The year of the horse starts off with a bang...literally....imaging supernova 2014J from Malibu on CNY day 31st Jan 2014

The title says it all. I traveled to Solstice Canyon in Malibu on Chinese New Year's day/night despite the "potential"for cloudy weather (forecast was for patchy clouds clearing at 1am). The skies we not totally clear at our place in Culver City but I took a leap of faith, packed the car up and headed to my fave semi dark sky spot. As always I had with me my list of "objects to image". Objects on the list this time round included NGC 2359 (Thor's Helmet) in Puppis, NGC 1514 (planetary in Taurus), some Fornax galaxies (as I discovered later were too low to image now so I have to save these for the next season), as well as some Leo galaxies (M95/M96/M105/NGC 3384 and NGC 2903). The main item for tonight's session was of course to see and image the newly spotted supernova explosion in M82 in Ursa Major, as the title of this blog implies. I decided that I was going to image from the mouth of Solstice Canyon park and risk the cops coming and paying me a visit (which they did not). Firstly this site, while more obstructed in views, is more protected from the winds (which in turn work out in my favour as the trees and canyon walls did block a bit of the howling winds...yup it was that bad!), so CCD imaging will be easier to achieve. Also since the park is closed at night, I would not be interrupted by curious onlookers, like what I experienced the last time I was at the other site further up the road. So after getting there a little after 10pm, I proceeded to set up my equipment, the NexStar 102GT and my Astroscan and its new/old Celestron red dot pointer, which is an excellent investment as I can now aim my Astroscan at anything and be on target.

"M95 Leo"

Started off the session with a little visual observing with the 102GT, after leveling the mount and doing the two star align. GOTO was pretty spot on throughout the night and I was pleased. The mount was also purring along nicely since I just changed a fresh set of 8xAA batteries for the powerpack. Generally I can do up to 4 long sessions of about 5 hours before the batteries start behaving eratic, but for imaging, I usually prefer fresh batteries. To get my eyes dark adapted, I looked at some bright open clusters, the double double in Perseus, M45; the Pleiades cluster in Taurus, M42; the great nebula in Orion, M78; Orion's reflection nebula and NGC 2359; Thor's Helmet. Since my last visual object was NGC 2359, I decided to start my imaging run with the Meade DSI. The Meade DSI is still my CCD cam of choice when it comes to "bagging" objects. I am used to its functions, it is pretty sensitive (funny how the Orion should be just as good...more on that later), and Meade Envisage automates everything, making capturing deep space panorama's a snap (no pun intended). So naturally my first target was Thor's Helmet, which was dimly visible with the NPB filter in place. The image however yielded nothing (after processing in PS back home the next day). This is very odd indeed...just like when I imaged the Veil Nebula, which was also visible faintly in the 102GT with the NPB filter in place. Something tells me I should start imaging dim nebulae with the SkyGlow filter in place, even from the darker Malibu skies. Why I have not done that is still a big mystery. My second target did the same vanishing act. No trace of NGC 1514 in my frames, despite me capturing the correct star field. Moral of the story is "use the damn SkyGlow" filter, even from Malibu!!!!!

"M96 Leo"

Galaxies were a different bag of fish though. They are heaps easier to image, their bright cores anyways. The catch is to try and bring out their delicate spiral arms. M95, M96 and M105 were easy fish to catch for the Meade DSI. My main problem this night, was like my previous outing, the winds, the howling, gusty winds. It was a good test of patience having to wait for just that precise moment when the winds died down enough for me to hit "start" and hit "stop" as soon as I started detecting the wind picking up. Needless to say I was spewing expletives when shot after shot got ruined. It was better than being at the other site though since the trees did help a little with holding the winds at bay, plus giving me warning of impending winds when the leaves start rustling.

"M105, NGC 3389 and NGC 3384 Leo"

My last imaging stop for the night was the supernova in M82, the cigar galaxy in Ursa Major. The galaxy was now riding high in the sky and was just waiting to be inspected and shot. I figured I give the Orion StarShoot Deep Space Imager II CCD a short run to see if I could get nice pics of the supernova and M82, since it is pretty bright. Using the focal point I marked on the barrel of the focuser on my 102GT OTA, I could not get anything to focus on the screen using MaxIm DL, despite changing the focus. All I got was blue noise (as opposed to white noise on the telly lol). Frustrated, I unmounted the CCD and put the Meade DSI I back in and whala.....nice colored image of M82 and the blazingly bright supernova (easily visible visually as well, despite its magnitude of 10). Satisfied with my loot for the night, I unmounted the CCD cam and packed up the NexStar 102GT.

"M82 and supernova Ursa Major"

Next on my agenda for the night was easy going, unstressful observing with the Astroscan. "Grab and Go" astronomy at its best, even better than bringing the Orion SkyScanner, because I still have to bring a tripod with me. Plus the Astroscan is just so easy to carry. Just grab it by its strap and sling it over my shoulder. No bags, etc etc to worry about. Also with the Astroscan, all I have to do it put it on the hood of my Mazda5, plonk in the TV 13T6 Nagler (somehow this combo gives the best balance between FOV, size of most objects and detail. With that I waltzed over to the galaxy rich region's, starting with Corvus and M104; the Sombrero, and then bagged M65/M66/NGC 3628, all three visible easily in the wide field 13T6 Nagler. Then I swung over to M95/M96/M105 in Leo, before plunging deep into Virgo and her host of galaxies. All major Messiers were easily visible. Then onto the Ursa Major/Canes Venatici region. M51; the whirlpool galaxy easily showed both lobes in the 13T6, M97; the Owl Nebula and then galaxies in Canes Venatici, M63 and M94. Stargazing sessions should always be like that, with a nice relaxing end to the night, just drinking in the views of faint ancient starlight.......till the next Malibu session clear transparent skies.....