Starship Asterisk*

I did some blend with the H-ALpha in the fainter area but this is mostly RGB color image.
Link to full size image
http://www.sharplesscatalog.com/sharple ... 277BIG.jpg

Earth's Shadow from TÜBİTAK National Observatory
Copyright: M. Raşid Tuğral

There are some very nice pictures here.

Emil Ivanov, I like your red sprite, and the Big Dipper looks very handsome above those storm clouds.

Greg Parker and Noel Carboni, that's a fine portrait of Orion's Belt. I particularly like the "possible proplyds" at 5 and 6 o'clock. It's fun to see the similarity of size, shape and "wind-blown direction" of these two objects, although they differ in color.

Daniel Fernández, I like your very starry sky and your fine portrait of the "Winter Pentagon" (isn't that what it is called?). But the "Winter Diamond" is a fine name, too!

Tunç Tezel, I really like your "Fogbow Saucer"! It's a brilliant composition!

Mike Sherick, I was happy to see your very fine portrait of a seldom-photograped cluster, M 48, which looks really photogenic here. I spent some time trying to judge the age of this cluster from its appearance, and I came to the conclusion that it was younger than the Hyades. And so it is, because the Hyades are close to 600 million years old, and M48 only half that age. But I must admit I couldn't tell from the picture if M48 was older or younger than M41 in Canis Major (it turns out that M48 is older).

DeanSalman, that's a very handsome portrait of the Flame Nebula and its surroundings! The color and structural details all over the image are very nice indeed. I particularly like seeing how Alnitak, the O9 supergiant in Orion's Belt, is just peeking out from behind a wall of dust. On the other hand, there is an "indentation" in that wall of dust just where Alnitak is seen, and it seems very probable that Alnitak is responsible for wearing that wall down.

Thank you all for your fine pictures!

Ann

After the APOD from February 2 by dmkdmkdmk showing the Moon and Venus together during dawn, here is the evening alternative: The moon has passed the position of the sun and comes round to the other side to meet up with Jupiter during dusk. Seen from the Rigi mountain overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. Lucerne is seen on the right. The prominent peak seen on the other side of the lake is Mt. Pilatus.

Moon and Jupiter over Lake Lucerne
Copyright: Henning Avenhaus