Starship Asterisk*

Anniversary of the Shadow by Patrick Cullis, on Flickr
Happy 1 Year Anniversary of the 2017 Great American Eclipse!!! What an incredible experience! This is a photo from my Canon 5D mkii at 72,000 feet as the 70-mile wide shadow came streaking across the mountains of Wyoming. I launched the high altitude balloon with video and still cameras from Union Pass, about 50 miles west of the Grand Tetons, and then sat back for the event itself. When the eclipse had passed, I learned that the GPS tracking units had gone haywire because of A) cold batteries and B) high spin during the parachute descent. This wasn't my first rodeo, but it was my most remote launch with temperatures at our camping spot below freezing the night before. Without a good GPS lock, I lost the cameras in to the mountains of the Wind River Range and was unable to recover them until this past summer, 10-months after launching them. When I finally found it, which was an adventure all its own, I was blown away with the photos. In this image, the shadow has engulfed the Grand Tetons and is about to pass over the Gros Ventre mountains. In the foreground, on the left is the Wind River Range where the balloon remains eventually landed on their parachute. On the right are the Brider-Tetons.

Video of the event with footage from the ground, telescopes, GoPro video, and DSLR photography. All footage by Patrick Cullis. www.PatrickCullis.com

The Omega Nebula (M 17)
Omega Nebula - M 17 by Alessandro Carrozzi, on Flickr

"The greatest show"

On the night of August 11th I climbed up to a mountain hut in the French Alps. It took me about 7-8 hours to get to the hut with all my photography gear. I had planned this shot for a more than 2 years.

As you can see in the photo, The Perseids fly over the sky with the presence of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. Also, you can see the highest mountain in the European Union, the always magnificent Mont Blanc, in the French Alps.
Surrounded by two glaciers that converge a bit further down, you can see both of them in the image, the Mer de Glace which flows for a total distance of 12 kilometres, covering an area of 32 square kilometres in the central third of the Mont Blanc massif. On the left hand side you can spot the Leschaux Glacier and its hut (the light just next to the glacier).
In addition, if you take a deeper look, just below the Grandes Jorasses mountain range you will be able to see climbers trying to summit the mountain with the first lights (you can see their headlamps).

The photo had to be taken really early after the twilight as Mars was about to hide behind the Grandes Jorasses and Jupiter was also about to also disappear under the mountain range.
As always, we were gifted with an spectacular perseids show at almost 3000m high.

Photo in HD: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/s3d ... e.jpg?dl=0

Copyright: Álvaro Pérez & Jose Manuel Pérez (www.scapenature.com)

Panorama of 15 photos taken with Sony A7R III and Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70 2.8 GM

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:37 pm

Paulee97 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:55 am One beautiful wish
Copyright: Pavel Váňa
This photo was captured at Astronomická expedice Úpice (www.expediceupice.cz). In the picture there are many objects like Chi and h Persei, Heart and Soul nebulae, Perseid and commet 21P/Giacobini/Zinner. These objects are located near to the radiant of Perseid meteor shower so I hoped that I will capture some meteors.
2ufsj9t[1].jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/2ufsj9t.jpg
For higher resolution see http://tinypic.com/r/whmipx/9.

The colors are splendid here!

The Heart and Soul nebulas are properly red. The meteor is bright green, the color of fresh grass, fading into reddish. The meteor is a much more bluish green or turquoise. The brightest star, hot B2-type Epsilon Cassiopeia, at upper center left, is clearly blue. Cool K3-type giant Eta Persei, at 4 o'clock, is yellow-orange. Chi and H Persei, being far away and somewhat reddened, look whitish.

What a superb collection of objects, and how splendid the colors are!

Ann

I am really really glad you like my photo. I hope it will be one day chosen as APOD. I am very happy that I made this pic.

Paul

An interesting area in IC 2177

Final Clouds of IC 2177 by Brendan Kinch, on Flickr

ashtree wrote: ↑Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:28 am The Creation of the Cosmos: Tribute to Michelangelo - NGC 6188
https://www.facebook.com/adam.jesionkiewicz
Copyright: Adam Jesionkiewicz
Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C, WO71 APO refractor, iOptron CEM25EC mount

Click to view full size image

Hi res image: http://bit.ly/2PlENj9

Updated version:
https://astropolis.pl/uploads/monthly_2 ... 259e23.jpg

wow, great moon. Fantastic moment

Václav Hýža wrote: ↑Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:51 pm

Click to view full size image

Total eclipse of the Moon, 27.7.2018, From Slovakia.
Vaclav Hyza, Czech republic

Lake Valley Meteor
Copyright: Daniel Lois
Panoramic photograph made last week (August, 15) in Spain. Specifically in the lake of the valley (Lago del Valle) that is in the natural park of Somiedo in Asturias. At the moment of making the first image of the panorama, I was lucky enough to be able to capture an impressive meteor of great intensity that was illuminated in the sky with green tones. My surprise was to see him later in camera. Also in the image you can also see the phenomenon "Air Glow" on the mountains just under the milkyway.

Seagull Nebula Narrow Band with RGB Stars (Revisited)

FSQ 130ED with QSI 6120i.
Astrodon Ha 21 x 20'
Astrodon OIII 15 x 20'
Astrodon SII 15 x 20'
RGB 27 x 10'
Total Time: 21.5 Hours.

Seagull Nebula Narrow Band with RGB Stars (Revisited) by Brendan Kinch, on Flickr

Messier 15 (NGC 7078) surrounded by dust
www.mauricetoet.nl
Copyright: Maurice Toet The above crop: https://www.mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-kck43Ps/A
The whole field of view: https://www.mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-9VHrdNm/A

Despite our poor attitude and habits to the composition in HaOIIILRGB, we publish equally this job, with all the defects and any merits, the last effort of AstroTuscia. This is the usual and famous Nebula in Volpetta, M27. For the shoot we used a reduced RC8 to F6.4 paired with a G2-4000 for the color and a TS Apo 115 with a QHY695a for the luminances. Maintaining these combinations, we left the sampling in perfect balance with a resolution of 1.17arcsec/ pixel. Obviously, for a focal issue, it would have been better to work with the RC for the luminances and with the 115 for the color but, in consideration of the remarkable performance of the 695 in L and Ha and the excellent color balance of the 4000, we have then opted for the choice on the less logical card.
As per our "politics", we opted for a rather aggressive elaboration to try to keep the image as natural as possible, operation according to us partly (only partially) successful.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137904298 ... /lightbox/

A recent 30 hours SHO with my ASA10
The full is here https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/ODUCF9H ... hqkGbg.jpg

https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/ODUCF9H ... hqkGbg.jpg

Telescope: TMB92
Camera: QSI583ws

Lum: 60x600s
RGB: 36x600s

Total: 16 hours


NGC7023_lrgb_aug2018 spikes 1600px annotated by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

Milky Way - Constellation of Sagittarius
Milky Way - Constellation of Sagittarius

Here we can note some nebulae like trifid, lagoon, besides others like IC 4685.
Note the presence of saturn, shown in the upper region, with a stronger brightness, a little better demonstrated in the processing.


https://www.astrobin.com/full/362869/0/?nc=user

Equipments:
Canon 6D
Lens 200mm f2.8
40 x 100 sec
Iso 1600
08/11/2018
Munhoz - MG - Brazil

Copyright: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes

MILK WAY CENTRAL REGION
Here we can see, several nebulae like: paw of the cat, nebula of the shrimp, nebula of the lobster and several agglomerates. What struck me most were the dark nebulae next to the cat duck nebulae

details:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/362562/0/

Equipments:
Canon 6d
Lens 200mm f2.8
Date: August 11, 2018
Munhoz - MG - Brazil

Copyright: DFernando Oliveira de Menezes

Just after the Namibian twilight.
Taken between July 19 and 27, 2018


All planets where taken at the IAS-Observatory on Gamberg and the Farm Hakos.

www.apollo-13.eu
sebastian@voltmer.de

Best wishes and clear skies,
Sebastian

Jupiter, Io and its shadow


July 19, 2018, 17:58:41 UT
Baader RGB filters
IAS Observatory Gamsberg, Namibia
28" Newtonian 3120mm, f/4.4
ZWO ASI290MM with Baader FFC 4x
Assistant and filter change: Martin Rietze
Image processing: AutoStakkert!, PixInsight, WinJupos, PS CC

Outreach: www.apollo-13.eu
sebastian@voltmer.de

Best wishes and clear skies,
Sebastian

LDN 1235, vdB 149, 150
lager: http://www.celestialobjects.net/assets/ldn1235_f.jpg


NGC 6888
lager: http://www.celestialobjects.net/assets/ngc6888_f.jpg

Patrick Winkler
celestialobjects.net

Greetings fellow astrophotographers!

Recorded comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner in the early morning hours on August 20th, 2018:


(c) 2018 by Michael Schmidt
Austria/EUROPE

Used my 10inch Lacerta Photonewton on EQ8 and APS-C sized Nikon DSLR.

NGC 3628 The Hamburger Galaxy

Taken from Great Basin Observatory in Great Basin National Park, Nevada and processed by me. http://www.greatbasinobservatory.org

This sharp telescopic view of magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. The tantalizing scene puts many astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy. About 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals, a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk, populated by the galaxy's young blue star clusters and tell tale pinkish star forming regions. Also a result of past close encounters, a faint tidal tail of material is just visible extending upward and left in this deep galaxy portrait.

Taken with a CDK 700 LRGB - 4h, 2h, 1h,2h.

https://www.hansonastronomy.com/collab

Thanks for looking,

Mark Hanson

Hi,
here is an image of comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner with IC1805 (Heart Nebula) and IC1848 (Soul Nebula).

Date: 2018/08/17
Hour: 22h08TU to 22h40TU

Refractor Takahashi FSQ106 with Reducer 0.73x (focal:387mm)
Mount: Takahashi EM200 Temma2
Camera: Sony A7S
287x30s exposure at 3200 ISO for the nebulas
20x30s exposure at 3200iso for the comet

Taken from Eygaleyes, Drôme, France (Altitude:800m)


Full image : http://www.astrosurf.com/colmic/Sony/21 ... 082018.jpg

Copyright: Michel Collart "Colmic", Paris, France
http://www.astrosurf.com/colmic

Hi all,

Here is my submissions of Messier 20 - Trifid Nebula.

Setup
Telescope: GSO RC8'
Camera: QHY9M
Pixel size: 5.4µm x 5.4µm
Filters: LRGB OPTOLONG
Exposure time: LRGB (34, 23, 22, 22) x 120s Total: 3.4 hours

Date: 12, 13, 14, 17 july 2018
Location: Padre Bernardo, GO - Brazil

https://www.astrobin.com/358034/E/?nc=user
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132963589 ... ed-public/

Hi,

Here is my image of NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy.

Date: 12, 13, 14, 17 july 2018
Location: Padre Bernardo, GO - Brazil

Setup
Telescope: GSO RC8'
Camera: QHY9M
Filters: LRGB OPTOLONG
Exposure time: LRGB (12, 9, 9, 9) x 300s Total: 3.2 hours

https://www.astrobin.com/359363/C/?nc=user
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132963589 ... ed-public/

Thanks for looking!

Regards
Luis Fernando Parmegiani

Hi,

Here is my image of Globular Cluster Messier 4

Date: 11 july 2018
Location: Padre Bernardo, GO - Brazil

Setup
Telescope: GSO RC8'
Camera: QHY9M
Filters: LRGB OPTOLONG
Exposure time: LRGB (7, 6, 3, 3) x 120s Total: 52min

https://www.astrobin.com/356677/C/?nc=user
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132963589 ... ed-public/

Thanks for looking!

Regards
Luis Fernando Parmegiani

Milky way falls
Copyright: Ma Jin
Picture was taken on August 19th. When the Milky Way center falls, a lot of deep sky objects could be found over the top of a hill. https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1867/424 ... 578e_h.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1884/433 ... 0317_h.jpg
Picture was taken on August 19th. When the Milky Way center falls, a lot of deep sky objects could be found over the top of a hill.