gallery

Solar Halo (left)

b y A L E S K O L A R
Photographer Ales Kola r captured this vivid solar
halo above Arizonas Grand Canyon on May 20,
1997. Formed by tiny ice crystals in high-altitude
cirrostratus clouds, this small halo has a radius
slightly larger than 22. The horizontal band below
the Sun is a jet contrail.

Spiral Galaxy M101 (lower left)

by HERMANN VON EIFF
Large and diffuse, M101 in Ursa Major is visible in
binoculars in a dark sky. It is an excellent example
of a face -on spiral with open arms, many of which
contain bright starclouds originally cataloged as
separate NGC objects before they were recognized
as all being part of one system.

Cone Nebula (facing page, top)

by CARL WEBER
This rich section of the winter Milky Way in Monoceros
is dominated by the red emission nebula NGC 2264
surrounding the aptly named Christmas Tree Cluster,
which is topped by the dark Cone Nebula. (The
Christmas Tree, made of blue stars, appears upside
down here, and the blue nebulosity is near its base.)
At upper right is the rich open cluster Trumpler 5.
Hubbles Variable Nebula, NGC 2261, appears as a
small fan of bluish light at lower right.

Solar Views (facing page, bottom)

b y G I O VA N N I D A L L A G O
Italian amateur Giovanni Dal Lago recorded these
detailed views of prominences along the Suns limb
last May 9th (left) and 13th (right). These CCD images
were made through a filter that passes only hydro-
gen-alpha light. The relatively long exposures needed
to capture prominences caused the Suns disk to be
greatly overexposed; it was digitally blackened in the
May 9th view but replaced with a properly exposed
image in the view obtained on the 13th.

134 September 1998 Sky & Telescope 1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope September 1998 135
136 September 1998 Sky & Telescope 1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
Clavius Close-Up (facing page, upper left)
by UWE GEORG THEIN
An arc of five craters marks the floor of the 140-mile
crater Clavius in this photograph made last April 4th. On
Claviuss northeastern rim, at the 9 oclock position in
this view, is the 32-mile-diameter crater Porter, named
for American amateur Russell W. Porter (18711949),
who popularized amateur telescope making and helped
found the Stellafane convention held each summer in
Springfield, Vermont.

Summer Starscape (facing page, upper right)

by CARL MILAZZO
The bright stars of the Summer Triangle Vega,
Deneb, and Altair (beneath arch) serve as the back-
drop for this bridge spanning 18 Mile Creek in Hamburg,
New York, which was illuminated with a flashlight during
the brief exposure.

Warp Speed (facing page, bottom)

by JOE MIZE
What began as a normal photograph of the summer
Milky Way in Cygnus ended up as this interesting image
when the zoom control on the 28-200-millimeter lens
slowly slipped, changing the lenss effective focal length
during a 1-hour exposure from Chiefland, Florida.

Stardust Near and Far (upper right)

by HERMANN VON EIFF
The large open cluster M35 in Gemini is a superb target
for binoculars and low-power telescopes. The 19th-cen-
tury astronomer William Lassell noted that nothing
but a sight of the object itself can convey an adequate
idea of its exquisite beauty. The open cluster NGC
2158 at lower right is about five times more distant; its
much fainter and better suited for 6-inch and larger
telescopes.

Niagara at Night (lower right)

by CARL MILAZZO
Prominent stars in the summer Milky Way from Sagit-
tarius to Aquila are suspended above Niagara Falls on
the border between the United States and Canada near
Buffalo, New York.

1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope September 1998 137

HOW THEY DID IT
Solar Halo
Nikon F-801s camera with 20-mm lens. 1500 -second
exposure at f/11 on ISO 200 Fujicolor film.
Spiral Galaxy M101
Astro-Physics 6-inch refractor working at f/7.3. 1-hour
exposure on Kodak Pro Gold 400 color-negative film.
Field 20' wide centered at 14h 03.3m, +54 21'; north
is up.
Cone Nebula
Astro-Physics 6-inch f/7 refractor with a field flatten-
er. Two 50-minute exposures on gas-hypersensitized
120-format Kodak Pro 400 PPF color-negative film.
Negatives scanned and digitally combined with
Adobe Photoshop. Field 213 wide centered at 6h 40m,
+9 34; north is at upper left.
Solar Views
Takahashi CN-212 (9-inch) Cassegrain telescope
stopped to f/30 (for prominences) and f/60 (for solar
surface); Starlight Xpress SXL8 CCD camera, DayStar
0.6-angstrom hydrogen-alpha filter. Prominences ex-
posed for 110 second (May 9th) and 12 second (May
13th). Solar disk recorded with 110 -second exposure.
The May 9th view was obtained at 13:31 Universal
Time; May 13th was at 11:16 UT.
Clavius Close-Up
Intes MK 67 (6-inch f/10) Maksutov telescope. Image
projection with a 6-mm orthoscopic eyepiece. 12 -sec-
ond exposure on Kodak T-max 400 film.
138 September 1998 Sky & Telescope 1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
Observatory Sunset
b y A L E S K O L A R
At Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic about
40 kilometers southeast of Prague, Ales Kola r made
this multiexposure view of the setting Sun last March
29th. Two lenses and a variety of exposures were
needed to capture the scene on a single frame of film.
Summer Starscape
16-mm f/3.5 fisheye lens, 3-minute exposure on
Kodak Ektachrome P1600 film.
Warp Speed
Tamron 28-200-mm f/3.5 zoom lens, 1-hour exposure
on Kodak Ektapress Multispeed PJM 640 film.
Stardust Near and Far
Astro-Physics 6-inch refractor working at f/7.3. 30-
minute exposure on gas-hypered Kodak Technical
Pan 2415 film. Field 1.2 wide centered at 6h 09.5m,
+24 17'; north is up.
Niagara at Night
24-mm f/2.8 lens, 20-second exposure on Kodak Ek-
tachrome P1600 film.
Observatory Sunset
Observatory and sky background recorded with 55-
mm f/4.8 lens.The sky was exposed just after sunset;
the observatory was recorded after dark with interior
lights on as the dome was rotated, allowing a full view
through the open slit. Multiexposure sequence of set-
ting Sun recorded with 500-mm f/6.3 lens. All expo-
sures made on a single frame of Konica VX 400 film.
Many of the astro imagers whose work appears in
Sky & Telescope have electronic galleries on the In-
ternet. We provide links to all of them on our World O N L I N E
Wide Web site. http://www.skypub.com/