Starship Asterisk*

Solar Halo
Copyrights: Joanna Bialek NASA's Spitzer and WISE Telescopes Find Close, Cold Neighbor of Sun
Image Credit: Penn State University/NASA/JPL-Caltech
An article: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/na ... 1vek1VdVps Mars on April, 24th - dust storm over Elysium
Copyrights: Carmelo Zannelli NGC 253 - The Sculptor Galaxy
Credits & Copyrights : Federico Pelliccia,Robert Gendler,Subaru,Hubble Space Telescope
Full size: http://www.astrobin.com/92637/ CG4 mosaic
Copyrights: Jason Jennings

This is a good year for observing Mars even if the planet stays low in the sky for us living far up in the north.
I live in Stockholm, Sweden and Mars never gets higher than 27° above the horizon.
Next favorable opposition will be in 2020 so I took my chance at photographing Mars faint Moons, Deimos and Phobos.
On the 19th of April I planned for the best timing when the moons would be at a good elongation from the planet.
I had also rotated the Newton telescope in such a way that both moons would be positioned between the streaks of light from the spider vanes.
Deimos at magnitude 12.9 was clearly visible on several shots taken shortly after midnight.
Phobos is more than a magnitude brighter but so much closer to the planet that it was invisible, hiding in the blinding light from Mars that shines at magnitude -1.3.

/*Peter R

4 days after photographing Deimos, the atmospheric conditions were excellent with no wind and almost no turbulence, the kind of conditions you only get once or twice in a year
I changed the setup from my Newton to a 4" apo refractor that is very sharp and this time I was lucky to capture the tiny and elusive Phobos, only separated by 13 arcseconds from Mars.
It's rapid motion also limits the total exposure time to 1.5 - 2 minutes.
On this shot, Deimos is not visible as it was bellow and too close to the planet.

This is certainly one of the most extreme astronomical project I have ever tried. I'm glad it worked out so I will not have to wait to 2020 for the next opportunity

/*Peter R

Mars - 360 rotation March-April 2014. Images included Opposition, Closest to earth. (note size differences, North is top)

M78 and Barnard's Loop
http://nakshatralok.blogspot.in/
Copyright: Subhankar Saha

Eta carinae por astrocentejo, en Flickr

Con Halfa


Eta Carinae+Halfa por astrocentejo, en Flickr

Process Raul Villaverde Fraile (alcarreño)

Conjunction at dawn
http://stefanoderosa.com/
Stefano De Rosa Please find above an image of the conjunction between crescent Moon and Venus taken before dawn on April 26, 2014 from Villefranche (France)

Best regards
Stefano

Wow, that's a fantastic-looking Eta Carina, Raul (alcarreño)!

Ann

Blooming Trees on a Windy Night
https://www.flickr.com/photos/radicalre ... 032456382/
Copyright: Marion Haligowski


Blooming Trees on a Windy Night by Radical Retinoscopy, on Flickr

A star trail photograph showing Corona Borealis, Spica and Mars was made on a windy Spring night in Central Pennsylvania. A series of 40 twenty second exposures were stacked using StarStaX.

Ring of Fire
Copyrights: Eugen Kamenew M13
Copyrights: Richard Hammar NGC5139 with Flux
Copyrights: Roberto Colombari
Full size: https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2907/139 ... 29f5_o.jpg NGC2327[/
Copyrights: Jason Jennings
Larger size: http://cosmicphotos.com/gallery/display ... ld_resol=4 Sunspot 2042
Copyrights: Cameran Ashraf Saturn and Tethys
Copyrights: Troy Tranter

Vela Supernova Remnant (mosaic)
Copyrights: Stephen Chadwick Sharpless 308
Copyrights: Stephen Chadwick Omega Centauri
Copyrights: Stephen Chadwick 47 Tucanae
Copyrights: Stephen Chadwick NGC3521
Copyrights: Bernard Miller Vela Supernova Remnant
Copyrights: Harel Boren

Hi-res PST Sun mosaic, 20 images

Aditional information regarding this image: www.astronomica.es
Full sized image (1700x1700 pixels, near 1MByte size)
Author: Jaime Fernandez

I'd like to post an updated version of my M101 processed in PixInsight. Thanks for looking!
Dan

UGC 5470 Leo I Galaxy
http://www.astrobin.com/93030/B/
Copyright: Andrea Pistocchini
http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/2 ... ermark.jpg

M13 in Hercules

copyright: Chuck Manges


M13 by astrochuck, on Flickr

This was a "test" image while trying to set up my 11" Edge HD and CGEM-DX mount, I was really happy with the results!
8x600 LUM, 2x300 R,G,B(2x2 bin) 11" EdgeHD, QHY9M

The PARI Galaxies

The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute has a traveling exhibit where they show off a photographic glass plate from APDA. They have one of the largest astronomical plate archives in the country, and countless school children have marveled at the tiny galaxy pair shown in this glass plate. I took a photo of the plate when helping as a volunteer at an event, and later pointed my own telescope and imaged the targets (NGC 5426 & NGC 5427) myself. I think it's the perfect comparison between the old astrophotography and the new.

Richard S. Wright Jr.

Copyright: Aldo Mottino (Rosario, Argentina).

iridiscence un mes de color 8/11 http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 52#p224752

Owl Nebula with Halo

Bi-color image of M97
Higher Resolution
http://www.astrobin.com/full/93258/B/

http://www.astrobin.com/users/sydney/

Partial Eclipse Sunset over Lake Bolac with Mt Abrupt at the southern end of the Grampians (50km away) in western Victoria, Australia.

Weather was very challenging today, but armed with the latest computer model guidance I was able to increase my odds a little. Most of the eclipse was clouded out but I got some peeks through the cloud around mid-eclipse and the sun just barely poked through a gap at sunset. Five minutes later all my gear was getting rained on.
More info:
http://philhart.com/content/partial-sol ... lake-bolac

Phil Hart

Dreams

https://www.flickr.com/photos/m_acubens/13885006049/

By, Sergio Montúfar

Hi friends,

This is the first light, made in my new observatory located in Àger-Lérida from Spain. This is an special place where our organization have 40 amateurs observatories.

I am very happy with this basic treatment made just to see the apperance that I have made with Pixinsight, during the next days I will work better, I will try share again soon.

NGC 7000 The North America Nebula :

Place: Ager-Lleida-Spain (Astrosirius observatory)
Date: 27-04-2014

Mount: Losmandy G11 with Gemini II
Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon 180 ED f/2.8
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II mod.
Telescope guide: Mini telescope Orion 50 df:165mm
CCD guiding: QHY5M
Filters: Astronomik CLS-CCD
Exposures: 23 x 300 sec at ISO 800.
Software: APT 1.5 & Pixinsight 1.8

https://www.flickr.com/photos/llromero/14082774123/
Clear Skies
Lluis Romero
http://www.astrosirius.org/
Agrupación Astronómica de Sabadell - Spain.
http://www.astrosabadell.org/

Mars on April 29th, 03:09ut. Dust in the Arabia Terra region? (top-left). At left-bot. (limb) Terra Meridani, Terra Sabaer, (mid) Syrtis Major, (bot) Hellas Planitia, (top) Vastitas Borealis, (right) Nodus Alcyonius, Utopia Planitia, (limb) Elysium Mons. (Equipment: LX200ACF 12 in.OTA, CGE mount, Flea3 Ccd, TeleVue 3x barlows, Astronomik RGB filter set. 65sec. per Chnl. North top.)

Eclipsed Sun setting behind the CSIRO Parkes Telescope in 2002
Copyrights: John Sarkissian M82 with supernovae SN2014J
Copyrights: Olivier Garde NGC1555 Dusty nebula
Copyrights: Bill Snyder Omega Centauri
Copyrights: Richard Hammar Partial Solar Eclipse
Copyrights: Chris Wyatt Colourful clouds
Copyrights: Phoebus Sparos

Length of Exoplanet Day Measured for First Time (artist impression)
Credits: ESO L. Calçada/N. Risinger
An article: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1414/ Caleidoscopic Mars
Copyrights: Leo Aerts M3
Copyrights: Stuart Heggie
Full size: http://www.astrofoto.ca/stuartheggie/cc ... ht_big.jpg The Southern Cross
Copyrights: Mike Pascale M104 The Sombrero Galaxy
Copyrights: Ian Sharp
Full size: http://astro-sharp.com/images/DeepSky/R ... S_50PC.jpg