Back to the Stars

A couple weeks ago, on 10 May 2024, we in Northern California were treated to an almost unheard of sight at our latitude, an aurora. That evening there was a lot of chatter about it happening, but I had no idea if I’d be able to see anything from our backyard in the center of town. Once it got dark, I went outside but couldn’t tell if the pink in the sky I was seeing was from city glow or from an aurora. But maybe my camera would help me see something my eye couldn’t. So I got my camera from inside and shot some stills and video through an ultrawide lens. Success! The photo above is an eight second time exposure, and I could see motion on the video (taken with half-second exposures).

This encounter has gotten me excited about astronomy again, and in particular electronically-assisted astronomy (often abbreviated EAA). Cameras have the ability to see much fainter objects than the human eye can detect, especially through taking long time exposures. I have almost all the right equipment to dive into EAA, the one exception is that my equatorial mount, which is needed to get those long time exposures, is currently broken. I am hoping to get it repaired soon.

Meanwhile, we are being alerted to look out for the once-in-a-lifetime eruption of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis. This may happen sometime between tomorrow and the next couple of years, but most likely in the next several months.It is currently 10th magnitude, but the last time it erupted in 1946 it got up to 2nd magnitude in brightness.