Starship Asterisk*

Taurus Molecular Cloud - vdB27, B7, Ced30/LBN782, B209/LDN1495
http://astrofotky.cz/~Konihlav
Copyright: Pavel Pech

Hamburger galaxy
http://www.heiserstudios.de
Copyright: Ulrich "Hannes" Theilenberg

Orion's Nebulas Below the Belt
Copryright: Chuck Manges




Orion Mosaic 15 of 32
by Chuck Manges, on Flickr

15 panels
Orion Mosaic
Each panel:
L-14x30sec
R-10x30
G-6x30
B-6x30
HA-3x120sec

QHY163M
11" Celestron EdgeHD
Orion HDX-110

Moonset by Juan-Carlos Munoz-Mateos, on Flickr

It was 4AM in the grasslands of southeast Montana. I was spending the night under the stars while my camera clicked away, but the cold breeze made sleep hard to come by. I thought I detected a bright flash of light, but wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me. It wasn't until I got home that I found the source: a fireball meteor. According to American Meteor Society reports, the meteorite likely fell near the CO/WY border some 300 miles away. It theoretically should have been visible from 10 states, I can only imagine how bright it must have been overhead. The green color reveals the composition to be mostly nickel, and it left behind a vapor trail (known as a persistent train) for over 10 minutes afterwards. My only goal was to capture the milky way for the first time this year after it hid behind the sun for the winter. The fireball was just a bonus.

Equipment/Settings: Nikon D750, Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, 25 seconds, f3.2, ISO12800, Time: 10:20 UTC - 3/24/18
Kevin Palmer Photography
http://0e33611cb8e6da737d5c-e13b5a910e1 ... 937429.jpg

This image of M82 was photographed by Lars Zetterlund using a C14 during 2 nights for a total of more than 12 hours.
I helped with the post processing of the images mixing the Ha to the LRGB files.

/*Peter R

Carina Nebula in HDR and full colour
This HDR image is constructed from 12 sets of exposures ranging from 1/8 sec ( to capture the bright centre of Eta Carinae ) through to 240 seconds. Total exposure time around 13 hours. Captured from a home observatory with an unmodified Nikon D5300 DSLR mounted on a 12" Newtonian telescope ( Orion Optics CT12 ).

17-19 March 2018

My image gallery: http://flickr.com/photos/mike-oday

Image details:

Objects in image:
Eta Carinae ( HD 93308 ) in the centre of the Homunculus Nebula
Carina Nebula ( NGC 3372 )
Keyhole Nebula
Open Star Clusters:
- Trumpler 14, 15, 16
- Collinder 232

Field of view ..... 59' 18.2" x 39' 56.0"
Image center ...... RA: 10 45 01.762 Dec: -59 40 52.87
Orientation: North is up

Telescope: Orion Optics CT12 Newtonian ( mirror 300mm, fl 1200mm, f4 ).
Corrector: ASA 2" Coma Corrector Quattro 1.175x.
Effective Focal Length / Aperture : 1470mm f4.7

Mount: Skywatcher EQ8
Guiding: TSOAG9 Off-Axis-Guider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2, PHD2

Camera:
Nikon D5300 (unmodified) (sensor 23.5 x 15.6mm, 6016x4016 3.9um pixels)

Location:
Blue Mountains, Australia
Moderate light pollution ( pale green zone on darksitefinder.com map )

Capture ( 17, 18 19 March 2018 ):
12 sets of sub-images with exposure duration for each set doubling ( 1/8s to 240s ) all at ISO250.
( 181 x 240sec + 10 to 20 each for the other durations )

Processing:
Calibration: master bias, master flat and master dark
Integration in 12 sets
HDR combination

NGC 4365 Galaxy Cluster

Copyright: Mark Hanson

Here is my latest image taken at "Stellar Winds Observatory" a/k/a Stan Watson Observatory at Dark Sky New Mexico. I believe this is one of the first color amateur images of this galaxy group.


"NGC 4365 is an elliptical galaxy that anchors a small group of galaxies. A remarkable aspect of this giant elliptical galaxy that can't be discerned optically is its counter-rotating core, which rotates in the opposite direction to the rest of the galaxy. It has a distance of 75 million light years and measurements of its recessional velocity show it to lie about 20 million light years behind the Virgo Cluster.

Although difficult to see is a faint tidal tail that is the product of an interaction with the galaxy NGC 4342. It is likely to be composed of stars and globular clusters that have been tidally stripped from NGC 4342.
Another interesting galaxy is NGC 4370, which is located above and to the left of NGC 4365. Once considered rare, it is part of a class of galaxy known as dust lane ellipticals."

"Explanation by Sakib Rasool"

You can see the Labeled and High Rez image here: https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ngc-4365

Thanks for viewing.

Mark Hanson

Hello,
A five hours LRGBHa.
ASA10, Moravian 16200 and Azeq6.
A crop and the field.

The full is here : https://www.astrobin.com/full/339182/B/?real=&mod=

9-panel mosaic created with Rokinon 135mm + QSI583. Each panel is 12x300 LRGB for a total of 36 hours taken from December 2017 through early Feb 2018. Image taken at Deep Sky West.
-Lloyd Smith

litobrit wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 4:59 pm Hello,
A five hours LRGBHa.
ASA10, Moravian 16200 and Azeq6.
A crop and the field.

The full is here : https://www.astrobin.com/full/339182/B/?real=&mod=

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Nice!

I particularly like the really widefield image, where we can compare M101 with its satellite NGC 5474 and also with a couple of yellow galaxies: NGC 5422, NGC 5473 and NGC 5485.

Ann

sixburg wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:05 pm 9-panel mosaic created with Rokinon 135mm + QSI583. Each panel is 12x300 LRGB for a total of 36 hours taken from December 2017 through early Feb 2018. Image taken at Deep Sky West.
-Lloyd Smith

Very beautiful! Great details and delightful colors!

Ann

markh@tds.net wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 4:08 pm NGC 4365 Galaxy Cluster

Copyright: Mark Hanson

Here is my latest image taken at "Stellar Winds Observatory" a/k/a Stan Watson Observatory at Dark Sky New Mexico. I believe this is on of the first color amateur images of this galaxy group.


NGC 4365APOD-3small.jpg


"NGC 4365 is an elliptical galaxy that anchors a small group of galaxies. A remarkable aspect of this giant elliptical galaxy that can't be discerned optically is its counter-rotating core, which rotates in the opposite direction to the rest of the galaxy. It has a distance of 75 million light years and measurements of its recessional velocity show it to lie about 20 million light years behind the Virgo Cluster.

Although difficult to see is a faint tidal tail that is the product of an interaction with the galaxy NGC 4342. It is likely to be composed of stars and globular clusters that have been tidally stripped from NGC 4342.
Another interesting galaxy is NGC 4370, which is located above and to the left of NGC 4365. Once considered rare, it is part of a class of galaxy known as dust lane ellipticals."

"Explanation by Sakib Rasool"

You can see the Labeled and High Rez image here: https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ngc-4365

Thanks for viewing.

Mark Hanson

Wow, this is very, very beautiful and detailed indeed! It is downright fascinating to study the individual galaxies here! Thanks for the splendid image!

Ann

NGC4565 - The Needle Galaxy

Image copyright: Jason Guenzel

Under some unseasonably favorable conditions, this view of the Needle Galaxy offers some great detail that typically eludes a fairly modest AP setup. I encourage you to click into the full scale image link below, pan around, and check it out! Thanks for looking.

Capture details are in the link below...
https://astrob.in/337623/0/

To the full size image...
https://astrob.in/full/337623/0/

Hey there, hope it`s okay that Ill place my image of NGC3372 - eta carina nebula. It`s my best astro image I`ve done till now. And yes, I know there is so much more to learn about, and to work on till I am able to produce an APOD worthy image, but I now that this way will be worthy for me too.

It`s made with the T13 SSO - Telescope, with a total exposure time of 5x 600 sec - single shots. Aligned with Nebulosity 4, and postprocessed with PS.CC18.

Hope you like it, and I would be pleased for every tip you have for me on this image. Just write me an pn - don`t think the gm likes it off topic in this special section. But, now here it comes:

NGC3372 600 sec. exposure Stacked x5 09.03.18 fred gaschk by Fred Gaschk, auf Flickr

NGC 5128
I processed this image with publicly available data from the Las Cumbres Observatory. The PI for this observation was Edward Gomez at the Las Cumbres Observatory. This image included data collected with B, V and R filters. The data comes from 1 m telescopes at the South African Astronomical Observatory and Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Larger version is here.

Thanks for looking.
Ajay

The Chinese Space Station Tiangong 1 is going to crash very soon (likely Sunday or Monday), somewhere on Earth between 43°N and 43°S...
I would like to watch the reentry: what nice fireworks it will be!

Two solar transits of Tiangong (docked to the Shenzhou module) taken in June 2013 from Southern France, in H-alpha with prominences and in white light amongst nice sunspots.
At a speed of nearly 8 km per second, those transits lasted only 1/2 second: one must be at the right place at the right moment!


http://www.astrophoto.fr/transit_tiango ... rop_sa.jpg

Full images: http://www.astrophoto.fr/transit_tiango ... 16-17.html

https://www.giorgiahoferphotography.com ... m-jfduvkct
Explanation:This is my personal interpretation of the lunar month that I realised during 2017...

In this composite image I wanted to represent the position and the changing phases of the Moon above the peaks of the Cridola Group, in Italy, during a lunar month, called synodic month.

With an astronomical software I calculated for 27 days the position of the Moon every 1481 minutes (24 hours and 41 minutes), but for the capture of all the lunar phases I spent a whole year because the weather, in my country, is almost always unfavorable. The moons in the waning phase, on the left, were captured in January 2017 while the moons in the growing phase, on the right, between the month of July 2017 and December 2017. To photograph the moon I used a 400mm telephoto lens

Author: Giorgia Hofer www.giorgiahoferphotography.com

for the landscape Nikon D750, Nikkor 20 mm

Exp. 8 sec, iso 800, f/8.

from Lozzo di Cadore.- Belluno-Italy

for the Moon :Nikon D750, Sigma 120/400 mm

www.giorgiahoferphotography.com

LA ROSETTE NGC 2237 en SHO by David Duarte, sur Flickr

This is my first SHO astrophotography

First SHO (Sulfur / Hydrogen / Oxygen) imaging test on the Rosette nebula (NGC 2237). This method called "Hubble Palette" makes it possible to bring out in false colors the chemical components of certain nebulae and to highlight them.

The nebula is about 5000 A.L of us!

Telescope Newton 200/1000
ZWO 1600MMC PRO
50x30sec per couche S/H/O
No DOF
Pixinsight for treatment

++More++
https://www.facebook.com/davidduarteastrophotographie

An Open Cluster and Nebula in the constellation Auriga

NGC 1931 is a relatively young open cluster surrounded by emission and reflection nebulosity (Sharpless 2-237) in the constellation Auriga. Faint red hydrogen emission can be see in the region surrounding the compact cluster/nebulosity. Sharpless 2-237 shows both red hydrogen emission and blue reflection nebulosity. Image was a total of 15 hours of exposure through a Takahashi CCA250 f/5 astrograph with a QSI683wsg camera @ -20 degrees C. (Astrodon Gen 2 filters) on a Paramount ME on the nights of 23, 30 Nov and 5 Dec 2016 and 13, 18, 19 Jan 2018 in Mayhill, NM (Lum 30 x 1200 sec; Red 5 x 1200 sec; Green 5 x 1200 sec; Blue 5 x 1200 sec; with corresponding Flats, Darks, and Bias). Processed in PixInsight 1.8.5.1353 Ripley (x64). Color calibration and RGB image stretch with PixInsight's Photometric Color Calibration and Arcsinh Stretch, respectively.

For a larger image, see: http://astronomersgroup.org/gallery/dis ... fullsize=1

SH2 308 HOORGB, 89 hrs
full size : http://www.cielaustral.com/galerie/photo77f.jpg

total frame 89Hrs done with TEC160, Moravian G4-16000 on Paramount MX+ near Actacama Desert in Chile, El Sauce Observatory

http://www.cielaustral.com
Copyright: Team CielAustral with J.C CANONNE, N.OUTTERS, P. BERNHARD, D. CHAPLAIN & L. BOURGON

Mars and Saturn with M22, M28 and company

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum. I’ve decided to share my last image taken yesterday in remote from Siding Springs using the T8 telescope’s of iTelescope, a wonderful takahashi 106/530 with FLI CCD Microline 16803.
The image capture the conjunction between Mars and Saturn with M22, M28 and a lot of other objects. The region is in Sagittarius constellation, prospectively in the center of our Milky Way, and it’s possibile to se in image the classic color of this region and the dark powder.
LRGB composition:
L 3x120s
R 3x180s
G 3x180s
B 3x180s
Processing with Pixinsight and Photoshop.
https://flic.kr/p/24hYjvr Here the full resolution: https://astrob.in/full/339817/0/

Hope you like it

IC 1396. Elephant's trunk Nebula
Copyright: Álvaro Pérez Alonso & Toni Mancera
Webpage: www.scapenature.com

HD: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ftz ... 9.jpg?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/l63x3upoqaj6ww ... D.jpg?dl=0

4 panels
HaRGB - 36x600''

STAR CITY
Copyright: Alan C Tough

Omega Centauri (NGC 5139, Caldwell 80) is the biggest and brightest globular cluster in the night sky. The cluster appears to us Earth-dwellers as slightly larger than the full Moon. It is actually about 150 light years in diameter and contains around 10 million stars.

To image this magnificent object I logged on remotely to iTelescope T32 at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. Total imaging time, through LRGB filters, was 30 minutes.

Highest resolution version here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7776810@N07/26770146458/

Farewell to Tiangong-1
Copyright: Steed Yu
Farewell to Tiangong-1 by 虞 骏, on Flickr

At 5:25 in the morning on April 1st, Tiangong-1 was just passing through the Beijing city and left a trail in the morning light. Tiangong-1 today was not only brighter then ever, but also moving more quickly than normal. This is because the space station is less than 180 kilometers above the ground, and it will re-entry the atmosphere tomorrow as predicted. Perhaps this is a farewell to Tiangong-1.