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Apogee Instruments cameras are found at premier observatories worldwide. www.ccd.com LP Apogee INSTRUMENTS INC 1020 Sundown Way Ste 150 tel 916 218 7450 re ecsdahioras Roseville CA 95661 USA fax 916 218 7451 (Aa iaragenrel rrat o poorer ceia keoN THE coven: Saturn’ icy moon Dione hovers in front of the ringed planct in this image by the Cassind spacceraft. The rings, sen nearly edge-on, cast a shadow upon the planet's northern hemisphere Courtesy NASA/JPL and Space Scence Intute RCI CCM ured se ss OBSERVING & EXPLORING | . | 38 Frosting Saturn’s Moons 46 Northern Hemisphere’s Sky With each close encounter, NASA's Cassini ae Blooms in Cancer | orbiter is revealing more and more about 48 Northern Binocular Highlight Golden Betelgeuse By Gary Seronik the ringed 49. Southern Binocular Highlight outhern Binocular Highlig planet's ‘A Cluster in Search of a Name mysterious Py be Deryane moons. 51 Southern Hemisphere's Sky An Enjoyable Latitude By Greg Bryant By David Tytell ts 52. Sun, Moon, and Planets Saturn at Its Most Inviting By Fred Schaaf 16 News Notes * Titan Discoveries + A New Class of Neutron Stars 58 Exploring the Moon + Brown-Dwarf Planets? Looking Between Craters + and more By Charles A. Wood 28. Spotlight On... Monoceros’s Many Wonders 60 Celestial Calendar Behind NGC 2264's seemingly timeless beauty is a tale of unceasing change Europe's Partial Solar Eclipse By Gisela Tels By Alan M. MacRobert 30 Deciphering the Globular-Cluster Code 61 Celestial Calendar ‘These eye-catching sights may lead the way to solving the mystery of galaxy ‘Upcoming Asteroid Occultations formation. By Christine Pla By Daold W. Dunham 43 Rambling Through the Skies: The Bow! of Night 64 Eye onthe Sky ‘The constellations Crater, Hydra, and Corvus ean carry their own water in the Charon's Canal *Sea® region of the sky. By E. C. Krupp By Stephen James O’Meara 66 Deep-Sky Wonders Dog-and-Pony Show << Atthe By Sue French Cone’s head, 69 Observer's Log dust and gas The Outer Limits: Observing 7 = Quasars at High Redshitts thin out to By James MeGaha reveal bright new stars. 6 March 2006 Sty & Telescope<< Personal star names won't make any atlas, but they serve as markers ames [sere eae of memort 74 S&T Test Report 91 Stor Trails 8 Spectrum Celestron’s Revamped 8-inch SCT Four Decades of Comet Hunting ‘The Camera Alnays Lies ‘The new line of CPC telescopes By David H. Leoy By Rickard Tresch Fienberg melds Celestron's venerable Schmidt-Cassegrain optics with a 96 Amateur Telescope Making 22 Letters state-of-the-art mount designed for ‘A Modern Long-Focus Newtonian + Desert Visions observers and astrophotographers. By Mike Lockcood + Mars Bigger, But Not Better By Adrian R. Ashford + and more 100 Hobby Q&A 78. New Product Showcase + Why does Mars look yellow in 26 "75, 50 & 25 Years Ago + Binocular Observing Chait my lo-inch scope? By Lef J. Robinson + Giant ‘Go To" Dobs ‘+ What does “true color” mean in a + Telescope Mover deep-space photograph? 26 Mission Update + and more. + What is the faintest object imaged By Jonathan McDowell by ground-based telescopes? 83. Books & Beyond 92 Community News + Digital Cameras Exposed 103 Astrophotography + Riddle Me This Deep-Sky Astrophotography 2005 93. Event Colendar + and more By Sean Walker 117 Index to Advertisers 88 Astronomy Online 106 Gollery ‘The Plurality of Worlds 448 Focal Point By Stuart |. Goldman ‘What Star Is That? By Richard Frederick Visit SkyandTelescope.com for late breaking news reports, helpful tips on observing and photographing the sky, and expert advice on choosing and using telescopes and accessories The site also features our interactive sky chart, a searchable index to Sky & Telacope, and many other useful tools << Ice crystals in the atmosphere created this light pillar. ait tas eee at se i treater) Shy & Telescope Mar 2006 7Virtually every astrophoto is a fake in one way or another. But that’s a good thing — usually. 1 March 2006 Shy & ONE OF THE PROBLEMS with truisms is that they're not always true. So it is with this one: *The camera never lies" Whoever came up with it surely wasn’t an astronomer. Astrophotos aleay lic. Here's what I mean. Except for the Sun, all stars are so far away that they're unresolved points of light. But when you photograph a patch of sky filled with stars of different brightnesses, you get @ bunch of round dots of different sizes. This happens whether you use a telescope or a cam: cra lens, and whether you use film or a silicon chip. More over, depending on what type of optics you shoot through, you might get a picture whose biggest dots ~ er, brightest stars — have spikes on them. Real stars don't have spikes. ‘And what about color? In the eyepiece of a small tele- seope, nebulae and galaxies look dim and gray: But photo- graphed through the same optis, those same nebulae and galaxies can erupt in a kaleidoscope of blues and reds ~ or maybe greens, oranges, and purples, depending on what filters you shoot through and how you combine and display the colors in your computer. Real galaxies aren't green, orange, and purple. Still, photography has been very good for astronomy, even ifthe images aren't always “real.” Long exposures of the deep sky reveal fainter, more dis tant objects than we can see by eye, with or without a telescope. Short exposures of bright solar-system ob- jects capture details normally smeared out by atmospheric seeing. All astro photos freeze time, recording the changing positions of asteroids and the changing brightnesses of variable stars Moreover, celestial images are often mysterious and beautiful, and these ‘mind-expanding views inspire the public and the govern ‘ment officials who fund astronomy research. Yet there isa downside, one that astrophotographer Dale Ireland explored a decade ago in his essay “Let the Eye Beware" (ST: June 1995, page 6}. In the nearly bygone days of the darkroom, it took a skilled practitioner to “touch up" photograph. In our modern era of digital photography, Anyone with a computer and inexpensive (even free) soft- ware can modify images, 1 think most people would agree that alittle contrast boosting, detail sharpening, and color balancing is legit: mate, even expected. But everyone would agree that putting Satumn’s rings around Mars, as done here, crosses the line from enhancement to fakery. ‘Ym not always sure exactly where that line is, but I do know that its location depends critically on context. There's a big difference, for example, between a professional astron ‘omer making an image for research purposes and an ama cope teur making one to submit to Sky & Telescope’s Gallery page. The pro mustn't do any processing that changes the relative brightnesses or colors of objects, because that would throw off any scientific measurements made from the image. The amateur, though, has earte blanche to do | whatever it takes to achieve the most pleasing result ~ as Jong as it doesn't cross that troublesome line. This reminds me of another truism, one I suspect is more true than false: “A litle knowledge is a dangerous thing” Some astrophotographers send us images that are inadvertently mirror reversed. Others send us pictures featuring ‘amazing discoveries" that are really just artifacts caused by overprocessing. Faking an astrophoto by accident is excusable, but doing it intentionally isnot. Sadly, there have been a few eases of amateurs allegedly downloading somcone else's photo off the Internet, reprocessing it, then trying to pass it off as their own. Fortunately, such information-superhighway robbery has been rare, and better digital-watermark tech nology may soon make it impossible. 1s worth remembering that photography is as much an art as a science. Every image reflects not only the hardware and software used to ereate it, but also the personality of the photographer who shoots and processes it. Astrophotos don’t necessarily show us the universe as it is, but as weyea OC Reese ee A HUBBLE FOR YOUR BACKYARD. research telescope on vanced optical system in space, Meade’s all new Ritchey-Chrétien optics within reach of aspiring ly every observatory reflector in the world is itchey-Chrétien, including NASW: Hubble § professionals own. The L hi Image-Shift Microfocu: OR includes all the field-proven rimary Mirror Lock martDrives, Smart Mount, AuroStar* II and more. Plus, mes with observatory-clas optics crafted in Irvine, California, and a 26mm 5-Element Plé iggest news in astronomy since, well, the LX2 eve.) aera!ASTROUNSTRUMENTS Th NEW! Our digital De} eto Cie eek your Kendrick heaters. New! een Cen Carry Pres Cre hae eNO E Sencar oceans Seen ne ene) rooms, one for observing, another for ere Ce eC GaSe ear en cuaurncst Pentax i rer) Seer TR i) 2920 Dundas St. W., Toronto FONT comer rr Order 800 393 5456 [Eee eL 30 March 2006 Sky & Tlescope hard Tesch Fenters, PRO eae RECIoR Senda N Selemeny evecurive t01708 J Kely Beoty AWAING eo1ToR Bud Sader Stwtoncoro8s Dennis ico Alan MecRobert: Robert Nee; enue Rat, PAD: Roger W. Sinnott [ASSOCIATE LoUTORS Ean Agu, Tony Finders, sr |. Goldnor, Got Seren, Oar Tye! {ASSSTAN B17 Uso lohstn, Seon Waler aro ction mega Boson fouronic asst hathrine Crt orton euenius La Robinson onrisurns cvs Gres Beye, es Dalrymple, Tomes A. DODDS, David W. Duar, Aen Dyer, Je Foust, Sue French, Paul Heafer, Ken Hewitt Wit, Johnny Hore, £C Krupp Davi K, Levy, JonethanMcDowel ‘Stohen loner OMeora, GvidRatedge, Fes Schoo, Cover Schling, Wiliam Sheeho, Chars A. Vcod Contour PorOSRAPHES PK. 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Federer cond Helen Spence Fede renee obipet eisa ‘Pony wes) Cag S498 (nls StThe DSI II turned my expensive cooled camera Pre Sa ett te are Cert coe Peer y , . . * s 5 : s = F 4 . * Ae Se "4 gas oo C A Aeten * otibe os - a id FP : m d P te 55 on 7 a : cs : : . Ss . — é oe —” . a, aS oe rs ee eee ori ra apa : DS OR ae oe treet te ctx) | MPR GTE EN TSA OES Cn nrc et anna) re ee > Coneereerts oer uae The user-friendly astrophotography revolution continues. Introducing the new DSI Il It combines ease-of-use with a larger chip, greater sensitivity, higher resolution, and dramatically lower thermal noise, Meade engineers have invented a remarkable new way to reduce noite without a cooler. This means you can take exposures for hours at a time, And the new thermal monitoring sensors automatically march your dark frames to ambient temperature so it’s acarly impossible to take an uncalibrated picture. The soft ware includes a new 2: ature for easier focusing and the squared pixels of the new larger chip make proc simpler and images more beaut the world’s first un-cooled camera with low thermal noMIDNIGH Ua HIGH POINT Secentifce eon a Rene on February 8th Da Th Peek ne) re Sees binoculars, accessories and more Petey elf for your good fortune and eee tel Lk) AC LSS Ve een ced ieee xolusive updates on all Midnight Madne: sale items and future great deals fr Siete) Hicu Poiwr En Sead ec Desert Visions Clyde Hostetter’s “Secking the Crescent of ‘Venus® (December 2005, page 66) men- tions “a report from the Middle Eastern desert of a Bedouin describing Venus during its crescent phase as looking like a curved, shining scimitar” T'm happy to supply the full text of this reference. It is from Charles Doughty's 1888 “Travels in Arabia Deserta," I don't have the first edition; the following quote is from the 1925 American reprint, vol. I, page 145f. Doughty is deseribing an ex. traordinary Arab marksman named Amm Mohammed, He had this good shooting of an un ‘common eyesight, which was such that very often he could see the stars at noonday.... He told me he had seen, by ‘moments, three or four litte stars abou ‘one of the wandering stars [Jupiter's ‘moonsl). Lasked then, “Sawest thou never a wandering star horned like the ‘moon? — Well, Ihave seen a star not always round, but like a blade hanging in the heaven.’ — Had this vision been {in European stargazers, the Christian generations had not so long waited for the tube of Galileo! Doughty was a very eccentric, interest {ng writer and punctuator. The “Jupiter's ‘moons! in brackets is from the original. Mrcuart C. Brownine 4267 Heather Circle W Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410 “Europe's Eye on Mars* (December 2005, page 30) by Robert Naeye contained spec- tacular pictures from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express orbiter —a litle too spectaculat. 1 was concerned to read thatthe vertical re- lief was exaggerated three oF four times in many of the pictures, and one image was exaggerated 30x! There are hills south of Santa Fe that if exaggerated 30« would Took like Mount Everest. With all the care taken to create eloseto-true-color images, why docs ESA distort the vertial relief? Is Valles Marineris not breathtaking enough unless its depth appears to be 32 kilome 2 Marc 2006 Sky & Telescope ters (20 miles) instead of the actual 8 km? appreciate that S&T noted the exaggcr- ations. Unfortunately, I've seen these pi tures in other publications, but without the notation. Obviously, this creates a very distorted view of Mars, Even with the nota tion, I find it hard to imagine the featured terrain as it rally is Rop Grascow Santa Fe, NM sreatricereomeast.net NAEVE REPLIES: Scents employ serial exaggeration to hep them study subtle variations {u topography that might there be practally {noisibe, The non-vertieally exaggerated image of Hadriaca Patera on page 36 0} my Mars Express article demonstrates that even large vol: canoes can be practically indstingulshabe when taxed from the distant perspective ofan orb ing paceeraft. Infact, «310-1 sertalesag gration i rather mld when compared to previous inages of planetary surfaces, such a the 200-1 exaggeration ased by NASA to generate topo sraphieal images deroed from Magellan radar data of Venus For the Record W The Bectlin Neugebauer object eas mislabeled (om page 27 of the January issu. It is labeled correctly below. Write to Letters to the Etor, Shy 8 Telescope, 49 Boy State Ré., Cambridge, MA 02138, or ‘send e mailto letters@SkyanTelescope.com. Please limit your comments to 250 words, Not all letters con recvive personel responses.24 ORBITING REASONS the new LX9QGPS can locate over 30,000 SCC rere esSBIG distinguish: ASTRONOMICAL SENT MOR NOK ARM TCoker ois ee What distinguishes SBIG CCD cameras? After counting pixels and comparing prices, what are the things thatthe best Pee ST NEED the world look for ina CCD camera? A professional grade camera must offer more than a paragraph of and service are paramount, Here are a few of the things that set SBIG cameras apart: PATENTED DUAL CCD SELF GUIDING: From the early days of the venerable ST-4, SBIG has been intent on providing the best autoguiding solutions for astro imagers. Our dual sensor camera design allows the imaging CCD (o continuously integrate over long exposure times while the built-in ‘guiding CCD takes short exposures of a guide star in order (o make tracking corrections during the exposure. This means there is no compromise in sensitivity of the imaging CCD during the self-guid- eee er eee es am Cee ork OL through the same optical path as the imaging CCD. There is no separate autoguider or guide scope to buy, errors caused by differential deflection of a guide scope are non-existent, and any movement ‘mirror is detected and corrected during the exposure. It is simply the best, and most ‘way to autoguide in the vast majority of eases. ADAPTIVE OPTICS: The dual sensor design of SBIG's self-guiding cameras Pr eae ec ame Le Ta Crna Oe eons rently available to amateur astronomers. By sampling a guide star on the guiding CCD at a high rate, corrections can be made to a movable mirror at Up to 40 times per second. The result isa highly stabilized image, free of mount errors, vibration, wind-induced motion, and image wander due to low order Pee eee ae Me ns eg images taken by amateurs have utilized the AO-7 to enhance the ultimate sharpness of the image. The AO-7 is compatible with all self-guiding ST-7, ST- 8, ST-9, ST-10 and S1-2000 cameras. The new AO-L Adaptive Optics device is, ere Me eae ee ees Ne Ree Re ag eo RE eee ee eee eR CO iple color imaging, the best color images are obtained using a monochrome CCD and. Pe eM ee nc eee ae Ce ego eR So color balance and greater control. A separate filter wheel also allows for narrow band imaging through H-alpha filters, or through UBVRI filters for photometric studies. Our color filters are Pecretes Mne eenM eeee ea estas eee Peer ee gee eee Rene Cm eee found anywhere. The CFWS