Anyone who has felt inspired to photograph a particularly stunning harvest moon, sun dog or other astronomical event knows that capturing these moments requires skill and good equipment. Earlier this spring, the Division of Mathematics and Natural Sciences celebrated the purchase of a new 11-inch Celestron telescope and Canon DSLR for use in astronomy courses.

The new equipment will allow students to photograph objects in deep space, including those that are barely visible through the scope.

Professor Ray Myers explained, “This scope has a database of 10,000 objects, which its computer can track and direct the scope to find for observation and photography. It also has a guide scope system which refines the tracking so that long exposures can be taken, allowing for photography of deep space objects.”

Greenville College students have already begun taking sophisticated photos of the universe. This summer, Elle Shaw and Peter Huston worked with Myers to learn how to set up and operate the equipment during the Greenville College Summer Research Experience (GC-SRE). They took a variety of photos with the equipment.

“Our project mainly consisted of learning how the new telescope operated and it’s capabilities. We spent a lot of time learning about astrophotography, taking pictures with the telescope and brainstorming how we can best utilize the new telescope in the Planets and Stars course,” Shaw said.

Read more about the new telescope.

You can hear Shaw and Huston talk about their project and learn more about the new telescope at Homecoming 2013’s Student Summer Research Symposium.

Via: For the Record:  Greenville College’s e-newsletter http://www.greenville.edu/newsletter/student-summer-research-symposium.html

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.

New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident. A report on the analysis of this new data, an effort led by Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, is published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science.

“Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind’s historic leap into interstellar space,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. “The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we’ve all been asking — ‘Are we there yet?’ Yes, we are.”

Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of interstellar space on the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets, in 2004. Scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of the spacecraft’s interstellar arrival, knowing the data analysis and interpretation could take months or years.

via NASA Spacecraft Embarks on Historic Journey Into Interstellar Space | NASA.

New Comet Lovejoy starts out slow but quickly gains speed as it zips from near Orion in mid-September all the way to Ursa Major in November, when it will be closest to Earth. Created with Chris Marriott’s SkyMap software

Move over Comet ISON. You’ve got company.  Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy, discoverer of three previous comets, including the famous, long-tailed sungrazer C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), just added a 4th to his tally.

This new comet will add to a lineup of comets that should grace early November skies in the northern hemisphere: Comets ISON, Encke and now the new Lovejoy.

Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy photographed on Sept. 10. The comet is visible in larger amateur telescopes in September but may brighten to small scope visibility in November. Streak at right is a geostationary satellite. Credit: Michael Jaeger

The discovery of C/2013 R1 Lovejoy was announced on Sept. 9 after two nights of photographic observations by Lovejoy with an 8-inch (20 cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector. When nabbed, the comet was a faint midge of about 14.5 magnitude crossing the border between Orion and Monoceros. Subsequent observations by other amateur astronomers peg it a bit brighter at 14.0 with a small, condensed coma.

Comet Lovejoy has a small, condensed coma (head) about 30 arc seconds across with a faint, short tail in this photo made on Sept. 8. Credit: Ernesto Guido and Nick Howes

Right now you’ll need a hefty telescope to catch a glimpse of Lovejoy’s latest, but come November the comet will glow at around 8th magnitude, making it a perfect target for smaller telescopes. At closest approach on the Nov. 23, Lovejoy will pass 38.1 million miles (61.3 million km) from Earth while sailing across the Big Dipper at a quick pace.

via New Comet Discovered: Lovejoy Will Add to “Comet Lineup” in Winter Skies.