Starship Asterisk*

LBN 782
Copyright: Lloyd Smith
http://www.astrobin.com/277166/B/?nc=user

NGC2359 Close Up View
This image was taken with 20inch RC f8.0&ALTA09000 ｆront illuminated cooled CCD camera.
ASTRODON 3nm Ha,O3,O3 (180/180/180min)
http://www.miki-hosp.or.jp/BIND/
Copyright: Nobuhiko Miki

IC2177 in Narrowband
Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, for me IC 2177 has a majestic avian-like presence.
It's wings resemble ethereal curtains drifting in Stellar winds.
Taken the widefield Stellarvue SV70T and QSI 683wsg8
There's a cool Herbig Haro object in the upper right hand side, and other objects of interest for the scientifically minded to look for throughout the field.
12 x 1800secs Ha 5nm
12 x 900secs O3 3nm
12 x 900secs S2 3nm
Mapped in conventional HST palette, Ha=Green, O3=Blue, S2=Red
Colours seasoned to taste
Taken from Suburban Melbourne, Australia by Andy Campbell

M42 in Narrowband
My take on this perennial favourite.
There are some hints of the catlike ears of NGC 1999 at 4 o'clock and some cool shapes in the outer gaseous regions, not often seen,
such as the EGG (Evaporative Gaseous globule) ie: star forming region here at 7 o'clock - which looks like a finger.

This is 7 different filters, (there's Ha, O3, S2 & a touch of N2, R, G & B) and 17 datasets combined.
Man that was a lot of data to process and collate, something like 25 hrs all up in 60sec, 300 sec, 1200 sec and 1800 sec exposures.
I've added RGB stars in as well, might as well throw the kitchen sink at it!
Interesting how "the Running Man" doesn't feature in NB.

Ha mapped to Green - then PS>Selective colour>orange/red
O3 mapped to Blue
S2 mapped to Red - the PS>Selective colour> yellow/red

Taken from by Backyard in suburban Melbourne, Australia
By Andy Campbell

The Fox Fur Nebula
http://www.massimotosco.it/image-galler ... -2264.html
Copyright : Massimo Tosco

Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile
http://astrocentejo.wixsite.com/alcarria

SH2_202_ALMA Y CORAZONRGB+HALFA by Raul Villaverde, en Flickr

Sh2-140 and vdB 153
http://www.distant-lights.at/vdb153-2016_08_13.htm
Copyright: Thomas Henne

Year's last Moon

Just seems with naked eye the Waning Crescent Moon 28,55 days old rise above the Old Fortress of Corfu, a Unesco World Heritage, with planet Saturn just 5,3° right of it, out of the picture.

Perhaps this will be the last Moon of 2016, but there is a change tomorrow morning just a few minutes before the sunrise to capture it as 29,50 days old with Mercury just at 1,23° on the right.

The Moon was 401100km(249232mi) away from us with maximum distance on Christmas day at 405870km(252196mi) away, while the foreground is just 7km(4.35mi) away.

Canon eos 6D, Ef 100-400L is usm, 370mm, iso400, f/5.6, 2.5sec

http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/8 ... 0Jeong.jpg
Copylight ByoungJun Jeong

full resolution
http://www.astrobin.com/full/277534/0/?real=&mod=

The Tadpoles of IC410
http://www.zonalunar.com
Copyright: Alfonso Carreño Garcerán (Observatorio Zonalunar)
Click to view full size image

Best Regards.

A wide filed image of Stephans Quintet. This image taken from my observatory on Bancroft.
Brian McGaffney

Iridium and Crux Date: 2016.12.26
Location: Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan (25.1805, 121.5390)
Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Optics: EF 24mm f/1.4L II-> f/5.6
Exposure: 8 sec x 7 at ISO1600

Copyright: Hung-Hsuan Yen
https://www.facebook.com/redscosky

Startrails above the old mine.

North is up by milan miloradovic, on Flickr

NGC 2244 The Rosette Nebula
http://www.massimotosco.it/image-galler ... ebula.html
Copyright : Massimo Tosco

http://www.massimotosco.it/images/NGC2244_lowres.jpg

Minneapolis Moonset
Copyrights: Robert Alberti
Full size: https://500px.com/photo/183000487/minne ... ob-alberti Abell 2218
Copyrights: Paul Klauninger M42
Copyrights: Stefano Conti M45 - The seven dusty sisters
Copyrights: Ric Jotaro Heart Nebula
Copyrights: Albert Barr Lenticular clouds over Granada, Sierra Nevada
Copyrights: Guido Montañes Milky Way
Copyrights: Tunç Tezel Night sky over volcano
Copyrights: Tunç Tezel The lookout tower of Galyatető
Copyrights: György Soponyai
Larger size: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanamonde81/31668370091/ The Little prince towards Venus
Copyrights: Petr Horálek NGC 2070 Tarantula Nebula
Copyrights: Francesco Badalotti Antares Falls behind the White Pagoda
Copyrights: Jin Wang Lunar New Year
Copyrights: Önder TAŞDELEN Milky Way above Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Maine
Copyrights: Jim DeLillo M31 recurrent nova
Copyrights: Peter Erdman Northern Lights from Inari, Finland
Copyrights: Teppo Laitinen NGC-1871 & 1848 (Soul Nebula)
Copyrights: Rodd Dryfoos Running Man Nebula
Copyrights: Julian Weßel North American Nebula
Copyrights: Zach Ruder The Lunar South Pole
Copyrights: Emanuele Chiapparelli Full Moon
Copyrights: Steve Lunt

Dusty Taurus
Copyright: Achim Schaller

NGC 2264
Copyrights: Jesús M.Vargas and Maritxu Poyal At the Top of the Country
Copyrights: György Soponyai
Larger size: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanamonde81/31705359471/ All the planets in 2016 in 8months
Copyrights: Martin Lewis M45
Copyrights: Francesco Pelizzo NGC 1333
Copyrights: Francesco Pelizzo The Dust of Pleiades Star Cluster and a Faint Spiral Galaxy
Copyrights: Miguel Claro Glory
Copyrights: Francis & Janet Viscosi Andromeda Galaxy
Copyrights: Matthias Heyssler
Larger size: http://www.cyphris.com/sternbilder/and/m31.jpg NGC2244
Copyrights: Matthias Heyssler
Large size: http://www.cyphris.com/sternbilder/mon/ngc2244.jpg Moon Pillar in Pinnacles
Copyrights: Jingyi Zhang Milky Way
Copyrights: Amir Alyasin Milky Way and Moon at 15000ft
Copyrights: Mario Lovrencie HorseHead Nebula
Copyrights: Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez Milky Way, Airglow and the Gegenschein
Copyrights: Stephane Vetter
Larger size: http://nuitsacrees.fr/DP/AP42/MWpic2000.jpg Star trails
Copyrights: Stephane Vetter
Larger size: http://nuitsacrees.fr/DP/AP42/pano360_1500.jpg Comet 45P
Copyrights: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich Moon
Copyrights: Danny Stewy Comet 45P toward perihelion
Copyrights: José J. Chambó Moon in Ultra-Technicolor
Copyrights: Jesús Navas Lenticular clouds
Copyrights: Silvina Ranieri Bubble Nebula
Copyrights: Rodd Dryfoos Rosetta Nebula
Copyrights: Dwight Talley Milky Way over the Klides islands
Copyrights: Esen Tunar

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae region in the constellation Orion
Copyrights: Andy Chatman IC1805 Heart Nebula
Copyrights: Kayron Mercieca Jellyfish Nebula
Copyrights: Juan I. Jimenez LBN782
Copyrights: John Vermette Melotte 15
Copyrights: José Fancisco del Aguila California Nebula (NGC1499)
Copyrights: Ron Brecher IC 2177
Copyrights: Andrew Campbell Bubble Nebula
Copyrights: Stergios Stergiou NGC3372
Copyrights: Fred Calvert NGC 5139
Copyrights: Fred Calvert M33
Copyrights: Fred Calvert Vdb 14-15,sh2-202,IC 1805,IC 1848
Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile Cave Nebula
Credits and copyrights: Data: Emmanuel Malakopoulos; Processing: R. Colombari
Larger size: http://www.astrobin.com/full/277479/0/ NGC1333 and dust
Copyrights: Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez AR12434
Copyrights: Peter Desypris Green Flash
Copyrights: Marcella Giulia Pace The Lagoon Nebula
Copyrights: Dean Salman van den Bergh 14 and 15
Copyrights: Rafael Rodríguez

I'm going to comment on some of the images on the first page of the December posts:

1) Tim Christensen, nice to see a fellow Scandinavian produce such a fine RGB image of the Cone and Fox Fur nebulas!

2) RGB images are my thing... but astrogades, your fantastic, stormy, steaming, dreamy, red-eyed (Eye of Sauron?) William Turner-like portrait of IC 1396 knocked my socks off.

3) Johanna Thonon, I like your dreamy, brilliantly moonlit, striped-sky, clouds-flow-like-water mountainscape.

4) Zsolt Kardos, I can never resist a beautiful blue portrait of one of my favorite stars, Gamma Cassiopeia, and its two nebulas.

5) ...and Jose Suro, I sure can't resist that blue Moon halo. (Yes, I know, there is some orange there too, but that's not what makes me happy.)

6) Fefo Bouvier, I'm stunned at the wonderfully theatrical appearance of that striped pink Moon over Montevideo, Uruguay!

7) Greg Hogan, nice! Unfocused star images allow us to see the true color of the stars! Oh... yes, and the Moon is nice, too.

8) Steve Richards, there is something wonderfully delicate about those sweet pale colors lighting up such a beaky bird.

9) Kfir Simon, wow! You did it, you captured the Merope Nebula, the real Merope Nebula!

10) Howard Trottier, what a fine and galaxy-crammed image. I can see NGC 1275 acting up and flinging pink filaments this way and that. And there is only one blue - well, moderately blue - spiral among all the yellow ellipticals.

11) Raul Villaverde Fraile, I love your portrait of IC 1396 and that other red nebula with the fantastic blue OU 4 nebula superimposed on it, or more likely inside it!

12) Ekkehard Gnadler, are those birds for real? They sure look impressive!

13) Sam Miller, what lovely colors.

14) Adam Ellenberger, that's a sweet portrait of the Seven Sisters.

15) Pavel Prokop, did you take all those planet images yourself? Jupiter, Saturn and Mars look lovely, and Mercury is very fine in front of the Sun.

16) Jens Zippel, that's a very fine portrait of the "hidden" galaxy IC 342.

17) Francesco Badalotti, that's the LMC for New Year's Eve! What fireworks!

18) Roberto Colombari, that's a very lovely portrait of the Pleiades.

19) Edward Popovitch, that is an almost heartbreakingly lovely and elegant portrait of the greatest edge-on galaxy in our relative vicinity, NGC 4565.

20) Adam Block, I hardly noticed that you had produced a new image, just because it wasn't a galaxy! But IC 405 is a lovely emission/reflection nebula, one of a kind.

21) Rubén Dominguez Ocon, that's a stunning portrait of a moonbow, an aurora, a waterfall and, I think, a waterfall rainbow. And look at that big "apron" where the water from the waterfall is splashing down. Only on the Earth...!

Okay, first page! I think I'll return with the next page one of these days!

Ann

Great Orion Nebula and the Running Man by Gábor Szendrői, on Flickr

IC59 & IC63
http://www.astrowimp.com
Copyright: Tim Christensen
LRGB 4 panel mosaic 20 hours total exposure

Venus cloudtop animation
http://astromaphilli14.blogspot.com/201 ... otion.html
Copyright: Michael A. Phillips

Bioluminescence Under A Starry Sky
http://theartofnight.com
Copyright: Mark Gee



Bioluminescence Under A Starry Sky by Mark Gee, on Flickr


One of the things I love about astrophotography is you never know exactly what you may capture on any given night. You may be lucky enough to get a meteor streaking across frame, or even a sky full of intense air glow.

And last night was just one of those unexpected nights which I would rate right up there as one of my best nights of astrophotography to date. The unexpected thing about this night, was not in the night sky, but rather in the ocean in the form of glowing bioluminescence. Every time the waves broke, bioluminescent phytoplankton was stirred up making the wave glow brightly even to the naked eye. This was certainly something I wasn’t expecting, and it looked amazing under the starry night sky!

This image is a single exposure shot on a Canon 6d in Byron Bay, Australia.

"The heart of the matter"
Full image here: http://moonrocksastro.com/wp-content/up ... matter.jpg
Copyright: Paul C Swift