Starship Asterisk*

Joe Stieber wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:59 am

Thanks, Joe, it makes sense. Every time I have seen noctilucent clouds, they have always been pretty much centered on Capella.

The pattern and brightness of the stars in the APOD just didn't look much like Auriga to me.

Ann

Ann,

I think you hadn't realized it's a relatively small field-of-view in today's APOD. Here's a labeled wider-field image I took on the morning of 12-July-2020 with my iPhone 11 on a tripod. The comet moved to the left (away from Theta Aur) since 08-July. That's a friend of mine in the foreground doing some imaging.

Click to view full size image

Joe

Joe Stieber wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:59 am

Thanks, Joe, it makes sense. Every time I have seen noctilucent clouds, they have always been pretty much centered on Capella.

The pattern and brightness of the stars in the APOD just didn't look much like Auriga to me.

Ann

Ann,

I think you hadn't realized it's a relatively small field-of-view in today's APOD. Here's a labeled wider-field image I took on the morning of 12-July-2020 with my iPhone 11 on a tripod. The comet moved to the left (away from Theta Aur) since 08-July. That's a friend of mine in the foreground doing some imaging.

IMG_0017-labels.jpg

Joe

Thanks, Joe, it makes sense. Every time I have seen noctilucent clouds, they have always been pretty much centered on Capella.

The pattern and brightness of the stars in the APOD just didn't look much like Auriga to me.

Ann

Joe Stieber wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 6:15 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 5:32 am The comet appears to move to the upper right in this video. I guess that is an effect caused by the Earth's own rotation. Obviously the comet has a motion of its own. Does anyone know how the comet is actually moving here (even if that movement isn't visible in the video)?

What are the stars visible to the upper right? The topmost pair of stars look just like Pollux and Castor, and the star to the lower right of them looks just like Alhena at the foot of Gemini.

But what is the bright star some distance below Pollux? There shouldn't be a bright star in that position, so could it possibly be Venus? But shouldn't Venus be even brighter than that? And it seems to me that Venus should be "above" Alhena, not "below" it.

Maybe those two topmost stars aren't Pollux and Castor after all?

Ann

All the stars visible in this image are in Auriga, the brightest being Theta Aur, just under 4° from the head of the comet. Near the top of the tail is 40 Aur, Above-right of Theta is Upsilon Aur then the brighter pair at the top are Nu Aur (lower) & Tau Aur (upper). The fainter pair just above them are HR 2025 and 28 Aur.

On that date, 08-July-2020, C/2020 F3 was moving more-or-less right to left vs. the background stars.

It's reminiscent of my first view and still picture of F3 on the morning of 07-July-2020, but I didn't have any noctilucent clouds here in New Jersey, USA.

Joe

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 5:32 am The comet appears to move to the upper right in this video. I guess that is an effect caused by the Earth's own rotation. Obviously the comet has a motion of its own. Does anyone know how the comet is actually moving here (even if that movement isn't visible in the video)?

What are the stars visible to the upper right? The topmost pair of stars look just like Pollux and Castor, and the star to the lower right of them looks just like Alhena at the foot of Gemini.

But what is the bright star some distance below Pollux? There shouldn't be a bright star in that position, so could it possibly be Venus? But shouldn't Venus be even brighter than that? And it seems to me that Venus should be "above" Alhena, not "below" it.

Maybe those two topmost stars aren't Pollux and Castor after all?

Ann

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:33 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:22 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:05 pm

The video repeats once. It's one 8-second video, played twice.

Funny - I had thought that at first, but then was fooled into thinking that the second run-through began with a darker sky than the first and a different starting point for the comet. Probably because the start of the video is more easily overlooked than middle segments! ...Or maybe it's just me I think it would have been better to just slow the video down and not do the repeat.

I don't think it needed to repeat. Of course, you can slow it down yourself from the YouTube settings icon at the bottom. I think it looks better at half speed.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:22 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:05 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:43 pm I don't get it. So, the sun was rising up until about the 8 second mark, and then the sky becomes dark again?

The video repeats once. It's one 8-second video, played twice.

Funny - I had thought that at first, but then was fooled into thinking that the second run-through began with a darker sky than the first and a different starting point for the comet. Probably because the start of the video is more easily overlooked than middle segments! ...Or maybe it's just me :-) I think it would have been better to just slow the video down and not do the repeat.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:05 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:43 pm I don't get it. So, the sun was rising up until about the 8 second mark, and then the sky becomes dark again?

The video repeats once. It's one 8-second video, played twice.

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:43 pm I don't get it. So, the sun was rising up until about the 8 second mark, and then the sky becomes dark again?