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Steve Boerner
Chesterfield, MO 63017
AL Member-at-Large
To qualify for the Astronomical League's Herschel II Observing Program certificate and pin, you must complete these requirements:
Observe the 400 objects listed in this manual and record your observations.
Develop object descriptions that will include at a minimum:
Date and Time (local or UT)
Site (including Latitude and Longitude)
Seeing and Transparency
Instrument used
Eyepiece used and Magnification
Object descriptions of the 400 objects in your own words, based on your observations
Scope and Imaging Data:
The entries below are in AL# order grouped 50 per page with links to the next page at the bottom. See the Slooh Scope tab above or click here for information on Slooh locations, scopes, presets, and weather/sky condition descriptions. In all images below North is Up and East is to the Left. Precise directions are best seen on the plate solved image for each object.
Images were taken with monochrome cameras using LRGB filters. In most cases the L image is presented due to my R/G color blindness. In some cases the L image was poor/bad/unavailable. That was particularly true with later exposures with the Canary Two scope which was developing issues in the fall of 2022 that lead to it being replaced. In cases where a R or G filtered image was used the information is included below.
Image formats and post processing:
Slooh saves images in two formats: fits and jpgs. Slooh calibrates, stacks, and adjusts gamma based on preset prior to saving the image as a jpg. Fits are calibrated, saved but not stacked. For all non OSC images the generic preset was used.
The Slooh images were post processed with PhotoShop utilizing curves, sharpening, noise removal, burning, and Carboni's Astro Tools on an as needed basis.
Note: I've very red/green colorblind so the images below are monochrome.
I've included an nova.astrometry.net plate solved image for each target to ensure the correct field and target are identified. The plate solved image shows directions (N & E) along with a scale to show the FOV.
While I did image the 400 targets in the program I've also included notes about each target. When possible I've included my estimate of the object's "class"... Shapley-Sawyer for globular cluster, Trumpler for open clusters and Hubble type and classification for galaxies. Rather than measure the major and minor axis and apply the formula for ellipticals I estimated the "roundness" to come up with the Ex value (0-7). I found the image of the Hubble Tuning Fork at the left from Cosmos to be helpful for galaxies. I've yet to learn about classifying PN so no comments on classification for those.
In addition to the classification I've tried to include information about other NGC/Messier object in the field and the position angle (PA) measured counter clockwise (towards east) from north.
The web pages with images get a bit unwieldy with more than 100 images so I've separated the four hundred targets into groups of fifty. Click on the link to go to a particular page or take the link at the bottom of one of the eight pages to go to the next one.
I'd like to say that this program gave me the opportunity to learn how to identify and classify galaxies according to the Hubble system. I found the most difficult part to be estimating the PA for barred spiral galaxies. In many cases the angle of the bar was very prominent but the actual angle of the faint outer reaches of the galaxy as a whole was very difficult to see.
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