Astronomy Pictures - Sonderborg - Denmark
High School Astronomy - Image Gallery
The enclosed images represent a lot of work from many eager high school students
during the past years.
Students and teachers at EUC Syd and Amtsgymnasiet in Sonderborg have cooperated on astronomy since 1989.
As a result, several projects have been completed, including a full operated 16 Inch SCT Observatory with dome . Thanks to a 24 hour working, homebuild magnetometer, auroras have been observed during more than 50 nights. On this page we present a few of these Aurora Images , taken by means of standard photographical equipment.
In addition - the Mads Clausen Foundation, the Bodil Petersen Foundation, the Thomas
B. Thrige Foundation - and the Tuborg Foundation have donated us a complete computerbased deep cooled grade 1
CCD camera system. The Apogee AP6 camera itself has 1 Mio Pixels -
and is combined with a cooling booster and
high speed ISA Frame Grab Bus card . As our student images below demonstrate this equipment simply runs
marvellous. Image processing has been performed applying Cyanogen CCDMAX .
Click for Updated EAAE article on CCD matters..
Student Photos
"My God, it's full of stars" - quoting from the Science Fiction Novel "2001" by Arthur C. Clarke.
Orion Nebula - nearly 4 hours exposure.
Oct - 2003 - Messier 33 Galaxy - 3.7 hours exposure...
Messier 31 - Oct-Nov 2003 - LRGB 7 hours exposure !
Jan - 2002 - Horsehead Nebula - 4 hours exposure...
April - 2003 - Messier 51 area - Wide Field - 6.3 hours exposure...
Venus transit - June 08, 2004
Mercury transit - May 07- 2003
Partial Solar Eclipse - May 31, 2003
Comet Kudo-Fujikawa Dec 2002 - as shown in
Gary W.Kronk's Cometography,
Utah Sky Astronomy Pages,
Astronomy Magazine - and even Bible Prophecy Corner
Comet Neat - Jan-Feb 2003 - as shown in
"Astronomy", Tycho Brahe Planetariet, Carl Koppeschaar's Astronet, ClevelandAstro.com, Gary Kronk's Cometography, AstroNet (Poland), Komeet Neat (Netherland)
Comet Ikeya-Zhang - March 2002 - our Images were shown March 20 in National TV News.
March - 2002 - Galaxy Triplet in Leo - 2 hour CCD exposure - shows
nearly as many details as a corresponding David Malin Photo
California Nebula
- 2 hours CCD LRGB exposure - test image Dec 2002 with our new blue enhanced ccd KAF 1001E - AP6E
Cone Nebula
- 3 hours CCD LLGB exposure
Dec - 2001 - Asteroid WT24 passing close to planet Earth - our images were reproduced in
NASA-s press release :-)
Dec - 2001 - comet linear - movies - and long time exposures..
May 04 - 2004 - Lunar Eclipse.
Nov 09 - 2003 - Lunar Eclipse.
Jan 21 - 2000 - Lunar Eclipse.
Images - Jan 09 - 2001 - Lunar Eclipse.
Students measure the Lunar Distance by means of Earth Shadow / Jan 09 2001 Lunar Eclipse.
Student project - measuring the Distance of Planet Venus.
Student Project - measuring the Distance towards Saturn Awarded 1997,2001.
November 2003 : Moon at f = 4 meter.
October 13, 2000 : Full Moon - f = 4 meter.
January 2005 : Scenic Night Images - widefield.
Messier 45 - Oct 2004.
Flame Nebula + IC 434 - Jan 2001.
NGC 6992 - Star Explosion
Messier 15 -
Globular Cluster in Pegasus, 36000 Light Years Distance.
Messier 13 - Globular Cluster in Hercules, 25100 Light Years Distance.
Pelican - Hydrogen Emission Nebula IC 5070.
Messier 101 - Galaxy in Ursa Majoris.
NGC 7331 - Galaxy at 36 million light years distance..
NGC 7000 - Star Formation Cloud
/as/m15-2004/
Rosette Nebula - East of Orion .
Distance approximately 3000 lightyears - this nebula is a faint object for visual observations - however - a great nebula for photographical work.
Comet Machholz - Dec 2004 - Feb 2005 .
Comet Neat - May 2004 .
Hale Bopp - Detail
Hale
Bopp Comet - student photo - our first front page image at NASA - HB Webserver March 05,
1997
Hale Bopp
Hale Bopp Comet
- student photoMarch 31, 1997
Hale Bopp
Hale Bopp Comet - student photoApril 04, 1997
Hale Bopp
Hale Bopp Comet
- student photo, second front page at NASAApril 06, 1997
Hale Bopp
Hale Bopp
Comet, and Aurora during upstart. Reprinted Summer 1997 in the Scandinavian
Astronomical MagazineApril 24, 1997
Copyright 1997 - Jens Revsbech - age 14 - click for details
Comet Hyakutake
First international Amateur/student project measuring the distance towards a comet - (article in Sky & Telescope - Feb 1997) - prize awarded May 1997.
Meteor (Perseid) at 2300 UT + 15 minutes August 23, 1990
A meteor hitting the Earth Atmosphere with 210 000 km pr hour. (Bright red star to the left is Epsilon Eridani).
The light flash from this object probably started at an altitude of 120 km, and ended maybe 60-80 km above surface. Zooming this image, you get the picture to the right.
Please observe how the object actually rotates (thick-thin-thick meteor trail) - until it explodes in a big flash down in the right corner. The light was so intense, that trees and bushes around us gave shadows. Meteors that intense are usually called "fireballs". This particular fireball was observed from several places in Denmark. Maybe a few fragments survived this fall, and may now meteors lie unrecognised somewhere in northern Germany.
Student Photo, Amtsgymnasiet in Sonderborg.
Article on meteorites, how to photograph, etc.. Copyright 1990
Download full size 1,5 million picture of left image - (c)
Noctilucent
Clouds
July, 1997 Copyright 1997
These Ice Crystals are placed at altitudes more than 100 km - thus still illuminated by the scandinavian "midnight" sun. Photo by Jens - from the old Nydam Mose, close to Sonderborg.
Sept 1999 - photo by Louise (15) Atmospheric Halo + Sun Dogs.
The Northern Light Activity is regaining, here is a
link to our Astronomy On Line Aurora-Article
Aurora Images - October 2003 .
Aurora Images + movies - January 2005 .
Aurora Images - April 11-12 - 2001 .
Aurora Images - April 06-07 - 2000 - photos by Louise, Tobias, Esben, Torben et al.
Download 8 Mbyte version of this image -
(Copyright - Louise R W - 2000. )
Aurora Image - Nov 2001 - photos by Jens Riggelsen.
These images were taken within merely a few minutes apart.The first image shows an aurora rising in the starfilled cygnus area of the Milkyway. The left, yellow aurora evolved moments after within the same sky area.
Nov 17, 1989 approx 2115 UT
Click for full resolution yellow image 1.3 Mbyte
Click for full resolution left image 1.3 Mbyte --- Copyright 1989---
Aurora above abandoned farm, changing within
minutes
March 12, 1990
approx 2345 - 2347 UT
Copyright 1990- click
for details
Click for download of full resolution image
(left - 1500x1000 pixels, 1.3 Mbyte)
Click for download
of full resolution image (right - 1500x1000 pixels, 1.3 Mbyte)
Click for full
screen
Click for full
screenThis curtain photo was taken merely a few minutes after the farm photo above. March 12, 1990 approx 2350 UT
Click for download of full resolution image (1500x1000
pixels, 1.3 Mbyte)
Click for full screen
Aurora
during upstart. March 24, 1991 approx 2030 UT
Click for full screen
Copyright 1991 - click for details
Click for download of full resolution image (1500x1000
pixels, 1.3 Mbyte)
Aurora running at awesome speed March 24, 1991 at 2131 +2132 UT
Due to our magnetometer we were prewarned 12 hours in advance, this night our students kept photographing until 0330 am in the morning. More details on this aurora and auroras in general Comparing German and Danish photos, the distance towards this aurora has been measured to 350 km. Applying standard science formulas, and their measurements, students have calculated the electrical current as between 500 000 and 1 million ampere.
Click for download of full resolution image LEFT (1500x1000 pixels, 1.3 Mbyte) - Copyright 1991-
Click for download of full resolution image RIGHT (1500x1000
pixels, 1.3 Mbyte) -
Copyright 1991-
Aurora wave dying out
March 24, 1991 approx 2136 UT+2140 UT
- Copyright 1991 -
Click for download of full resolution image LEFT (1500x1000 pixels, 1.3 Mbyte)
Click for download of full resolution image RIGHT (1500x1000 pixels, 1.3 Mbyte)
Several photos have been taken on other occasions too, e.g. Nov 8 1991 - Feb 1994 - October 1997 - Sept 2001 etc. .
Not all photos have been succesfull, in particular - be sure that your films are being treated with care. Following the very best night of all - Nov 8 1991 - our film was spoiled by the developing company. We got a new film, and even excuses, but .....
On other occasions, our students got their aurora curtains cut in nice pieces by the automatic developing computer.
More details how to hunt these auroras yourself - visit the Astronomy On Line Aurora Page
How our astronomy class - on request by Danish Television TV2 - made their own crop circle. A week later - this crop circle was "rediscovered" by "experts" - who made excited phonecalls to newspapers and Radio Stations. And yes - we do hereby testify - this is a GENUINE crop circle...
More Student Astro-Pictures and Projects
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Copyright Owners Torben Krogh and Mogens Winther
Mogens Winther
Amtsgymnasiet in Sonderborg
Grundtvigsalle 86
DK-6400 Sonderborg - Denmark. 0045 74 42 05 01
Torben Krogh
EUC Syd Grundtvigsalle 88
DK-6400 Sonderborg - Denmark
(c)1997-2004