Submissions: 2022 June

[Tom Glenn]

Soaring with Saturn
Soaring with Saturn by Tom Glenn, on Flickr
The ISS and Saturn fly in formation above Temecula, CA in this single frame 1ms exposure that shows simultaneous detail on both. Despite the close proximity in frame, the range to the ISS at the time of this image was 602 km, whereas the distance to Saturn was 1.38 billion km. This is not a composite image, but is a single frame extracted from a video that I captured at 04:26:23am PDT on June 24, 2022 from the parking lot of Red Hawk Elementary School in Temecula, CA (exact GPS coordinates of telescope setup are 33.4688N, -117.0984W).

I uploaded a video that includes the raw data to YouTube.


Time-lapse image sequence is available here.

Despite the short exposure necessary to freeze the motion of the ISS traveling at 7.4 km/s, details on both the spacecraft (magnitude -3) and Saturn (magnitude +0.5) are simultaneously visible in this single frame. These include hints of the Cassini division in Saturn’s rings, as well as the shadow of Saturn’s globe on the right side of the rings, indicating that Saturn has not yet reached opposition from the Sun. There have been no selective adjustments to image brightness. Saturn appears dark because it has a much lower surface brightness to that of the ISS.

Capturing this image was a logistical and technical challenge. The orbital elements were unstable due to both a debris avoidance maneuver that required an unplanned rocket burn as well as an aborted orbital reboost maneuver.

Equipment details:
Celestron C9.25 Edge HD telescope
Celestron CGEM mount
ZWO ASI183mm camera (no filter)
Capture software: Firecapture
Exposure: 1ms
Gain: 220
Frame rate: 38fps
Bit depth: 12
Spacecraft ephemeris data: NASA, Space-Track, and Celestrak
Ground path prediction: software by Ed Morana

[mathewbrowne]

Tenby North Beach, United Kingdom © Mathew Browne via PhotoHound

Moonrise behind the Prince Albert statue in Tenby. ⠀

Photographed from Tenby's North Beach, 0.5 miles away using a 600mm telephoto lens.

[conemmil]

Planetary alignment "just in time"

I was out imaging red sprites all night long and as it moved to the south, the sky cleared up showing the planets and the moon just before the sunrise. It was an amazing view and a great example of the ecliptic in the sky in combination with the stormy weather far in the background. The image is made in the land of olives Halkidiki in Northern Greece, a beautiful peninsula in the Mediterranean sea. It is made with a full-frame camera and a 12mm lens from the mountain of Holomon.

It was very difficult to find the proper settings to make it work but in the end, the gods and the weather collaborated and everything settled just in time for a great appearance. I was very excited and pleased by the view and the morning hours experience of nature becoming alive with the birds, the weather and our solar system! [imghover]

[/imghover]

[rikpac.photography]

C27 the crescent nebula in HOO

trying again as image didn't get attached first time

5 nights of imaging
30h total integration 15h each filter Ha and OIII
scope: Celestron edge HD800 reduced 0.7X
camera : ASI294MM pro
Filter: Baader ultra narrowband Ha and OIII

from Chesapeake Virginia bortle9 backyard

facebook:
Facebook.com/riccardopaciniastro

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copyright : Riccardo Pacini


C27 HOO by Riccardo Pacini, on Flickr

[ryancarroll]

Image details:

Telescope: Stellarvue 130t-r
Imaging Camera: ASI 294 MC pro cooled to -10c, gain 139 (unity)
Guide Scope: William optic 50mm scope
Guide Camera: ASI zwo 120 Mini
Filter: 1.25” optlong L-pro for light pollution (on ZWO 8 position filter wheel)
Bortle 4-5 skies

300 second exposure x48 for 4 hours total integration.
Resolution: Arcsecond/pixel 1.045
Moon Phase 67.61

This was taken on 6/19/22

The image was fully processed within Pixinsight including calibrating, stacking, integrating.

https://www.astrobin.com/full/sctyc9/0/

Click to view full size image

[ropesce]

Planet alignment (Venus, Mars, Jupiter) with Pleiads
this morning (June 27 2022) from Genova, Italy
taken with EOS 90D and 18mm lens

[ropesce]

Almost new Moon and Mercyury
This morning (June 27, 2022) form Genova, Italy
Canon EOS 90D with 85mm lens

[Efrain Morales]

Saturn and two of its moon Tethys (L) and Dione (R) (Infra Red) on June 25th. Three channels anotated (RGB). ( LX200ACF 305mm OTA, CGE Mount, ASI290mm Cmos, PowerMate 2.5x Barlows, Astronomik RGB filter set)

[dvd007]

ALIGNEMENT PLANETES by David Duarte, sur Flickr

Alignment of the planets and the moon in the sky of Saint-Paul-lès-Dax at the Lake of Christus in France, June 23, 2022 at 5:30 am.
I just had time to take the 30 pictures before the clouds came.

Canon 60D
Sigma 10 mm
30 photos assembled in Gigapano
Photoshop
Photo engine
HDR

[thanos_paraskevopoulos_]

Summer Triangle by Thanos Paraskevopulos, on Flickr

Summer Triangle

As the milky way was rising and the Cygnus and Lyra constellations appeared in the night sky, I thought that was a good chance to capture the Summer Triangle. The Summer Triangle is an astronomical asterism in the northern celestial hemisphere. The defining vertices of this imaginary triangle are Altair, Deneb, and Vega, each of which is the brightest star of its constellation (Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra, respectively). There were some interesting rock formations in the distance, that became an excellent foreground for my frame. In order to enhance the three brighter stars of the asterism, I used a diffuser filter in front of the lens for half of the duration of the exposure. The result would have been much better and more pleasing though if I had a camera that was able to capture more colour of the Hydrogen-alpha emission nebulae. Move the slider on the image to show/hide the labels and lines of this asterism.

[thanos_paraskevopoulos_]

Planet Parade And The Crescent Moon During Dawn by Thanos Paraskevopulos, on Flickr

Planet Parade And The Crescent Moon During Dawn

This is June’s planet parade of five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) of our solar system and the crescent moon. Planet parade is an astronomical event that occurs when the solar system’s planets line up in a row in the same area of the night sky, as seen from Earth. In order to capture this panoramic image, I had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. because during dawn, as time passes, the sky gets brighter and brighter, and you’re unable to capture all of the planets. Although I arrived early for the event, I struggled a lot to catch Mercury because generally, it’s not that bright, and some clouds close to the horizon blocked the view. I decided to set my camera at the edge of the port of Ancient Epidaurus in order to capture the fishing boats as well. Finally, I managed to capture and include Mercury in this panel, even though it is such a faint light in the sky that you have to zoom in to spot it.

[thanos_paraskevopoulos_]

Partial Lunar Eclipse Above The Sea Castle Of Bourtzi by Thanos Paraskevopulos, on Flickr

Partial Lunar Eclipse Above The Sea Castle Of Bourtzi

Yesterday the partial lunar eclipse was visible from Greece and was the first time that I ever captured it. My friend Konstantinos Koutsogiannis and I arrived at the port of Nafplio at 5 a.m., we set our gear and started shooting some time-lapses. I wasn’t able to set a second camera for my timelapse due to technical issues, so I changed my plans and went for a multi-exposure image, in the first place, in order to capture the phenomenon as time passes. My frame was simple, I framed the shot having the water castle of Bourtzi as a foreground and I started capturing an image every minute, just in case I missed something. Finally, I ended up using an image every three minutes in order to get this result.
In the second image, I decided to go for a tighter and more symmetrical frame emphasizing the eclipse and dawn colours.

[thanos_paraskevopoulos_]

Milky Way Arch Panorama by Thanos Paraskevopulos, on Flickr

Milky Way Arch Panorama

When I arrived at this location I wasn’t alone, thankfully there was a couple, Noah and Nina, with their Shorty (the dog) and their camper van. It was nice to meet them and enjoy the night sky. I decided to capture the big view, to go with the wide-angle lens and capture the whole milky way arch and the amazing landscape. In the first place, I took a series of vertical images without using any filter in front of the lens. The result wasn’t that bad, although I wanted to use the diffuser filter, just to see the difference and if it’s any better. And then, the magic happened! The effect on the image was so so pleasing to my eyes, I couldn’t believe how much I liked this result. Unfortunately, this effect wasn’t the only one that I noticed last night; the most obvious and distracting effect was the light pollution. Especially the left part of the image is almost unusable because of the heavy lighting from the cities in the distance.

[thanos_paraskevopoulos_]

Staring At The Cosmos by Thanos Paraskevopulos, on Flickr

Staring At The Cosmos

This image is one of my all-time favourite images. It was captured during my recent trip to the peninsula of Mani, close to the very famous village of Vatheia. The meager amount of light pollution in this area gave me the opportunity to capture these amazing colours of the milky way. It was pretty pleasing to be able to see the milky way in such a bright way. In the technical part, this is a blended exposures image, where I used a diffuser filter to give this look to the stars and a more artistic feel to the image. I have chosen to place myself in the bottom left corner in order to be a measure of scale and to show the connection between humans and the universe.

[alcarreño]

Copyright: Raul Villaverde Fraile
ONE SHOT
Location: Villarejo de Medina -Guadalajara- Spain
Villarejo de Medina 2 by R Villaverde, en Flickr

[TaraMostofi]

All 7 planets in our solar system are currently on the same side of the Sun in the predawn sky. On the morning of 25 June 2022 at 4:39 am I captured this scene along the beautiful west shore of Lake Tahoe, California. A thin crescent moon joined the planetary parade. With averted vision, I was able to see Mercury in the beautiful glow of the breaking dawn. Uranus and Neptune are too dim to see, but my camera did pick up a few fuzzy pixels. The Moon and Venus reflected in the calm waters of the lake and a glorious sunrise followed.

This is a 2 photo panorama, planned with Stellarium, processed in Photoshop and Lightroom

Click to view full size image

Thank you for your consideration
Tara Mostofi

[salvatorecerruto]

Agave flowers among the stars by Salvatore Cerruto, su Flickr

Title: Agave flowers among the stars
Description: Agave, a very popular plant widespread in the Mediterranean areas, produces only one flower in its entire life, after which it will die. The flower it produces, unique and unrepeatable, is in fact called the flower of death, but it is basically a flower that shows how unique, precious and unrepeatable life is. Set among the agaves we can admire the Milky Way and its nucleus which in the summer months is clearly visible in our latitudes.

Technical data: Nikon D800 + Samyang 14mm f/2.8
Sky: Stack of 25 photos @f/4, 60 s, 2500 ISO + 12 dark frames with same parameters
Foreground: Stack of 10 photos @f/5.6, 120 s, 1600 ISO

Location: Costa di Carro, Sicily, Italy (36.7178868,14.7029687)
Date: 2022-06-02
Author: Salvatore Cerruto

[alcarreño]

Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile
ONE SHOT.
Location: Padilla del Ducado -Guadalajara- Spain
Stargate by R Villaverde, en Flickr

[fehrpics]

Another one with some planets in the morning sky. Shot at the Teide Observatory, Tenerife, Spain. Additionally the ISS joined the party. Single shot and added the stacked ISS-trail.
https://www.facebook.com/fehrpics
https://www.instagram.com/fehrpics/

[harishkk]

North America Nebula by harishkk30, on Flickr

[Tom Glenn]

Young crescent Moon setting over Pacific

Young crescent Moon setting over Pacific by Tom Glenn, on Flickr

The young crescent Moon, only one day past New and 1% illuminated, sets into the marine layer over the Pacific Ocean. This single exposure photograph was taken from a local mountaintop near San Diego, CA, approximately 45 minutes after sunset on June 29, 2022. If you look closely, the limb of the Moon exhibits discontinuity caused by craters in the vicinity. Also note the spectrum of colors observed from the horizon to the top of the frame.

Nikon D500 w/70-200mm lens @200mm, f/8, ISO 200, 1s exposure.

[atomo]

Hi guys,rho ophiuchi region.
Telescope: SharpStar 150 f2,8
Guide Scope:Evoguide
Mount : Skywatcher HEQ5
Imaging camera: ZWO 2600MC
Guiding camera: ZWO 290 MC
Filters: Lpro
Plate solving: SGpro
Imaging software: Sgpro
Guiding software: PHD2
Processing software: Pixinsight
Lpro: 30x600s exposure @ 100 Gain
Integration: 5hrs

Copyright@Davide Mancini

Click to view full size image

[logandc99@me.com]

The Filaments of Centaurus A Galaxy NGC 5128

Centaurus A and it's Filaments by Logan Carpenter, on Flickr

Credit: Logan Carpenter
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Dates: Multiple nights in Feb, April and May 2022
Telescopes : Skywatcher Esprit 120 ED
10” Meade SCT
Cameras: ASI2600mmPro and ASI1600mmPro
Filters: Optolong and Antlia Ha and Optolong and Baader LRGB
Total integration with both telescopes: 55hrs 53 mins

Astrobin link: https://www.astrobin.com/h8cx4m/F/


Centaurus A is the 5th brightest galaxy in the sky, situated about 12 million light years away. It has a peculiar shape and the theory behind this unusual appearance is that it was once an elliptical galaxy that collided with a smaller spiral galaxy.

I have imaged this a couple of times before but was inspired by the image from Rolf Olsen (who lives in my home city of Auckland) to try and capture the red filaments revealed in his 130 hours deep field image from 2013 (with extra added in 2018). In Rolf’s image he revealed filaments A and B. However, in 2017, scientists discovered filament C running perpendicular to filaments A and B.

The very bright area at the center of the galaxy known as an “active galactic nucleus” is produced as a result of the galaxies central supermassive black hole accelerating particles away from the poles of the spinning accretion disk at high velocities and producing jets shooting out from the black hole.

From what I understand, the jet shooting out on one side of the galaxy (referred to as the northern jet), is photoionizing the hydrogen in the interstellar medium. It has also been noted that there are young stars in the inner and outer filaments (filaments A and B) and this could be an example of jet-induced star formation. The ionization coming from these stars appears to be insufficient to explain the high levels of ionization in the clouds that make up the filaments and so it is thought that the ionization producing the bright filaments may be from a combination of ionization from these young stars and ultraviolet photons originating from the jets of the AGN (active galactic nucleus).

Filament C, on the other hand, runs perpendicular to the other two filaments and it has been suggested that this filament could be the result of ionization from the galactic wind.

So the challenge for me was to show all three filaments A, B and C in my image which I feel I have successfully achieved with my 40hrs of Ha.

Because of the limited R,G,B data collected using the Skywatcher Esprit 120, I combined it with my data collected with my Meade 10inch SCT and ASI1600mmPro from back in April this year to improve the detail of the galaxy and it’s dust lane in this final image.

[Julien Looten]

A French mill haloed by the Milky Way.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienlooten/
Copyright: Looten Julien

Click to view full size image

full : https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienloo ... en-public/

For a long time, I have wanted to make this kind of image, where you can see the arch of the Milky Way in its entirety, as well as the "airglow", in the form of a 180° panorama. For this, I had to take into account several parameters: wait for a clear night, and find a place free of light pollution.

So I chose the mill of Lescours (France, Saint-Aubin-de-Branne), lost in the middle of the vineyards, far from the light pollution of the cities, and well oriented to be able to center it under the arch of the Milky Way .

The Milky Way is visible in its entirety, from south (left) to north (right). On the left, the Cassiopeia constellation and the Andromeda Galaxy. In the center the Cygnus constellation as well as many red nebulae. Finally, on the right the "center" of our galaxy, as well as Rho Ophiuchi.

The horizon is marked by the presence of significant airglow, in the form of "green clouds".
It is a rare natural phenomenon caused by a chemical reaction in the upper atmosphere, where the sun's rays excite molecules, which then emit a very weak light (chemiluminescence) of green color.

This is my first image taken with the Sigma 28mm f/1.4. Lens very suitable for astrophotography. Panorama of 32 photographs - Canon 6d Astrodon - June 29, 2022, around 3 a.m. 14 minutes of exposure (15 sec, f/2).

[MrRat]

IC-1848 - 52 shots at 300 seconds each shot from my backyard with a ZWO ASI2600MC camera, William Optics GT81 telescope, and Losmandy GM811G equatorial mount taken on December 13, 2021.