Happy Mardi Gras.
It's just a day off at CrabAppleLane these days. I'm certain I'll catch the Mardi Gras spirit again one day but I haven't yet.
I mentioned a cool use of FlickR the other day here. I forgot all about it this weekend but had the day off today to tinker around so I broke out the tripod, set the camera on it with the widest aperture and the slowest shutter speed, went outside and snapped three pictures. I uploaded to FlickR as per instructions and then went about my business.
CrabAppleLane Night Sky - February 24, 2009
Less than 15 minutes later, I got a response on this one that reads:
astrometry.net says:
Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center:(92.3657322745, 31.5703696947) degrees
(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S):(06:09:27.776, +31:34:13.331)
Orientation:72.57 deg E of N
Pixel scale:75.80 arcsec/pixel
Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
Field size :68.72 x 51.54 degrees
Your field contains:
The star Capella (αAur)
The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
The star Pollux (βGem)
The star Bellatrix (γOri)
The star Elnath / El Nath (βTau)
The star Alnilam (εOri)
The star Menkalinan (βAur)
The star Alhena (γGem)
The star Castor (αGem)
The star Alnitak (ζOri)
NGC 1499 / California nebula
View in World Wide Telescope (Requires install)
If you go to my FlickR site (Just click on the picture), my image will have little squares all over it identifying the objects listed. Coolness times 1000.
CrabAppleLane Night Sky - February 24, 2009 - 2nd upload
This one took a little longer to get a result but here it is:
astrometry.net says:
Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center:(92.1846782404, 31.5523572596) degrees
(RA, Dec) center (H:M:S, D:M:S):(06:08:44.323, +31:33:8.486)
Orientation:71.47 deg E of N
Pixel scale:75.52 arcsec/pixel
Parity:Reverse ("Left-handed")
Field size :68.47 x 51.35 degrees
Your field contains:
The star Capella (αAur)
The star Betelgeuse (αOri)
The star Pollux (βGem)
The star Bellatrix (γOri)
The star Elnath / El Nath (βTau)
The star Mirfak (αPer)
The star Alnilam (εOri)
The star Menkalinan (βAur)
The star Alhena (γGem)
The star Castor (αGem)
NGC 1499 / California nebula
View in World Wide Telescope (Requires install)
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If you would like to have other images solved, please submit them to the astrometry group.
Quote of the Day
Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver.
astrometry.net
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "Perhaps more important is the joint recognition of both the University of Texas and Texas A&M astronomy research groups. Modern astronomy research requires ever-more collaboration among institutions, and Texas astronomy is much more than just the group of us here in Austin."
What a very cool toy indeed!
That is cool. Thanks for pointing it out.
Thanks, Fi and Dave,
I'll give it a little more thought and planning the next time. This was a point-and-shoot-let's-see-if-it-works-or-if-I-can-do-it effort. Now that I know what to do, I'll have a better idea.