Starship Asterisk*

Fly me to the Sun
Copyright: James D Bingham
Photo Taken: Jun 15 2012
Sunspot# 1504, 1505, 1506, 1507, 1508 http://thebinghamhouse.net/SunSpots-2226-3.jpg

One constellation, one lightning storm, two countries and one dedicated photographer!
For a full description and a larger photo, please visit my page:
http://www.greeksky.gr/files/photos/lan ... htning.htm

Thanks.
Chris.

Electric blue season

NLCs on 15th June 2012 from Ondrejov, Czech republic. After making these images the NLCs moved above my head and over southern horizon. It was first time ever I saw so bright and intensive NLCs from this country (+50 deg. latitude). Used Canon 550D, Tamron 17-50 mm (f2.8). Best wishes you all, Petr Horálek.
Higher resolution: http://www.astro.cz/_data/images/news/2 ... 2000px.jpg

Higher resolution: http://www.astro.cz/_data/images/news/2 ... 00px_2.jpg

NGC 5367
Copyright: Wolfgang Promper
[attachment=0]ngc5367-promper.jpg[/attachment]
http://www.astro-pics.com/5367plm.jpg
http://www.astro-pics.com/5367plm.htm

IC4603, IC4604, IC4605
http://www.skyandphoto.com
Copyright: Rafael Rodriguez

Moon and Jupiter over the Candia Lale
http://stefanoderosa.com/
Copyright: Stefano De Rosa Picture taken on June 17, 2012, showing a slide crescent Moon and Jupiter in the twilight sky captured less than a hour before sunrise in the same frame together with busy fishermen at the Candia Lake (few km from Turin, Italy).

Best regards

Stefano

Sunspot AR 1504 at sunrise
http://stefanoderosa.com/
Copyright: Stefano De Rosa The Sun is dressing up for the upcoming solstice day and in the morning of June 17, 2012 offered a great show with the large Sunspot AR 1504 easily visible at dawn over the Candia Lake (few km for Turin, Italy).

Best regards

Stefano

Anaglyph landscape in Switzerland
http://wwww.nuitsacrees.fr
Copyright: Stephane Vetter My first anaglyph landscape : Milky Way over the Creux du Van in Switzerland.
higher resolution here : http://www.nuitsacrees.fr/DP/D3/CV3D_1500.jpg

Clear Skies
Stephane

ps : Stefano, your image of the moon and Jupiter is wonderfully beautiful

The Milky Way view from the Piton de l'eau / Reunion Island
http://www.lucperrot.fr/
http://www.facebook.com/lucperrotphoto
Copyright: Luc Perrot Here is a picture of the Piton de l'Eau, an ancient crater filled with water. At the bottom of the picture you can see the Piton des Neiges, the highest peak of the Reunion Island (3069m).

lup974 wrote:The Milky Way view from the Piton de l'eau / Reunion Island
http://www.lucperrot.fr/
http://www.facebook.com/lucperrotphoto
Copyright: Luc Perrot

Click to view full size image

Here is a picture of the Piton de l'Eau, an ancient crater filled with water. At the bottom of the picture you can see the Piton des Neiges, the highest peak of the Reunion Island (3069m).

Sublime and magical. Congratulations, Luc !
Stéphane

Aurora Borealis over Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Copyright: Brad Goldpaint
http://www.goldpaintphotography.com

NGC 6188 and NGC 6193 in Ara
http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/astro_photography
Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen Link to full resolution image: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/image/144166552/original
Gallery with a couple of different views: http://www.pbase.com/rolfolsen/ngc6188

This is 9 hrs and 25 mins of LRGB, which also highlights just how bright the massive giant stars at the centre of NGC 6193 are.

NGC 6188 is a large emission nebula located some 4000 light years distant in the Southern constellation Ara. This giant molecular cloud is being illuminated by the young star cluster NGC 6193 which in this image appears in the centre almost as if suspended in front of a blanket of nebulousity littered with thousands of other dimmer stars in a multitude of colours.
At the centre of this cluster lies an intensely bright pair of stars; the O-type giants HD 150135 and HD 150136. The latter is in fact itself an extremely close binary with a confirmed third component in an outer eccentric orbit of between 2950 and 5500 days. This triple star system is one of the most massive in our galaxy with the three components containing 64, 40 and 35 solar masses respectively. The cluster is very young, not older than 3 million years, and the intense radiation from the massive stars is slowly eroding the surrounding gas and dust away, sculpting it into the striking forms seen in this image. Within these clouds new stars are currently being born and in places some have already begun to light up the nebula from within.

M8 and M20: Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae
http://www.philippemoussette.com
Copyright: Philippe Moussette
[attachment=3]lagutri14juin12.jpg[/attachment]

NGC 4725 and NGC 4712: Spiral Galaxies in Coma Berenices
http://www.martinpughastrophotography.i ... HaLRGB.jpg
Copyright: Martin Pugh
[attachment=4]NGC4725_pugh.jpg[/attachment]

Inside the Sunspot
http://postimage.org/image/7ir6o9pq9/
http://postimage.org/image/ckqyrm97t/
Copyright: Alessandro Bianconi
[attachment=2]NOAA 1504 Inside the sunspot.jpg[/attachment]

Weather Balloon Science for and by Kids 4-10 Years Old
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/37570643/POP%2 ... G_1137.JPG
Copyright: Christopher Frohmaier/Physoc Outreach Project
[attachment=1]weatherballoon.jpg[/attachment]

Moon, Jupiter, Pleiades, Baku
Copyright: Tunç Tezel
[attachment=0]tezel_BakuMoon.jpg[/attachment]

M8: Lagoon Nebula
http://astro-cabinet.com/showimage.php? ... ng=english
Copyright: Dieter Willasch

IC405 & IC410
http://carlosgr-astrophoto.blogspot.com.es/
Copyright: Carlos Grillo Ramos
More resolution
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Enu_Mdsp5BE/T ... oc6Med.jpg

Messier 20 - The Trifid Nebula
http://www.SgAstrophotography.com
Copyright: Salvatore Grasso http://www.sgastrophotography.com/Sgast ... age_17.png

Milky Way Casting Shadows
Copyright: Jia Hao
[attachment=3]Milky Way Casts Shadow.jpg[/attachment]

Sunfish and Milky Way
http://www.danikxt.com.es/fotografia/inicio.html
Copyright: Dani Caxete
[attachment=2]perca de Sol y Via Lactea.jpg[/attachment]

Auroras and Fireflies
Copyright: Francis Audet
[attachment=1]Green Bugs over Green Sky.jpg[/attachment]

M83: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy in Hydra
http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com ... =113&p=448
Copyright: Scott Rosen Two Crescents in the Sky
http://www.astrofoto.ro
Copyright: Catalin Beldea
[attachment=0]Venus-Moon rendezvous.jpg[/attachment]

ISS PASS OVER CHERRY SPRINGS STATE PARK
http://www.rddnj.com
Copyright: Russell E. King

June 15, 2012 Sunspot Group
http://www.rddnj.com
Copyright: Russell E. King

Happy Solstice Day, in Blue..
06.20.2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegastarca ... hotostream
Copyright : VegaStar Carpentier

[attachment=0]jw.jpg[/attachment]
http://jwalk.smugmug.com/Photography/As ... obe-XL.jpg
Copyright: Jimmy Walker
http://jwalk.smugmug.com/Photography

The Cave Nebula Widefield Copyright: Jimmy Walker
http://jwalk.smugmug.com/Photography

Noctilucent clouds

Copyright: Ivo Dinsbergs
Noctilucent clouds in Pape, Latvia. June 14th

This picture was taken from TÜBİTAK National Observatory in Antalya, Turkiye. The city Antalya is 30km away from the observatory. It is now bigger than ever and affecting the observations very badly. Second thing which astronomers (other than who studies planetary) don't like usually is our moon. In this picture last quarter moon is rising over sea which is also 30-40km away. The reflection of the moonlight from sea can also be seen in this picture but it was much beautiful with naked eye.

Copyright: M. Raşid Tuğral

"Astronomy + Fireflies" Taken June-20-2012,

With the heat wave the fireflies are going bonkers here!
Last night, about 3 hrs worth of exposure, 11pm - 2am.
Many 25 sec exposures, 15-85 zoom lens at 15mm on crop T1i @ ISO800.
Stacked using StarStaX, minor PP in Aperture 3 to remove hot pixels from sensor.

This was taken in Howell, Michigan 6-20-2012, the shortest night of the year!
I had to wait till 11pm to start the imaging.
The second image has 28 frames removed that had plane streaks in them, that's the "lazy" way instead of PP them out in each frame.

Bonus: I also captured an iridium satellite flare, which is 1/2 way up from the horizon and 1/3 in from LH.

Raw output with all planes


28 frames with plane streaks removed, hence you see startrail "gaps" because I removed some images


Link to image I am submitting as canidate for APOD;
1600 pix image, watermark included.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fZkx ... %25202.jpg

Note:
I wanted a different viewpoint that last August 5 2011 image.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110805.html