Monthly Archives February 2019

Trifid Nebula (M20)

Trifid Nebula (M20) – Photo by Jeffrey Shokler

The Trifid presents the unusual combination of an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula all in one object! The Trifid lies 5,200 light years from us in the constellation Sagittarius.

Messier 21 (M21; NGC 6531) is the beautiful, small open cluster containing 57 stars that is visible to the upper left of the Trifid. M21 is 3,900 light years from us.

Canon 5D Mark II (astromodified; Baader UV/IR cut)
Stellarvue 130EDT (f7)
Celestron CGEM mount
1250 ISO
20x4min subexposures (80min/1.3hr total integration)
Guided (Lacerta MGEN II)
PixInsight (calibrated, registered, stacked, post-processed)
Photoshop (finish processing)

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MAS March Monthly Meeting

UW Collaboration on the Proposed NASA CAESAR Mission

Kyle Metzloff, Professor of Industrial Studies, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Professor Kyle Metzloff

How did a 375 lb. iron weight cast by students at UW-Madison and UW-Platteville help the CAESAR Mission get off the ground and become one of two finalists in a NASA proposal? If selected, CAESAR, which stands for Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return, would visit the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet and collect a small sample of its surface material. Led by Dr. Steve Squyres, principal investigator on NASA’s Mars exploration rovers, the device could grab at least a 100-gram sample from the nucleus of the comet and deliver it back to Earth in capsules to help demonstrate how the same materials contributed to early Earth.

The UW project entailed designing a shaped weight that had a similar radius at t...

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MAS February Monthly Meeting

Horseshoe (Photo by John Rummel)
Horseshoe (Photo by John Rummel)

Landscape Astrophotography
Presented by John Rummel

Have you been impressed (and envious) of the beautiful night landscape/sky shots you’ve seen floating around the internet? Do you wish that you could capture a breathtaking Milky Way vista above your favorite camping spot or mountain view? Odds are pretty good that you CAN do this, and that the camera that you own right now is capable of getting these shots. This presentation will show you how it’s done.

This talk will explore the photographic techniques necessary to capture thrilling and inspirational shots of the night sky with impressive terrestrial landscapes. The presentation will proceed in three parts:

1) Locating and choosing opportunities to shoot such scenes,
2) Camera settings, techniq...

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