APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

[APOD Robot]

The Owl and the Galaxy

Explanation:
The Owl andthe Galaxy sail these skies
With blue and yellow star.

They go together beneath the Big Dipper,
If you wonder where they are.

The Galaxy's light shines through the night,
Ten millions of light-years away.

But never fear the Owl is near,
Inside theMilky Way.

A cosmic shroud, the Owl is proud,
its central star a must.

And the spiral Galaxy lies on edge
To show off all its dust,
Its dust,
Its dust,
To show off all its dust.

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[owlice]

I love this APOD, every bit of it!!!!

(I'm sure that astonishes no one...)

[Indigo_Sunrise]

This is great!

[starsurfer]

I love this APOD, every bit of it!!!!

(I'm sure that astonishes no one...)

I was about to remark that owlice might like today's APOD!

It is a wonderful and odd pairing! You can even faintly see the halo around the Owl Nebula, which was discovered in 1992 by the astronomers Karen Kwitter, You-Hua Chu and Ronald Downes. It is usually more easily seen in narrowband images.

Another much less well known pairing of a galaxy pair and a planetary nebula is NGC 4725 and NGC 4747 along with LoTr 5.

One that has never been imaged is the southern pairing of NGC 5121 and Longmore 8.

Even more rare and interesting are pairings of planetary nebulae, there are a surprising number that are mostly southern and unphotographed:

1. Shapley 1 and VBRC 7 in Norma.
2. NGC 2899 and VBRC 2 in Vela
3. MeWe 2-4 and Fr 2-8 in Centaurus
4. Murrell 1 and Patchick 33 in Lupus


Other planetary nebula pairings include star clusters:

1. NGC 6440 and NGC 6445 in Sagittarius
2. NGC 6712 and IC 1295 in Scutum
3. NGC 2141 and WDHS 1 in Orion
4. Pismis 3 and VBRC 1 in Vela
5. NGC 5823 and the Mask Nebula in Circinus


Some other clusters just happen to share their line of sight with another planetary nebula:

1. M46 with NGC 2438 in Puppis
2. NGC 2818 with NGC 2818A in Pyxis
3. NGC 5617 with PN G314.6-00.1 in Centaurus, can be seen near the centre of this image by Kfir Simon.

However there is one planetary nebula that has been confirmed to be a true member of an open cluster, this is PN G305.3-03.1 in the cluster ESO 96-4 in Musca.

Professional astronomers have also investigated other possible open cluster and planetary nebula associations.

Finally, some globular clusters are known to contain planetary nebulae in the Milky Way and other galaxies, the most notable of which is M15 with Pease 1 in Pegasus.

[leon.l7027@gmail.com]

imho, no need to apologize to Mr. Lear. Given his wide range of interests and abilities, I believe he would have been delighted with your homage.

[AstroRockHunter]

I'll be disappointed if this picture with poem does not become a wall poster.

And I agree that Mr. Lear would not demand or even expect an apology.

[Visual_Astronomer]

A beautiful shot indeed!

I've viewed this pairing many times; it is always fascinating to see the juxtaposition of objects like this in the night sky. Thanks starsurfer for your list - I've seen the M46/NGC2438 pair, but there were several others that were unknown to me. I'll add them to my list of targets. (at least the northern ones)

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171941

Runcible - Clearly Edward Lear meant : l-Brucine n. - A bitter alkaloid poison resembling strychnine and extracted from nux vomica but did a terrible job of spelling. If you didn't wash that spoon off well you could be doing lots of dancing around by the light of the moon. Actually he seemed to have meant runcible but you'd have to wonder why? Who likes making up their own words or theories?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runcible

I'd prefer the mentioned "obsolete adjective rouncival, meaning "gigantic" which seems fitting enough for today's APOD.

[Boomer12k]

Hoot, hoot...

:---(===) *

[Tilt]

Outstanding —

Reminded me of something.... ah, Here it is:

Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines,
Tell me what makes skies so blue,
And I will tell you why I love you.

Nuclear fusion causes stars to shine,
Tropisms induce the ivy to twine,
Tyndall-Rayleigh scatter makes the sky look blue,
Testicular hormones are why I love you.

[DavidLeodis]

Clicking on Christoph Kaltseis in the credit brings up what is presumably the home page of Christoph's website. On that page there is what seems to be a link labelled 'Astronomy' but on clicking on that link (and trying other links) nothing comes up. I wonder if it is a problem with my connection and/or settings or does anyone else seem unable to get the links to work?

Confusingly (well it is to me ) in the Exif data that I was able to obtain through the APOD image properties it states the image create date is "March 16, 2015 11:27:33AM (timezone is 1 hour ahead of GMT)". A local time of 11:27:33AM would though surely be daylight, unless it was taken in a region during the period where the Sun never rises.

Thanks for any help. I need an Easter Egg or bunny smilie but here's an for the APOD connection.

[rstevenson]

Clicking on Christoph Kaltseis in the credit brings up what is presumably the home page of Christoph's website. On that page there is what seems to be a link labelled 'Astronomy' but on clicking on that link (and trying other links) nothing comes up. I wonder if it is a problem with my connection and/or settings or does anyone else seem unable to get the links to work?...

I get the same results -- in four different web browsers, all of them the current versions, all of them running the latest Flash Player plug-in. Those four links are inside a Flash slide show, and that's as far as I care to explore. When I see Flash used to create interface elements, I run screaming into the night. Or just click the Back button.

Rob

[quigley]

And all this time I thought love was much more than the result of hormones...

[starsurfer]

A beautiful shot indeed!

I've viewed this pairing many times; it is always fascinating to see the juxtaposition of objects like this in the night sky. Thanks starsurfer for your list - I've seen the M46/NGC2438 pair, but there were several others that were unknown to me. I'll add them to my list of targets. (at least the northern ones)

I'm glad you found the list of use, there are many nice visual observing targets out there. An OIII filter would help with seeing the planetary nebulae more clearly.

There is actually another pairing that I forgot about, NGC 1360 and NGC 1398 in Fornax.

[Roberto Capacci]

Very good image!

[pat_42]

I wonder why the photo has been mirrored? And I really mean mirrored, not just turned by an angle.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160421.html shows the same area of sky, but in the right way.

[Chris Peterson]

I wonder why the photo has been mirrored? And I really mean mirrored, not just turned by an angle.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160421.html shows the same area of sky, but in the right way.

Orientation and reflection of astronomical images is a matter of convention only. There is no "right" or "wrong" way. This image was made with a Newtonian reflector, which mirrors the sky, and presumably the author didn't choose to reflect it again in the processing stage.