Starship Asterisk*

Oh and thanks for all the kind words everyone!

It's a pretty one, but it has moved beyond my tolerance for photocomposites. The zodiacal light is so extraordinarily faint, there is just no possible way you could see that well-lit view of the lake and cliffs and still see the zodiacal light. This is no longer a case of contrast enhancing; it's r...

Amazing and beautiful APOD. Based on the position of Mars (between the Hyades and the Pleiades), it was recorded looking westward after sunset, on 25-April-2017. Don't have my notes I'm shooting in middle of nowhere Utah right now but I think you are exactly right. Thanks for the kind words! Dave

If anyone has an interest in how the image was put together I put together a short timeline of the processing.
http://www.davelaneastrophotography.com/187-2/

JohnD Yes I am the photographer thought I'd stop in and say hey! Plus if anyone has questions I'll be glad to answer them. On the airglow, it's sad our eyes are not sensitive enough to see the great color. That night it looked like streams of really high faint clouds. I thought it was till I looked ...

John, Actually the image is 36 images stitched together from N-NW to S-SW. Its stitched in a 6x6 matrix with a 35mm lens. Its interesting to note that several other images taken that night with a main direction of south showed the banding horizontal (with some distortion) so a very strong correlatio...

That is exactly right. There is a phethora of distant background galaxies that appear to be part of the group but are in fact much much further away.

Well it's really really hard to see objects in the sky that are 100s of millions of light years away. Without a telescope is impossible and it will even take a pretty good one to see galaxies that far out.

Updated M45 and Lovejoy.

Larger image at

http://re-prop.com/apod/lj45.jpg

Once in every 10,500 years. This configuration will not re-appear for 10,500 years based on the period of Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). So eat your Wheaties and exercise regularly and who knows!

Link to larger version.

http://re-prop.com/apod/lj.jpg

This thread is awesome, you guys are hilarious!

starsurfer wrote:Awww I was expecting vdB141!

Its in the picture so you win! Its labeled Ghost of Cepheus.

Thanks everyone I thought it would be fun to throw in a bit of humor for the holiday. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Halloween.

I believe the annotations on the image are correct. As best I can tell, this is a panorama covering a bit more than 180 deg of the horizon, from North on the left, passing through East in centre and South on the right, with the camera being somewhere in between the two temples. If you type "38...

The Milky Way Wave. The nighttime mists of Silex Spring in Yellowstone National Park appears to wave goodbye to the summer Milky Way. As the Milky Way rises high in the sky and slowly slips from view, geysers spew and mist caresses its passing. Soon the snow will cover this vista and the galactic ce...

Celestial Fireworks. The Milky Way appears to erupt from the top of a mountain. Below the mountain lies the ruins of the ghost town of Independence, Colorado founded and named by the discovery of the Independence lode on Independence Day, 1879. Above the town looms the mountain that appears to spew ...

An intergalactic meteor? A beautiful night in the mountains of Colorado is pierced by this unusual configuration of meteor travel. Striking through the Andromeda Galaxy and through the periphery of the Milky Way this is a most unusual alignment of objects. A panorama of 16 images taken about 8,000 f...

Thanks everyone! the untold story of this image is that it was 21 degrees F out (see snow on right side of the image) and a sustained 30 mph wind. There I stood in my 19 layers of clothes staring up at the Summer Triangle mocking me. I'm pretty sure it was mocking me

Dave

http://re-prop.com/apod/Bryce-2-Final-thm.jpg The pattern is full. From Farpoint View at Bryce Canyon the flightpath is full. 3 planes low on the horizon are outnumbered by the 4 Eta Aquarid meteors above Bryce Canyon. On a bitterly cold evening in May the temperature hovered at 21 degrees and a 30...

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the kind words. Ill give you more of the details. This was actually shot with a QHY 12 which is a OSC camera. There is just over 45 hours of exposure. Since this is a OSC camera its really the equivalent of 135 hours of RBG data. There were about 10 hours of 20 minute exp...

Echos of Gould's Belt A deep exposure of M45 reveals a look at a series of Gould Belt filaments. Gould's Belt was first written about in 1879 by astronomer Benjamin Gould. Gould's Belt consists of interstellar dust, gas and bright stars and is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it's a leftover remnant of a...

Celestial Fireworks erupt over Independence Pass, above the stoic Independence Mountain, high above the Ghost Town of Independence, on Independence Day. Now that just has to be patriotic! Independence Mountain appears to erupt the milky way across the summer sky with Vega, Altair and Deneb flying at...

Milky Way above Moab Copyright: David Lane http://re-prop.com/apod/Arches-Panorama-sm.jpg The Milky Way glows in above the sky glow at Delicate Arch near Moab, Utah. This panorama of 21 shots shows two lone rock climbers underneath the glow of the Milky Way and the summer triangle on this near summ...