I have a plan to see it with my total station tonight.
Plan is to turn the angle from Polaris or my baseline plus I calculated the zenith angle. At my latitude it is up there but I think I can do it.
It may not be bright enough yet, though.
what is your sky cover? we're o'cast here... 😐
post a pic if you can get it. 🙂
Record number of winter days, no rain.
Not a cloud to be seen.
Pics!!! Yes please post PICS!!!!
Nice article with links here:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/22/kaboom_nearby_galaxy_m82_hosts_a_new_supernova.html
Here's a pic I took of M82 on February 12, 2013:
Here it is, cropped and brightened:
I had my Nikon DSLR hooked up to an 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.
Dave
It's a bit high too see with a total station. I can look from an inch or two away but it's not easy. Also it isn't dark enough here. I did see something very faint that may be the galaxy.
If your looking for your rain, it's up here.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
500 hundred year drought down here.
From what I'm hearing, it's grim. Feel for you guys. Water is life.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
I wonder if North Korea can send someone to check this out for us?
Dave,
M82 is very faint. My photo was with an 11" diameter telescope and a thirty-second exposure on a high ISO setting. One thing I've noticed about astronomical viewing is that magnification is not nearly as important as light-gathering ability. That's why the total station is not a very good astronomy telescope. But I was impressed that you could calc the declination and right ascension. My telescope has GPS for time and earth position. You just point it at any three bright stars (you don't even need to know names) to get a tracking alignment. You then punch in "M82" and the scope slews to M82 and tracks with the apparent motion of the earth.
Because Ursa Major is fairly high in the sky, you probably would need a diagonal eyepiece adapter to comfortably view.
Dave
I got the right ascension and declination from Wikipedia for M82 and Polaris then found a website that calculated azimuth and altitude for my lat/long and time.
Dam I wish I still had money to burn!! I love this stuff.
Come to find out that the galaxy of M82 (aka Cigar Galaxy) also has a black hole candidate called M82 X-1.
Let's see you cool guys get a picture of that. 😀