What's In The Sky - February 2021

Clear February nights present some great stargazing opportunities, as suggested here by Orion Telescopes and Binoculars. Be sure to bundle up and keep warm while you get outside for some stargazing fun!

M81 - The Cigar Galaxy and M82 - Bode's Galaxy in Ursa Major. Image processed by Insight Observatory Starbase subscriber, Daniel Nobre, from image data acquired on the 16" f/3.7 Dream astrograph reflector (ATEO-1).

Bright Galaxies

In late February, bright galaxies M81 and M82 will be about as high in the sky as they will get for North American stargazers. From a dark sky site, these galaxies are visible with a 50mm or larger binocular, but we suggest you use a large telescope to chase these galaxies down just off the leading edge of the Big Dipper asterism. Many observers consider M81 and M82 the best pairing of visual galaxies in the sky!

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy (left) was processed by Utkarsh Mishra, and M45 was processed by Chris Lin, both imaged on ATEO-1 using Insight Observatory's online Personal Image Request (PIR) application.

Binocular Targets

Astronomy isn't always about how much gear you have! Grab some Astro binoculars and check out the night sky without a lot of equipment. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is high in the sky in the evening right now, with the Pleiades (M45) higher up. Both make great targets for almost any binocular!

The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter

On February 11th, there is a conjunction between Venus and Jupiter in the early morning just before sunrise. With a separation of 0.5 degrees, the pair will be close enough together to fit into the field of view of most telescopes with around 75x-100x magnification. Plus, with Saturn still nearby, it's a great morning for planetary viewing. Get up early, find a clear southeastern horizon, and see if you can get a good view before sunrise!

M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo (left) and M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici (right), both imaged on ATEO-1 by Charles Weaver using Insight Observatory's online Personal Image Request (PIR) application.

Midnight Spirals

Some galaxies for the night owls, the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) and the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), are some nice spiral galaxies that are both visible after midnight in February. The spiral arms of M51 can be glimpsed under dark skies with a 4.5" telescope, but will have more definition in larger telescopes. M104 is similar; it is visible in a 4" telescope, but to distinguish the central "bulge" and 8" or larger instrument is required.

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights, where light pollution and bright moonlight do not overpower the stars.

Read More

New Image Sets Available In Starbase!

New image sets are available for downloading from Insight Observatory's Starbase Image Set Repository! Over the course of the past six months, all three remote Astronomical Telescopes for Educational Outreach (ATEO) have been busy gathering image data for Starbase as well as various educational projects.

Listed below are just a few image sets that are now available and acquired on Insight Observatory's ATEO remote telescopes...

NGC 1365 - The "Great Barred Spiral Galaxy" in the constellation Fornax. Imaged data acquired on ATEO-3 by Franck Jobard and processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

ATEO-1 - 16" f/3.75 Dream Aerospace Systems astrograph reflector:

• M101 - Luminance (2020): Pinwheel Galaxy - 5 hours 
• M101 - Red, Green, Blue (2020): Pinwheel Galaxy - 7 Hours 10 Minutes

• M81-M82 - Luminance (2020): Bode's and Cigar Galaxies - 6 Hours 50 Minutes 
• M81-M82 - RGB (2020): Bode's and Cigar Galaxies - 17 Hours 15 Minutes

• NGC 5907 - Luminance (2020): Knife Edge or Splinter Galaxy - 20 Hours 20 Minutes

NGC 5907 - The Knife Edge or Splinter Galaxy (left) imaged on ATEO-1, M81, and M82 - Bode's and Cigar Galaxies (upper right) imaged on ATEO-1, and IC 405 - The Flaming Star Nebula (lower right) imaged on ATEO-2A.

ATEO-2A - 5" f/5.8 Williams Optics APO refractor:

• IC405 One-Shot Color (2020): Flaming Star Nebula - 3 Hours 30 Minutes

ATEO-3 - 12.5" f/9 Quasar Ritchey-Chretien:

• Gum 15 - Luminance (2020): Nebula in Vela - 12 Hours 20 Minutes 
• Gum 15 - RGB (2020): Nebula in Vela - 6 Hours 40 Minutes

• NGC 1365 - Luminance (2020): Great Barred Spiral Galaxy - 7 Hours 40 Minutes 
• NGC 1365 - RGB (2020): Great Barred Spiral Galaxy - 8 Hours 20 Minutes

For any questions regarding Starbase, please Contact Us.

Read More

M81 and M82 - "The Odd Couple"

Think of the perfect example of a "well-behaved", spiral galaxy, and M81 comes to mind, as, utter perfection. In the opposite direction, think of a galactic, "wild and crazy guy" - and it's M82. Now think of them, as a pair. Talk about an "Odd Couple"!

We are extremely fortunate to have this pair, as nearby as they are, at roughly, 12 light-years. The two, are members of the Ursa Major galactic cluster - a knot, in the Virgo Super-cluster of galaxies, as is our own, "Local Group", of galaxies.

M81, Bode's Galaxy (left), and M82, The Cigar Galaxy (right) in Ursa Major imaged on ATEO-1, the 16" f/3.7 astrograph reflector. Image data were acquired by Muir Evenden and processed by Utkarsh Mishra.

M81 and M82, are among the finest targets for the amateur astronomer with, even, a medium-sized telescope (6"-12"), their magnitude being, approximately, 7th, and 9th, respectively. But they can be detected in smaller scopes, and even, in a good pair of binoculars*, under good sky transparency conditions.

Let's separate the pair out for some analyses:

M81 is a type Sa spiral galaxy. It's, well - perfect. So much so, that it shares the distinctive title of, relatively few galaxies, as a "Grand Design Spiral". Now, that's something to boast about. And I do!

At a diameter of 90,000 light-years, and a distance of 12 million light-years, its relatively large size, and brightness, make it a "stunning" find in the eyepiece. In medium-sized scopes (12+"), the uniformity of its, "oh!-so-homogenous" spiral-arm structure, is notable.

And then, there was M82...

Well; if ever a galaxy looked like it was exploding - M82 - is it. In fact, for a very long time, that's just what astronomers thought was happening. However, there's a little more to it: what's really going on there, is, a massive outburst of star formation - to the point, that, in a sense it is "exploding" - with new stars! Our, Milky Way galaxy (BTW: a barred spiral, or, Sb-type), has a stellar generation rate of about 3, new stars, per year. M81's rate of star formation is something like 33 times that, of ours! (Whew!)

Because of the intense gravitational interaction between M81 and M82 - as well as, nearby, Ursa Major group member, NGC3077 - a small, disrupted, elliptical galaxy - both, M82 and NGC3077 are undergoing, intense, star formation periods in a very short span of time, as galaxies go. Tidal, and other, interruptions are causing large volumes of gases between the three galaxies, to fall inward, toward the cores of M82 and NGC3077. (M81 is, seemingly, immune to this sort of thing, of course!) But, all, three galaxies, are enveloped within interactive streams of gases. Both, M81 and M82, have hosted fairly recent supernovae activity; SN1993-J, in 1993 in M81 - and, SN2014-J, in 2014 in M82.

* Some, experienced, advanced amateurs have been able to detect both of these galaxies, under extremely good transparency conditions using only the unaided eye!

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

24 hours of Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue image data of M81 and M82 are available for download from Insight Observatory's deep-sky image repository, Starbase. 

Read More

What's In The Sky - March 2020

Take your family on a journey to the stars from the comfort of your own backyard! Here are some of Orion Telescopes and Binoculars' top picks for March stargazing:

M42, The Orion Nebula imaged on Insight Observatory's ATEO-3 remote telescope by Jimmy D. from Plymouth South Middle School, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Orion Continues to Shine

Constellation Orion is still well-placed in March skies for telescopic study. Check out the bright nebula M42, also called the Orion Nebula, which is visible as the middle "star" of Orion's "sword" just south of the three recognizable stars of Orion's belt. While easily detected in astronomy binoculars, the wispy Orion Nebula will reveal more intricate details in a telescope. After March, our namesake constellation will get lower and lower in the west, making it harder to see as the Sun moves eastward in the sky.

Brilliant Binocular Clusters

Grab a pair of 50mm or larger astronomy binoculars in March for great views of the Pleiades star cluster (M45), the Beehive cluster (M44), and the must-see Double Cluster in Perseus. These sparkling sky gems are simply beautiful when observed with big binoculars, or use a wide-field eyepiece and short focal length telescope for a closer look.

Galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major were imaged on Insight Observatory's ATEO-1 remote telescope and processed by Utkarsh Mishra from almost 5 hours of image data.

Galaxies Galore

By about 9-10pm throughout March, Ursa Major, Leo, and the western edge of the Virgo galaxy cluster are high enough in the eastern sky to yield great views of some of our favorite galaxies. Check out the bright pair of M81 and M82 just above the Big Dipper asterism. Look east of bright star Regulus to observe the Leo Triplet of galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628. In the northeastern sky, check out the famous Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). While the Whirlpool can be seen with modest 50mm binoculars, using a 10" or 12" telescope in a location with dark skies will display the distant galaxy's beautiful spiral arms. With an 8" or larger telescope and a dark sky, this region of the sky harbors dozens of galaxies — try to find them all!

Orion Telescopes and Binoculars 10", 12", and 8" Dobsonian Telescopes are ideal for viewing deep-sky objects such as M42, the Orion Nebula, and galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. Image credits: Orion Telescope and Binoculars.

Morning Close Approaches

Starting on March 19th and for the next two mornings, Mars and Jupiter will be less than 1 degree apart. At around 60x magnification they should both fit in the field of view of a telescope. The pair rise around 04:30 in the southeastern sky, and for observers near 40 degrees latitude will reach an altitude of approximately 25 degrees by sunrise at 07:00. Saturn isn't too far away either, about 7 degrees away from the pair that morning.

On March 31st Mars continues its trek across the morning sky to meet with Saturn for a close approach of 54 arcminutes as the Sun rises.

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights where light pollution and when bright moonlight does not overpower the stars.

Read More

Deep Sky Image Database - M81 and M82 Galaxies

As the crew of Insight Observatory works on getting the Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO) ready for first light in 2017, it is now time to start compiling databases of deep-sky images as well as designing a curriculum for teaching deep-sky imaging using remote robotic telescopes. As the Insight Observatory deep-sky image database accumulates, it will be available for educational purposes as well as material for software publications. 

Seeing that the ATEO will be hosted in the mountains of New Mexico, we thought it would be a good idea to start the deep-sky image database using the remote robotic telescopes on the iTelescope network hosted at their Mayhill, New Mexico facility. Their dark-sky site is very comparable to the site the ATEO will be hosted at the SkyPi Remote Observatory located in Pie Town, New Mexico.

M81 (left) and M82 (right) were imaged on T20 by Insight Observatory.

On the morning of November 10, 2016, we compiled raw data of the galaxy pair M81 and M82 located in the constellation of Ursa Major. The two objects were nearly perfectly placed at the meridian when the images were acquired. The telescope system that was used is known as T20 on the iTelescope network. The instrument is a very wide-field telescope, typically used for wide-field RGB / Narrowband Imaging, but also carries a Photometric V filter.

T20 is a great platform for wide-angle imaging and can also do valuable scientific research with its photometric V filter. This small Takahashi FSQ could also serve as a tool for scanning for asteroids and working on variable stars. Nothing can match its very wide field portraits and its performance on the sky's larger extended objects such as large nebula, clusters, bright comets and even catching fast-moving Near-Earth Objects.

T20 - iTelescope.net.

After the raw data was taken on T20, it was then stacked and processed using a CCD imaging software package called PixInsight. The images of M81 and M82 that were stacked consisted of five Luminance (clear) images at 300 seconds, four Red filtered images at 180 seconds, four Green filtered images at 180 seconds, and four Blue filtered images at 180 seconds. After the images were processed in PixInsight, the final image was then post-processed using Photoshop CS6.



A few Facts about M81 and M82:

• Messier 81 was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 31, 1774. Consequently, the galaxy is sometimes referred to as "Bode's Galaxy". In 1779, Pierre Méchain and Charles Messier reidentified Bode's object, which was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue.


• Only one supernova has been detected in Messier 81. The supernova, named SN 1993J, was discovered on 28 March 1993 by F. Garcia in Spain. At the time, it was the second brightest supernova observed in the 20th century.


• Messier 81 is located approximately 10° northwest of Alpha Ursae Majoris along with several other galaxies in the Messier 81 Group. Messier 81 and Messier 82 can both be viewed easily using binoculars and small telescopes. The two objects are generally not observable to the unaided eye, although highly experienced amateur astronomers may be able to see Messier 81 under exceptional observing conditions with a very dark sky. Telescopes with apertures of 8 inches (20 cm) or larger are needed to distinguish structures in the galaxy. Its far northern declination makes it generally visible for observers in the northern hemisphere. It is not visible to most observers in the southern hemisphere, except those in a narrow latitude range immediately south of the equator.


• Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) is a starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. A member of the M81 Group, it is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy's center. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81. As the closest starburst galaxy to our own, M82 is the prototypical example of this galaxy type. SN 2014J, a Type Ia supernova, was discovered in the galaxy on January 21, 2014.  In 2014, in studying M82, scientists discovered the brightest pulsar yet known, designated M82 X-2.


• Messier 82 was previously believed to be an irregular galaxy. In 2005, however, two symmetric spiral arms were discovered in near-infrared (NIR) images of M82. The arms were detected by subtracting an axisymmetric exponential disk from the NIR images. Even though the arms were detected in NIR images, they are bluer than the disk. The arms were previously missed due to M82's high disk surface brightness, our nearly edge-on view of this galaxy (~80°), and obscuration by a complex network of dusty filaments in its optical images. These arms emanate from the ends of the NIR bar and can be followed for the length of 3 disc scales. Assuming that the northern part of M82 is nearer to us, as most of the literature does, the observed sense of rotation implies trailing arms.

Sources: Wikipedia M81 and M82

Read More

The Supernova Next Door

The fierce and brilliant blast of a supernova heralds the explosive, violent death of a star, and these stellar conflagrations can glare so brightly that they may even outshine their entire host galaxy--at least for a time. On January 21, 2014, an exceptionally close stellar explosion became the brilliant object of pursuit for astronomers all over the world--as well as for several NASA spacecraft. The blast, dubbed SN 2014J dazzled the galaxy M82, situated a "mere" 12 million light-years away from our planet. SN 2014J is the closest optical supernova to light up the sky in twenty years--and it is potentially the closest Type Ia supernova to flare-up during the life of today's missions, astronomers said--providing a rare chance to study such Cosmic occurrences.

Image by John Strong of Galaxy M82 with SN2104J.

SN 2014J is the most brilliant supernova to be spotted from our planet since the gigantic stellar blast that popped off back in 1987--just 168,000 light-years away. In fact, the January 2014 supernova was so dazzling that it was brilliant enough to be discovered with a small 'scope peering up at the murky cloud-shrouded sky hovering above north London. On January 21, 2014, Dr. Steve Fossey, an astronomer at University College London, was taking a group of 21 students through a routine lesson with a 35-centimeter 'scope at the urban University of London Observatory. As he showed his students images of the galaxy M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy because of its shape, they spotted something odd--a brilliant star nestled at the very edge of the galaxy's disk. M82 hangs just above the bowl of the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) constellation, and it has long been a favorite deep-sky target for astronomers.

The brilliant star, that Dr. Fossey and his students saw on an image snapped during a 10-minute viewing session, seemed to be a newcomer. Dr. Fossey could not remember ever seeing it before, and it was not present in images that he and his students looked up on the Internet. "It kind of looked odd," Dr. Fossey said on January 23, 2014, in Scientific American.

According to the students who spotted SN 2014J, the exciting discovery was a stupendous surprise.

"One minute we're eating pizza, then five minutes later we've helped to discover a supernova. I couldn't believe it. It reminds me of why I got interested in astronomy in the first place," said student Tom Wright in a January 2014 statement to the press.

Another student, Ben Cooke, also commented in a January 2014 press statement that "The chances of finding anything new in the sky is astronomical, but this was particularly astounding as it was one of the first images we had taken on this telescope."

Something New In The Sky

All stars, large and small, "live" out their entire hydrogen-burning, main-sequence "lives" by maintaining a very critical and delicate balance between two constantly opposing forces--gravity and radiation pressure. The radiation pressure exerted by a star pushes everything outward and away from the star, and it keeps this huge, seething, glaring sphere of roiling gas bouncy against the squeezing crush of gravity, that mercilessly and relentlessly attempts to pull everything inward. The radiation pressure of a star on the main-sequence results from the process of nuclear fusion, which begins with the burning of hydrogen, the lightest and most abundant atomic element in the Universe, into helium--which is the second-lightest atomic element. This process, stellar nucleosynthesis, continually fuses heavier atomic elements out of lighter ones. In fact, all of the atomic elements heavier than helium (termed metals by astronomers), were created in the searing-hot nuclear-fusing hearts of the billions upon billions upon billions of stellar inhabitants of our vast Cosmic Wonderland--or else in the spectacular blasts of supernovae heralding the end of that long stellar road.

Most supernovae ignite when a solitary star runs out of its necessary supply of hydrogen fuel, and blasts itself to smithereens, thus meeting its fiery ultimate doom. Often, the supernova progenitor is a massive star, with an extremely heavy core that tips the scale at approximately 1.4 solar masses (the Chandrasekhar limit). Smaller, less richly-endowed members of the stellar community, such as our own Sun, normally do not die in the incredible brilliance and violence of a supernova conflagration, like their more massive starry kin. Small stars, like our own, perish with relative peace, and incredible beauty. Our Sun, at present, is a common garden variety and a rather petite main-sequence Star. There are eight major planets, a multitude of lovely moons, and a large number of other, smaller objects, circling our Sun, which is happily situated in the distant suburbs of a majestic, large, barred-spiral Galaxy, our Milky Way--which is a beautiful, starlit pin-wheel twirling in Space. Our Sun, like all stars, will not live forever. Like all stars, it is doomed to, at some point, run out of its necessary amount of hydrogen fuel. Stars of our Sun's relatively petite mass can "live" out their main-sequence lives for about 10 billion years, happily and contentedly fusing their core's supply of hydrogen into heavier things.

However, our Sun is not exactly a spring chicken. In fact, it is a middle-aged star. It's not old, but it isn't young, either. However, it is experiencing a happy and productive mid-life, and is still sufficiently bouncy to go on merrily fusing hydrogen in its hot heart for another 5 billion years or so--alas, it has already lived for about 4.56 billion years!

When small stars like our own have finally succeeded in fusing most of their supply of nourishing hydrogen fuel, they swell into the glowering, bloated red giant stars. The elderly Sun-like star at this point carries a worn-out heart of helium, encircled by a shell in which there is still some lingering hydrogen that is being fused into helium. The shell swells outward, and the star's expiring heart grows progressively larger and larger, as the doomed star grows older and older. Next, the helium heart itself begins to shrivel up under its own weight--and as it does so, it grows hotter until, at last, it has grown so extremely hot at its center that the helium starts to fuse into the still-heavier atomic element--carbon. The Sun-like, petite star winds up with a tiny, searing-hot heart that manufactures more energy than it once did, long, long ago, when it was a vibrant young main-sequence star. The outer gaseous layers of the elderly, doomed star have become swollen and red. Tragically, in our own Solar System, when our Sun has finally become a bloated, old, red giant, it will furiously cannibalize some of its own planet-offspring--first Mercury, then Venus, and then (perhaps), our Earth. The temperature at the fiery surface of this hideous, hungry red giant will be considerably cooler than it was when our Sun was still a vibrant, young, life-sustaining Star!

The death of small stars like our Sun is relatively gentle, characterized by the "soft" puffing off of their outer gaseous layers of shining, multicolored gasses into the space between stars. These objects are so enchantingly beautiful that they are often referred to as the "butterflies of the Cosmos" by astronomers who are bewitched by the spectacle.

Our Sun will perish this way--with great beauty, and in relative peace. But this is because our Sun is a solitary star. It has no companion star around to disturb its hermetic bliss. The Sun's corpse will be a dense, small stellar relic called a white dwarf, and its shroud will be a glimmering, shimmering, "butterfly" with flying wings of many colors.

However, something very different occurs when a Sun-like star has another star for a companion--rudely disturbing its peaceful solitude. This can cause some very explosive things to happen. Small stars usually do not carry sufficient mass to go supernova. However, this kind of blast can happen if two stellar-relic white dwarfs collide and merge, or if a solitary white dwarf dwells in close contact with a companion sister-star--and victim. The unlucky companion star could be either a main-sequence star or a swollen red giant. In either case, the white dwarf, with a vampire-like hunger, sips up material from the companion star--and gulps down as much as it can until, at last, it can drink no more. The white dwarf "goes critical" just like the big guys, and blasts itself into oblivion in the supernova event called a Type Ia.

The Supernova Next Door

Astronomers think that SN 2014J is a member of the Type Ia class and that it can help explain how these supernovae develop. Type Ia supernovae are "standard candles"--that is, they are used as Cosmic measuring sticks by astronomers to help them determine the increasing expansion of the Universe.

Observations of SN 2014J's spectroscopy revealed its status as a Type Ia. This type of supernova brightens rapidly. Even though many such supernovae are spotted annually, they are usually much further away than the Cigar galaxy.

Astronomers around the world will now carefully observe the exact way in which SN 2014J brightens. They have used the consistency of the brightnesses of Type Ia supernovae in the past to make very precise distance measurements. In fact, these Cosmic "standard candles" were of critical importance in the discovery of dark energy in the 1990s. Dark energy is a mysterious force, a property of Space itself, that is causing the Universe to accelerate in its expansion.

The Cigar galaxy's close proximity means that there are many existing images of it, dating from before SN 2014J exploded, including some that were derived from the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers will carefully study those images, searching for what existed in this region before the stellar blast. The Cigar Galaxy is heavily shrouded with dust--the light of the supernova shines on the dust in such a way that it may teach astronomers something about the galaxy, as well. One team of astronomers is currently searching for radioactive elements there, such as nickel, that some theories predict form in Type Ia supernovae.

One of the first telescopes to gaze at SN 2014J was NASA's orbiting Swift observatory, which captured an image of the supernova and its host galaxy, with its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope.

"Finding and publicizing new supernova discoveries is often the weak link in obtaining rapid observations, but once we know about it, we can observe a new object within hours," Dr. Neil Gehrels told the press on January 27, 2014. Dr. Gehrels is the Swift Observatory's principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Judith E. Braffman-Miller is a writer and astronomer whose articles have been published since 1981 in various newspapers, magazines, and journals. Although she has written on a variety of topics, she particularly loves writing about astronomy because it allows her to communicate to others the many wonders of her field. Her first book, "Wisps, Ashes, and Smoke," will be published soon.

By Judith E Braffman-Miller

Article Source: The Supernova Next Door

Read More

Supernova in Galaxy M82

On January 21, 2014, a group of astronomy students spotted an extragalactic supernova in the galaxy known as M82, the famous nearby irregular galaxy located in the constellation of Ursa Major. It peaked at magnitude 10.5 during the first week of February, but as of February 28th, it was still quite visible in amateur scopes at about magnitude 11.7.

The discovery of this extragalactic supernova will provide an opportunity for students and amateur astronomers to study such an event utilizing remote robotic telescopes for astronomy research and education. Students and amateur astronomers could take sequential images of the galaxy over a period of nights to compare the supernova's change in magnitude.

Before and after photos of the galaxy M82 showing the appearance of a  brand new 11.7 magnitude supernova. 
Image by E. Guido, N. Howes, M. Nicolini

Spectra showed it to be a Type Ia supernova  (an exploded white dwarf) with debris originally expanding at up to 20,000 kilometers per second. It is significantly dimmed and reddened by dust in M82 along our line of sight. By one estimate, it would be two magnitudes brighter if we were seeing it in the clear.

< Because this new supernova is currently at magnitude +11 to +12, it's definitely not visible to the naked eye. You’ll need a 4-inch telescope at least to be able to see it. That said, at 12 million light-years away, this is (at the moment) the brightest, closest supernova since SN 1993 J exploded in neighboring galaxy M81 approximately 21 years ago. M81 and M82, along with NGC 3077, form a close-knit interacting group.

M82 is a bright, striking edge-on spiral galaxy bright enough to see in binoculars. Known as the Cigar or Starburst Galaxy because of its shape and a large, active starburst region in its core, it’s only 12 million light-years from Earth and home to two previous supernovae in 2004 and 2008. Neither of those came anywhere close to being as bright as the discovery, and it’s very possible the new object will become brighter yet.

The supernova occurred when the dwarf packed enough pounds to reach a mass 1.4 times that of the Sun, and it can no longer support itself. The star suddenly collapses, heats to incredible temperatures, and burns up explosively in a runaway fusion reaction. What we see here on Earth is the sudden appearance of a brand new star within the galaxy’s disk. Of course, it’s not really a new star, but rather the end of an aged one.

T24 is the largest iTelescope system in the Northern Hemisphere. It is big, it is beautiful. Situated under dark and clear skies deep in its Sierra mountains remote location in Northern California USA. This is the same location Insight Observatory plans to host the 16" Dream Astrograph Telescope.

Read More

M81 and M82 on a Moonlit Night

With my colleague Mike's current success at obtaining images from the remote robotic telescopes specializing in astronomy education,  iTelescope.net, I took a crack at capturing a few myself this weekend. Target? Old standby M81 and M82, are a good choice for a first target since it is big and bright and has a number of surrounding galaxies that makes a wide-field shot interesting (and the moon was out as well so no "faint fuzzies" tonight). Here is the image, a 5-minute exposure. The beauty of this? I'm half a world away in Poland, Saturday morning, and yet I'm imaging from the dark skies in New Mexico...

M81 and M82 - Spiral Galaxies in Ursa Major

Read More