Starship Asterisk*

Moon and Jupiter
Moon and Jupiter by Tom Glenn, on Flickr

This single exposure photograph (no compositing) shows the Moon and Jupiter at just over 1 degree of separation. If you look carefully at the full size image, you can see the cloud belts of Jupiter, detail on our Moon, and three Galilean moons of Jupiter (from left to right: Ganymede, Io, and Europa, with Callisto just out of frame to the right and therefore not visible here). The image was captured from San Diego, CA through brief gaps in the clouds at 17:55 local time (PST) with a 6" Newtonian telescope at a focal length of 916mm with a Nikon D500 camera, single exposure 1/25s.

Galactic-Hunter wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 5:54 pm My longest integration yet, beating the 61 hours I did on the Seagull and Thor Nebulae.

I captured this target throughout November, December, and January. It is NGC 2264, also known as the Christmas Tree cluster and Cone Nebula.

I spent close to 82 hours capturing this object, using SHO filters for the gas and RGB filters for the stars.

The details are very crisp, the noise is basically non-existent, and the colors came out vibrant! This was a fun project, and I was very surprised to see this range of colors pop up so easily even after a simple channel combination.

More info here: https://www.galactic-hunter.com/post/ngc2264

Credit:
Antoine Grelin
https://www.galactic-hunter.com/


NGC 2264 - Xmas Tree Narrowband

Great image, Antoine!

Tell me something, though. In the lower left part of your image, at about 7 o'clock, there is a rather small but bright blue area peeking out from under a thick dust arc. It looks to me as if this might be a site of ongoing star formation, but I'm not familiar with it. Can you tell me what it is? Better yet, can you tell me where it is, so I can check up its coordinates and use my software to see if I can detect anything there?

Ann

Flaming Star Nebula by Andreas Dobbeler, auf Flickr
I wanted to image this nebula since I have seen this picture on astrobin <a href="https://www.astrobin.com/5l8pbx/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.astrobin.com/5l8pbx/</a>
It looks absolute striking and way better than my own attempt. Guess mono and over double the exposure time doing their magic here.
If possible I will try to get a few more ours on this target, weather was an absolute catastrophe since early December for me, with only a few nights of clear skies.

Esprit 120
Eq6r Pro
DSPro 2600c
Mini Guide Scope
Captured using Nina
76*800sec exposures at gain and offset 100

my processing was the following:

- stacked and normalized in app
- graxpert for gradient romoval
- pixinsight for spcc and everything else
- some final adjustments in affinity photo


Thanks to chatGPT for the following lines

The Flaming Star Nebula, also known as IC 405 or Caldwell 31, is a diffuse emission nebula located in the constellation Auriga. It is about 1,500 light-years away from Earth and covers an area of about five times the size of the full Moon in the night sky.The Flaming Star Nebula gets its name from the distinctive shape of the reddish-pink nebula, which resembles a fiery, flaming star. The nebula is primarily composed of hydrogen gas, which is ionized by the ultraviolet radiation from a nearby hot, young star called AE Aurigae. This process causes the gas to emit light, creating the glowing appearance of the nebula.In addition to the hydrogen gas, the Flaming Star Nebula also contains dust particles, which absorb and scatter light. This gives the nebula its intricate, filamentary structure and contributes to the overall reddish-pink color.The Flaming Star Nebula is a popular target for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers due to its striking appearance and relative brightness. It is best viewed from dark-sky locations using telescopes or large binoculars, and is particularly impressive when captured in long-exposure photographs.

NGC 3324, Gabriel Minstral Nebula HaRGB with OSC.
https://astrob.in/geg3ls/0/rawthumb/reg ... g?insecure

🗓 February, 16th to 19th. 2023
Giruá, RS, Brazil. Bortle 4.
FotonAstro Newtonian 200mm f4
asi2600mc
🕹 ZWO AM5.
🕶 Built-in UV/IR and Antlia ALP-T
- 106 x 150s uv/ir
- 55 x 300s Antlia ALP-T
TOTAL: 9h integration
pixinsight, photoshop

Here is my submission


Wizard nebula by Karl Perera
website: https://astroimagery.com

Imaging details: 123 x 2 minutes with ZWO Duoband 15nm filter.
OTA was Celestron 130slt.
Ioptron CEM26 mount
60mm guidescope SVbony
SVbony SV401 guide camera
Bortle 5 sky.

Weather was really crappy, but sometimes mother nature throws you a break! That was the case for me yesterday evening as I hoped to catch the trifecta of celestial objects in the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus. However, with an expansive stratus deck overhead I was about to give up when I saw a few glimpses of the moon peak out between rare breaks in the stratus. So I went to my planned shooting location and sat, camera ready, waiting for that one break in the clouds. Unfortunately, with how expansive the deck was, it prevented me from capturing all three bodies, but I was able to take advantage of a 7 second break in the clouds to capture this image!

The foreground is a 3 image HDR to capture the large dynamic range of the building and one of those frames and blended in the exposure that captured the Moon and Jupiter.

Westcott Building on the Florida State University Campus in Tallahassee, Florida.

Sony a7iii Samyang 85mm f/1.4 lens.

Copyright/Credit: Wright Dobbs (@wrightdobbs)

https://twitter.com/WrightDobbs
https://www.facebook.com/wrightdobbsphotography
https://instagram.com/wrightdobbs
https://wrightdobbs.darkroom.com

Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky with a hint of the zodiacal light. Captured February 18, 2023.

Lake Talquin, Florida.

Sony a7iii Viltrox 20mm f/1.8 lens

Copyright/Credit: Wright Dobbs (@wrightdobbs)

https://twitter.com/WrightDobbs
https://www.facebook.com/wrightdobbsphotography
https://instagram.com/wrightdobbs
https://wrightdobbs.darkroom.com

NGC 2264 & area in SHO

Full size version: https://www.astrobin.com/full/5e16v8/0/?real=
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OlivierPhotographie/
Copyright: Olivier Romain


EXPOSURE:
-Blue 50 mm: 13×300″ (gain: 0.00) -15°C bin 1×1
-Green 50 mm: 12×300″ (gain: 0.00) -15°C bin 1×1
-Red 50 mm: 13×300″ (gain: 0.00) -15°C bin 1×1
-Lum 50 mm: 40×300″ (gain: 0.00) -15°C bin 1×1
-H-alpha 3nm 50 mm: 184×300″ (gain: 2750.00) -15°C bin 1×1
-OIII 3nm 50 mm: 106×300″ (gain: 2750.00) -15°C bin 1×1
-SII 3nm 50 mm: 16x300'' (gain: 2750.00) 15°C bin 1×1

EQUIPMENT:
Télescope: Takahashi FSQ106EDXIII f/5
Mounts: Eq8 skywatcher
Camera: Moravian C1X61000

Kind regards, Romain.

Last weekend I went to a rural place with quite nice sky. I had two nights there, so I decided to go for this object as I pretty much enjoy fields full of galaxies and the plus side, it was above in the sky for more than six hours each night. To my surprise, dozens of miniature galaxies glimpse in the background.

Higher resolution in:
https://www.astrobin.com/pfw8y7/B/



Copyright: Fernando Peña Campos
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fernando.penacampos/
Instagram: @fdopc
astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/DrChaos/


Takahashi Epsilon 160 ED
CGE PRO DIY ONSTEP
QHY268C
145x300s, -15°, Gain 0, Offset 30, photographic mode
Darks, flats, bias flats
Processed in PI y Darktable
Mixtlan, Jalisco, February del 2023

NGC 2547 ... blue, bright, young and hot!

Few bright stars form the constellation Vela, which lies in direct line in front of the band of our Milky Way as seen from Earth. This explains that there are many, many stars and gas nebulae in this image. This scenery shows gas clouds from which young stars are formed. Young means about 20-30 million years old for the stars of NGC 2547 (for comparison, our Sun has an age of 4600 million years). Young stars are hot and bright and have a blue color.
More infos/anomation: https://www.skypixels.at/ngc2547_IAS_info.html

Visible among the bright stars far in the background are many distant galaxies.

After three years from my last attempt at this nebula, I finally decided to go for it as a goodbye of the winter hunter. Few objects are so delightful to observe, capture and process.

Higher resolution in:
https://www.astrobin.com/uj8fm8/

Copyright: Fernando Peña Campos
Instagram: @fdopc
astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/DrChaos/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fernando.penacampos/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drcaosastrophoto

Takahashi Epsilon 160 ED
CGE PRO DIY ONSTEP
QHY268C
27x300s + 20x60s, -15°, Gain 0, Offset 30, photographic mode
Darks, flats, bias flats
Processed in PI y Darktable
Mixtlan, Jalisco, February del 2023

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/527 ... 095c_b.jpg

This is a "Dive into the Pleiades Stars Cluster" ! Most of the time you will see a wide field picture of this beauty. This pictures features a zoom in the Pleiades where you can easily gaze at galactic cirrus and clouds surrounding the some of the most prominent stars.

I hope you will like.

Credit: @ae_astrophotography & @telescope.live

Lights gathered in Chile through a Planewave CDK 24" telescope.
Combination of LRGB filters.
Integration time 3H.
Feb 2023

H-alpha filaprom, shot with Lunt 80 MT (single stack) and ASI 1600MM at f/14
Location: Belgrade, Serbia

2023-02-23-0901_3-U-L-Lunt_Exposure=3.6ms_Gain=0_Gamma=72(off)_2046_lapl4_ap372 3 by Vlad, on Flickr

Venus now gaining altitude and increasing in size. (LX200ACF 305mm OTA, CGE mount, ASI290mm Cmos, PowerMate 2.5x barlows, EFW8, UV, RGB filters.)

https://astrob.in/geg3ls/C/rawthumb/reg ... g?insecure

NGC 3324, Gabriela Mistral Nebula HaRGB with OSC.

NGC 3324 is an open cluster in the southern constellation Carina, located northwest of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) at a distance of 9,100 ly from Earth.
It is closely associated with the emission nebula IC 2599, also known as Gum 31.
The two are often confused as a single object, and together have been nicknamed the "Gabriela Mistral Nebula" due to its resemblance to the Chilean poet (source: Wikipedia)

🗓 February, 16th to 19th. 2023
Giruá, RS, Brazil. Bortle 4.
FotonAstro Newtonian 200mm f4
asi2600mc
🕹 ZWO AM5.
🕶 Built-in UV/IR and Antlia ALP-T
- 106 x 150s uv/ir
- 55 x 300s Antlia ALP-T
TOTAL: 9h integration
pixinsight, photoshop

https://www.cielosboreales.com/astrofot ... scaled.jpg

LBN 437 Gecko Nebula

TELESCOPIO / TELESCOPE: Esprit ED100
MONTURA / MOUNT: SW AZEQ6 PRO
CÁMARA / CAMERA: ASI1600MM
ACCESORIOS / ACCESSORIES: Starlight Xpress Filterwheel + filtros Baader LRGB
AUTOGUIADO / AUTOGUIDE: QHY5+SW Evoguide50+PhdGuiding2 + NINA + Cartes du Ciel
EXP: 55×600″ L BIN1x1 + 20×300″(x3) RGB BIN 2×2
TRANSPARENCIA: 4/5 SEEING: 4/5
FECHA Y LUGAR / PLACE AND DATE: 26-29 de julio de 2022, Riopar (Albacete)
PROCESADO / PROCESSING: PixInsight 1.8.9-1

Cosmic Love above the Pyramids


Crescent MOON_ JUPITER _ VENUS Conjunction above the Great pyramid of Giza

Cosmic Love above the Pyramids (Crescent MOON_ JUPITER _ VENUS) by osama Fathi, on Flickr

22nd Feb 2023


Gears:

Nikon Z6 Mod, Skywacher star adventurer tracker , Sigma 28-70 mm


Settings :


- 1/30 sec, ISO 200, f2.8 @70mm


Softwares: Adobe Photoshop 2022, Astrotools


Credit :
Osama Fathi
Social:
https://www.instagram.com/osama.fathi.nswatcher85/
https://www.facebook.com/NSWatcher/

Giza, Egypt

Rosette Nebula taken mid-February 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. AstroTech EDT115, Losmandy GM811G mount, ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, L-Extreme filter. 36 x 300 second exposures using an OrionST-80 and ZWO ASI174mm for guiding.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/197387915 ... ool-apods/

Meet & Greet the "Cosmic storm in Chameleon" - my last processing. This is really A beautiful part of the night sky full of dust and deep sky objects. I can't imagine what's going on there.

Among many mind-blowing stuffs, there are dust, nebulae, galaxies and of cours stars.

Credit: @ae_astrophotography / @telescope.live. LRGB combination / FSQ 106EDX, integration time 10H. Processed in @pixinsight & @photoshop

Heart Nebula in HOO palette

The first completed narrowband image from the fixed equipment in my home. Color mapping is HOO.

https://www.astrobin.com/z3q6rw/

Takahashi Epsilon 160 ED
CGE PRO DIY ONSTEP
Cámara ATIK 383 L+ Mono
Filtros ANTLIA 3nm
11.6 hrs Integration time
Darks, flats, bias, flats, bias flats
Procesada en PI y Darktable
Zapopan, Jalisco, Enero-Febrero del 2023

Copyright: Fernando Peña Campos
Instagram: @fdopc
astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/DrChaos/

Flaming Star Nebula in HOO

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194543639@N07/
https://www.instagram.com/mark_hoffman_photography/

Copyright: Mark Hoffman

by mark h, on Flickr

IC 405

Equipment/Capture Details:
Williams Optics Z73
EQ35-Pro
ZWO ASI EAF
ZWO ASI 120MM
ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro
ZWO ASI 7 position EFW
Kendrick Dew Heater
Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Mini
36mm Astronomik 6nm Ha, O3 filters
Total Integration Time = 22.4 hours
Ha Integration Time = 77 * 480sec
O3 Integration Time = 182 * 240sec

IC 405 (also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31) is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga north of the celestial equator, surrounding the bluish, irregular variable star AE Aurigae. It shines at magnitude +6.0. Its celestial coordinates are RA 05h 16.2m dec +34° 28′. It is located near the emission nebula IC 410, the open clusters M38 and M36, and the K-class star Iota Aurigae.

The nebula measures approximately 37.0' x 19.0', and lies about 1,500 light-years away from Earth. It is believed that the proper motion of the central star can be traced back to the Orion's Belt area. The nebula is about 5 light-years across.

The Eagle and Omega Nebula in the Hubble Palette by William Ostling, on Flickr

Full write-up and processing here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/the-eagl ... le-palate/

This is another image using Telescope Live data – this was imaged using a super fast and wide telescope from Australia The H-alpha data was extremely high quality, and overall editing this was really fun. I’ve been trying out some new techniques to increase contrast and depth in wide nebulosity fields. and I think it worked out really well in this image. Also, after several iterations of color edits, I’ve discovered a pretty nice way to create an SHO image without using colormasks or other destructive processes – it seems to be working pretty well!

The Eagle Nebula and the Swan Nebula span this broad starscape, a telescopic view toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Eagle, also known as M16, is at top and M17, the Swan, at bottom of the frame showing the cosmic clouds as brighter regions of active star-formation. They lie along the spiral arm suffused with reddish emission charactistic of atomic hydrogen gas, and dusty dark nebulae. M17, also called the Omega Nebula, is about 5500 light-years away, while M16 is some 6500 light-years distant. The center of both nebulae are locations of well-known close-up images of star formation from the Hubble Space Telescope. In this mosaic image that extends about 3 degrees across the sky, narrowband, high-resultion image data has been used to enhance the central regions of the Eagle and Swan. The extended wings of the Eagle Nebula spread almost 120 light-years. The Swan is over 30 light-years across.

Website: https://theastroenthusiast.com/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

A Dark Dragon IC 1318 in SHO
www.skiesburnelectric.com
Copyright: Kevin Rasso
https://i0.wp.com/www.skiesburnelectric ... gon-r1.jpg Greetings all!

I present "A Dark Dragon". From my suburban backyard of the Gamma Cygni Region captured over the nights of October 20-22, 2022. This area in the constellation of Cygnus has a remarkable amount of structures throughout. For me, I see a dark dragon coiled on her pile of gold with a keen eye on her jewel, Sadr.

Stellarvue SVX140T with FFFR 700mm at f/5
FLI ML16200, Chroma Filters
Paramount MyT
SII: 6×600, Ha: 30×600, OIII: 6×600
Processed with PixInsight and PSCS6.

The purist may take objection to my color pallet, but as an artist wanting to convey the energy of the this area, I love the electric colors. I hope you do as well!

Clear skies,
Kevin

Deep Horsehead Nebula

Technical details are as follows:
Paramount ME
Celestron C14 Edge HD
Starizona Hyperstar 14 V4
Optolong L-Pro Luminance filter
ZWO ASI 6200MC Color Camera
262x120sec exposures
Processed in APP and Lightroom
Blur XTerminator
Aurora HDR

Horsehead Nebula 8.7 Hours by Blake Estes, on Flickr

Zodiacal light in France

Copyright: Looten Julien



EN : Zodiacal light at the Château de Losse in the Dordogne.

The Château de Losse again? With a rare astronomical phenomenon, other than the airglow? Yes... Three weeks after capturing THE airglow at the Château de Losse, a photo that went around the world, I returned to Losse with the TF1 (French journal TV chain) team for a shoot. The objective, after having interviewed people in Montignac and met the owner of the castle, was to remake a picture of Losse, in the "same" conditions as the Airglow : https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienloo ... en-public/

Obviously airglow being very rare, it was almost certain that there would not have been any that evening... Even if one distinguishes a light green Airglow in particular on the left of the image, close to the constellation of Orion, it is indeed another astronomical phenomenon which I captured that evening... A zodiacal light. (yes, I am lucky when I come to Losse ahah)...

Have you ever heard of the zodiacal light? It's an amazing triangular glow emanating from the horizon. In this photograph, it emanates just behind the castle and extends towards the Milky Way. But where does it come from? 

The most widespread hypothesis claims that the zodiacal light is explained by the reflection of sunlight on space dust (which would come from Mars)... This light emanates from the sun, and follows the elliptical plane (on which the planets and the sun orbit). This elliptical plane constantly changes its inclination. This glow appeared 1 hour after sunset!

I didn't know it, but this phenomenon was foreseen by astronomers: "On Tuesday 14 February, the opportunity is ideal to observe the zodiacal light around 9pm" on the Numérama website.

Panorama of more than 180°, from south (left) and north (right). 60 images, 30 minutes of exposure. Canon 6d Astrodon - Sigma 28mm f1.4. 14/02/2023.

Thank you, good sky

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/j.looten/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Julien.Looten.Photographie