For a whole series of images taken with the UA 16-inch telescope, you can download a PowerPoint slide show put together by graduate students Branyon and Alana May.

On the evening of 12/13 January 2010, the recently discovered asteroid 2010 AL30 made a close pass to Earth, within about 1/3 ofthe Moon's distance. Here's a shot from the UA 16-inch telescope, tracking on the 30-yard chunk of rock for four minutes as the background stars streaked through the field of view.

Here are some colorful holiday snapshots from December 2009, to ring in the new year. From the UA 16-inch campus telescope, we present the planetary nebula NGC 2392 (the Eskimo nebula) in Gemini, the close pair of red dwarf/white dwarf stars 40 Eridani BC, and the star cluster Messier 37 (with its bright red-giant members).

Also from December 2009, from a set of checkout images with the SARA 1-meter telescope, here is the starburst galaxy Messier 82, with the red filter emphasizing gas being blown out of the galaxy by the combined energy of many supernova explosions:

The Earth-approaching asteroid 2007 TU24, imaged using the UA 16-inch telescope on the evening of 27 January 2007. This is the sum of 10 one-minute exposures, with the telescope tracking on the asteroid. Background stars thus appear as dashed trails, with gaps between the individual exposures. At this point it was slightly more than three times the Moon's distance, closing to within 1.4 times the lunar range about 30 hours later. The area shown here is 0.25 degree across (half the apparent size of the full Moon). Just ahead of clouds, we got some images the following night, about 6 hours before closest approach. This image shows the asteroid's trail over a 2-minute period while tracking the stars, near 0110 UT on 29 January 2008.The motion was reaching 3 arcseconds per second at this point.

This series of 10 CCD images from the UA 16-inch telescope shows the expanding dust from the unexpected outburst of Comet Holmes in October 2007 (nightly images from the evenings of October 26 - November 4). This ouburst threw off so much dust that the reflected sunlight from the comet increased a millionfold, making it a prominent naked-eye object even in the presence of the full Moon and at a distance well out in the asteroid belt. Each image spans 15 arcminutes (one quarter degree, about half the apparent size of the full Moon) from north to south. To get them posted quickly, these are all unprocessed images straight from the telescope (except for dark-frame subtraction) displayed on similar logarithmic intensity scales. South is at the top and east to the left - these will eventually be replaced by fully processed versions. The expansion has been analyzed using these and later UA images, by students in the Observational Astronomy class, who noted a linear behavior with expansion velocities 0.5-0.6 km/second depending on direction.

This color-composite CCD exposure of the Dumbbell Nebula M27 was done with the 0.9-m telescope of the SARA consortium, located on Kitt Peak, Arizona. Light of at different wavelengths traces distinct elements in different states of ionization, making such nebula powerful ways to probe the internal structure of the stars whose atmospheres have been blown away to produce them. For more SARA images from the public-outreach event at DragonCon 2007, see this page from the Space and Science track.

On the evening of March 28, 2007, the near-Earth asteroid 2006 VV2 drifted briefly in front of the bright spiral galaxy M81. Check out the picture and the movie.

Several digital shots of the lunar eclipse of March 3, 2007, through the 5-inch guide telescope (taken during our public viewing session). Totality had just ended by the time the moon cleared some clouds and the dome's elevation limit. Some of the clouds show up in the first image, along with a background star which northern observers had watched pass behind the moon.

This 10-minute exposure of the interacting galaxy M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy) was done with the 0.9-m telescope of the SARA consortium, located on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The combination of larger telescope and much darker skies from Arizona provide a fascinating view of this system, including intricate detail of the dust in the spiral arms, especially where a spiral arm of the large spiral crosses in front of the companion galaxy.

This 30-minute exposure shows the interacting galaxy pair NGC 4435/4438, part of the Virgo galaxy cluster, as observed using the 0.9-m telescope of the SARA consortium, located on Kitt Peak, Arizona. These galaxies are flying by each other within the cluster at a speed exceeding 1000 km/second, too fast for their gravity to make them merge. Instead, the fast approach will make for a hyperbolic passage, drawing material out to one side of the larger galaxy NGC 4438. Some of this gas and stars may be lost to the galaxy as further galaxies perturb the outcome.

This is a daylight image of the nucleus of Comet McNaught, C/2006 P1, taken on January 9, 2007, when it appeared slightly less than 12 degrees from the sun. This image is cropped from a shot with a Canon digital SLR attached to the 5-inch guide telescope, and has been contrast-enhanced to reduce the effects of the bright sky.

Breaking up isn't always hard to do. This view from May 1, 2006, shows the largest fragment of the disintegrating comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, nucleus C, and its tail, during the close approach to Earth of May 2006. Some of the fragments have been falling apart as we watch. The background stars trailed as the telescope tracked the comet during this 4-minute exposure. This comet was to have been a target for a close flyby of the CONTOUR mission, which was lost due to an explosion of a solid-rocket motor as it left Earth orbit.

Now you see it, now you don't! Students in the UA Observational Techniques course captured video of the Moon occulting stars in the Pleiades star cluster on the evening of April 1, 2006 (no fooling). As the moon moved in front of the cluster, numerous stars blinked out suddenly as the sharp edge of the airless Moon blocked each. These frames are from a SuperCircuits surveillance camera used on the observatory's 5-inch guide telescope. Click for a full-frame view. This sequence has been slowed down by about 8 times, showing the disappearance of the cluster's brightest star, Alcyone or η Tauri.

Saturn as imaged with the 16-inch telescope and webcam. The data were obtained during a class session of the AY433/533 course on the evening of April 1, 2006 (just after making video and CCD observations of the Pleiades star cluster being briefly covered by the Moon, as shown above). This image is an average of 179 webcam frames (the sharpest of about 1300), processed using wavelet sharpening. It shows the Cassini division separating the bright B ring from the dimmer A ring outside it, the still dimmer C ring where it crosses in front of the planet, cloud belts on Saturn itself, and the planet's shadow on the rings.

Supernova 2006X in the spiral galaxy M100 (NGC 4321), one of the brightest galaxies in the nearby Virgo cluster. This supernova explosion is particularly interesting, being of a type known as SN Ia. These explosions mark the destruction of white dwarf stars when a companion transfers so much additional gas onto their surfaces that they are no longer stable. All such supernova have nearly the same peak brightness, making them useful as standard markers for cosmological studies. It was the statistics of type Ia supernova that led many astronomers to conclude that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. NGC 4321 was the first galaxy for which the Hubble Space Telescope was used to establish a distance based on variable stars, so SN 2006X may be important as a local calibration object. Image taken by graduate student Branyon May on the evening of February 9, 2006, as the recently-discovered supernova was still brightening.

The returning Stardust spacecraft, with its precious cargo of comet and interstellar dust particles, tracked by the UA "Observational Astronomy" class on the evening of January 14, 2006.

The Crab Nebula, the expanding remnant of a supernova explosion observed in A.D. 1054, in the first color-composite CCD image from the UA 16-inch telescope. This is a combination of images taken in blue, yellow, and red filters, originally obtained in December 2005 to measure the nebular brightness, in support of a proposal for Hubble observations of dust in the nebula.

The Horsehead Nebula in Orion, a dark cloud of dust and gas seen absorbing the light of the glowing gas cloud IC 434. This is a challenging thing to see telescopically even in very dark skies, and we were gratified that our CCD system can pick it out so well even through the glow of Tuscaloosa's city light. This red-light image was obtained in December 2005.

Pluto as seen against the background stars on August 27, 2005. This completed a set of observations of the nine "traditional" planets; the recently-found possible "Planet 10" is dim enough that we're not sure we have it on an image yet, awaiting better conditions.

Comet Tempel 1 before and after being struck by the Deep Impact probe. The left-hand images show the view four hours before impact on the evening of July 3, 2005, at two different contrast levels. The right-hand images were taken 24 hours later, and show the brightening of the comet's haze from dust blown off by the impact. In particular, note the arc of material which appears to the south (below the comet core).

Last changes:  January 2010