Kree Skrull Alliance Circle Logo for Emperor Hulkling

I recognize that this is extremely nerdy and not entirely astronomy related (although not NOT astronomy related) but I haven't seen a high quality version of this anywhere online so I decided to make one myself and post it in case anyone else is looking for it. If you read Marvel comics, this is the concentric circle logo for the Kree Skrull Alliance, basically the emblem for Emperor Hulkling's reign as Dorrek VIII, King of Space.

Click for full size version

And then here's one with a transparent background:

Click for full size version

I'm not sure if Blogger is compressing the colors or something because they look a little bit off but close enough. I got the color straight from the swatches in the design. 

According to the original design by Valerio Schiti, inker on the Empyre books, the logo is a planet with two orbiting rings around it as viewed from above to represent "2 people 1 goal". 

Well anyway, I hope I saved someone out there a few minutes of searching to have these more readily available online. Enjoy!

Here is a slightly different color and size that I saw in S.W.O.R.D. #7 (a great Hulkling issue, no spoilers). 

May 2021 Lunar Eclipse Clickbait

I have a love/hate relationship with local news outlets capitalizing on astronomical events. Do I want the public to be interested in what's happening in the night sky above them? Absolutely! But I feel like hijacking this fascination with downright misleading headlines and articles is not only dishonest, but actually makes the real thing seem more commonplace. 

Check out these tweets:

"How to see it"? Simple, just move to Colorado

Yes "mark your calendar" for 7:00am but the moon sets at 6:26am

Most articles I've seen are at least helpful in linking to the end-all-be-all eclipse resource timeanddate.com, which has interactive maps and guides for not just the May 26 eclipse, but all future eclipses. 

Here is the timeanddate.com eclipse page for Indianapolis that shows everything we have coming up.

The landing page for the May 26 eclipse that has an interactive map where you can search for what to expect in different cities. The helpful icon shows the maximum eclipse visible before the moon sets, and lists times for each phase (and whether the moon is below the horizon). 

Basically this post is a big fan plug for timeanddate.com, it's seriously awesome!

You can also preview the eclipse in different night sky apps, like Stellarium (which is totally free). In this image I was able to generate a simulation of what the eclipse would look like from my exact location in Noblesville. This is what the lunar eclipse will look like in Noblesville on May 26, 2021 at 6:00am:

This shows at 6:00am the moon will be a little more than 3° above the horizon, and remember that your pinky fingernail held at arm's length is about 1° elevation, so you'd need a very unobstructed view of the horizon. 

So if you are really excited about a partial lunar eclipse low to the horizon on May 26 in Indiana, great! But if you were expecting to gaze up at a blood red moon overhead, now you can sleep in. 

Using RGB Channel Data to Process Raw Images from Mars Perseverance Rover

Learn something new everyday! I was just scrolling on Twitter when I saw my astronomy crush Will Gater tweet about using the raw black and white images from the Perseverance Rover on Mars to create colored images. Here's how to do it yourself, and a little about how it works.

My color processed image from Mars!

Any 24-bit color image is really made up of 3 individual 8-bit images - one for red, one for green, and one for blue (Wikipedia). These are referred to as RGB channel data. But how can a black and white image represent a color? The black and white images show how prominent the color is - the white represents the color and the black represents the absence of the color. So the brighter the image, the more of that color is present. 

All you have to do to get a color photo out of the individual 8-bit images is the combine them. All the information is already right there, you just have to tell the computer which black and white image represents which color channel. 

Alright so the first thing you need is raw RGB channel images from Mars. Luckily NASA has tons of free images that you can use. After all, your taxes paid to get this rover to Mars in the first place. Here's a link to the page where you can download raw images: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/

I just looked for 3 of the same image in the gallery assuming the 3 nearly identical images go together to create one color photo. The next bit took me a second, which one is which color? It's a safe bet that if you have a photo of the red soil that red should be the brightest image. I played around with it for a bit and then realized the photos are actually labeled in the file name. Here are the 3 raw images I used to make my photo: Red, Green, Blue

Next, assign the images to the RGB channel layers in Photoshop. This is actually really easy. I watched this helpful video, but I think I can just show you in screen shots.

First open all 3 images. Start with the red image (says NLR in file name) and then go to the Channel tab in the bottom right. All 3 channels are the same because this is a black and white image. All you have to do is copy the green image and paste it into the green tab, copy the blue image and paste it into the blue tab, and that's it!

Click the Channel tab then click on a layer to paste the image for that color. If you started with the red image, you only have to paste blue and green to complete it

You will see the color change after each layer you add, and the final image is all 3 channels combined

I didn't do much post processing at all, just adjusted the white balance to the body of the rover ever so slightly. How cool is this! This color photo hasn't even been released to the public yet but I created it myself from the raw images. 

The Great Conjunction, Saturn and Jupiter with Visible Moons at 300mm

I didn't have high hopes to get a glimpse of the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter this month. I've gotten my hopes up too many times and gotten burned by Indiana weather in December. Like my husband says, better to be pessimistic and pleasantly surprised if it works out. When I saw the clouds clearing up a bit this evening around sunset, I dusted off my camera and tripod. 

The conjunction wasn't visible at first, so I used a great iPhone app one-two punch to find what I was looking for. First I opened Star Walk and found Saturn, then clicked for more information to get the exact altitude (degrees above the horizon) and azimuth (horizontal degrees clockwise from true north). So this gave me the numbers for where Saturn should appear.

Next, I use one of my absolute favorite apps called Theodolite that uses the camera with on-screen display that shows altitude, azimuth, lets you take screen shots, and a whole bunch of other things. It feels like a professional grade surveyor app. So knowing Saturn should be about 15° above the horizon and 222° SW it was a snap finding where I should be pointing to make sure I had a clear view over the tree line. 

Once the sky got a little darker it was obvious because Jupiter and Saturn are so bright, but I think the planning helped me decide if I should even bother setting up in the backyard or if my view would be completely blocked. 

I was pleased I could get some trees in the foreground rather than just the conjunction against a wash background. Here's what I got...

Jupiter and Saturn taken with DSLR on fixed tripod, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 800, 0.3 sec

Same photo as above with labels added

Screen shot of Theodolite app tagging the Alt/Az of the conjunction and timestamp

I learned from the my comet Neowise photo that if I tweet at Sean Ash he'll sometimes feature astronomical photos on the WHTR Indianapolis channel 13 evening news, and sure enough he asked if he could feature the photo that same night. I'm famous! 

c/2020 F3 NEOWISE at 5:01am from Indiana July 13, 2020

Visible to the naked eye this morning. Comet c/2020 F3 NEOWISE at 5:01 a.m. facing NE in Noblesville, Indiana. Shot with DSLR on tripod.

Canon T5i, ISO 3200, 75mm, f/4, 4s

I set an alarm for 4:30 a.m. but I was up at 4:15 because I was too excited. I made some coffee and doused myself in bug spray, ready to head out to a spot I scouted the evening before with Chris. I used an app called Theodolite to scout my location because it accurately measures through my iPhone the direction and elevation of the crosshairs in my camera viewfinder so I can tell if I have a clear view of the NE sky at 10 degrees above the horizon. 

I didn't even have time to drink my coffee. I figured I'd be waiting around for the comet to rise above the building across the street, but I guess I under estimated how high it would be by 5am. When I got to the sidewalk, I quickly got my bearings spotting Venus and Aldebaran in close conjunction and looked to the left. 

Dawn was quickly approaching, and I just used the spray and pray method, using all different combinations of duration and ISO so that I wouldn't come home with a bunch of streaky blurry or extremely noisy shots. I didn't do anything fancy, these are just single exposures and I turned the yellow tint down ever so slightly because I was surrounded by street lights. 

Canon T5i, ISO 3200, 55mm, f/5.6, 8s

15 minutes later already much lighter

Canon T5i, 300mm, ISO 3200, f/5.6, 2.5s