Cruises on which I will be the Resident Astronomer:

• Jan 4 – 11: Celebrity Equinox, Port Canaveral round trip, sailing to Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and St. Kitts
• Jan 20 – Feb 4: Viking Saturn, Barcelona round trip, “Malta, Morocco, and the Mediterranean”
• Feb 8 – 15: Celebrity Apex, Fort Lauderdale round trip, sailing to St. Kitts, Tortola, and Dominican Republic
• Feb 22 – Mar 1: Celebrity Apex, Fort Lauderdale round trip, sailing to St. Kitts, Tortola, and Dominican Republic
• Mar 6 – Mar 22: Silversea Silver Muse, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan
• May 16 – May 23: Queen Mary 2, Southampton to New York
• Jun 19 – 26: Atlas World Traveller, Reykjavik round trip
• Jul 30 – Aug 8: Atlas World Traveller, Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, Riga, Liepaja, Baltiysk, Bornholm, Binz, Copenhagen
• Aug 8 – Aug 17: Atlas World Traveller, Copenhagen, Skagen, Stavanger, Bergen, Flåm, Gudvangen, Geiranger, Kristiansund, Lofoten, Tromsø
• Aug 29 – Sep 12: Atlas World Voyager, Reykjavik, Heimaey, Djúpivogur, Bantry Bay, Stornoway, Isle of Man, Ireland circumnavigation, Dublin
• Sep 20 – Oct 1: Atlas World Voyager, Dublin, Isle of Man, Belfast, Glasgow, Invergordon, Helsingborg, Tilbury, Amsterdam
• Oct 1 – Oct 11: Atlas World Voyager, Amsterdam, Dover, Rouen, Honfleur, Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Tresco, Fishguard, Dublin
• Oct 18 – Nov 1: Carnival Radiance, Los Angeles round trip via Kauai, Maui, Hilo, Honolulu, Ensenada
• Nov 30 – Dec 14: Carnival Venezia, Port Canaveral round trip via St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, St. Maarten, Tortola, Puerto Rico

Speaking engagements, book signings, and other appearances:

• Mar 27 – 29: Women in Aviation International conference, Gaylord Rockies Resort, Denver – book signings with Eileen Collins
• Apr 5 – 6: NEAF (Northeast Astronomy Forum) Expo, Suffern, NY – presentations and book signing with Eileen Collins
• Apr 11 – 13: ShuttleFest IV, Titusville, FL – panel discussions and book signing with Eileen Collins
• Jun 27 – Jun 29: Spacefest reunion, Starr Pass Marriott, Tucson, AZ

NEW DOCUMENTARY SPACEWOMAN WILL CELEBRATE EILEEN COLLINS: THE FIRST WOMAN EVER TO PILOT AND THEN COMMAND A SPACE SHUTTLE

London 06 February 2024: Multi award-winning producers Keith Haviland, Haviland Digital [Last Man on the Moon, Chasing the Moon, Gazza, Lancaster] and Natasha Dack Ojumu, Tigerlily [ENO, Blue Bag Life, The Lovers and the Despot] today announce that they are making a new landmark feature documentary called SPACEWOMAN about the extraordinary achievements of Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command a spacecraft, paving the way for the next generation of female space explorers. 

The film is based on her memoir “Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars” written by Eileen and Jonathan H. Ward and is directed by Hannah Berryman [Coco Chanel: Unbuttoned, Rockfield: the Studio on the Farm, Princess Margaret: The Rebel Royal) 

Hannah Berryman, director said: ‘Eileen’s journey from an underprivileged childhood in small town America to becoming the first woman to pilot and command a space shuttle is a fascinating one. The emotional drama of her family’s tale is just as gripping as the risks the shuttle astronauts like Eileen had to take.’

An average student in average small-town America, inspired by the astronauts she saw on TV, Eileen nurtured a secret dream to fly to space herself. In the 1970’s the US military selected female pilots for the first time, and Eileen became one of those daredevil test pilots. Proving herself in this man’s world, she inspired thousands of others when she became NASA’s first female pilot of a space shuttle.

SPACEWOMAN will show Eileen’s experience of the epic violence of a space shuttle launch, a historic docking with a Russian space station, and follow the dramatic tale of one of the most perilous and important missions in the history of space travel. It also tells the very human story of a family, examining the tough background that made Eileen a woman who could manage fear and take command, and, as a mother, guide the journey of her own family through extraordinary and risky endeavours.

Eileen Collins said: “I am enormously excited to be involved with this film project. It is more than my personal journey through life’s challenges; it also includes the thrill of flying jets, my determination to be an astronaut, commanding the space shuttle, and the many relationships I built along the way.”

This inspirational 90-minute feature documentary will be completed at the end of 2024 for theatrical release in 2025.

I wasn’t able to take an excursion out into the countryside this evening, so I scouted the container yard and airport perimeter near the ship to try to find a place with as few streetlights as possible. When I checked the forecast at 9:30 pm, I saw that an “interplanetary storm” was underway. Time to run out and get to work! I was in place by 10 pm.

As soon as my eyes adapted to the dark, I saw auroras forming to the northeast. They quickly developed into a multi-colored curtain that shimmered and steadily grew in height and length.

The curtain continued to dance, and the colors were more intense than any I’d seen before.

The sky toward the southwest also began to glow. Soon the light stretched from horizon to horizon. It was still most intense to the northeast, but now things were starting to get interesting toward the zenith.

I craned my neck backward and stared at the zenith. A “corona” (crown) was quickly emerging. This is one of the most coveted sights for aurora chasers. A corona is extremely energetic and colorful, and swirls quickly.

I was completely taken aback by the intensity of the colors and motion of the corona. I couldn’t capture the motion on camera, and I didn’t really want to waste time trying. I was spellbound. The swirling had a very definite three-dimensional motion, almost like the development of a tornado funnel cloud, but written in light and color. I had never seen anything like this. I understood completely now the legends of the northernmost peoples, who feared that auroras could snatch you off the Earth. It truly did give the impression that the sky could reach down and grab me at any moment.

Within a minute or so, the corona broadened and its intensity subsided. After a few more minutes, I had the impression that I was looking up into a curtain from below.

The lights continued to swirl around and change in intensity from second to second. Patches of the sky would suddenly brighten and fade. I could see people lining the balconies of the Silver Dawn, cheering at the display.

My alarm watch went off. It was 11:15 pm, and all-aboard time was 11:30! I disassembled my tripod and dashed over to the ship. They were already taking down the gangway to Deck 5. I popped into the door on Deck 3, and a security person said, “The last person is on board.” Whew.

What an unforgettable evening. This ranks among the most amazing experiences of my life. I’m elated that so many guests were able to see the auroras this time — it’s what they paid to see, after all!

As always seems to happen with aurora-watching excursions, the forecast for the evening was not promising: overcast with snow developing, and the Glendale app predicted no chance of auroras developing. I almost left my camera and tripod on the ship, but changed my mind at the last minute.

After we greeted the friendly huskies at the camp, we went inside a hut to warm up and feast on some delicious bacalao, an amazing cod stew. Our local guides, Eike and Carlo, were enthusiastic and optimistic that we would see something in the sky that evening. They huddled around the campfire outside while we ate dinner. I excused myself after wolfing down my bowl of stew and went outside to check the sky.

It was 8:45 pm. I hadn’t been outside for more than two minutes when Eike suddenly pointed behind me and exclaimed, “The lights!”

A glowing patch just under the Big Dipper quickly spread and differentiated into a curtain. Spikes brightened and faded in a matter of seconds. I hastily set up my camera and tripod and started snapping photos. (For the record, I was shooting with a Nikon D5500, 18mm lens set at f3.5 and manually focused, ISO 1600, and exposures ranging from 3 secs. to 16 secs.)

Eike ran into the cabin to alert everyone to the developing display. Soon there were 70 people pointing their phones in amazement at the sky.

Satellites seemed to be photobombing every image. But the same trick of geometry that made the satellites so bright also created a beautiful blue on the auroras. We see satellites best just after sunset and before sunrise, because they’re high enough to still be in sunlight while it’s dark on the ground. The light of the setting sun catching the tops of auroras will create a blue tint when you observe them around the time of the equinoxes.

We also caught some pinks and purples, which are created by more energetic excitation of nitrogen molecules lower in the ionosphere.

It was getting pretty crowded up near the fire and the hut. Lots of people stumbling around in the dark, staring up in the sky! I relocated myself downhill from the bus parking lot for a few minutes to get out of people’s way.

I turned to the east to see the curtain stretching all the way across the sky. There were more clouds and city lights in that direction. However, the Pleiades and Jupiter were welcome sights.

The display began to fade by 9:45, with just a few streaks in the sky by 10:00. The guests on the excursion were overwhelmed, tired, cold, and happy. As the celestial display drew to a close, people trundled back onto the buses to return to the ship.

On our way back to Tromsø, the bus suddenly came to a halt. There was a reindeer standing in the middle of the road! –And off to the side, a whole heard of them, several bulls and many females. Carlo remarked that we had to be the luckiest guests he’d ever had on a Northern Lights excursion.

I agree. It was a great night. I’m so thrilled that our groups were able to marvel at this indescribable phenomenon. I hope they all believed it was worth the trip to a far northern corner of the world, where magic happens.

Here’s a quick summary of my suggestions and tips for taking photos of auroras on a cruise.

What apps will tell me if auroras are visible?

There are many out there, most pull info from the same sources. “Live Aurora Network” is not free, but it provides real-time sighting information and sky images from multiple locations, and it will send you alerts when there is auroral activity. SpaceWeatherLive and the Glendale App use more scientific data that some people might find difficult to interpret.

What’s the best way to take photos of auroras?

The two most critical things are finding ways to steady your camera and to take manual control of settings if possible. You’ll need to take exposures of several seconds in the dark, and the autofocus on cameras can easily get confused by auroras.

It’s helpful if you have a tripod or a way to brace your camera. However, if you’re on the deck of a cruise ship underway, your situation is more complicated. Most likely you’ll be facing a stiff (and cold) headwind at night in the dark with a lot of other people. And no matter how steadily you brace yourself, the ship’s pitching and rolling will turn every time exposure into a streak of stars. Just enjoy the view and leave photography for a shore excursion!

If you’re using a phone camera, turn off your flash before you do anything else. Use Night Mode in iOS or Android, or Night Sight on Pixel. If your phone is more than three or four years old, you might need to use an app like NightCap Camera (iOS) or HD Camera Pro (Android). You need an app that will let you take long exposures and adjust the ISO. When you’ve pointed the camera in the direction you want, tap on a distant object on the screen to ensure the phone is focused at infinity. Try exposures between 3 and 10 seconds, and ISO of 800 or more. If you have an Apple Watch, you can use it as a remote shutter trigger for your phone.

With a DSLR, use a tripod and a remote shutter release if possible. Adjust your ISO depending on how bright or dark the sky is. In a moonless night in the countryside, you can try ISO 3200-6400. If there are city lights or the moon is bright, lower the ISO to 800-3200. Set white balance to 3500K for a more natural color of the auroras. Turn off noise reduction. Shoot in RAW mode. Use a wide-angle lens opened to the widest f-stop. Turn off autofocus. Manually focus on a distant star or object (use your LCD screen to magnify as you focus). Experiment with exposures: 8 – 20 sec for faint aurora, 3 – 8 sec for brighter aurora, 0.5 – 3 sec for the most active aurora.

Most important, don’t forget to look up! Be sure to try to bask in this incredible experience.

I’ll see you aboard the Silversea Silver Dawn if you’re chasing the Northern Lights between September 22 and October 20, 2023!

The type of telescope to get will depend on many factors:

• Your budget
• What you want to see (Moon, planets, deep sky, double stars, etc.)
• Portability and “footprint”
• How familiar you are with finding your way around the sky
• Your expectations
• That being said, here are some possibilities to consider.

Incidentally, I am not compensated by any telescope or gear manufacturers. And I am not necessarily recommending specific brands, although some have some unique features. “Telescope of the Year” designation is from High Point Scientific, Inc. (https://highpointscientific.com), who are a reputable and popular retailer in the US.

Too Long; Didn’t Read — a Quick Suggestion

If there is an astronomy club in your area, see if they have any scheduled public observing sessions. It’s a great no-cost way to check out the view through a lot of different telescopes, shown off by people who know how to use them. It will help manage your expectations about what you’ll be able to see and how it will look. Don’t expect the view through the eyepiece to look like a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope!

If you’re itching to start exploring the night sky, I recommend a good pair of binoculars. You can use them to explore constellations and the Milky Way, and they’re useful in the daytime as well. I own Nikon Aculon 7×50 binoculars, my favorite accessory for stargazing while my telescope is taking images. I also have some Orion 2×54 ultra-wide angle binoculars, which are a little more finicky but great for views under very dark skies. You’ll need to purchase some rubber eyecups to use with the Orion 2×54 binoculars.

What to avoid

Ads for low-cost telescopes are aimed at luring novices who don’t know what to look for. Here are a couple warning signs and things to avoid:

• Ignore any claims about high magnification (“Magnifies up to 400 power!!”). There is a theoretical maximum useable magnification for any telescope – it’s 50 times the aperture of the telescope in inches. For a 3-inch (75mm) telescope, you can’t use any power higher than 150x. For a 4-inch, it’s 200x, etc. And these figures are the absolute maximum, assuming your have the telescope set up properly and the seeing conditions are good. And the clearest, most satisfying views will be at less than half that maximum amount.
• Look out for cheap tripods or mounts. Check the reviews carefully. Cheap telescopes with inadequate tripods and loose mounts will wobble every time you touch the focuser or whenever the wind blows, spoiling your view.
• Any telescope with an aperture under 3″ is likely to cause disappointment. The size of the telescope’s lens or mirror will determine how much light the telescope passes through and how much magnification you can use. Too small a telescope will be only useful for looking at the Moon and for terrestrial viewing (e.g., bird watching).

Excellent starter telescope

The Orion StarBlast is a $250 telescope with a 4.5-inch aperture. It’s a tabletop telescope, compact, easy to transport and set up. It’s great for kids and adults. (I bought one of these for my granddaughter.)

The StarBlast comes with two eyepieces that provide 22.5x and 45x magnification, well within the useful range for a scope of this size. The mount is stable and yet easy to from target to target. It comes with a “red dot” finder that quickly shows you where in the sky the scope is pointed.

Best all-around telescope

The beginner’s telescope that will afford you the best view of the Moon, planets, and deep sky objects is an 8″ Dobsonian reflector. Sky-Watcher, Celestron, Apertura, Explore Scientific, and others make telescopes in this range. The 8-inch (200 mm) primary mirror will collect a lot of light for deep sky and will resolve small craters on the Moon or details on the planets. The Apertura AD8 shown here lists for about $700, and many websites are calling it the best Dobsonian of 2023.

A Dobsonian is relatively cheap and has few moving parts. It will probably not need a power source unless you get one with computerized functionality.

Disadvantages of the Dobsonian are (1) that they can be pretty bulky and (2) many of them do not have computerized means of finding objects in the sky. They are also not suitable for astrophotography except for the Moon and planets.

Schmidt-Cassegranian Telescope Bundles

Schmidt-Cassegranian telescopes (SCTs, for short) have a folded light path and take up much less room than Dobsonians. They tend to be much more expensive, however. Most of the high-end ones (Celestron and Meade) have computerized “go-to” functionality. Once you’ve aligned them on the sky — and some of the newer ones will do this automatically — you can use the hand controller, computer, or even phone apps to point you to thousands of objects of interest in the sky.

Many retailers bundle the telescope with eyepieces and other accessories. These can be handy if you’re starting from scratch, but you may end up purchasing more than you really need, especially with eyepieces. A medium power (20-28mm) eyepiece and a high-power one (9mm), combined with a 2x Barlow lens, may be all that you really need. The Celestron 8SE bundle shown in the image below costs roughly $1700.

An SCT will give you outstanding views of the Moon and planets. They are not so good for extended objects in deep space like nebulas, but they are very good for star clusters.

Disadvantages of the SCT are (1) expense, (2) dimmer view than a Dobsonian of the same diameter mirror, and (3) they are prone to dewing over in humid air. Unless you live in a desert, you will likely want to purchase a dew heater or a dew cap. Because the telescope tube is closed off by a lens at one end, they can take a long time to come to thermal equilibrium. Don’t expect to take one from a warm house into a chilly night and be able to use it to its full advantage until it’s had an hour to cool down. You’ll also either need a power supply or batteries to run the mount and dew heater.

Tabletop telescopes

Tabletop telescopes are becoming quite popular for people looking for a small telescope that is easily transportable and easy to set up. The Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 150P shown below retails for $470. It includes a Synscan mount, which you can control with your phone or tablet and find thousands of objects in the sky.

The disadvantages of a tabletop telescope are that (1) the smaller objective mirror gathers less light than an 8″ telescope, and (2) you need a stable table or platform on which to set it up. But if you’re looking for something that’s easy to cart around and that your kids or grandkids can use, look no farther.

A frustrating scope, but an inventive finder

Celestron’s StarSense line of telescopes use your smart phone as their finder scope! A cradle attached to the telescope points your phone’s selfie camera at the sky. The StarSense app then determines precisely where your telescope is pointed. When you want to find an object, locate it in the app’s database, and then on-scree arrows will show you the direction to push your telescope so that the desired object falls within the scope’s field of view.

The StarSense Explorer 130DX shown above is $480. Celestron sells cheaper telescopes that also use StarSense. Frankly, those smaller scopes are more frustration than they’re worth. I have heard stories of astronomers buying those smaller scopes, pulling off the StarSense cradle to use on another telescope, and then throwing away the small scope!

One potential disadvantage of this technology is that you must make sure your phone is fully charged before going out for the evening with it. Your phone will be turned on pretty much the entire time you’re using the telescope.

Dedicated imaging/”party” telescopes

Relative newcomers to the telescope lineup are ones that you can’t even look through! These telescopes have built-in cameras and software that performs “live-stacking” of dim celestial objects. Once locked onto a target, these scopes will take continuous short exposures, gradually stacking images together. Over the course of a couple of minutes, you can watch a galaxy take shape — in full color, something you would never be able to see through the eyepiece of a telescope.

Some of these scopes allow up to 9 different phones or tablets to be connected at once, so they are “party” telescopes. You can save the images and edit them later.

Disadvantages are that (1) they tend to be expensive and (2) you might miss the thrill of looking for something yourself, with your own eyes. They also tend to be susceptible to dew. (The Vaonis and SeeStar come with a built-in dew heater; the Unistellar eVscope does not have one.)

I have not seen the ZWO SeeStar in action yet, but the price seems amazing compared to the other scopes. ZWO is one of the leading manufacturers of astrophotography cameras and controllers.

Conclusions

I recommend that if you’ve never owned a telescope before, try some out before you buy one. Don’t spend $2000 on a telescope and find out that you don’t like the way things look. The best way to try out a scope is to find your local astronomy club and attend one of their public viewing sessions. You’ll have the chance to see many different types of telescopes and what they will actually show you in the sky.

My personal experience: people tend to be disappointed at how nebulas and galaxies look through the eyepiece, but nothing thrills you like seeing the Moon’s craters or Saturn’s rings!

The Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) is a production of the Rockland Astronomy Club in Suffern, NY. Thousands of astronomers and space enthusiasts enjoy a weekend of lectures, workshops, and a fieldhouse full of astonishing astronomy gear at Rockland Community College. Mike Leinbach and I presented here in 2018. Eileen Collins and I were invited to speak in 2022, but the event was cancelled because of Covid. I loved seeing everything in full vibrant swing again this year when the Forum kicked off on Saturday, April 15.

Eileen and I began our day with an interview on Cosmic Perspective Radio with host Andy Poniros and producer Tony Achilles, two friends from many Spacefests and other space events. Eileen is a big draw wherever she goes. A crowd quickly gathered around us after the interview began. We discussed topics ranging from Eileen’s career to the future of space exploration.

Later in the afternoon, Eileen and I returned to the auditorium for the keynote presentation. We thought it would be fun, in presenting to a room full of astronomers, to speak about some of the more esoteric aspects of Eileen’s missions, things that we discussed in our interviews, but which did not make it into our book aimed at a general audience. Eileen suggested we run the presentation as astronauts do with their post-mission press briefings, where the crew members take turns describing successive slides or film clips. Audience members told us afterward that they really enjoyed the conversational style of our presentation.

After the talk, Eileen and I signed books. The supply of books quickly sold out. There was a long line, and dinner was waiting for us, but we stayed until everyone in line had a chance to meet Eileen. 

There’s no describing the look of joy on the faces of young people who meet her. She speaks and listens to everyone with genuine interest. Eileen knows that every conversation she has with a young person, no matter how brief it may be, has the potential to change their lives. She takes that responsibility very seriously and handles it with grace.

Finally, the NEAF organizers invited all of the speakers out for dinner at a fantastic restaurant. I met Holly Ridings, NASA’s Chief Flight Director, and also enjoyed the chance to catch up with Gerry Griffin, Jani Radebaugh from JPL, and Pranvera Hyseni from Kosovo.

I went back out to the exhibit floor the next morning. I left with less money in my pocket and a new piece of astronomy gear.

Thanks to Ed Siemann, Karen Celidonio, Vinny Coulehan, Joe Rao, and all the others from NEAF who treated us like royalty this weekend. These folks really know how to put on a show!

It’s a rare treat for a North Carolina astrophotographer to have two clear, moonless nights in the same April week. I tried to make the most of the opportunity by imaging two contrasting galaxies.

First up is galaxy NGC 2403, in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe). NGC 2403 is a “flocculent” – fluffy – spiral galaxy. Its arms are alive with bright clumps, which are sites of active star formation. NGC 2403 is about 57 million light years from Earth.

On the evening of April 12, I imaged the “Needle Galaxy,” NGC 4565. The Needle was the cover story for the May 2023 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine. Many astrophotographers have been posting images of it, for good reason. It’s a beautiful and unusual sight.

The Needle is a barred spiral galaxy, like our own Milky Way. We are looking at it edge-on. Even the casual observer will notice the galaxy’s large central bulge and the dark dust lanes that mark the edge of the galaxy’s disk. Closer inspection shows that the disk is slightly warped. The Needle’s companion galaxies are tugging on it and distorting the disk. We believe the same phenomenon is happening with the Milky Way.

The Needle lies in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair), and is part of the Coma I galaxy cluster, about 50 million light years from Earth. Our line of sight to it is directly perpendicular to the plane of our galaxy, so our view is unobstructed by local dust and gas. (This is the opposite of the case for the Hidden Galaxy in my earlier post.)

Dozens of galaxies are visible in my original, full-resolution image. I highlighted here some members of a more distant galaxy cluster. The arrowed galaxies in cluster RX J1236.9+2550 and the star are magnitude 18 – fully 10,000 times dimmer than stars visible with the naked eye. It always amazes me that my backyard telescope can captures objects this dim and far away!

In contrast to the cold weather earlier in the week, April 12 was a quite comfortable evening for standing out under the stars. While the telescope worked its magic on the galaxy, I enjoyed several hours looking at the sky with my unaided eyes and with 7×50 binoculars. I tried to make out the dimmer, more unfamiliar constellations that I usually can’t see – Cancer, Leo Minor, Hydra, Coma, Libra, Serpens. It also surprised me to realize after midnight that I could see in the same sky both Gemini (a winter constellation) and Scorpius (a summer constellation) – one of those things I guess I just never thought about before.  

Technical details for the images: Images taken north of Summerfield, NC in Bortle 4-5 skies. Explore Scientific ED127mm FCD-100 refractor, ZWO ASI 1600MM mono camera cooled to -10°C, filter wheel, guided tracking on an EQ6-R Pro mount. Luminance frames binned 1×1, 120-second exposures. RGB frames binned 2×2, 120-second exposures. For each target I used 54 Lum frames and 18 each of RGB. Darks and flats applied. Stacked and processed in Pixinsight.

Eileen Collins and I signed 300 copies of her memoirs today at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. EVERY child in attendance received a free, personalized copy of the book, thanks to the generosity of Spirit AeroSystems. What a remarkable way to inspire the generation who will take us to Mars and beyond in their lifetimes! Eileen and I also spoke in the planetarium about her career and answered questions from the audience.

Thanks to Tonya Lewis Blansett for inviting us to be part of this event, to Dayle Kenyon and Lois Huneycutt for crowd control and taking photos, to Bill Moore for his fascinating perspectives on Oklahoma aerospace history, and to the staff of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum for treating us like royalty.

I had to reinstall and reconfigure all of my apps and get them talking to the finicky hardware again. Four hours under the sky one night verified that everything was more or less functional again. Then I had to wait for the next clear, moonless night for my chosen target — the Hidden Galaxy, IC 342.

Located in the constellation Camelopardalis, IC 342 lies right along the Milky Way’s equator. That means we are looking out through the disk of the Milky Way at this galaxy — our galaxy would appear edge-on to them. Lying along the Milky Way’s disk are clouds of dust and gas, which obscure and dim IC 342 significantly. That’s how it got its moniker, the Hidden Galaxy. Were it in any other part of the sky, it would be visible to the naked eye. At 2/3 the size of the full Moon, the galaxy is the third largest spiral galaxy visible from Earth.

I chose to image this galaxy because I knew it would be a challenge. I also wanted to improve my LRGB color imaging by experimenting with a technique I hadn’t tried before. The night of March 20 was clear and moonless, the perfect time to attempt to image a dim galaxy.

I set up a routine in NINA, my imaging app, with a loop that included three 300-second images each in red, green, and blue filters, binned 2×2 (this reduces the resolution of the color frames in exchange for increasing light sensitivity fourfold), and nine 300-second images with the luminance filter, binned 1×1 for maximum detail and resolution. One iteration of the loop was 90 minutes of data. I ran the loop twice, and my equipment behaved!

I processed the images in Pixinsight the next day. After cropping the images and removing the background gradient, I used NoiseXTerminator on the color channels relatively aggressively, and applied BlurXTerminator and NoiseXTerminator to the luminance channel. I made a straightforward combination of the LRGB channels. A range mask enabled me to brighten the galaxy relative to the background and also to use unsharp mask to enhance detail in the dust lanes of the galaxy.

It’s not the world’s most detailed image, but I’m happy with it for now. Perhaps I can add more data to it in the Fall.