Starship Asterisk*

I'm hunting for lovejoy (the comet LOL) Yesterday it was cloudy at the horizon, nothing to be found but I saw two very bright fireballs at dawn. Very surprising. Today it was mostly clear, no fireballs and no signs of the comet yet. I think I need to go earlier to have a reference and point a long l...

Thank you Chris, it would be really nice to have a larger version and the date/time the image was made to be sure about those streaks. If those meteors were from a meteor shower then the radiant would be about above the Magellan Clouds. If my knowledge is right there's no moderate shower with a radi...

Is the meteor a real meteor? There are three vertical marks on that part of the image, one bright and two fuzzier. What are those? I see two definite meteors (the dim streaks), and one bright streak that has a light profile that more closely resembles a satellite flare (e.g. Iridium) than a meteor,...

Is the meteor a real meteor? There are three vertical marks on that part of the image, one bright and two fuzzier. What are those?

Question for those APOD followers from the southern hemisphere: I've never been down that far south, and have often wondered just what the Magellenic clouds look like to the unaided eye. I've seen photos, of course, but can anyone describe what it's like to actually look up and see them? Thanks, Sa...

Astronymus wrote:

Ann wrote:A green "orb" or patch is seen to the upper left of Aldebaran in the Hyades. The green object looks like a comet. But surely there is no comet there right now?

Ann

Lens flare?

I think it's a flare from the moon that is above the photo if I'm correct.

The Hyades is not well shown in the photo, in fact the Pleiades is usually said to be on the back of the bull and this is not at all what one might guess with the image. Someone else might mumble about this to clarify but other than Aldebaran there is something unsaid in this APOD There's nothing u...

I think it's just a wide angle shot. It's very easy to get seemingly nonsensical lighting going on with those. That, and night exposures always mess with one's head. I agree, like a light post or any source of light behind the photographer. Night exposures are very sensitive to any source of light,...

Thank you for the answer about UV! Now I know. About the image you are right about the exposure for the sun and the rest of the sky, if the sun is not overexposed the rest of the sky will be dark. I would like to ask the photographer anyway because the brighntess of the sky, foreground and the white...

I cant look at the sun naked eye; not even at sunset! :roll: Too bright for me! Maybe with dark sunglasses! :? Make sure that they are sunglasses with UV protection. Question for those that know: Are there sunglasses without UV protection? I thought plastic/glass was an UV blocker. I wonder if thos...

Oh I liked the picture; but I never seen the sky so dark at sunset! Especially with the Sun so high in the sky yet! We'd have to ask the photographer but I think it has to be a composite. I've been photographing sunrises for several months and the sky is never so dark around the sun that high in th...

Living in the South Hemisphere I'm familiar with Alpha & Beta Centauri. This supernova must have been a really amazing sight. Do you have a chart of where it was located in the sky?

I enjoyed the aurora images from the north hemisphere. Sadly the aurora oval is really unfavourable for Argentina, we don't have auroras not even far south. I wonder why such a punishment. But oh well Venus and Mercury will be joining a 2% crescent moon tomorrow and I hope to see that, maybe take a ...

I live in Argentina, the transit will not be visible from my location. The nearest place to see the transit is a 6 hours flight.

It already started all the transit hype and I feel terrible. Argh!

This is not a political commentary==which is frowned upon on Asterisk. Calling the Rio Plata the widest river revives the Brazilian-Argentinian controversy on the matter. These two bordering countries have been enemies in the past. They continue to disagree on many matters==including the widest riv...

Quick correction:

I used a fullframe camera not a 1.6 crop body, the 400mm and 1.4tc are right

Hi all, Thanks for the kind comments! If it helps for the measurements I used a 400mm lens in a 1.6 crop body and added a 1.4x teleconverter. I'm very happy and grateful this was selected as an APOD. I was photographing sunrises mainly looking for green flashes and this one was a really strange sunr...

Io rising is really great!

Rigel looks very blue in contrast with Betelgeuse.
I wonder which star looks (to our brains) most blue.
I've always thought Altair and Achernar looked very blue from my skies but Sirius is probably the king.
I'll take a look when the clouds permit.

Efrain, very nice catch! I only saw UARS once and it was really very fast.
Luc: I really like your concept that's a nice view of the Milky Way.

Marco Lorenzi, that's a lovely image of the Pencil Nebula and Cirrus in the Vela SNR! :D I think that the wisps of nebulosity really may be as blue-green as they look here from OIII emission. The Pencil Nebula itself is bicolored, however, and it's very dramatic-looking! The blue star at lower righ...

Very nice shot Stefano, your planning was totally worth it!

Luis

Hi!
Hope it peaks on friday/saturday I'll try my luck from the Southern Hemisphere. I'm really jealous of you guys up North.
Perseus rises at about 3am and is not really high in the horizon but I can't lose anything by trying.

Wish me luck this weekend!

I don't think this is a contrail. The texture doesn't look like one, looks natural and different at different parts. The curve is too steep to be logical for an airplane, it's more than 180 degrees and the position above the mountains makes little sense to be a holding point for aircrafts. With the ...

This is a beautiful constellation portraits. Maybe I'm crazy but I believe constellations are nicer than people for portraits
Thank you to APOD and Rogelio!