Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

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owlice
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Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by owlice » Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:32 am

_____________________________________________________________________________

Please post your images here for October 12-15.

If you need instructions on posting images, please see this thread.

Thank you!
_____________________________________________________________________________


<- Previous submissions


IC 5146: Cocoon Nebula
http://www.backyardskies.com/BackyardSk ... on_np.html
Copyright: Emanuele Colognato Centipede and Milky Way
http://www.bretwebsterimages.com
Copyright: Bret Webster
[attachment=0]Centipede n Milky Way.jpg[/attachment][/i]

IC 405/410
http://www.alsonwongastro.com/ic405-.htm
Copyright: Alson Wong Pleiades and Surrounding Dust
htto://andreatosatto.com
Copyright: Andrea Tosatto
<- Previous submissions
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A closed mouth gathers no foot.

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owlice
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by owlice » Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:47 am

NGC 6334: Cat's Paw Nebula, Narrowband with RGB
http://www.astrofotografia.com.pl/photo ... n-2000.htm
Copyright: Piotrek Sadowski
[attachment=0]ngc6334.jpg[/attachment][/i]
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A closed mouth gathers no foot.

davidebardini
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by davidebardini » Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:40 am

NGC 6946 & NGC 6939 in Ceph
Copyright: Davide Bardini
http://www.astrosky.it/imagebig.php?big=270 www.astrosky.it

10 hours for Galaxy, Cluster & Dust
(L: 300min TEC140 - STL11000)
(RGB: 100min per channel TSA102 ML8300)
SynthLum: L+R+G+B for 10h of integration time

Imaged fron Tuscany IT, on 11 September 2010

Davide Bardini

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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by hewholooks » Tue Oct 12, 2010 10:01 am

Like Moths to a Flame
Copyright: Hunter Wilson
http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/emission/h8debc4a#h8debc4a This image of IC 59 and IC 63 (Sh2-185) - The Gamma Cassiopeiae Nebula - reminds me of moths being drawn to a flame as the nebulae delicately flutter around their own nuclear candle. The image looks much better on a larger scale - http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p148814922-6.jpg

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Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Ann » Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:30 pm

That's a lovely image of IC 405/NGC 410 and star asterism "The Leaping Minnow", Alson Wong. This part of the sky is a veritable eldorado for color aficionados, with a smorgasbord of delicious hues.

Compare the two emission nebulae, IC 405 and NGC 410! The large nebula on the right, IC 405, is lit up solely by runaway star AE Aurigae, which is on the lam after breaking out of a starforming region not far from the Trapezium in Orion. So we can conclude that the nebula is at the same distance from us as the star, AE Aurigae, and the star is about 1460 light years away. Note, too, the bluish "filaments" of dust above and to the left of the star. These filaments are dusty blue reflection nebulae, and such features are not normally seen next to stars hot enough to ionize a gas cloud and make it glow red. Because of this dramatic dust, AE Aurigae is also known as The Flaming Star! The dust features are further proof that the star is just passing by, because otherwise the dust would have "evaporated" long ago.

The other nebula, NGC 410, is much farther away. Unlike IC 405, it contains a whole cluster of newborn stars. And there are no blue dust filaments here.

Now look at "The Leaping Minnow", the asterism made up of five stars seemingly positioned between NGC 410 and IC 404. The only yellow star of the lot, 16 Aurigae, is a K3III star, about 235 light years away, about 66 times as bright as the Sun, and with a color index of 1.25, almost exactly the same as Arcturus, although Arcturus not only looks brighter to us in the sky, but it is also intrinsically brighter.

Now, to make things more interesting, let's go to the opposite part of "The Leaping MInnow" and look at the two bluish stars at the top of this asterism. The faintest of these two stars is 18 Aurigae, and just like yellow 16 Aurigae it is about 235 light years away. But 18 Aurigae is no Arcturus, but instead it is a typical Altair! 18 Aurigae is a little "redder" in color than Altair - with a B-V of about 0.256 versus 0.221 for Altair, big difference - but these two stars are almost equally bright, almost exactly 11 times as bright as the Sun.

Oh, but now look at the slightly brighter blue star to the left of 18 Aurigae. That's 19 Aurigae, and it is a tiny bit redder than 18 Aurigae, about 0.287 versus 0.256 for 18 Aurigae. Still 19 is a little hotter than 18, because it is spectral class A5 versus A7 for 18. And 19 is a whopper of a star, too! It's really big! And distant! It may be as far as 3,000 light years away, and it may be as bright as 7,000 times as bright as the Sun!

Now look at the "middle row" of the "Leaping Minnow". The star to the right is the first B-type star we have come across so far, B9.5V 17 Aurigae. It is a little farther away than 16 and 18 Aurigae, but nowhere near as far away as 19. Really this star is typical Vega. Granted, it is a little hotter and bluer than Vega, but just a little, and it is about the same brightness as Vega, about 43 times as bright as the Sun versus around 49 times brighter than the Sun for Vega.

Yes, but now look at the star to the left of 17 Aurigae! It is called IQ Aurigae because it is a variable star, and it looks blue, doesn't it? It sure does, and it is blue, too. It has a color index that makes all the other stars blush with envy, about - 0.167! That's blue, let me tell you. Even so this star is classified as an A-type star. Bright Star Catalogues writes about IQ Aurigae:
Magnetic star showing chlorine. Silicon star. Helium and neon deficient. Bluest known peculiar A-star: color characteristic of about B4V. Classified A0p because He weak, but in other respects the color is more indicative of the temperature than teh spectral class of Ap stars. One of the hottest Ap stars known about 17000K.
IQ Aurigae is relatively bright, too, about 111 times as bright as the Sun. It is moderately far away, too, about 450 light years.

Well, IQ Aurigae is one of my favorite stars, as you can guess, and I love that it is set in such a lovely, colorful "neighbourhood", where its own blueness can really shine! And you knew I would say it, I love the color IQ of this star! Oh, and I love the color IQ and the general picture IQ of your picture too, Alson Wong. You have done a great job bringing out the colors of this delightful region of space, and the composition of your picture is great, too!

Ann
Last edited by Ann on Tue Oct 12, 2010 11:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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CTB 1: Galactic SNR in Cassiopeia

Post by Ayiomamitis » Tue Oct 12, 2010 4:45 pm

The image below is the stunning, dim and difficult SNR in Cassiopeia CTB 1. This particular SNR was catalogued by George Abell as a planetary nebula in his now well-known catalog as the eighty-fifth and second-last entry (ie. Abell 85) but it was suggested by van den Bergh in 1960 and comfirmed by Willis & Dickel in 1971 to be, in fact, not a planetary nebula but rather a galactic SNR whose emissions include signal in the optical (ex. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997AJ....113..767F ), radio (ex. http://www.narcis.info/publication/Reco ... 887%2F6952 ) and x-ray (ex. http://aas.org/archives/BAAS/v36n5/aas205/1420.htm ) portions of the spectrum. CTB 1 is approximately 3000 pc (9784 light-yrs away) and physically spans another 30 pc (98 light-yrs) in diameter while it is dated to be approximately 10,000 years-old.

Please note that at the 11 o'clock position, one is left with the impression that the "urn" has a "spout" and material is flowing out. Studies have confirmed this "shell rupture" and which extends up to 30' to the east and past the main shell (see http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997AJ....113..767F ). Also of interest is the stronger O-III emission on the western section of the shell which I detected in my exposures and which coincides with scientific findings and is believed to represent "large-scale, incomplete shock cooling" (again, see http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997AJ....113..767F ).

Similarly, the greater contrast of the southern half of CTB 1 is consistent with scientific findings and which has been linked to the various dust clouds in the immediate area and also visible in my image. Finally, there is a neutron star in the immediate area and which I am working on its precise identification and location (see http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/455 ... .text.html ). For a rich survey of academic literature related to CTB 1, please see http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/surveys/snrs/ ... 9+0.2.html .

This particular SNR is one of the holy grails of amateur astronomy (ex.
http://www.astronomy-mall.com/Adventure ... e/ctb1.htm ) and is a most-difficult target for imagers as well owing to a very dim magnitude spread over a diameter of 35.2 arc-minutes.

Further details in relation to this result are available on my website at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-Nebulae ... B-1-NB.htm .

Image

http://www.perseus.gr/Images/dso-nebula ... -hires.jpg (for much higher resolution)
Anthony Ayiomamitis
http://www.perseus.gr


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IC 1396 "Elephant's Trunk"

Post by geissi » Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:51 pm

IC 1396 "Elephant's Trunk"

I'd like to show my latest astro-image.
It's the "Elephant's trunk" in IC 1396.
Here's the data:
Location: Remseck / Germany, balcony observatory
Date: 9th and 10th of October 2010
Scope: TEC 140 / 980
Mount: 10micron GM2000
Camera: FLI ML 16803-65
Filters: H-alpha, OIII and SII narrowband

The colors have been mapped to a natural style
using a tone-mapping method.

Hope, you will like it!

Best Regards
Rolf Geissinger

http://www.stern-fan.de

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Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Ann » Tue Oct 12, 2010 11:57 pm

I love your Pleiades picture, Andrea Tosatto. You've given this famious cluster a richness and a "compactness" that almost makes it look like a bridal bouquet of the cosmos!

Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Ann » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:03 am

And that's a great portrait of NGC 6946 and NGC 6939 in Cepheus, Davide Bardini. It is fascinating that these two very different objects appear to be of about equal size in the sky, yet they are of extremely different surface brightness. Distant NGC 6946 is bursting with billions of stars, whereas relatively nearby NGC 6939 at best may contain a few thousand. Even so NGC 6939 may be the eaiser object to spot in the sky, thanks to the relative apparent brightness of the constituent stars.

Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Ann » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:08 am

And that's a great portrait of M31, Terry Hancock. I love the color gradient of the galaxy, how you have managed to bring out how this galaxy suddenly changes from yellowish to very yellow near the center, and how it becomes ever bluer at the edges. I love the fact that you have managed to bring out the Ha regions, too!

Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Ann » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:11 am

hewholooks wrote:Like Moths to a Flame
Copyright: Hunter Wilson
http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/emission/h8debc4a#h8debc4a This image of IC 59 and IC 63 (Sh2-185) - The Gamma Cassiopeiae Nebula - reminds me of moths being drawn to a flame as the nebulae delicately flutter around their own nuclear candle. The image looks much better on a larger scale - http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p148814922-6.jpg
And this is a great image and a delightful caption! Now I, too, think that IC 59 and IC 63 really do look like cosmic moths fluttering around Gamma Cassiopeia!

Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by hewholooks » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:59 am

Ann wrote:
hewholooks wrote:Like Moths to a Flame
Copyright: Hunter Wilson
http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/emission/h8debc4a#h8debc4a
This image of IC 59 and IC 63 (Sh2-185) - The Gamma Cassiopeiae Nebula - reminds me of moths being drawn to a flame as the nebulae delicately flutter around their own nuclear candle. The image looks much better on a larger scale - http://hwilson.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p148814922-6.jpg
And this is a great image and a delightful caption! Now I, too, think that IC 59 and IC 63 really do look like cosmic moths fluttering around Gamma Cassiopeia!

Ann
Ann,
Thanks for confirming that I am not crazy - or at least not crazier than at least one other person here! :lol: Once in a while you just see things in an image you make, and in this one I could just about feel the moths fluttering against the light. I suppose it's better than Like a Moth TWO Flames
Last edited by hewholooks on Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Tucker512 » Wed Oct 13, 2010 11:47 pm


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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by thedigitalbean » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:18 pm

NGC 1435 - Merope Nebula
Copyright: Aravind Krishnaswamy
http://akimagery.zenfolio.com/p17423407 ... #h11ddbb57

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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by ashtree » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:23 am

Majestic Andromeda Galaxy
http://blog.jesion.pl
Copyright: Adam Jesionkiewicz Click here for large file (4 mpix).

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Ann
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Re: Recent Submissions: 2010 October 12-15

Post by Ann » Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:50 am

Fascinating, Aravind Krishnaswamy. There are two Merope Nebulae, one big and obvious and possibly visible to the naked eye under extremely dark skies, and the other one small and nestled right next to the star. I've been to lazy to look up which one NGC 1435 is, but it doesn't matter when it comes to your picture, because both these nebulae can be seen in it. The big and obvious one is - well, big and obvious, and the small one can be seen right below the star.

Ann
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