AP Sig Revs Up!
by Don Selle
If you take pictures of the night sky, even if it is only occasionally, you might want to join the HAS Astrophotography Special interest group or APSig for short.
The APSig is an email listserv and currently boasts over 60 members. The experience of APSig members span the gamut of experience, from those who are just starting out, to some of our most accomplished astrophotographers.
Have a question about the pros and cons about equipment? Need some help with autoguiding, or processing your latest image capture? The APSig is the place to ask it.
Show off your latest image. APSig members are always supportive and will share their experience with you.
Though the APSig is loosely organized, moderators Chris Ober and Don Selle are there to help organize activities that will be of interest to the group. As an example, we recently had an image processing challenge where a single dataset was shared and individual members worked on the same data and shared their results with the group. This led to spinoff discussions of image processing software and workflows that were of benefit to APSig members.
The APSig has also just started holding a monthly HAS Image of the Month competition, which is open to APSig members. Submit one of your finished images for consideration, and your fellow APSig members as well as interested HAS members will vote to select what they think should be the Image of the Month.
This article is distributed by NASA Night Sky Network
The Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter will land in Mars’s Jezero crater on February 18, 2021, NASA’s latest mission to explore the red planet. Landing on Mars is an incredibly difficult feat that has challenged engineers for decades: while missions like Curiosity have succeeded, its surface is littered with the wreckage of many failures as well. Why is landing on Mars so difficult?
Editor’s Note – This article was the inspiration for my February 2021 Field of View column entitled “Observe”. It exactly illustrates the point I was trying to make there that learning to observe astronomical objects is a doorway to continuous learning and can’t help but affect how you view the world around you. DS.
As we move further into 2021, with this column, we are fast approaching the 1/3 mark of observing the Messier Catalogue. As COVID hangs on, I feel compelled to introduce more objects each month as enforced solitude continues to raise its ugly head. Those of you who are more motivated or experienced in observing can go to the HAS website, click on “Programs”, and then click on the “Messier Challenge”. A seasonally-oriented program will pop up enabling one to observe the Messier Catalogue as each seasonal group becomes easier to find. The advantage to this system is one can obtain the best views, finish the catalogue in one year, and have the time to observe the objects rather than simply check it off a list. Please note while some of the data may appear dated, the time of the year and the location data is still very usable. It is my intention to update that program shortly.
If you are new to amateur astronomy, you may have noticed that as a group, amateur astronomers use the words observe or observation more than most people. If you are now saying “yeah I had noticed that” you are very observant yourself, and If you hadn’t noticed, don’t worry, amateur astronomy will help make you a better observer.
