Observing with NASA: First Results

I was emailed the results of my remote robotic observing session of the Ring nebula from Observing with NASA . It took 24 hours – not bad. A filtered image, it was about the same quality as my Meade 6600 Newtonian at home could get with light pollution and with low magnification. The weather was not 100% clear, but you can see the nebula at the bottom of the screen. The top-right looks like rain drops. The image was taken with a waxing Moon: hence the brightness. One strange thing: The subject header on my response email from them was “Dear MicroObservatory Guest Observer, Your Observing With NASA images of Trifid Nebula are ready!” I requested an image of the Ring Nebula…

Here are a couple more images of M57, reduced noise Green and Red filter respectively. Click each image to enlarge:

Telescope settings :
Header:

Observer’s Username: moguest
Object: Ring Nebula M57
Filenames: RingNebulaM5100302102437.GIF and RingNebulaM5100302102437.FITS
Date: Tue, Mar 02, 2010
Start Exposure: 05:24:37 AM
Reference Number: moguest-03/01-12:22:41g
Comments: MicroObservatory is run by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Town: Cambridge
State: MA
Country: USA
Telescope’s Name: Annie

Camera:

Camera: Main
Exposure Time: 60.00 sec.
Filter: Red
Focus Value: 450
Zoom: Out

Coordinates:

Celestial:
Right Ascension: 18h 54.0m
Declination: 33 degrees 02 minutes

Terrestrial:
Altitude: 58 degrees 29.2 minutes
Azimuth: 94 degrees 21.4 minutes

Misc:

Hour Angle: -3h 26.2m
Local Siderial Time: 11:19:41
Greenwich Mean Time: 10:24:37
End Exposure: 05:25:39 AM
Longitude: 71.13
Latitude: 42.38
Mode of Operation: Interactive over WWW.
Tracking: Sidereal
CCD Temp: 262.00
Ambient Temp: 277.00
Circuit Temp: n/a
Finder Offsets: none

One comment on “Observing with NASA: First Results”

I read someplace that NASA decided to do a manned mission to Mars by August, 1982, but the fact that Viet Nam war was far too expensive. This sort of mission would have been a drop within the fiscal bucket, when compared to military spending back then. When comparing the worthiness of a manned mission to Mars to that of slugging it out in Southeast Asia, I vote Mars, entirely. We lost Viet Nam; what a waste. We lost our earlier trip to Mars; what a waste. Now, we certainly have economical woes and budget cuts. Again, Mars takes the back seat simply to fall out of the vehicle. What can we do to avoid strike three?

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