SIERRA COLLEGE
ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT

Gallery of Current Investigations


This is a set of images as a slide show from Atronomy 14 Spring '06

(Click the image for a view of the slide show)




This is a set of images as a slide show from Atronomy 14 Fall '05

(Click the image for a view of the slide show)




This is an animation of asteroid 1994kw as it passed by the earth....(Click image to start animation)


This is an image of the galaxy cluster AGC 2151 in Hercules (16h 05m R.A 17o 45' Dec.). This galaxy cluster contains examples of all types of galaxies – spirals, ellipticals and irregulars. There are many small companion galaxies in the field. The upper image was obtained at KAO at the Sierra College observing site by Dave Kenyon. The instrument used was a 20.3 cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in visual light with a 10 minute integration time. The lower image is from the Palomar Sky Survey. This shows the sensitivity of modern CCD cameras. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of two spiral galaxies M65 and M66 in Leo (11h 20m RA, 13o 03' Dec). These galaxies are about 29 million light years away, and are about 180,000 light years apart. Note the prominent spiral structure of these galaxies. This image was obtained KAO at the Sierra College Observing site by Dave Kenyon. The instrument used was a 20.3 cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in visible light. The image is a 30 minute integration. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the supernova remnant M-1, also known as the Crab Nebula in Taurus (05h 34m RA, 22o01' Dec). The nebula is the remains of a star which consumed the fuel in it’s core, left the main sequence and exploded in 1054 AD to form the glowing nebula. M-1 lies within the Milky Way Galaxy 6300 light years away. The nebula is about 6 light years across. This image was obtained at KAO by Dave Kenyon at the Sierra College Observatory sight. The instrument used was a 20.3cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in red, green and blue light. The image is the combination of 5 minute images in red and green and a 30 minute blue image. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the edge on spiral galaxy NGC 4565 in Coma Berenices (12h 36m R.A 25o 59' Dec.). Note the dust lane along the edge of the galactic disk. This galaxy is about 20 million light years away. It contains more than 3 billion stars and is 90,000 light years in size. There are a few small companion galaxies in the field as well. This image was obtained at KAO at the Sierra College observing site by Dave Kenyon. The instrument used was a 20.3 cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in visual light with a 30 minute integration time. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy located at RA= 13h 28m, Dec= 47o 27'. This galaxy can be found off the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. The galaxy is 35 million light years away, and contains 160 billion Suns. M51 is about 100 thousand light years across. Note that the smaller elliptical galaxy which is passing by M51 has gravitationally distorted one of the spiral arms. This image was captured by Dave Kenyon from the Sierra Collage observing site at KAO. It is a 10 minute exposure in visual light through a 20.3 cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the Moon during a lunar eclipse in September 1996. The moon turns red to orange during an eclipse due to the sunlight in the red portion of the spectrum being refracted by the earth’s atmosphere. Dave Kenyon captured this event from Rocklin using a 135 mm camera lens set to f2.8 and ASA 400 film. The shutter was opened for ½ second. Note the star to the moon’s upper left. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the North Celestial Pole often referred to as star trails. Note that the stars do have color. Polaris is the brightest star in the very center. The instrument used was a 55 mm camera lens set to f2.8 and ASA 1000 film. The shutter was opened for 45 minutes. Note the airplane (red dotted line near the bottom of the page. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the spiral galaxy M-31, "The Great Andromeda Galaxy" in Andromeda (00h 43m RA, 41o 16' Dec). This galaxy is about 2.2 million light years away. It contains more than 300 billion stars, and is one of the largest galaxies known with a diameter of around 180K light years. With a visual magnitude of 3.5 it is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. This image was obtained KAO at the Sierra College Observing site by Dave Kenyon. The instrument used was a 20.3 cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in visible light. The image is four 5 minute exposures in red and green light and eight 5 minute exposures in blue light summed together. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the sun taken on September 25th at 5:05 P.M. P.D.T. from the Sierra College campus. The image is projected from a telescope on to a flat screen and photographed with a camera. The dark spot on the sun is a sunspot. Sunspots are magnetic storms which appear from time to time on the sun. They appear darker because they are cooler than the surface of the sun. This one is about a dozen times the size of the earth. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the diffuse gaseous nebula M-42, also known as the Great Nebula in Orion (05h 35m RA, -05o 27' Dec). The nebula is considered to be the finest example of this type. It is the "middle star" in the sword of Orion. M-42 lies within our own galaxy Milky Way Galaxy 1700 light years away and is about 30 light years across. This vast cloud of hydrogen and dust is forming stars, and contains enough material for over 10,000 stars. This image was obtained at KAO by Dave Kenyon at the Sierra College Observatory sight. The instrument used was a 20.3cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in red, green and blue light. The image is the combination of 5 minute images in red and green and a 15 minute blue image. The two vertical lines are artifacts due to blooming of the CCD pixels. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the edge on spiral galaxy NGC 891 in Andromeda (02h 23m RA, 42o 21' Dec). This galaxy is about 43 million light years away. It contains more than 1.5 billion stars. Note the prominent dust lane along the disk edge and the companion galaxies in the field. This image was obtained KAO at the Sierra College Observing site by Dave Kenyon. The instrument used was a 20.3 cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in visible light light. The image is a 60 minute exposure. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of Comet C/1999 S4 (Linear) taken on July 24th, 2000 at 07:00 UT. The comet was 0.38 AU's from earth at magnitude 5.7 as it passed under the bowl oft the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). The image was captured by Dave Kenyon at KAO from the Sierra College Astronomy Observatory site. The instrument used was a 20.3 cm reflector using an ST-7 digital camera in visible light. The image is the sum of sixty (60) 10 second exposures aligned on the comet nucleus. Note that both a gas tail (straight) as well as a dust tail (curved) is visible. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus (22h 35m RA, 34o 10' Dec). Our own galaxy The Milky Way may look very similar. This galaxy is about 50 million light years away. It contains more than 100 billion stars. Note the companion galaxies in the field as well. This image was obtained at Kitt Peak National Observatory on 6/7/00 by Dave Kenyon. The instrument used was a 35.6 cm Schmitt-Cassegrain telescope using an ST-8 digital camera in red, green and blue light. The image is the sum of four (4)sets 10 minute exposures aligned on the foreground stars each set in red, green and blue. (Click image to expand)


This is an image of the planetary nebula M-27, also known as the Dumb-Bell Nebula in Vulpecula (19h 59m RA, 22o 43' Dec). The nebula is the atmosphere of a star which consumed the fuel in it's core, left the main sequence and expelled it's outer shell to form the glowing nebula. M-27 lies within our own galaxy Milky Way Galaxy 900 light years away. The nebula is about 2.5 light years across. This image was obtained at KAO by Dave Kenyon at the Sierra College Observatory sight. The instrument used was a 20.3cm reflecting telescope using an ST-7 digital camera in red, green and blue light. The image is the combination of 10 minute images in red and green and a 40 minute blue image. (Click image to expand)
 
Return to Home Planet (Sierra College Astronomy Home Page)
For questions or comments regarding this page, contact the Astronomy Department Webmaster
Information about Sierra College can be obtained from the Sierra College Web Site
 
This web page was last updated on 11/05/06 11:34 AM
 
Page contents © 2001-2006 Sierra College Astronomy Department