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AG
Auto guided. i.e., use of a computer and electronic camera (ccd -charge coupled device) to
control the telescope movement.
B
"Catalogue of 349 Dark Objects in the Sky" by E.E. Barnard (1927).
Ced
"Catalogue of Bright Diffuse Galactic Nebulae" by S. Cederblad (1946).
DS
Lumicon Deepsky filter, used to reduce (filter) the urban light pollution.
It is a rejection type filter allowing only certain wavelengths of light to pass through.
FS-128
Refers to a Takahashi 128mm aperture 1080mm focal length refracting telescope. Refractors
are the conventional type telescope where light enters the front of the scope and is
brought to a focal point by a series of lens.
Hypered
Refers to the process of replacing the water molecules in film emulsions with a mixture of
hydrogen and/or nitrogen molecules usually through a process of vacuuming the air from a
container containing the film and replacing the air with the forming gas at a specific
temperature for a period of time. This process changes the reciprocity failure property
allowing the film to record light over a longer period of time.
IC
The "Index Catalogue", published in 1895, is a supplement to the "New
General Catalogue". There is another supplement entitled "Second Index
Catalogue" published in 1908 and referred to as IC2.
IDA
The "International Darksky Association", an organization dedicated to preserving
the night time environment through educating people about proper use of lighting.
M
Messier catalogue; The list of brighter objects compiled by Charles Messier
(1730-1817), the comet hunter. Messier's was the first systematic effort to compile
a list of deep sky objects and numbers 110 objects (there is some dispute as to the actual
number of objects catalogued by Messier). The list was created to provide a
means of rapidly identifying objects that might be confused with comets.
Charles Messier used a 4" refractor for his work consequently his catalogue of
deep space objects are the brighter objects available for viewing in small scopes.
Nebulae
From the Latin work meaning 'fuzzy'.
A cloud like aggregation of gas and/or dust associated with star forming regions and in
the case of planetary nebula, the death of stars. Nebulae are typically classified as:
Bright Emission Nebulae
These shine by absorbing light from nearby energetic stars causing the atoms in the
absorbing material (usually hydrogen gas) to become ionized and to emit visible light
when the atom shifts back to the lower energy state.
Bright Reflection Nebulae
As the name implies, light from nearby stars is reflected by dust or gas in the nebula.
Planetary Nebulae
Nebula formed by the ejection of the outer shell of a star. Called planetary because of
the disk like appearance in small telescopes.
Dark Nebulae
Dense areas of dust that obscure the light from nebulae/stars behind the dust .
Newtonian
A type of telescope using a front surfaced parabolic mirror to collect light and bring to
a focal point for examination by the observer. Named after Sir Isaac Newton the British
theorist.
NGC
"New General Catalogue" (Dreyer, 1888), the original title was "New General
Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars". The NGC was inspired by and built
on the observations of the Herschels.
Star Clusters
Star cluster are normally classified as `Open Clusters' or as 'Globular
Clusters'.
Open clusters are relatively young stars and are almost always found along the Milky
Way. The youngest open cluster are still shrouded by the remnants of the gas out of
which they were formed.
Globular Clusters are characterized by a densely packed circular grouping of stars.
They are among the oldest objects found in galaxies. Globulars orbit the
parent galaxy forming a galactic halo. A single globular cluster may contain over
100,000 stars.
ST-10XME
SBIG CCD (charge coupled device) camera designed for digital astrophotography. The
camera records only in shades of gray requiring a series of images be recorded through
different filters (Red, Green, Blue, Clear) and combined to form a color image.
Combining RGB produces a color image, adding the Clear or Luminance channel increases the
detail in the image. An image listed as RGB (see NGC 7023) is a combination of the
images acquired through the three colored filter, an image listed as LRGB includes a
luminance channel to increase detail without saturating the color.
PPF/PJM/TechPan/PJ400/LE400/SUPRA
Kodak film identified by the Emulsion.
PPF = Kodak Pro 400.
PJM = Kodak Ektapress Multispeed.
TechPan = Kodak technical pan film.
PJ400 = Kodak Ektapress PJ400.
LE400 = Kodak Ektapress, same as PJ400.
SUPRA = Kodak Pro. Supra 400.
Interesting numbers
1 AU(astronomical unit - distance from sun to earth) = 93,000,000 Miles,
1 LY(light year) = 63,000 AU=6 trillion miles.
If one AU was scaled to 1 inch then a scale model of our solar system would have the earth
1 inch from the sun, Pluto 3 feet 4 inches from the sun, Voyager 1 is 5 feet 10 inches,
Pioneer 10 is 6 feet 8 inches, the nearest star to our solar system 3.67 miles away and to
the nearest neighbor galaxy (Andromeda) 1.99 million miles.
Disturbing thought
Mortality means we will never know the answer.
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