Picture of the Month

Click on the small images to see the larger ones.

	2010-07: Andrew Hitchner @ ALCON Andrew Hitchner posed with proud parents Jennifer and Gary at ALCON in Tuscon, AZ after receiving the First Place award in the Astronomical League’s National Young Astronomer competition. A 5” refractor from Explore Scientific sealed the deal. By all accounts, Andrew’s presentation, “A Study in Stellar Spectroscopy,” went very well. We’re not surprised. Photo by Al Lamperti.
	2010-06: Vince Scheetz at Flagstaff DVAA member Vince Scheetz poses at the prime focus of the 13 inch Abbot Lawrence Lowell Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. With this instrument, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet, Pluto, on February 18, 1930. Picture by Joe Lamb.
	2010-05: NGC2841 Wheeling high overhead on May evenings is the constellation of Ursa Major with its many attendant island universes. This beautifully detailed image of NGC2841, a 10.1 magnitude spiral, was captured in March, 2008 by Frank Colosimo from his Blue Mountain Vista Observatory New Ringgold, PA. This galaxy subtends 10.1 arcminutes and lies at a distance of 50 million light years.
	2010-04: Deneb and its Environs This spectacular Milky Way vista with its multitude of stars, clusters, emission and dark nebulae was imaged with a modified Canon camera and barn-door tracker by Gary Asperschlager from a rural New York state location.
	2010-03: DVAAers at WSP While much of the northeastern U.S. struggled with record snowfalls, intrepid DVAA members Jim Hoffman, Marilyn Michalski and Vince Scheetz enjoyed clear weather and southern deep sky wonders from the 2010 Winter Sky Party, held this past February at West Summerland Key, FL.
	2010-02: STS130 Taking Off by Mike Atwell This dramatic photo by Mike Atwell captures STS-130/Endeavor rising from Pad 39A in the early morning hours of February 8th. This, the last night launch of the shuttle program, was the 32nd flight to the International Space Station. Mike and fellow DVAA member Gary Trapuzzano photographed the launch from the NASA Causeway, approximately eight miles southwest of the pad. A Canon 50D was used at the focus of an 80mm f/6.8 William Optics refractor.
	2010-01: Mars by Wayne Reed North is up, east to the right in this remarkable Wayne Reed image made on October 1, 2005 with an 8" SCT. The image shows the planet 37 days prior to opposition. In this view, the longitude at the Central Meridian was 240 degrees, apparent size: 17.8 arc seconds, and distance: 0.525 AU. The prominent albedo feature, Syrtus Major, is seen near the western (left) edge.
	2009-12: The Double Cluster by Donald D'Egidio and Michael Atwell This image of the Double Cluster (NGC 869 and NGC 884) in Perseus was made by Donald D'Egidio and Michael Atwell from Springfield, Pennsylvania. Also known as "h and Chi Persei", this object may be viewed with the naked eye from a dark sky location. The clusters are approximately 7,000 Light years away. They are very young and are rich in hot "O" type stars.   South is at the top in this image and the field is 144 arc-minutes wide.
	2009-11: Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy by Dick Steinberg An image captured by Dick Steinberg from his home in Narberth. It contains an arc of a gravitationally lensed and highly redshifted (z=2.73) Lyman-Break Galaxy (LBG) surrounding a considerably nearer (z=0.38) large Red Galaxy (LRG). (Dick prefers that this object's distance is described in terms of redshift, but note that the estimated distance is thought to be around 11.1 billion light-years!)
	2009-10: Sketch of the Black Brant XII/CARE test by Jan Romer A sketch by Jan Romer which portrays the the 9/19 atmospheric Black Brant XII/CARE test launched from the Wallops Flight Facility. (It was observed from Frank Colisimo's home on Blue Mountain.)
	2009-09: M101 by Gary Trapuzzano Image taken April 29 at CSSP using a Canon 50D, TV-101 telescope, Webcam Guiding, 63 min. exposure, ISO800 (11x300, 2x240)

DVAA Home