Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

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Expand view Topic review: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by nerbyon » Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:53 am

Thank you Bystander, yes, the "fire" is the effect of the light pollution of Setúbal, city, in Portugal.

Best wishes and clear sky´s

Miguel Claro

http://miguelclaro.com

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by bystander » Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:40 pm

What a strange looking building. Interesting history.

I'm having a hard time making out the Little Dipper.
I know it has to be there, behind the tower, maybe?

I really like the mouseover effect. Thanks, geckzilla.

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:37 pm

How to Find the North Star
Copyright: O Chul Kwon
Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
Two of the stars in the cup of the Big Dipper help to find the North Star. Draw an imaginary line straight through the two stars of the dipper edge. The line starts from the fainter star (Merak) to the brighter star (Dubhe). Continue the line about five times farther away to find the North Star (Polaris).

The North Star makes an arrow with the right-hand arch of Cassiopeia.

The background observatory, the Korean National Observatory at Mt. Sobaeksan, was modeled after the Cheomseongdae Observatory in Gyeongju, which is the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia, estimated to have been built in the period of Queen Seondeok (632∼647) in Silla Era. ~ O Chul Kwon

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by bystander » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:30 pm

Impressive, Miguel. It looks like the horizon is on fire. I assume that's just city lights. Ahhh, the price we pay for civilization.

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by nerbyon » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:02 pm

Hi dear Group,

I also would like to share with all of you, the Milky way 360º panoramic view in the Virtual Reality Quick time.
Please follow this link to see the QTVR:

http://astrosurf.com/astroarte/QTVR_1.htm

I hope you enjoy it...

Best regards

Miguel Claro
http://miguelclaro.com

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by bystander » Thu Jul 08, 2010 1:35 pm

Thanks, Jim. I thought that might be the case. The Hubble pallete is quite popular for scientific astrophotos. Very nice shot. :ssmile:

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by Jim Wood » Thu Jul 08, 2010 1:15 pm

Hi Bystander, the colors in my NGC 6888 are the hubble palette. The individual sub frames are taken with H-Alpha, SII and OIII filters, then the final color combine is made using SII for red, H-Alpha for green and OIII for blue. I weighted the OIII and SII more heavily to create the colors you see. The stars were removed to emphasize the nebula.
Jim

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by bystander » Thu Jul 08, 2010 12:03 pm

There are some really amazing pictures here. It would be fun to be able to click on the individual panels in Rolf's montage and see the photo's that were involved, but a nice progression, nonetheless.

Tunç's "chorus line" is simply amazing. Someday I'm going downunder to see the skies for myself.

I would really like to know about the colors in Jim Wood's NGC 6888.

But this last, Moonbow at Yosemite, is stunning. I've been to Yosemite, and it is beautiful, but I never saw anything like this.

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:58 am

Moonbow at Yosemite
Copyright: Chunki Park
  • [attachment=0]moonbow_Park.jpg[/attachment][/i]
Attachments
Click to view full size image
Click to view full size image

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:51 am

M8: Lagoon Nebula
http://darkskyimages.com/image.php?phot ... ry=Nebulas
Copyright and credit: Scott Tucker; color data: Gil Esquerdo

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:06 am

NGC 6888
http://jimwood.smugmug.com/Astrophotos/ ... Sqe4a-A-LB
Copyright: Jim Wood
  • [attachment=0]NGC 6888 SHSO starless 1 sm.jpg[/attachment][/i]
Attachments
Click to view full size image
Click to view full size image

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:41 am

Nebulae M08, M20 and M21
Copyright: Pedro González Jimenez
  • [attachment=0]M08_M20_M21_González_20.jpg[/attachment][/i]
Very large version
Attachments
Click to view larger image; click link below for very large version
Click to view larger image; click link below for very large version

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by SkyViking » Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:05 pm

Ann wrote:Rolf, I'm so impressed with your individually, and I absolutely love your montage. So many of your images are so very beautiful, and as a color freak I just adore a lot of them. (All the planets, for example, Proxima Centauri and Acrux, the planetary nebula, Eta Carina and the Keyhole Nebula and the Cartwheel Galaxy!!! <3) I think it's fantastic that you, as an amateur, have managed to image all these targets, some of them in such great detail, and as for others, I'm so impressed that you have managed to image them at all.

You combine astronomical beauty with a delightful lesson in astronomical distances. If it was up to me, your image would be made Astronomy Picture of th Day right away!

Ann

P.S. That supernova, SN2005df, is absolutely amazingly blue. I know that supernovae of type Ia are often blue, but this one is incredible. Are you sure of its color? Was it a supernova type Ia?
Thank you Ann for your kind words, I'm glad you liked the montage!
Yes, SN2005df was a type Ia. I just checked my original data and it is very blue, significantly more than the brightest blue supergiant regions of NGC1559 itself, so I think the color is about right.

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:04 pm

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:18 pm

Rho Ophiuchus Complex: IC4605, B44, Vdb 106-107
http://starrysite.com/pliki/galeria/duz ... koniec.jpg
Copyright: Bogdan Jarzyna
Attachments
Click to view half size image; click link under title to view full size image
Click to view half size image; click link under title to view full size image

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:33 pm

SH2-101: Tulipan Nebula Wide Field
http://www.starkeeper.it/Sh2-101.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:41 pm

Double Clusters NGC 884 and NGC 869
http://mtanous.mine.nu/iweb/astropix/Do ... uster.html
Copyright: Jose Mtanous

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by Ann » Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:07 pm

Rolf, I'm so impressed with your individually, and I absolutely love your montage. So many of your images are so very beautiful, and as a color freak I just adore a lot of them. (All the planets, for example, Proxima Centauri and Acrux, the planetary nebula, Eta Carina and the Keyhole Nebula and the Cartwheel Galaxy!!! <3) I think it's fantastic that you, as an amateur, have managed to image all these targets, some of them in such great detail, and as for others, I'm so impressed that you have managed to image them at all.

You combine astronomical beauty with a delightful lesson in astronomical distances. If it was up to me, your image would be made Astronomy Picture of th Day right away!

Ann

P.S. That supernova, SN2005df, is absolutely amazingly blue. I know that supernovae of type Ia are often blue, but this one is incredible. Are you sure of its color? Was it a supernova type Ia?

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:02 am

Planets and Stars over Lake Taupo, New Zealand
Copyright: Tunç Tezel
[attachment=1]TaupoPlanets_Tezel.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]TaupoPlanetsLa.jpg[/attachment]
I am currently in New Zealand for my first ever southern hemisphere trip to see the upcoming total solar eclipse of 11th July. Here in the southern hemisphere, the ecliptic in the evening makes a steep angle (unlike our northern view) so all the evening planets and ecliptic can be seen in a very dark sky, along with a strong zodiacal light. A long array of planets and bright stars can be easily seen, starting with Venus, on to Regulus, Mars, Saturn and even Spica higher and out of the frame. Venus is so bright that its light was easily seen reflected from the rough waters of Lake Taupo in central North Island of NZ.

In the coming days, Mercury will also join the array and this bunch of four planets and two stars will be squeezed in a shorter stretch of sky. Even the Moon will cross the same stretch of sky after this weekend (and after the eclipse), which I hope to record from my southern location of Mangaia, Cook Islands. ~ Tunç Tezel
Read more about this month's planetary line-up here.
Attachments
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Click to view full size image
Click to view full size image
Click to view full size image

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:34 am

Thanks, Rolf, for sharing both your image and the story (and individual images!) behind it!

I can sooooo easily imagine a big poster of your image in every astronomy classroom!!

Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by SkyViking » Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:27 am

Hi everyone, and thanks to Owlice for posting my image here.
I have been asked to provide some thoughts on my image 'The Visible Universe - a journey from 100 km to 12.4 billion light years'

This is a montage of images I have taken from my backyard observatory in Auckland, New Zealand during the years 2005 to 2010 with a 10 inch Newtonian f/5 telescope on a Losmandy G-11 equatorial mount and a modified webcam (Philips ToUCam Pro with Steve chambers' modification for long exposures).
My goal with this project was to illustrate the diversity and enormity of our visible Universe, in a simple yet educational way. I initially wanted something to decorate my observatory wall and I was thinking of somehow making a montage of my images to date. Since I have always liked Solar System models and textbooks with astronomical objects drawn to scale etc. I decided to arrange some of my images according to the subjects' distance from Earth to visualize the scale of the Universe while still trying to maintain simplicity and a good flow in the presentation.
In choosing the images I have tried to include both some well known objects and some more unusual ones that are rarely imaged by amateurs - really something of all types and colors and shapes. It was important to me that the final result conveyed both the enormous scale as well as the diversity of objects we as amateurs are actually able to see with even very modest telescopes and cameras.
Lately I have focused on imaging some of the more obscure deep sky objects and that enabled me to include images of both very distant quasars and galaxy clusters and even a gravitational lens! This brought the limit of the scale out to 12.4 billion light years, almost to the edge of the entire visible Universe which is quite impressive for such basic equipment as a webcam.

A bit of background information about a few of the more unusual objects:

Eta Carinae
Inserted onto the Eta Carinae image is a high resolution image of the Homunculus Nebula which I took with a 5x Televue Powermate and lots of very short exposures. This is as far as I know the highest resolution image of the Homunculus Nebula taken by an amateur. I took the image to see if any radial expansion was visible when comparing with images from professional observatories taken years earlier, and indeed it is very evident. Further details and a full size image can be found here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/123574588/original

Messier 87 - Giant galaxy with jet
This is a luminous jet emerging from the center of giant elliptical galaxy M87 (full size image here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/123520553/original). The visible features of the jet corresponds very well with the Hubble image. This is as far as I know also the highest resolution image of this jet taken by an amateur. The image was acquired using many stacked short exposures, although not as short as for the Homunculus Nebula.
The light we see is produced by electrons twisting along magnetic field lines in the jet, a process known as synchrotron radiation, which gives the jet its bluish tint. This contrasts rather nicely with the reddish glow from the combined light of billions of aging stars in the galaxy itself.

The Cartwheel Galaxy
I have always had a fascination with this particular galaxy. I wasn't sure if my webcam could pick up any decent details in it, but over two nights in October and November 2005 I collected enough data to produce a detailed color image which nicely showed off the features of this peculiar galaxy. Visible is an impressive ring-like structure 100,000 light years across, illuminated by young blue super giants. This shape is the result of the gravitational disruption caused by a small intruder galaxy passing directly through the larger one, compressing the interstellar gas and dust, and causing a wave of star formation to move out from the impact point like a ripple across the surface of a pond.
The full size image can be seen here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/123574932/original

Gravitationally lensed quasar HE1104-1805
This gravitationally lensed quasar consist of two images of the same quasar, with magnitudes of 16.70 and 18.64 respectively and separated by 3.195 arc seconds. The lensing galaxy itself is very faint but has been imaged by Hubble Space Telescope and lies closest to the A component, with an angular separation of 1.15 arc seconds.
A gravitational lens is formed when the light from a very distant bright source, such as a quasar, is bent around a massive object, such as galaxy or a cluster of galaxies, between the source object and the observer. The process is known as gravitational lensing, and is one of the predictions of Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Full image of this quasar is available here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/123520551/original

High redshift quasar Q1451-15
This quasar is the most remote object I have accomplished to catch with my telescope. With a red shift of 4.762 this object is located 91% of the way to the edge of the visible Universe, or over 12 billion light years. It is rather mind blowing to imagine that the photons that landed on my little CCD chip started their journey many billions of years before even the Solar System existed, and the Universe itself was only a fraction of its current size.
A full image of this quasar is available here: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/123574590/original

Thank you for letting me tell the story behind my image and I hope this presentation can serve as inspiration for people around the world to look up and appreciate the immense scale and many wonders of our Universe.

With regards,
Rolf Olsen

Recent Submissions: 2010 July 7-9

by owlice » Tue Jul 06, 2010 3:38 pm

_____________________________________________________________________________

Please click on each image for best viewing; please click on the link below the
image title for more information about the image. Thank you!
_____________________________________________________________________________

<- Previous submissions


Milky Way 360º Panoramic View
http://miguelclaro.com
Copyright: Miguel Claro Learn more about the Milky Way here.


NGC 346, Open Cluster and Nebula Complex (N66) in the Small Magellanic Cloud
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC3 ... ndler.html
Credit and copyright: Robert Gendler, assembly and processing; HLA, data
  • Image

The Lagoon Nebula
http://www.schursastrophotography.com
Copyright: Chris Schur
[attachment=1]M8-24x5mF1600_schur.jpg[/attachment]
The Lagoon Nebula is over a degree across, nearly the size of this 2.5 degree field. Crossing diagonally through its center is Barnard 88, a river like dark nebula cut into parallel bands here. The splashy bright open cluster to the left is NGC6530, a 4.6 magnitude object, 14 acrcmins in size. The bright object to the right of center in the heart of the nebula is the Hourglass Nebula. Recent Hubble images of this area revealed tornado like vortexes present. Numerous small dark globules of dust lie within this object, many of which contain dim infrared proto stars forming new solar systems like our own.

I imaged this nebula in the brightest part of our sky for the first half of the sequence, however careful processing removes the sky glow and enhances the red hydrogen components. ~ Chris Schur
Crux: The Southern Cross
http://paulh101.zenfolio.com/p766654778 ... #h16db9028
Copyright: Paul Hughes
  • [attachment=0]35 Crux 2_Hughes.jpg[/attachment]
View Dr. Nemiroff's lecture Stars: Single and Binary here.


The Visible Universe
Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen Really big version
Attachments
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Click to view full size image
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