Submissions: 2015 February

[jooshs]

A mosaic of the Rho Ophiuchus region taken from the Winter Star Party.

Copyright: Josh Smith

Rho Ophiuchus Region Mosaic reduced by Onejoshsmith, on Flickr

[gordg3]

Mars, Venus and the waxing crescent Moon on Feb. 20.
Side by Side
http://www.pbase.com/gordg3/image/159209417/original
Copyright: Gordon Garcia

Click to view full size image

Canon EOS 7D ,Tamron SP 150-600MM, 1s, f/6.3 at 329.0mm iso800

[marion165]

The Moon, Venus and Mars Conjunction of February 20 2015
https://flic.kr/p/qkzNqN
Copyright: Marion Haligowski

The Moon, Venus and Mars Conjunction of February 20 2015 by Radical Retinoscopy, on Flickr

The triple conjunction of February 20, 2015 was photographed with a Canon T2i, a Canon 100 mm f/2.0 lens @ f/4.0, 2.5 sec, ISO 800. The photograph was taken from Lancaster, PA as the trio was setting behind the tree line in the western sky.

[ufoken]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 580b43ec08

Venus, Mars, Moon Conjunction
Taken on February 20, 2015 by Kenneth Green in the Sierra Nevada.

[Guest]

Moon, Mars, and Venus over the Geophysical Institute

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musubk/16410480118/

Copyright: Jason Ahrns

Click to view full size image

[Astromontufar]

Milky Way Core
Copyright: Sergio Montúfar
https://www.facebook.com/MilkyWayAddicted
https://www.flickr.com/photos/m_acubens/
http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/517775/
https://500px.com/acubens

[Zhuoxiao Wang]

Crescent moon, Venus and Mar gathering. Shot on February 20th evening in front of Santa Cruz lighthouse.

[SkyViking]

In the Shadow of the Horsehead - Deep 26 Hour Version
http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.com
Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Link to full resolution image (3.8MB)
Link to large 'X3' size image
Link to large 'X3' size greyscale version

I recently added a Ha filter to my collection and promptly put it to the test by soaking up a decent amount of data on the Horsehead nebula.
I wanted to improve on my initial attempt on this target from 2014. One of the issues was that I'd like to show the delicate 'curtain' structure of IC 434, the bright glowing hydrogen emission that the Horsehead is silhouetted against.
This also prompted me to add more data to the LRGB channels as well, in order to bring out the faint dust details better. So all together with last year's data I ended up with over 26 hours of data which I completely reprocessed and assembled into this updated version.
I'm pleased that the result has higher resolution and more depth than last years' effort. The colours are also richer and more refined and in particular the Ha curtains now stand out above and around the Horsehead.

About the image:
The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33) is without doubt one of the most recognized and fascinating objects in the sky. This iconic feature is formed by the sharp outline of a dark dust cloud, with a remarkable likeness to a horse's head, silhouetted against a brightly glowing patch of ionized Hydrogen (IC434) that is being energized by the hard ultraviolet radiation from nearby Sigma Orionis, a quintuplet star system lying just outside the top of the image.

I sought to process this image to show not only the Horsehead silhouette but also the details of the dense dust cloud (Lynds 1630 molecular cloud) from which it emerges.
The background behind the Horsehead glows with a soft diffuse reddish/pinkish light because of strong emission by spectral lines from ionized Hydrogen. Visible in the foreground is the large looming shadow being cast by the Horsehead's tower of dust, appearing as a dark fan-shape down towards the bottom centre-left, intercepted on its left edge by the intricate bright blue reflection nebula NGC2023. In contrast to the red emission glow, the reflection nebula is caused by light from the nebula's bright blue central stars which is being reflected off the surrounding dust.The brightest member of the central cluster is the B star HD 37903, a very young star with intense ultraviolet radiation that has carved a four light years wide cavity in the dust that we see as the reflection nebula.

Throughout the dark cloud, both in and below the Horsehead, are several small glowing reddish patches. These are the feeble lights from new stars being born in the cloud. Some of these are Herbig-Haro objects; the result of plasma jets ejected from young protostars which collide with the surrounding gas and dust and cause the glowing emission.
Inside the bright blue nebula NGC2023 are also several brightly coloured wisps of emission patches, further hints of young stellar objects and the regions' overall complexity and beauty.

The Horsehead Nebula was discovered in 1888 by Williamina Fleming on a photographic plate (#B2312) taken at Harvard College Observatory. She described the bright emission nebula later designated IC434 as having “a semicircular indentation 5 minutes in diameter 30 minutes south of Zeta [Orionis].”
She was never credited with the discovery though because Dreyer did not include her name when he compiled the Index Catalogue (IC) in 1895 and 1908.

Image details:
Date: 7th, 8th, 9th, 20th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 31st December 2013
2nd, 5th, 6th, 9th January 2014
23th December 2014
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 20th January 2015
Exposure: HaLRGB: 795:556:105:60 mins, total 26 hours 21 mins @ -25C
Telescope: 12.5" f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand

[NCHANT]

^^ Now THAT is an impressive shot!!!

Couple more from me.

Kaniere Glow by Mikey Mack, on Flickr

'Roosting in Wanaka' by Mikey Mack, on Flickr

[IO_12]

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) covers M 76 (Little Dumbbell Nebula)
Copyright: Velimir Popov, Emil Ivanov @ Irida Observatory

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

More info and hi-res images on website

[Bonobo]

Doble conjunción.
Por un lado, tres pueblos de la Campiña cordobesa: en primer plano, Castro del Río, arriba, Espejo y un poco a la izquierda de éste, Montemayor.
Por otro, tres astros: Luna en segundo día de creciente, Venus y Marte.
Unas nubes añaden algo más de misterio.

Double conjunction.
For one, three villages of the Cordoba countryside: in the foreground, Castro del Río, top, Espejo and a little to the left of it, Montemayor.
Furthermore, three stars: Moon in second day of rising, Venus and Mars.
Some clouds add more mystery.

Doble conjunción by Juan A. Bafalliu, on Flickr

© Juan A. Bafalliu-Spain-2015

[marion165]

The Conjunction Flyby
https://flic.kr/p/rhyKzR
Copyright: Marion Haligowski

The Conjunction Flyby by Radical Retinoscopy, on Flickr

A passing jet is seen near the Moon, Venus and Mars conjunction of February 20, 2015.

[zheanpeternacionales]

Venus and Mars in conjunction by zheanpeternacionales, on Flickr

[mexhunter]

Mars, Moon and Venus.
Copyright: César Cantú

[wbp]

ISS solar transit, Friday February 20, 2015. Taken at Vista Hill, Palo Alto Foothills Park, CA. Composite of 8 images at 8 frames/second, 1/4000 sec, ISO 640. Fujifilm XT-1, Stellarvue SVA130 EDT, iOptron CEM60-EC mount.


DSCF2170-7p1cy by wbphelps, on Flickr

[jcbo]

M42
http://astrofotki.pl
Copyright: Jacek Bobowik

Larger image: http://www.astrofotki.pl/M42.jpg

[György Bajmóczy]

Sun-bat
bajmoczy.hu
Copyright: György Bajmóczy

Click to view full size image

[Sandgirl]

From Rosette to the Cone
Copyrights: Yves Van den Broek

Jupiter 18/02
Copyrights: Christopher Go

Io occults Ganymede in February 2015
Copyrights: Leo Aerts

Hubble Gets Best View of a Circumstellar Debris Disk Distorted by a Planet
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Apai and G. Schneider (University of Arizona)
An article: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... 6/image/a/

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=34473

Sub 18 Hours New Moon
Copyrights: Mark Williams

Cassiopeia with Comet Lovejoy
Copyrights: Max Corneau

Comet Lovejoy passes near the Little Dumbbell Nebula
Copyrights: José J. Chambó

[Sandgirl]

One million kilometre long solar filament
Copyrights: Andy Devey

Night sky over Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil
Copyrights: Edinaldo Junior

Waning Crescent Moon & Palms
Copyrights: John Chumack

Solar Halo
Copyrights: Danny Farmer

Sky Conjunction
Copyrights: Lazar Stojanovic

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 next to M76
Copyrights: Markus Noller

Moon, Venus and Mars
Copyrights: János Kása

Stralsund Sunset with Venus and Mars
Copyrights: Ekkehard Gnadler

[Jose Luis Sánchez]

Venus, Mars, Moon, ISS

Copyright: Jose Luis Sanchez
My Flickr





Venus, Mars, Moon, Uranus, ISS, M -45, M -31, M- 33 and Comet C / 2014 Q2 ( Lovejoy )

[Gustavo Andriuolo]

A Venus - Mars Conjuction with the Moon. Taken from Pigüé, Argentina, on Feb 20, 2015. It's a single shot with a Nikon 3100, 100mm, f/4, 1/40seg, ISO 800. No photoshop editing!


Luna, Venus, Marte by Gusta27, on Flickr

[amyth91]

The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme
http://amitkamble.com/the-carina-nebula ... e-extreme/
copyright: Amit Ashok Kamble


Link to full res image - http://amitkamble.com/wp-content/upload ... 2-full.jpg

After all this days of getting the ZEQ25 and AT65EDQ, finally got some time to get decent images. We still had tracking issues which made the stars look like seagulls, i though it was pinched optics but a longer exposure reveals the PEC (Periodic Error) and PA (Polar Align) error.

So, the longest i could go was 45sec, without having too much startrais.

The following images is of the extreme stellar region "Eta Carina", home to one of the youngest known star clusters (Trumpler 14), Trumpler 16 which is home to of WR 25, currently the most luminous star known in our Milky Way galaxy together with the less luminous but more massive and famous Eta Carinae star system, and HD 93129A (another luminous star).

This image was shot at Greg Steven's place. This is a stack of 45sec x 13 images (Usable images from the night) making a total of 585 sec.

The image was stacked in Nebulosity and processing was done in Photoshop CC.

Was really impressed with the data that was captured considering the issues we had.

Here is a link to my blog that shows the initial stacked image and the processed image comparison along with some other good reads.

http://amitkamble.com/the-carina-nebula ... e-extreme/

Make sure you scroll down to see some of Rolf's work. This is a link to the best video i've ever seen that takes you through the Carina region.

http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.co ... /i-zWK4znD

Exif: 45sec, ISO 1600, f6.5 at 420mm using AT65EDQ on Canon 6D

[Cyclop_si]

Local Galaxy Group and comet

Besides three main galaxies in local group (M33, M31, part of Milky Way) and comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy, there are many star clusters including Double Cluster, Cassiopeia constellation, etc. Image does have some soul and hart on its own as well, with IC1805 and IC1848.

Copyright: David Grgic

Click to view full size image

Full size image.

[Bonobo]

Conjunción tras las nubes.
Conjunction behind the clouds.

Tras las nubes by Juan A. Bafalliu, on Flickr

Una fina capa de nubes disminuye la visibilidad y el brillo de los tres astros de esta conjunción, pero le añaden un cierto halo mágico.
A thin layer of clouds decreases visibility and brightness of the three stars of this conjunction, but added some magical halo.

Imagen captada en La Campiña cordobesa, Andalucía, España.
Image captured in the Countryside Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain.

© Juan A. Bafalliu-Spain-2015

[ki_cz]

I would like to submit this image of a young moon setting behind the St. Lawrence church in Prague.

Click to view full size image