Central Valley Astronomers

Mars Rover Perseverance first images. https://www.space.com/perseverance-mars-rover-first-photos

This will be good to watch. NASA's Perseverance Rover is scheduled to land on Mars tomorrow (Thursday, 2/18) at 12:55 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (which will be ...3:55 p.m. Eastern Standard Time). NASA's webcats for the event will begin at 11:15 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. You may watch it here: https://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-s or, if you have difficulty, here: https://www.space.com/ or, if you have difficulty, here: https://www.youtube.com/nasa The NASA Mars Perseverance Rover is the first spacecraft purpose-designed to search for life on another planet since the NASA Viking 1 and 2 landers became the first spacecraft to land 100% successfully on Mars in 1976. The NASA Mars Perseverance Rover will also carry the Mars Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first aircraft designed to fly in the atmosphere of a world other than Earth. The landing will necessarily be preceded by "7 minutes of terror," in which the spacecraft will be totally on its own. Let's hope the AI algorithm in the landing software works, otherwise it will become a very expensive piece of wreckage on Mars. When I watched this during the landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover in 2012, the suspense was very much like watching a Project Apollo launch or landing. Don't miss it!

We're live on Zoom and Facebook Live for our January 2021 meeting!

Ryan Ledak: Went out with Hubert to practice our beginner astrophotography skills last night since it was relatively clear. Finally figured out a work around that lets me take longer exposures with my a7s, so I was able to get 2:30 exposures. Makes a big difference, especially when new processing techniques are used as well. I included my last attempt for comparison. Orion's Belt and accompanying nebulae: A faint M78, The Flame, Horsehead, Running Man and M42/43. A bi...t of Barnard's loop can barely be seen on the left side. If you can get to a dark spot, the whole Orion area is a sight to behold, even with no telescopes or cameras. One of my favorite parts of the night sky. A big help from AstroFarsography on Youtube for his tutorial on GIMP (free photo manipulation software, kinda' like Photoshop).

Mars on October 13, 2020 at opposition. A team effort by Ryan Ledak and Hubert Cecotti. While we were waiting for Mars, I decided to test out my 135mm f/2 lens on M31. It's always cool to see it on the computer screen and see it's real!

Today is International Astronomy Day! Get outside tonight and enjoy the sky, stars, Moon, and planets.Today is International Astronomy Day! Get outside tonight and enjoy the sky, stars, Moon, and planets.

It looks like Sierra Remote Observatories dodged a bullet with the Creek Fire. https://www.sierra-remote.com/creek-fire.html

Hi all, Last night I was able to capture Messier 27 - Dumbbell Nebula with still a smokey atmosphere from the fires. Celestron 8 EdgeHD ZWO ASI294MC Pro 20 subs x 240 sec exposures

What was the Hubble Space Telescope looking at on your birthday? Click the NASA link to find out. https://www.nasa.gov//goddard/what-did-hubble-see-on-your-

This Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday evening, August 11-13, get outside and enjoy the cool evenings. The Best meteor shower of the year will be this week. The Moon rises around 12:30 am. Wear mosquito repellent, dress for the weather, and maintain social distance please.

CVA is watching SpaceX crew Dragon, Bob and Doug, return to Earth for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida for the first time. https://youtu.be/H-l6f4wcv2I

Tonight’s moon. First image is black & white, second is normal color, the third is purposefully over exposed to show the dark area of the moon.

A nice evening up at the heli-spot off 180 outside Dunlap. Went up for one last look at the comet NEOWISE. It was hard to get a better photo than the one I to...ok at Courtright reservoir last weekend since we were looking more west into the Fresno light pollution. I was feeling lazy and didn't really want to get out my scope, so I decided to use just my wide angle lens and also get the galactic core with Jupiter and Saturn as well as try for Andromeda and the Double Cluster as they came up over the ridge. I don't know if there was solar activity or what, but there are interesting green lines going through the east facing photo. Apparently Hubert and I aren't the only people who know about this location since there were at least a dozen other people up there. Was nice to do a bit of outreach for a change.

Saturn at Courtright reservoir. A team effort with Hubert Cecotti.