by Ann » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:50 am
I'm late replying to this, but I'm a bit upset over the fact that my software has suddenly uninstalled itself from my hard drive. So I can't use it to check up the great images here.
Anyway, my favorite image here is Angus Lau's great image of NGC 1316 and companion (I think the companion is NGC 1317, but I can't be sure). I love how the deep image reveal the shells surrounding NGC 1316, which is a typical feature of large elliptical galaxies. Of course, we can also see the "crumbs in the corners of the mouth" of 1316, the remains of its latest major meal: the dust lanes inside it are what remains of a hapless spiral galaxy that ventured too close, and was eaten.
My second favorite image here is Stephane Vetter's fantastic image of an iceberg stranded on lava sand below Orion and the Hyades. The iceberg looks like a splendid but bizarre sculpture of aluminum foil.
I like Stuart McDaniel's meteor image, which reveals how the bright green flash happens so briefly, while the fainter white glow lasts much longer.
I really like Vegastar Carpentier's portrait of the Sun as a Uranus-colored turquoise Christmas ornament! Merry Christmas, Vegastar! And Juan Carlos Casado's Christmas greetings with the Milky Way is beautiful, too.
And speaking of the Milky Way, there are two lovely images here by Tunç Tezel.
The pictures I was going to check up with my software were Daniele Gasparri's images of the colors of the Pleiades and the Duble Cluster in Perseus. Danielle, I very much enjoy the colors of your Double Cluster image, because you really bring out the color contrast between the red and the blue supergiants in the vicinity of the Double Cluster, and there appear to be some intermediate K-type yellow stars here as well.
As for yur Pleiades image, I love how you bring out the colors of the fainter stars. However, I must point out that if you want to bring out the colors of the brighter Pleiades, then you image is somewhat overexposed. Judging from your image, the brightest of the Pleiades, Alcyone, is almost perfectly white. But Alcyone is, from our point of view, bluer than the blue supergiants of the Double Cluster of Perseus. I am quite sure that Alcyone has a negative B-V index, which means that the star has B-type star colors - i.e., it is blue. But the blue supergiants of the Double Cluster of Perseus are sufficiently dust-reddened due to their great distance from us that the B-V index of the light that reaches us from them is positive, i.e., it is less blue than the color of Alcyone.
But I really appreciate your image anyway.
Thanks to everyone who posted images here!
Ann
I'm late replying to this, but I'm a bit upset over the fact that my software has suddenly uninstalled itself from my hard drive. So I can't use it to check up the great images here.
Anyway, my favorite image here is Angus Lau's great image of NGC 1316 and companion (I think the companion is NGC 1317, but I can't be sure). I love how the deep image reveal the shells surrounding NGC 1316, which is a typical feature of large elliptical galaxies. Of course, we can also see the "crumbs in the corners of the mouth" of 1316, the remains of its latest major meal: the dust lanes inside it are what remains of a hapless spiral galaxy that ventured too close, and was eaten.
My second favorite image here is Stephane Vetter's fantastic image of an iceberg stranded on lava sand below Orion and the Hyades. The iceberg looks like a splendid but bizarre sculpture of aluminum foil.
I like Stuart McDaniel's meteor image, which reveals how the bright green flash happens so briefly, while the fainter white glow lasts much longer.
I really like Vegastar Carpentier's portrait of the Sun as a Uranus-colored turquoise Christmas ornament! Merry Christmas, Vegastar! And Juan Carlos Casado's Christmas greetings with the Milky Way is beautiful, too.
And speaking of the Milky Way, there are two lovely images here by Tunç Tezel.
The pictures I was going to check up with my software were Daniele Gasparri's images of the colors of the Pleiades and the Duble Cluster in Perseus. Danielle, I very much enjoy the colors of your Double Cluster image, because you really bring out the color contrast between the red and the blue supergiants in the vicinity of the Double Cluster, and there appear to be some intermediate K-type yellow stars here as well.
As for yur Pleiades image, I love how you bring out the colors of the fainter stars. However, I must point out that if you want to bring out the colors of the brighter Pleiades, then you image is somewhat overexposed. Judging from your image, the brightest of the Pleiades, Alcyone, is almost perfectly white. But Alcyone is, from our point of view, bluer than the blue supergiants of the Double Cluster of Perseus. I am quite sure that Alcyone has a negative B-V index, which means that the star has B-type star colors - i.e., it is blue. But the blue supergiants of the Double Cluster of Perseus are sufficiently dust-reddened due to their great distance from us that the B-V index of the light that reaches us from them is positive, i.e., it is less blue than the color of Alcyone.
But I really appreciate your image anyway.
Thanks to everyone who posted images here!
Ann