Starship Asterisk*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0707/ngc2903_gabany_lg.jpg There is much chaos visible in the central area evident in the dramatic dust lanes near the galactic center. Looking at the patterns in the area, it appears (to my untrained eye) that there are two massive central black holes about 1...

I'm curious, in the bottom-right of the full version of the current APOD image of NGC 2903, to the right of the small, bluish (what I assume to be) dwarf satellite galaxy, is that collection of reddish objects a background galaxy cluster? Hello: I went back to my original data and took a careful lo...

Question: NGC1097 appears in fairly clear detail, considering, but the smaller galaxy is just a smosh of light with a couple spots. If it were at nearly the same distance, wouldn't it have better detail? This picture gives me the impression that the "companion" is actually much farther aw...

Hi: Schmidt and Maksutov Cassegrain telescopes take the approach you mention- the secondary mirror is attached to the underside of a clear lens that is placed at the opening of the scope. These kind of telescope designs are some some of the most popular in the world- Meade and Celestron have sold hu...

Hi: The twinkles are an artifact of the telescope's optical system. This image was taken with a 20 inch cassegrain reflector telescope. A picture of the telescope can be viewed at the following URL: http://www.cosmotography.com/images/rc_secondary.jpg The inset diagram illustrates the path light tak...

Just for curiosity sake, I wanted to see what else stood out so I used a photoshop trick to digitally find the differences between the two pictures. It looks like this: http://planthetrip.com/difference.jpg http://planthetrip.com/difference.jpg The bubble looking things are caused by differences in...

A previous poster indicated what I also was led to initially believe - that the webpage indicated that the supernova was to the right of the galaxy center instead of below the galaxy center. Here is the sentence that led us astray: "It is visible on the right of the above before and after imag...

Hello: The difference you have noted with the other stellar object is due to variances in the atmosphere when each of the two images were taken and the methods used to process each picture. This, in addition to other less noticeable differences, is an artifact that becomes apparent when comparing a...

... nearby supernova are rare and important because they frequently become bright enough to be studied by many telescopes and are near enough for their (former) host star and immediate surroundings to be spatially resolved. So, where (or when) one can take a look at "spatially resolved" p...

I also suspect that due to the size and brightness of the 'pseudo-nova' in the original image, that it is a foreground star (in our galaxy), and not something in M51. This make it much more susceptible to transient atmospheric effects, and rules it out as a supernova candidate. Hi: Actually, the st...

I was curious what the time span between "before" and "after" :?: Hi: The image on the left (the before image) was taken at the beginning of this year over a period of several days. The image on the right (the after image) was taken over a period of several days between July 1-7...

Thad wrote:The discussion points to the location on the right of the pictures, while the first forum post points to the one below galactic center. Which is the true supernova?

Hi:

The supernova is the star that is visible near the center of the image on the right, immediately below the galaxy's center.

jgabany, How does one weed out "variances in the atmosphere"? I'm curious that there haven't been more 'false alarms' as far as supernovae, etc. Hello: Variances in the atmosphere is a reference "seeing" conditions that affects all astronomical images taken from here on the grou...

Hello: The difference you have noted with the other stellar object is due to variances in the atmosphere when each of the two images were taken and the methods used to process each picture. This, in addition to other less noticeable differences, is an artifact that becomes apparent when comparing as...