Starship Asterisk*

Starlight - The Milky Way from Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Star light, light's up the foreground.
http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse
http://www.dakotalapse.com

NGC3201 - Globular Cluster in Vela
http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.com
Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen Link to large image (4.1MB): http://goo.gl/OcpBWU

NGC 3201 is a globular cluster located approximately 16,600 light years away in the southern constellation of Vela. The cluster appears as a fluffy ball of stars with a rather loosely concentrated core, unlike some other globulars with very dense cores such as 47 Tucanae and Messier 80.
The diameter of the cluster is around 40 light years and it contains the mass of an estimated 254,000 Suns.
The cluster orbits our galaxy with an unusually high velocity of 490 km/s.
Interestingly the cluster has an inhomogeneous star population, with hotter bluer stars located further out from the core. this is visible in the image where many blue stars can be seen in the outskirts of the cluster, while the core with the predominantly older stars appears more reddish.

Image details:
Date: 17th February 2013
Exposure: LRGB: 44:12:12:12 mins, total 1 hour 20 mins @ -28C
Telescope: 10" Serrurier Truss Newtonian f/5
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand

M33 (The Pinwheel Galaxy)

Website : http://www.nightsky.kr/xe/4456
Copyright: Gwangwook Kim

LBN576 Super Nova Remnant

Website: http://www.hbastro.com/
copyright: Dave Erickson

This is a shot of my friends house in Gualala Ca. The house is right on the ocean and we were lucky to have no fog day or night for 5 days.
Setup: 17mm, F2.8, 30 second exposure @ ISO 3200
Lighting was from house lights and campfire
Equipment: Canon 1Dm3, 16-35mm F2.8L USM, remote shutter
Photo credit "Rich Hudnut Jr."

larger image

Perseus Twin A photograph never do justice to the sparkling view through a telescope

Copyright: Mikel Martínez
http://fotoastro.blogspot.com.es/

LADEE mission launch over Manhattan and the Empire State Building
http://www.bgimages.org/temp/LADEE.jpg
[attachment=0]ladee.jpg[/attachment]

LADEE Launch from Fenwick Island
http://www.flickr.com/photos/radicalret ... 688442021/
Copyright: Marion Haligowski


LADEE Launch from Fenwick Island by Radical Retinoscopy, on Flickr


LADEE First Stage Separation by Radical Retinoscopy, on Flickr

I was fortunate to be vacationing with my family in Fenwick Island, DE when I learned of the upcoming launch of the LADEE spacecraft on a Minotaur 5 rocket. The launch was from the NASA Wallops Island Flight Center about 50-60 miles south of my location. I was amazed by how bright and vividly the launch illuminated the southwestern sky at my viewing point. I expected the rocket to appear like a satellite; I was completely floored to see how bright and dramatic the launch was from 50 miles away!

"TeaPot" and a lot of M-s: image shows the asterism TEAPOT pointing at the center of the Milky Way and a lot of Messier-Objects.
Captured with Canon 60Da on Polarie tracker.

The famous Veil nebula imaged in 4 ways - each one showing different details.
Larger versions can be seen here:
http://www.pbase.com/tango33/new_images

Thanks,

Kfir Simon

All the four views in the same panel:


Ha RGB:


Hubble color mapping:


Hydrogen Alpha only:


Inverted image of the Ha plane:

WR134 Ring Nebula in Ha and OIII. Colour palette is Ha:OIII:OIII
Higher res: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/769 ... 134_PI.jpg
Website: http://flickr.com/photos/saadabbasi

Astrophysical Station Bosque Alegre (EABA)
Copyrights: Pablo Cabral Jones-Emberson 1
Copyrights: Michael Stauning, Michael Rask, Torben Taustrup, Flemming R. Ovesen, Morten la Cour, Paul Christiansen and Morten Balling Bright meteor - 03/09/2013
Copyrights: Ernesto Guido M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy)
Copyrights: Scott Ferguson Sharpest astronomical image of Ganymede from Earth distance
Copyrights: Sergi R. Hildebrandt and Richard Dekany
Left: Hubble Space Telescope images (Credit: NASA), used for comparison.

Very Bright Fireball Over the Northern Adriatic
Copyrights: Herman Mikuz, Crni Vrh Observatory, Slovenia
Gif of the Meteor can be seen here: http://www.observatorij.org/dogodki/Bol ... rniVrh.gif HFG1- A Space Jellyfish
Copyrigts: Travis Rector and Heidi Schweiker
More about the image: http://aftar.uaa.alaska.edu/gallery/det ... =307&type=
And here: http://mobile.slate.com/blogs/bad_astro ... Fmobileapp Pacman Nebula
Copyrights: Ondrej Kozacik Cocoon Nebula
Copyrights: Albert Barr 3D Sun with scaled Earth and Moon
Copyrights: Göran Strand Coldest Brown Dwarfs Blur Lines between Stars and Planets
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
More about: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/pr201323.html

Milky Way
Copyrights: Jiajie Zhang Pacman Nebula (NGC-281)
Copyrights: Jorge Garcia Starry Night at the Drive-In
Copyrights: Chris Cook Nova Delphini 2013
Copyrights: Alessandro Dimai Nova Delphini spectra
Copyrights: Robert Minor 3-yr animation of Barnard's Star motion
Copyrights: Gavin Khoo

Nova Delphini 2013 on August 23rd, 01:01ut. Four images taken from the 16th, 18th, 23rd and Sept. 2nd, See Animation At:( http://www.jaicoa-observatory.com/SNDel ... im-EMr.gif ) Showing the Nova brightness differentials through this period (decreasing) and more on the red (Ha). A nova (plural novae or novas) is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in a white dwarf star. It is caused by the accretion of hydrogen on to the surface of the star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner. (Equipment info on image)

NGC 281
Copyright: Lonnie Hunker



Acquisition details found here - http://astrob.in/55008/B

M51 LHaRGB pictures taken in 2013

Copyright: Morten la Cour
Processing: Niels V. Christensen

Sh2-185 Gamma Cassiopeia, IC59, IC63


Copyright: Dave Erickson
Website: http://www.hbastro.com

NGC6826, LRHaGBOIII pictures
Copyright: Morten la Cour, Niels V. Christensen

M45 The Pleiades



M45 The Pleiades Cluster by astrochuck, on Flickr

Camera::QHYCCD QHY9M
Telescope: AstroTech AT65EDQ
Imaged Aug 14 & Sept 5

Luminance 9x600 bin 1x1 (90 min)
Red 6x300 bin 2x2 (30 min)
Green 6x300 2x2 (30 min)
Blue 9x300 bin 2x2 (45 min)




NGC 457 "E.T." Cluster



NGC 457 The E.T. Cluster by astrochuck, on Flickr

Camera::QHYCCD QHY9M
Telescope: AstroTech AT65EDQ

Imaged Aug 14 & Sept 5
Luminance 8x600 bin 1x1 (80 min)
Red 6x300 bin 2x2 (30 min)
Green 6x300 bin 2x2 (30 min)
Blue 6x300 bin 2x2 (30 min)

Earth-lit Moon, with a crescent painted on it, is rolling Weston the sky, following Teide's silhouette:

Cross-posting a couple of more interesting planetary nebula dug out of the HLA. Some more from a growing collection available here.

NGC 6369 "Little Ghost"
Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, processing by Judy Schmidt

NGC 6369 "Little Ghost" by geckzilla, on Flickr

NGC 6818 "Little Gem"
Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, processing by Judy Schmidt

NGC 6818 "Little Gem" by geckzilla, on Flickr

Messier 16 "Eagle Nebula"
http://www.eprisephoto.com
copyright: Anna Morris

V 1318 Cygni and surrounding nebula/Close up of V 1318 Cygni
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/V131 ... u-DSS.html
Credit: 8.2 Meter Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Digitized Sky Survey (data); Robert Gendler (image assembly and processing)

NGC 6946



Data: http://www.pbase.com/kwiechen/image/152217039/large

Larger: http://m9.i.pbase.com/o9/92/1047492/1/1 ... GC6946.jpg

Copyright: Kai Wiechen