Dec 15 2011 Faulkes Telescope North

Apologies for the long Haitus (break)...but I'm back now, to keep you up to date with Uplands Astronomy goings-on!

This year, Mr Pert has been giving Yr 11 classes a chance to use the Faulkes Telescope, the first session of which was in December, before the Christmas break (again, apologies for my tardiness getting the images up here!).

The Astronomy GCSE class looked at some objects around Orion and Taurus, and took some cool images using FT North in Haleakala, Hawaii.
The first of which was M1, the Crab Nebula, which is a supernova remnant, observed back in 1054 AD. Originally four times as bright as Venus, and visible with the naked eye in the daytime, astronomers have been watching this nebula expand for centuries:




Sky Object Name: M1
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Dec 15, 2011 11:09:23 UTC
RA: 5h34'30"
DEC: 22°01'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 90 secs.
Instrument: FS

The nebula is in Taurus, (hint, also called 'Taurus A' :-) ), and is one of the few recorded supernova in our Galaxy:



(image from British Astronomical Association (Radio Sources))

The second image was of NGC1472, showing one the brighter stars of the Pleiades cluster:

Sky Object Name: ngc1432
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Dec 15, 2011 11:14:06 UTC
RA: 3h45'48"
DEC: 24°22'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 5 secs.
Instrument: FS

This Pleiades (open cluster) is in Taurus, and is found by following Orion's belt stars:



(image Nava Ching)

From the co-ordinates, and using Deep Sky Browser, my guess is this is the star Maia:



(Image from The Encyclopedia of Science)

The next image was of M43, or De Mairan's Nebula, a hydrogen-rich region in Orion:



Sky Object Name: M43
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Dec 15, 2011 11:18:59 UTC
RA: 5h35'31"
DEC: -5°16'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: FS

If you can find Orion's Nebula, M43 is it's little brother right next to it:


(Image from Universe Today)

Next was M37, another open cluster, but this one's in Auriga:



Sky Object Name: m37
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Dec 15, 2011 11:25:06 UTC
RA: 5h52'18"
DEC: 32°33'11"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 25 secs.
Instrument: FS

This is where M37 is in Auriga, but isn't very helpful if you don't know where Auriga is (so I'll do a Constellation of the Month on it at some point! :-) ):


(Image from Wikipedia)

Lastly, M78, a reflection nebula in Orion (that means the light you see is of the bright stars reflecting off the gasses around them)This was only imaged with a blue filter:



Sky Object Name: m78
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Dec 15, 2011 11:28:37 UTC
RA: 5h46'42"
DEC: 0°03'00"
Filter: Bessell B
Exposure time: 20 secs.
Instrument: FS

found here:


(Image from Messier Telrad Finder Charts)