance image of Messier 63, The Sunflower Galaxy - 6 hours of data from ATEO-1 processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

In 1971, a supernova with a magnitude of 11.8 appeared in one of the arms of M63. It was discovered on May 24, 1971, and reached peak light around May 26. The spectrum of SN 1971 I is consistent with a supernova of type I. However, the spectroscopic behavior appeared anomalous.

Sources: NASA.gov and Wikipedia

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Elementary Students Research Deep Space Images

Insight Observatory was excited to offer elementary school students the chance to access their online remote robotic telescope, the Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO), to acquire their deep space images. The students used the Educational Image Request (EIR) to submit their deep-space image requests. They were then able to choose to image with either the 16" reflector (ATEO-1) or the 5" refractor (ATEO-2A) telescopes. Manomet Elementary School Teacher, Nancy Cavicchi describes the class assignment...

"This past January and February, the student’s from my 5th-grade science classes from Plymouth, Massachusetts had the unique opportunity to work collaboratively with Insight Observatory.

5th-grade students submitting their image requests on Insight Observatory's 
Educational Image Request (EIR) form. Photo by Mrs. Cavicchi.

Students were paired up to work together to research different celestial bodies. Their assignment was to become “class experts” and to share their knowledge with each other. Students spent time researching their choice of a galaxy or a nebula. They gathered information, created a Google slide presentation, and then presented it to their classmates.

M42 - The Orion Nebula imaged on ATEO-2A by Kasey G. and Haylee L., NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy imaged on ATEO-2A by Julianna S. and Lily H. and M44 - The Beehive Open Cluster imaged on ATEO-1 by Faith N. and Oliver E. from Mrs. Cavicchi's 5th-grade science classes.

All their hard work paid off when the remote telescopes in New Mexico captured images of each student’s celestial body. Their excitement was beyond anything we could have imagined. When we started this project they had a very basic knowledge of space and did not have a clear understanding of how vast space really is. While researching, the children’s curiosity grew tremendously to discover the depth of space exploration."

M81 - Bode's Galaxy imaged on ATEO-1 by Madison M. and Bianca B. and M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy imaged ATEO-1 by Makenna S. and Odybray F. from Mrs. Cavicchi's 5th-grade science classes.

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The Pleiades and Triangulum Galaxy

Fall is the time of year when a few deep-sky gems make their way into the night sky once again. The Pleiades, Messier 45, and the Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33, are on the long list. The Pleiades are also well known to the unaided eye as the Seven Sisters. That is how many stars can only be seen in this open star cluster under dark skies. The image below taken on Insight Observatory's Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1) displays many many more stars in the cluster.

M45 - The Pleiades imaged at LRGB 600 sec, 2x2 bin on ATEO-1 by Insight Observatory. 

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. A faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be leftover from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternative name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now likely an unrelated foreground dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.

Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.

M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy imaged on ATEO-1 at LRGB 600 sec, 2x2 bin by Insight Observatory.

The Triangulum Galaxy (also known as M33) is about 3 million light-years away from Earth. While its mass is not well understood, one estimate puts it between 10 billion and 40 billion times the sun's mass, what is known is it's the third-largest member of the Local Group or the galaxies that are near the Milky Way. Triangulum also has a small satellite galaxy of its own, called the Pisces Dwarf Galaxy.

Under dark sky conditions, M33 is just barely visible with the naked eye in the constellation Triangulum, just west of Andromeda and Pisces.

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Home Is Where the Converged Galactic Core Is

Arcturus is the bright, reddish star that can be seen during the summer months, currently, at an altitude of about 40° (or, about 4 fist-widths) from the western horizon at sunset, and from about sunset until around 2:00am, when it sets below the western horizon.

Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation, Bootes - the 'herdsman'; the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, and the fourth brightest star in the skies of Earth. Its name comes from the ancient Greek, meaning, "Guardian of the Bear"; Arcturus appears to be trailing the constellations, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the 'Great Bear', and the 'Little Bear', respectively). It can easily be located by following the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper, just out into the nearby, celestial blackness - just remember: "Arc, to Arcturus"; and, there Arcturus sits, alone.

This 'red-giant' star, is about the same mass as our Sun, but it is nearly 200 times more luminous. This is because of its enormous size, with a diameter of 22,000,000 miles. Our Sun, "Sol", currently, has an average diameter of 864,000 miles, making Arcturus nearly 26 times the size of the sun, but - it is also 217,000,000,000,000 (217 trillion) miles from Earth, or about 37 light-years distant, accounting for its apparent, relative diminution to our sun. Arcturus is nearly twice as old as our Sol, at around 7.1 billion years.

Red giant stars are stars that are in the later stages of stellar evolution: briefly, they have exhausted their supply of the fuel that sustains them at their cores - Hydrogen. They are still consuming the remaining H in their outermost, gaseous shells by thermonuclear fusion, but have lost so much of their original mass that their surface temperature drops, significantly, and they become so, "swollen", that their remaining 'bulk' is gradually extended into the surrounding space. One day, about 4.5 billion years from now, our own Sun, currently a yellow-dwarf star on the Main Sequence Diagram of Stellar Evolution (also called the Hertzprung-Russell Diagram), will begin its final journey through the red giant phase, as its own nuclear furnace starts to cool down, to begin the journey to its final state - a tiny, hot star, known as a white dwarf.

Though Arcturus is 37 light-years away from our Solar system, its relatively feeble light output was used as a switch, to turn on the lights at the Chicago World's Fair, in 1933, by converting that radiation, using a photoelectric-effect process, combined with a telescope, into electrical signals and, thereby, 'tripping the switch that turned on the lights at that fair! Though this trick could have been accomplished using almost any other sufficiently bright star, Arcturus was chosen, for the fact that its light takes almost 40 years to travel the distance to Earth, through space, and, the last time that the World's Fair was held in Chicago, was 40 years prior.

One of the more interesting things to me about Arcturus is that, though it is one of the many, more familiar stars of our Milky Way galaxy - it is not, originally, from 'here'; it is, literally, an 'alien' star -- from another galaxy! Now - hold on, let's not let our imaginations get the best of us here...

But, how do we know, that, our old pal, Arcturus is actually a 'rogue visitor', from some other, far-off galaxy?

It's because Arcturus orbits our Milky Way galaxy at an oblique angle, almost exactly perpendicular to the plane of rotation of most of the other stars of the galaxy. This means that it doesn't carry the same angular momentum or velocity (speed and direction) as the majority of stars, native to the Milky Way. And, there's more. Lots more.

Our galaxy - a fairly typical, barred-spiral galaxy is, actually, an aggregate of a small "collection" of once, separate, individual galaxies!

You see, galaxies move through the universe in clusters, which are gravitationally bound to a common center of gravity, created by an original mass - say, a hypothetical, binary galactic pair.

Since all matter in the universe is gravitationally attracted to all other matter, the original, revolving pair, would soon have given in to the increasing 'force' of gravity generated by the pairs' decaying orbits, and, eventually collapsed together to form what we currently know as the Milky Way galaxy. (There may be other ways for stars to wind up as 'intergalactic rogues', such as, by gravitational sling-shot-ing, but it doesn't seem to be the case, here). But each galaxy of the original, binary pair would have possessed its own, specific inertia, as well as, specific mass, and a specific plane of rotation, bisected by a specific axis of rotation.

During the merger, most of the stars from both member galaxies would, over time, have assumed a common motion about the now-merged, galactic cores. But some stars, being farther away into the outer periphery of either galaxy, would have strayed, slightly, due to the effects of the differences of the combined angular momentums of the pair, and assumed their own orbits about the galactic core - as did Arcturus - along with 50 other known, stray stellar masses! These 51 stars are known as the "Arcturus Stream".  Other such streams are thought to exist, but these are so distant, relative to the Arcturus Stream, that they remain undetected.

Nevertheless, our Milky Way galaxy - our 'home' galaxy - has adopted these intergalactic wanderers as its own, which, is just as it should be, in my opinion, and I'm O.K. with Arcturus (much like, myself, in a way), as one of good ol' Sol's, 'intra'-galactic, adopted brothers!

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Featured Deep-Sky Object - M33 - Triangulum Galaxy

It has been a while since we published a post covering featured deep-sky objects. In the past, we have been posting articles regarding objects in the night sky such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters, complemented with images taken by the staff of Insight Observatory using a remote robotic telescope on the iTelescope network. Due to our recent projects such as automating a 32" Dobsonian telescope, assisting the W. Russell Blake Planetarium with its newly installed digital imaging theater, and implementing our Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1), we simply haven't had the time or resources to do so (which is actually not a bad problem to have).

M33 - Triangulum Galaxy imaged on the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach by Insight Observatory.

Well, it's about time we started again. In recent weeks we have been performing tests on the ATEO remote telescope, preparing it for educational and public use. As numerous images of deep-sky objects during testing were acquired, we figured why not post them on our blog as a "Featured Deep-sky Object". The first deep-sky object to feature is M33, the Triangulum Galaxy imaged by Insight Observatory Managing Member / System Engineer, Muir Evenden. Muir imaged the Galaxy with our 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph remote imaging telescope with a 5-minute exposure with the luminance filter, stacked with 2 minutes of red, green, and blue filter exposures. These images were then stacked and processed using PixInsight. Post-processing was then done in Adobe Photoshop by Insight Observatory Managing Member / Project Developer, Michael Petrasko. The result of the image detail is surprisingly impressive considering there are not many exposures comprising the final image.

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is cataloged as Messier 33 or NGC 598 and is sometimes referred to as the "Pinwheel Galaxy", a nickname it shares with Messier 101. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.  Using a small pair of binoculars with a wide field of view, the galaxy is easily detectable. Being a diffuse object, its visibility is strongly affected by small amounts of light pollution. It ranges from easily visible by direct vision in dark skies to a difficult averted vision object in rural or suburban skies.

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ATEO Images the Andromeda Galaxy

After the success of achieving first light with the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO) on August 31, 2017, another clear night at Pie Town, New Mexico allowed us to continue testing the online remote robotic telescope on the morning of September 1st. It was now time to start testing the filter wheel and a bright deep-sky object would be a fitting way to make sure the filter wheel was functioning properly.

As we were using the TheSky software on our imaging computer, we saw that The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31 and NGC 224 was in a decent spot of the sky to get a series of quick images using the filter wheel. Fortunately, all went well with using the filter wheel with the CCD camera. We imaged the galaxy with quick 60-second exposures through the LRGB filters. No flats or darks were applied as we still need to create those. However, We did some slight processing using Photoshop. Needless to say, we were very pleased.

NGC 224 (Messier 31) - The Andromeda Galaxy 60-second LRGB Images on the ATEO-1.

The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest large galaxy to our own, at a distance of about 2.5 million light-years. This object is classified as an Sb spiral and it is a major member of the Local Group. It lies in the constellation Andromeda and is the most remote object normally visible to the naked eye, though, under really dark skies, observers can sometimes see the M33, the Triangulum Galaxy.

Once the telescope is ready for educational and public use, we are confident the Andromeda Galaxy will be a favorite target for imaging. We look forward to seeing everyone's results!

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Comet 41P/T-G-K Slingshots Across the Big Dipper

With St. Patrick's Day this week, green naturally comes to mind. I'm usually the one chastised by my co-workers for not wearing green. Just forgetful, that's all. When it comes to comets, we know that when one starts "greening up," it's a sign that it's getting closer and brighter. Only two weeks ago, before departing the evening sky, 8th-magnitude Comet 2P/Encke glowed pale emerald in my telescope. I hated to see it go.

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak pairs up with the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 3198 on March 14. Chris Schur.

But as often happens, when one astronomical objects depart the scene, another takes its place. This week, periodic comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak begins the best part of its 2017 apparition, dashing across the circumpolar sky and brightening as it goes. Its timing couldn't be better. It's visible almost the entire night from anywhere in the northern hemisphere, so if you play your Moon-cards right, you can see 41P/T-G-K in dark skies part of every night now through about April 8th.

That's more than 3 weeks to catch the comet! And if you're like me, living in a region prone to spring clouds, you'll need it. A week ago, the comet shone at magnitude +9.2 and appeared moderately condensed with a 7′ coma. With a magnification of 64× in my 15-inch telescope, the nuclear region was a bright pip (not quite stellar) at center. Photographs are taken a few nights ago hint at a southward coma extension which may be the start of a tail.

By March 14-15, the coma had swelled to at least 12′ across but appeared less compact and more diffuse through my scope. Apparently, I was only seeing the core. Other observers using 10x50 binoculars and modest, wide-field instruments are now reporting coma diameter estimates of at least 30′ (Full Moon size) and a magnitude closer to +8. When you attempt 41P, know that its large coma will appear more obvious in a smaller, wide-field instrument than in a larger instrument with a smaller field of view.

Read the full source article at  http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/comet-41pt-g-k-glows-green-for-st-paddys-day/

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Introducing iTelescope Sky Tours

iTelescope.net, Insight Observatory's remote robotic telescope network partner, recently started a new program called Sky Tours. iTelescope.Net Sky Tours is a paid, weekly, interactive live video stream of the night sky using iTelescope.net remote robotic telescopes and hosted by Dr. Christian Sasse. In each episode, Dr. Sasse selects targets of interest that are visible from iTelescope.net telescopes and talks about these targets. He gives detailed explanations and tips for imaging the chosen objects. If weather permits, Dr. Sasse takes images of these targets live, answering questions and describing how to best capture the targets.

iTelescope.net Live Sky Tour.

I was able to attend the first live Sky Tour back on January 23, 2017. The first event covered Dr. Sasse discussing imaging real-time deep-sky objects in the southern hemisphere. The session was greatly attended by interested folks from around the globe. The interactive chat feature is a plus as attendees are allowed to ask Dr. Sasse questions in real time during the imaging session. I found this new feature offered by iTelescope.net to be of value to the educational community. Episode 2 took place live on February 7, 2016, and covered exploring the biggest globular cluster in the Milky Way, Omega Centauri, and one of the most amazing bright nebulae Eta Carina. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend this session, however, iTelescope.net archives all of their Sky Tour episodes on Youtube so those who have missed it may view it at a later time.

Fortunately, a group of 6th graders and I were able to attend their Jupiter imaging session this past weekend. It was the first episode covering planetary imaging. The session was very informative and it inspired iTelescope.net members to want to do planetary imaging with their network. That type of setup is a bit different than the normal setups their remote robotic telescopes have for deep-sky imaging. At the end of the session, I thanked Dr. Sasse for sharing his imaging session with us and he mentioned he would be interested in doing other imaging sessions with students in parallel with his Sky Tours. Needless to say that this was very exciting to hear and now we are working on a plan to execute this with science classes in various school districts.

iTelescope.net Sky Tours - A Closeup of Jupiter

iTelescope.Net Sky Tours are included with all of their monthly subscription plans, each of which allows you to take control of the iTelescopes to take your own images. They have also introduced a new subscription plan, SkyTour, which only grants access to the Sky Tours live streams, but at a quarter of the cost of their lowest imaging subscription plan. This new plan is available for $4.95 USD per month and includes access to the Sky Tours live streams, access to the archived videos of those streams (in case you missed the live show), and the ability to download images taken during the streams once they are uploaded. You can see a list of the dates and times of the streams, as well as which targets will be covered by checking the Sky Tours Schedule on their website, www.itelescope.net.

To sign up for iTelescope.Net Sky Tours, you must first register for an iTelescope.Net account. Once registered, you can sign up for the SkyTour subscription plan (or any of their other subscription plans) by following this step-by-step guide, and selecting SkyTour (or their other plans) from the menu. It really is that easy! We could also help you get set up and started with iTelescope.net and their Sky Tours by contacting us here at Insight Observatory.

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Time Troubles

I just calculated something out, and the result, well, is rather depressing... This is a photo of a portion of the Milky Way galaxy. Each dot in the photo is a star. More than 50% of all stars have planetary systems such as our Solar System. The nearest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri, one of three stars in the Alpha Centauri system. Proxima is 4.2 light-years away. There are 5.8 trillion miles in one light-year (or 5.8 thousand billion, or, if you prefer, 5,800,000,000,000), so we're dealing with about 25 trillion miles.

A view of the Milky Way toward the  constellation 
Sagittarius.  Source: Wikipedia.

OK, That's bad enough. But let's say we decide to send an astronaut to Proxima Centauri, in the fastest rocket, at the fastest manned flight speed we've been able to attain (that would be the Saturn V, a 3-stage booster used for the Apollo program - a top speed of 26,000mph). Now, even if we could send that astronaut at the speed of light (exactly 186,282.3976 miles per second, in vacuo), it would take her (or him), 4.2 years to complete the trip as measured by an observer on Earth (because of the relativistic effects of time dilation, only a few days will have passed, as judged by the astronaut - but we're not going there! - not here - that's another story, for another time). But, now for the sad part...

At 26,000 mph, 0.000037% the speed of light, the trip would take 116,000 years. That's one-way. Our astronaut would be, long ago, fossilized. Time dilation is negligible here, so we don't need to factor it in at such low velocities. One of the nearest stars with a known planetary system is around 15 light-years. So, if we have cosmic relatives somewhere out there within that range, the chances of meeting up with them are absolutely nil. These distances and times involved are the reason most astronomers don't believe in UFOs, or that we're being visited by extraterrestrials. YES, WE DO BELIEVE they exist, but not that we're being visited by them on any regular basis. The situation isn't much better with radio communications. Even though radio waves travel at the speed of light, transmission to any hypothetical beings in, say, the Fomalhaut planetary system will take 15 years. That's one-way. Telepathy, should it prove to be viable, would be much more economical, assuming it to be instantaneous. Another plausible answer might be to travel through wormholes, to beat the clock, but, for now, they're hypothetical. Other than that, due to the restrictions on speed, we may never meet anyone else; we might always be alone - surrounded, perhaps, by a myriad of Celestial Peoples - and yet alone, regardless.

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

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