Astrophotography
by Lance Taylor
http://lance-taylor.net

Aurora Photos

New October 02, 2002 Photos Available On-Line [Click Here].

Click on any image above to see a larger view.

Equipment Used:

Canon T-70 , 50mm / 28mm lenses,
Kodak 100 ISO, with varying exposures
between 30 to 45 seconds.

Location:

Photos above taken at the near Blackfoot / Cooking Lake, Alberta on Monday, August 12th, 2002.

Asteroid 2002NY40 CBC Newsworld
Sunday Report Video Footage.

ABOVE: Roy Ramdeen (on right) demonstrating what an asteroid impact could do to us by smacking his  fists together. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. ;^)

IN VIDEO: Yours truly standing around with his hands in his pocket all night looking through other peoples scopes (I left my 8" LX-50 at home). About the only person not shown (featured) in the video was Paul Campbell whom first spotted the asteroid.

This video was taken on Saturday night at the Observation Deck at the  Odyssium (ESSC ) last night.
[ Click Here To View - 1.3 MB Windows Media Video Format ].

An article was also posted to the CBC Newsworld website with a photo from this video describing the event as seen from Edmonton.

Click here to the view the article.

Other 2002NY40 Links:

• The CBC Newsworld Science - Additional report and video footage. (Pre-Event).

• Near Earth Asteroid 2002NY40 Video - by Jan Wisniewski (Totally Awesome!)

My Field Report:

Now (for the record) here was my own field report.... cc'ed to a few people I converse with in many
things Astro related.

----- Original Message -----

From: Lance Taylor
Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2002 1:56 AM
Subject: 2002NY40 Near Earth Asteroid.

Roy and I saw this near earth asteroid tonight at the Space Science Centre through
Paul Campbell's (12"), Larry Wood's (16"), and the clubs 7" Starfire refractor scope.

Man it was sure hauling and moved very quickly against the background field
of stars. Very impressive, and a hard object to find and keep in the field of
view as it moved so quickly. Visually it looked almost like a satellite, but very
far away (relatively speaking).

Also a CBC Newsworld camera guy was hanging out with us... blinding us
with his camera lights... (we didn't lynch him) so there may be a blurb on television
tomorrow afternoon about 3:00 PM with yours truly lurking about in the background.

I was asked to interview on camera but declined not knowing enough info about the
object. All I know is it was a once in a life time opportunity! Glad Roy arm twisted
me to go out. It only cleared at the last possible minute to afford
us a chance to view it. It was raining and very cloudy out till midnight, and
then it cleared.

Lance

Which then found it's way onto the NASA SpaceWeather homepage as this... along with an awesome
image by Jack Newton. Very nice photo Jack!

NEARBY ASTEROID: Asteroid 2002 NY40 came so close to Earth last night that sky watchers could see it through binoculars or small telescopes. "It moved very quickly against the background field of stars. Very impressive, and a hard object to find and keep in the field of view," says Canadian amateur astronomer Lance Taylor, who used a 7-inch telescope. "Visually it looked almost like a satellite--just farther away." [gallery] - [Posted from NASA SpaceWeather Website]

Noctilucent Cloud Photography
by Lance Taylor

  NLC Links:

• Noctilucent Clouds - Clouds at extremely high altitude, about 85 km, that literally (as the name suggests) shine at night. They form in the cold, summer polar mesopause and are believed to be ice crystals. Because of their high altitude, in a very dry part of the atmosphere, noctilucent clouds are rather an enigma and are being studied by a number of people around the world.

• Observing Noctilucent Clouds - by Dr. Colin Steel

• Gallery of Noctilucent Clouds
   
• Lance Taylor's Published NLC Photo July 1, 2000 (First appeared in Sky News Magazine
  Nov/Dec 2000 Issue). Featured here on this site (which is in Dutch) - used with permission.
   
• Theory of NLC - a good background on what they are thought to be.

All images are Copyright © 2002-2004 by Lance A. Taylor.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited without written consent from the photographer.