Starship Asterisk*

geckzilla wrote:Thanks for coming here and answering those questions for us, Dave.

Yes, thank you very much, Dave. As you know, I think the image is exquisite.
Margarita

This is the submission thread info for this image, which I didn't think to look for earlier:
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 50#p220680

geckzilla wrote:Thanks for coming here and answering those questions for us, Dave.

Yes, thank you!

Please excuse my interruption...but what is Gegenschein again???

In such a system...would there not be a more noticeable effect?

:---[===] *

Boomer12k wrote:Please excuse my interruption...but what is Gegenschein again???

In such a system...would there not be a more noticeable effect?

No, because the gegenschein is backscatter off of interplanetary dust particles. The solar wind would largely keep a large bubble around a star moving through such a cloud free of interstellar dust. The particles responsible for the gegenschein and for the zodiacal light are quite large- on the order of a millimeter. Interstellar dust is more on the order of a micrometer, or even smaller, so it is much more affected by solar wind and radiation pressure.

Hats off to you Mr Lane. I've seen many images of The Pleiades, but none anywhere near as deep and dusty. An heroic effort.

After an informative discussion with Margarita, I've realized that this image makes a lot more sense to me as a picture of Gould's Belt, with the Pleiades providing backlighting, rather than as a picture of the Pleiades per se.