MEDUSA

Medusa in Greek Mythology

Medusa, originally a beautiful young woman whose crowning glory was her magnificent long hair, was desired and courted by many suitors. Yet before she could be betrothed to a husband, Poseidon (Neptune)  found her worshipping in the temple of Athena (Minerva) and ravished her. Athena was outraged at her sacred temple being violated, and punished Medusa by turning her beautiful tresses into snakes and giving her the destructive power to turn anyone who looked directly at her into stone.

In both Greek and Roman mythology, Perseus, attempting to rescue his mother Danae from the coercive King Polydectes, needed to embark on the dangerous venture of retrieving Medusa's head. With the help of Athena and Hermes - magic winged sandals, a cap, a pouch and a mirror-like shield, he fought her and beheaded her by viewing her image in the mirror of his shield rather than looking at her directly. From her decapitated head sprang the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor, who became king of Iberia. Medusa's sisters, the Gorgons, chased after him, but were unable to catch him because his magic cap made him invisible.

Perseus was then able to use Medusa's head as a weapon during other battles (which included rescuing Andromeda), but he eventually returned it to Athena, who then placed it at the center of her Aegis as a symbol of her power, and her own capacity to turn her enemies into stone.

Historically, before ancient Greece, Medusa was worshipped by the Libyan Amazons as a Serpent -Goddess, and associated with the destroyer aspect Anath (also known as Athene) of the Triple Goddess in North Africa and Crete. The name Medusa (Medha in Sanscrit, Metis in Greek and Maat in Egyptian) means "sovereign female wisdom."  Thisonline Medusa paper discusses the Libyan and Near Eastern conceptions of Medusa.

The skies finally cleared up a bit for me to test out a brand new SBIG ST-10XME that a friend is loaning me. The skies were not very transparent due to lots of moisture and high clouds in and out of the area. But I did manage this h-alpha shot of the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. This was my first exposure to non-antiblooming cameras, which are very sensitive though a pain to process. I used Wodaski's deblooming filter for MaxIm to remove the blooms. Anyway, the shot needs a little more exposure time since I used the narrowband h-alpha filter, but this is the result: 

NGC2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros - In Hydrogen alpha light 

Location: The Ballauer Observatory near Azle, Texas 

Date: February 15, 2004 

Temperature: 28 degrees F 

Scope/mount: Takahaski FSQ-106 @ f/5 and Celestron CGE mount 

Camera: SBIG ST-10XME, self-guided 

Filter: Lumicon 30nm Hydrogen-alpha filter 

Exposure Info: Grayscale image - 10 x 10 minute exposures (100 minutes total) 

Processing Info: Dark frame calibration, de-blooming, alignment, and Sigma combine in MaxIm 3.0. Digital-development in Images Plus. Curves in Photoshop CS. 

Extra information: First light with the ST-10XME and with the new New-Astro Deblooming plug-in. Lumicon filter is not as narrow as competing versions from Custom Scientific and Astronomiks. Could use extra processing time. Some trailed stars due to some guiding issues with the CGE mount.