July 1969

Light pollution map. If interested in astronomy, the last place you want to be is in the Northeast.

GHS Astronomy Club with Dr. Wesney 1976 – Bowman Observatory

Astronomical Society of Greenwich begins.Bowman Observatory is Refurbished. Rededication day 1986.

Film photo I took using only the light from the gibbous moon.

2011-03-07 ISS – Shuttle Discovery

2012-Venus Jupiter Conjunction

Comet Hale Bopp 1997 – 5 ¼” Schmidt camera with curved film plate taken at Ward Pound ridge.

Total Solar Eclipse - Aruba 1998

Astrophotography appeals to both halves of the brain. The realization of how a lunar eclipse occurs, is balanced by the beauty of the event.

Lunar Eclipse 2004Bowman Observatory

2011-11-03 Jupiter - IO

Saturn 2011-04-03

2012 – Orion Nebula 72 minutes total exposure (2 minute subs)

Whirlpool Galaxy with H-Alpha data

Andromeda

Zones keep stars from dominating image of NGC4565Edge-on galaxy NGC4565

Sagittarius

Cygnus

Rare Venus transit of the SunJune 2004 Taken from a Penn State sub campus. I arrived at dawn just in time to click the shutter.

Next Venus transit will be June 5, 2012. If that is clouded out, we’ll have to wait 167 years to see another.

Kepler Telescope Mission

Kepler telescope mission: to find potentially life-supporting planets around other stars. Monitors more than 100,000 target stars using the Transit Method.Star brightness measured at least once every few hours. Can see a light drop of 1/10,000 %. Range of planet detection = 3000 light-years.

Specs:.95 Meter aperture

95 mega pixels (21 modules each with two 2200x1024 pixel CCDs)

34Orbital Period in days

Size

Rel

ative

to E

arth

Q0-Q6: May 2009 - Sep 2010

Jun 2010 Feb 2011 Dec 2011

Kepler candidates as of December 2011> 2500 planet candidates> 200 ‘Earth like’

Artist depiction - Kepler 22b

Earth-like? • At less than 0.8 Earth radii (0.5 Earth mass) NG Gravity can not hold atmosphere • At about 2 earth radii (8 Earth masses) NG Gravity holds too much – Gas Giant

• Shape of orbit? • Plate Tectonics?• Volcanism?• Moon (Stabilization)and double core?)

38

observation

Nature 477, 142-143 (Sept 6, 2011)

Information pull?

I encourage you to visit the Bowman Observatory on a public night. Second and Fourth Tuesdays, weather permitting.See my blog on Greenwich Patch : The Night Sky

If anyone wants to email me for anything Astro…

RickBria@optonline.netThanks