|
General Meeting
Title: Observing and Imaging Virtually Unknown
Supernova Remnants
Speaker: Bill Gates
This month’s lecture is being presented by TAAA member Bill
Gates who recently joined the TAAA. He provided this description
of his lecture.
Supernova
remnants such as the Veil nebula are among the sky’s most
beautiful objects. Often attaining speeds approaching 3,000km
per second, these interstellar shock fronts are exciting targets
for amateur imagers and visual observers. While more than 250
supernova remnants are now recognized, most observers assume
that only a handful, such as the Crab, Veil and Vela SNRs are
visible to amateurs.
I was excited to
find that dozens of fascinating supernova remnants are within
the reach of today’s amateur astronomers. Observing with modest
telescopes, I have seen segments of 14 SNRs that are not even
plotted on Millennium Star Atlas! Few of these have ever been
reported visually, or imaged with today’s sensitive CCDs.
Existing professional pictures of these objects are often pre-CCD
and not state of the art. I’m confident that today’s amateur
observers and imagers can detect many of these objects, and
improve on existing image detail. |
