Starship Asterisk*

Traveling under a galaxy of fireflies in this Moontrailscape. It's really nice to see how they shine during twilight.

This was shot before Geminids on Dec 13. That night it went cloudy.
Sony A7 /50mm/ f4.5/iso6400 / 72 x 1.3s / Dec 13th. 2015
Atalaya, Provincia de Buenos Aires. Argentina

Essentially a blue-green egg shaped cloud with two distinct and intricate red Halpha jets emanating from each end, NGC 1360 is an unusual
but beautifully subtle egg shaped planetary Nebula in Fornax. It floats majestically in front of a wide spread of distant background galaxies.
Copyright: Michael Sidonio
Larger image here: http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/ ... 3/original

A lunar colour palette
http://www.astrotanja.com
Copyright: Tanja Schmitz

IC 405 - Flaming Star nebula and IC 410 - Tadpole nebula
Copyrights: Michael Mulcahy ISS above the vineyards
Copyrights: Miguel Claro Gemini and Keck Put New Spin on Galaxy Formation
Credits: Hubble Telescope
An article: http://www.gemini.edu/node/12464 http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=35464

Witch Head Nebula - IC 2118
Copyrights: Artem Mironov NGC7635
Copyrights: Geoffrey Heller Geminid meteor and Delicate Arch
Copyrights: Jason Shepherd Geminid meteor over Nepal
Copyrights: Jeff Dai 8:00:28 PM
Copyrights: György Soponyai 360 Degree Startrails Panorama
Copyrights: György Soponyai SH2-132 (Lion of Cepheus)
Copyrights: Lóránd Fényes Asimov's Nightfall
Copyrights: Adam Block Fuego volcano
Copyrights: David Rojas A Fireball from Geminids
Copyrights: Steed Yu & NightChina.net Geminid meteor shower
Copyrights: Ian Sharp M45
Copyrights: Ian Sharp

Milky way arch from the Mirador del Llano del Jable, La Palma , Spain
Copyrights: Javier Martínez Morán Meteor burst above the snow mountain YaLa
Copyrights: Zhong Wu Lintang Waluku, The Plough (Orion)
Copyrights: Muhammad Rayhan Comet Catalina
Copyrights: Les Bildy The Village Colors
Copyrights: Lluís Romero Quasar outburst revises understanding of universe, quasars
Image credits: NASA’S Goddard Space Flight Center
An article: https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/gamma ... uasar.aspx http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=35467

Great Dusty Orion Nebula
Copyrights: Dylan O'Donnell NGC 1977
Copyrights: Mike Chasin Geminid Meteor Shower 2015
Copyrights: Gabriel Funes LAMOST & Geminids fireball
Copyrights: Luocheng (L. Starwisper) M33 - Triangulum Galaxy
Copyrights: Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory (OAJ)
Full size: http://www.cefca.es/img/outreach/jastt80/hr/img_011.jpg Under-warp jump to the Galaxy
Copyrights: Petr Horálek Hubble Captures First-Ever Predicted Exploding Star
Image credits: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
An article: http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1525/ http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=34519

Startrails at the Danube ("Virtual Reality")
Copyright: György Soponyai

This photo is my second experiment in playing with the just-launched Flickr Virtual Reality tool. I didn't expect to reuse the original photo such a way so that the bottom is missing as I positioned my camera slightly upwards in order to have some overlapping of the star stripes in the zenith.

This all-sky startrail photo was taken between 17th and 24th August 2014. Dömös is a village in the Danube Bend (Dunakanyar) located 45 km north from Budapest. The Dunakanyar is often considered as one of the most beautiful part of river Danube where it flows between Börzsöny Mountain and Visegrád Mountain.

I started the project on evening of 16th August by taking two hours of exposure turning the camera to northern direction towards the Börzsöny Mountain however the air was very humid and cloudly and I was not sastisfied with the poor result. The next two nights the sky was crystall-clear so I went on photographing the southeastern and southwestern part of the scene. Every night I started the photo sessions four minutes earlier so the visible position of stars were the same.
On the third night many friends of mine joined for baking some bacon, you can spot us in the southern part of the photo near the campfire.

When I started processing the raw images it became obvious that it's impossible to make a good-looking result by using the first night's photos. So I went back to Dömös on 24th August in order to re-take the photos of the northern sky. In the previous six days the water level of the Danube decreased making the photo alignment complicated. But here is the result at last.


(by clicking on the photo the VR app should be started)


Photo details:
2014.08.17-18 and 2014.08.24. Dömös, Hungary
Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Samyang EF 8/3.5, 3 x 52x120sec, ISO 800, F5.6

The Great Andromeda Galaxy

Up Close and Personal

One hour of luminance, one hour of RGB, and and hour of Ha for the star forming region highlights. FLI Proline 16803 and an Esprit 150 refractor. Paramount ME II.

By Richard S. Wright Jr.
http://www.eveningshow.com/galaxies/m31 ... 50.jpg.php

Geminids over LAMOST telescope
http://NightChina.net
Copyright: Steed Yu Space dust from asteroid 3200 Phaethon rained into the Earth's atmosphere,and burnt as meteors at about 100 km above Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories of China, piercing the night sky over the Guoshoujing LAMOST telescope.

All meteors seemed to radiate from the same point, which lies at Gemini, and that’s how the meteor shower named Geminids.

Over 100 meteors were captured in the composed image taken on the peak night of the 2015 Geminid meteor shower, and the brightest bolide even instantly lit up the landscape.

For larger version, please check the following links:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steedjoy/ ... ed-public/

Tarantula Nebula in SHO-ish palette
http://www.astrobin.com/users/Slawomir/
Copyright: Slawomir Lipinski
http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/9 ... pinski.jpg

Full resolution: http://www.astrobin.com/full/233037/G/?real=&mod=

Captured over several nights with a 4" doublet, QSI 690 and Astrodon's 3nm filters near Brisbane's CBD in Australia.
Total exposure: circa 30 hours.

Ultra deep NGC1893
Copyright: Davide Manca
Full res image is here:http://astrob.in/full/233288/0/

Attack on M42 ...

California Nebula NGC1499
A little different rendition to bring out the background dust cloud and OIII emission...

http://www.hbastro.com

Sh2-227 top left, IC 405 IC410 M38,Sh2 232,LBN 805,LDN 1525, Sh2 231,LBN 803, LBN 802, Sh2 235, LBN 808, LBN797.
This is Hydrogen Alpha data and covers more than 12 Full Moons (6 degrees) on the sky with North to the left.
The field includes emission region Sh2-227 top left, IC 405 (top center) about 1,500 light-years distant. Also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, its Hydrogen Alpha convoluted clouds of glowing hydrogen gas are energized by hot O-type star AE Aurigae. Slightly to the below is M38.
IC 410 (below center slightly right) is significantly more distant, some 12,000 light-years away. The star forming region is famous for its embedded young star cluster, NGC 1893, and tadpole-shaped clouds of dust and gas. IC 417 and NGC 1931 at the lower right.
To the Bottom center are Sh2 232,LBN 805,LDN 1525, Sh2 231,LBN 803, LBN 802, Sh2 235, LBN 808, LBN797.
http://www.hbastro.com

Celestial V over the Himalayas
Copyrights: Jeff Dai The awakened force of a star
Image credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Padgett (GSFC), T. Megeath (University of Toledo), and B. Reipurth (University of Hawaii)
More about: http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1526/?lang http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=35477

C/2013 US10 (Dec 9th)
Copyrights: Damian Peach Aurora Borealis from Iceland
Copyrights: Karissa Kohn Double Rainbow over Big Sur
Copyrights: Bruce Merchant Geminid meteor shower
Copyrights: LI Zhaoqi Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina
Copyrights: Ian Sharp M45 and the California Nebula (NGC1499)
Copyrights: Ian Sharp Solargraphy Analemmas
Copyrights: Maciej Zapiór and Łukasz Fajfrowski Wolf 1061 in Oph
Copyrights: Anthony Ayiomamitis Upside down rainbow - circumzenith arc
Copyrights: Willie K. Yee 'Sky shark'
Copyrights: Mehdi Momenzadeh NuSTAR finds clumpy doughnut around black hole
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Roma Tre University
An article: http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/27 ... black-hole http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=35480

Geminids meteor shower
Copyrights: Atish Aman Planet Aurora
Copyrights: Göran Strand Crab Nebula
Copyrights: Bill Ceno M81
Copyrights: Bill Ceno M74
Copyrights: Bill Ceno IC417
Copyrights: Don Waid

Big Island Hawaii, December 4th 2015. Facing South towards Mauna Kea at about 12:30 AM.
Two Images Stacked - ISO 6400, f2.8, 1/100 & 13 sec[/quote]

Comet Catalina (c/2013 US10 Catalina)
Copyrights: Jerry Sifferman Star trails
Copyrights: Yilun Ma Merry Christmas!
Copyrights: Juan Carlos Casado

Lulworth Cove is a cove near the village of West Lulworth, on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site in Dorset, southern England. Apart from its unique geomorphology it is an ideal target for Winter Solstice photography. From this vista it spans 115 degrees across the southern horizon whereas the Sun covers 103 degrees from sunrise to sunset at this latitude during the shortest day of the year.

Five photos stacked during the whole day at 20/12/2015, two days before the Winter Solstice.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Mars on December 21st, 10:35ut. Now slightly over five months from opposition.

Dimming The Sun: A massive and beautiful flock of migrating starlings
dimming the sun over the city of Patras in West Greece on Dec 22, 2015.
http://www.alexandrosmaragos.com
Copyright: Alexandros Maragos

Dimming The Sun by Alexandros Maragos, on Flickr


Dimming The Sun by Alexandros Maragos, on Flickr

Deep optical image of Malin 1
http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.01095
http://www.astrophoto.cl/images/gallery ... malin1.png
Copyright: Gaspar Galaz, Carlos Milovic, Vincent Suc, Luis Busta, Guadalupe Lizana, Leopoldo Infante, Santiago Royo We present Megacam deep optical images (g and r) of Malin 1 obtained with the 6.5m Magellan/Clay telescope, detecting structures down to ~ 28 B mag arcsec-2. In order to enhance galaxy features buried in the noise, we use a noise reduction filter based on the total generalized variation regularizator. This method allows us to detect and resolve very faint morphological features, including spiral arms, with a high visual contrast. For the first time, we can appreciate an optical image of Malin 1 and its morphology in full view. The images provide unprecedented detail, compared to those obtained in the past with photographic plates and CCD, including HST imaging. We detect two peculiar features in the disk/spiral arms. The analysis suggests that the first one is possibly a background galaxy, and the second is an apparent stream without a clear nature, but could be related to the claimed past interaction between Malin 1 and the galaxy SDSSJ123708.91 + 142253.2. Malin 1 exhibits features suggesting the presence of stellar associations, and clumps of molecular gas, not seen before with such a clarity. Using these images, we obtain a diameter for Malin 1 of 160 kpc, ~ 50 kpc larger than previous estimates. A simple analysis shows that the observed spiral arms reach very low luminosity and mass surface densities, to levels much lower than the corresponding values for the Milky Way.
Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Accompany
Copyrights: Zhong Wu Star trails
Copyrights: Stan Honda Milky Way over pines
Copyrights: Stan Honda New Findings from New Horizons Shape Understanding of Pluto and its Moons
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute FitzRoy at night, Patagonia
Copyrights: Ben Cooper M22, Globular Cluster
Copyrights: Ron Brecher Sky delights
Copyrights: Tunç Tezel Orion
Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile M8 and M20
Copyrights: Cesar Cantu Quiroga Geminid Meteor from Iceland
Copyrights: Philip Eaglesfield IC2118
Copyrights: Jose F. Hdez

Comet Catalina with 3 tails
Copyrights: José J. Chambó No Two Alike
Copyrights: Steve Cullen Duality
Copyrights: Steve Cullen The Geminids over Balearic Islands
Copyrights: Antoni Cladera Drawing in the Dust: GAL 110-13 and vdB 158
Copyrights: Leonardo Orazi Espada de Orion
Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile Colours of the Moon
Copyrights: Alain Paillou Morning planets and the Geminid
Copyrights: Stephane Vetter

Spaghetti Nebula, Sh2-240 by David Dvali, on Flickr

"Finger of God"
by Iván Sánchez




In this picture I wanted to join the sentimental symbolism of the Milky Way with one of the most characteristic symbols of religion.

This photograph is made in an abandoned village, and received the punishment of civil war in Spain. In fact, this cross is called "the Cross of the Fallen". The goal was to unite all these elements in a photograph.

Technically, a single shot with a Canon 5D Mark III was performed with ISO 3200, f / 2.8 to 30 seconds of exposure. With noise reduction from the camera and further processing for the detail in the galactic center.

From behind the cross, it has brought to light a torch to provide continuity in the light of the Milky Way, and separate cross background, giving a mystical atmosphere.

Let me know if you need more information about this picture or more resolution.

Best Regars.

Iván Sánchez

SpaceX Falcon9 OG2 launch and landing by Michael Seeley, on Flickr

A two picture composite, shot from Jetty Park (5.8 miles south of the landing site) with a Canon 5d3, 17-40mm (set to 17mm) lens, ISO 500 and f18. Exposure time for the first frame (the liftoff) was 128 seconds and 81 seconds for the second frame (the landing).