Starship Asterisk*

NGC2264 Cone Nebula
https://www.facebook.com/jose.jimenezjj
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21144055@N04/albums
Copyright: José Jiménez

NGC 7293 Helix Nebula
https://www.facebook.com/jose.jimenezjj
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21144055@N04/albums
Copyright: José Jiménez

AlvinWu wrote:Airglow in the air like the aurora as turf, like the war between the Alliance and Horde Warcraft.

Lok'tar! For the Horde!!

Guiding the Galactic Kiwi

East cape lighthouse, one of the easternmost point you can travel to in New Zealand.

This image shows the Galactic Kiwi rising behind the lighthouse and it looks like the lighthouse is guiding the milky way across the sky.

Getting the beams and not over exposing the lighthouse was not an easy task, especially when you are trying to capture the Galactic Kiwi too.

Exif: 4sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 using Canon 50mm f/1.8 Lens on a Canon 6D

Ortholithi beneath the stars

Night landscape near the islet Megalo Tholeto also known as Ortholithi, a vertical rock southern of Ai Gordis beach, Corfu.
The rock as well as the surrounding area consists of marl and sandstone formation which often inserted layers of pebbles, while the top of the sediment observed horizons evaporates from macro crystalline gypsum. While the age of the sediments are Upper Miocene, Tortonio-Massinio.
The rock is located below the village Pentati which owes its name to the Pentato, 20% tax on revenues from sales and exports oak at the Venetian years.

The rock is in the moonlight, this morning at dawn, on the right stands the entire constellation of Bootes, at the top is the head, the star Nakkar, a corruption of the Arab, Baqqār, which means the driver of oxen. In the middle is the belt(h zonh, in Greeks) and the star Izar, and just bellow and above the rock is Arcturus, the brightest star of the northern hemisphere, a red giant star only 36.7 light years away.

Whileto the left of constellation Bootes, is Corona Borealis, the Ariadne's crown gift from Theseus, with the brightest star Alfekka, meaning the brighter of the plate for the Arabs, Al Nair al Fakkah.

Below and left of Corona Borealis we can see the Serpens Caput, the right part of the constellation, the other part is beyond the constellation of god Asclepius who seems half to the left of the photo, the four stars on the basis of an almost trapezium, Sabik at *88 ly, Han at *459 ly, the Yed Pasterior at *108 light years and next to the Yed Prior to *122 ly.

Just underneath the constellation of Ophiuchus, bottom left of the photo, is the upper part of the constellation of Scorpio with just in the frame of picture Antares at the distance of *550 light years away, a red supergiant star with a diameter 700 times greater than our Sun.
While to the right the brighter red with the reflection in the Mediterranean sea is the red planet Mars, only ~ 750 million kilometres away from us or around 4 minutes of light.
And just over Antares we see planet Saturn at 9 astronomical unites away or about 72 hours of light.

And something that excites my imagination is the Angry Bird like rock
Canon eos 700D, Samyung 14mm, f/2.8, iso800, 8X30sec Dss

M13 from San Diego, CA. Copyright KG Observatory.

Imaging telescope or lens: Celestron 8" EdgeHD
Imaging camera: QSI 660 WSG
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2
Focal reducer: Celestron 0.7X
Software: PHD Guiding 2, PixInsight 1.8, Sequence Generator Pro, Maxim DL6, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" R, Astrodon 1.25" B, Astrodon 1.25" G
Accessories: Starizona MicroTouch Autofocuser, Bahtinov Mask
Resolution: 2037x2554
Dates: April 16, 2016, May 25, 2016
Frames:
Astrodon 1.25" B: 30x120" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" G: 29x120" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" R: 30x120" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 3.0 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~80
Flat darks: ~80
Bias: ~20
Avg. Moon age: 13.40 days
Avg. Moon phase: 79.51%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 5.00
RA center: 250.426 degrees
DEC center: 36.459 degrees
Pixel scale: 0.637 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 84.956 degrees
Field radius: 0.270 degrees

Meganom Lighthouse and Milky Way.
Crimea.
Pano 8x13sec, ISO2000, Canon6D+35mm@1.4



Copyright: Boris Dmitriev

Starry Night of Mauna Kea
World-class stargazing Holy Land MaunaKea, here are the stars hunters from around the world, of course, we are no exception, April midnight, the Galaxy from 19 degrees north latitude from the East will rise up across the skyline, the Galaxy is so humbling , sparkling Southern Cross, enigmatic Scorpio and clouds under the volcano, town, shiny, consisting of a vividly beautiful picture, and I was standing on the fence beside the road and enjoy the power of the gods of the universe. Like the point of it, even if for only one leg standing on this fence I actually insist on a minute!

This picture URL
https://www.flickr.com/photos/awuphoto/ ... ed-public/
My flickr homepages
https://www.flickr.com/photos/awuphoto/
E-Mail:liangchenyi@vip.qq.com

LBN 552
http://www.skymonsters.net/immagine.php?img=LBN552.jpg
Copyright: Nicola Montecchiari

mars at opposition (almost), dow Dschubba, 7 Sco, and iridiscence blue moon

Europa(left), Io(middle) and Jupiter
2016-05-29-0141

Image data:
http://www.astrobin.com/244084/B/

Nick Pavelchak
Altamont, NY
http://www.astrobin.com/users/sydney/

Mars on May 29th, 04:06ut. Now approaching its closest to Earth on May 30th. Regions from (L) Elysium, Phlegra montes (Top) North Polar Cap, Alba Patera (R) Olympus Mons, Tharsis Montes (Bot) Cimmeria.

Ha Jets of M106 by Onejoshsmith, on Flickr

Ha jets and star forming regions of M106

Copyright: Josh Smith

Journey to the Twilight

Twilight at lagoon Korission , a Natura2.000 area, with the light of Dawn shining above it.
With Constellations still shine in the firmament, the constellation of Cassiopeia shines on the left in the picture.
While to the center distinguish several stars from the constellation of Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology with Perseus and Valerofontis have managed to ride it.
Simultaneously to the right the constellation of Ganymedes, the water bearer of the gods and to the edge of the picture the goat-footed god Pan, with the stars Deneb Algiedi witch in Arabic means the Tail of the Goat, name course adopted by the Almagest of Ptolemy and just right of the star Nashira, which means the lucky one or the one who brings good news.
Now what we see? and why are stars in the light of the sun? What is Twilight?
I quote from Wikipedia
Twilight is the illumination of the Earth's lower atmosphere when the Sun itself is not directly visible because it is below the horizon. Twilight is produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, illuminating the lower atmosphere so that the surface of the Earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The word "twilight" is also used to denote the periods of time when this illumination occurs.
The further the Sun is below the horizon, the dimmer the twilight (other things such as atmospheric conditions being equal). When the Sun reaches 18 degrees below the horizon, the twilight's brightness is nearly zero, and evening twilight becomes nighttime. When the Sun again reaches 18 degrees below the horizon, nighttime becomes morning twilight. Owing to its distinctive quality, primarily the absence of shadows and the appearance of objects silhouetted against the bright sky, twilight has long been popular with photographers, who refer to it as 'sweet light', and painters, who refer to it as the blue hour, after the French expression: l'heure bleue.
more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight

Canon eos 5D mk2, Samyung 14mm, F / 2.8, iso400, 25sec, 8sec, 3.2sec, Photomatix
05/07/16

Mars in May 2016 with a full rotation showing most of its surface features. Included are the times at opposition to the Sun and Closest to Earth.

International Space Station passing in front of May's "Blue Moon" full moon



ISS Moon Transit images:
http://www.pbase.com/dsnope/iss_moon_transit

Relativistic jet in the Centaurus A
http://www.astrobin.com/250830/A/
Copyright: Slawomir Lipinski

Relativistic jet in the Centaurus A - inverted image
http://www.astrobin.com/250830/B/
Copyright: Slawomir Lipinski

I managed to collect 5-minutes of data on Supernova 2016cok in galaxy Messier 66 (in the constellation Leo) last evening, June 1, 2016 before the clouds rolled in. I place the magnitude at approximately 16.4 simply based on comparison to other stars in the field of view. The 5-minute stacked image was using 15-second subs at ISO 5000. Equipment included a Canon 6D, Antares Focal Reducer and Meade 12” LX90 telescope. Messier 66 (M66) is a spiral galaxy about 36 million light-years away.

Copyrights: Raul Villaverde, Domingo Pestana, David Forteza
Ceño Blanco 220ºv2 by Raul Villaverde, en Flickr

Copyright: Raul Villaverde Fraile
IC4592 by Raul Villaverde, en Flickr

M13 The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

M13 is about 145 light-years in diameter, and it is composed of several hundred thousand stars, the brightest of which is a red giant, the variable star V11, with an apparent visual magnitude of 11.95. M13 is 25,100 light-years away from Earth.


Place: Àger-Lleida
Telescope: GSO RC14" Truss.
Mount: ASA DDM85 XL (unguided)
Camera: Moravian G2-8300 Focal reducer: AS CCDT67 0.67x
Dates: 30-May-2016
Exposures: L: 31x120 bin1 R:27x120 bin2 G:19x120 bin1 B:19x120 bin1
Software: Pixinsight
SQM: 21.7

Copyright: Lluís Romero Ventura Best Regards,
Lluís Romero
http://www.astrosirius.org

Saturn on June 2nd, 05:00ut. Opposition on 2/3rd. Seeliger effect is taken place ( ice crystals shadows is directly behind reflecting more light rings are brighter ). Disc shadow completely behind equal on both sides.

When is the June thread going to be started?
Couldn't there be an automatic script that creates the thread for the next month on the first day of that month?