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Expanding Horizons

Astronomical imagery
Head of Science Nigel Mayes has shared some stunning astronomy images captured and processed by Shawnigan students. The first image, by Grade 11 student Angelina H., shows the Andromeda Galaxy captured over an eight-hour exposure. The final product, which Angelina has been working on since September, is a compilation of about 50 exposures in red, green, blue and luminance. The second image shows the Whirlpool Galaxy alongside its smaller companion, the dwarf galaxy NGC 5194. Grade 10 students Cole R. and Will M. captured this image over a two-hour exposure using a robotic telescope in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Fresno, California. Cole then processed the red, green, blue and luminance frames to create the final colour image.

A recent $3300 grant from the Shawnigan Parents’ Association will see the observatory’s capabilities take a significant leap forward over the summer by enabling its remote operation. The grant has been used to purchase a cloud sensor that can shut the dome and protect the equipment if the weather changes, a circuit board that interfaces the dome with a computer for computer controlled automation, and IP-enabled power distribution units that can turn 120V and 12V devices on and off over the Internet.

“I will be installing and configuring the hardware to work together over the summer,” Mr. Mayes explains. “Once complete, one piece of software should be able to open the dome, turn on the computer, telescope, camera and telescope mount, focus, slew to a target, image for several hours, change filters and then shut everything down again. This is ambitious, but I think we can do it! In the short term, this means we can use the observatory for data collection more often as experiments can be scheduled. The imaging time required to make a satisfactory colour picture is anywhere from 2 hours to 30 hours depending on the brightness of the object and the quality of image the student wants to produce. Being able to schedule data collections means that teachers and students won't have to stay awake into the wee hours to wait for imaging to finish. I still envision opening the observatory for open houses and showing students how to set up the equipment for the various imaging experiments they want to run, but, once set up, the dome can either close automatically or it can be closed from home. In the long term, it may be possible to share our telescope with other organizations that manage remote hosting of observatories.”
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