Starship Asterisk*

The Crystal Ball
Copyright: György Soponyai

The annual astro camp of Hungarian Astronomical Association is held in Gerecse Mountain near Tarján (~50km southwest from Budapest). Every year ~ 300-400 amateur astronomers come together for common sky-wathcing in a long weekend. I always try to figure out some uncommon way to capture the vibe of the event. This year I was using a crystal ball put on the grass in front of the red lights of fellow amateur astronomers and recording the upside down image reflected on the surface of the ball during almost four hours.

In a long expo picture of the Northern sky the startrails of Big Dipper are dominating the scene however in this particular image they got a surprising company: the reddish/orangish trail of Mars visible on the Southern sky and also reflecting on the crystal ball. The lights of an Iridium flare is also visible here:



2018.08.09.
Tarján, Hungary

Canon EOS 5D Mk II + Canon EF 200/2.8 L
76 * 180 sec, F 11, ISO 2500

Perseid Meteor Shower of Mount Tai
Image Credit & Copyright:Li Zhaoqi
website:www.rainywhisper.com

Each August, as planet Earth swings through dust trailing along the orbit of periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, skygazers enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower. We took this photo at the top of Mt. Tai. In China，Mt. Tai is located in Shandong Province and attracts thousands of tourists every year. At the top of Mt. Tai, we can see the beautiful fog were lighted up by Taian city. The light also makes big trouble to astronomer for meteor-shower observation.

Perseid Meteor Shower in mountain Falakro, Drama, Greece
© Mavroudakis Fotis

Perseids meteor shower 2018 by Fotis Mavroudakis, on Flickr

Predictions have justified !!! 2018 Perseid Meteor Shower was one of the most spectacular views in the latest years.
Bright fireballs have lightened up the moonless night sky with a rate of about 20-30 per hour.
In the foreground is the Greek Yosemite's El Capitan vertical rock formation the famous Kartakla rock in the mountain of Falakro in Drama, Greece with a peek of approximately 2000m.
The final image is a selection of visible Perseid trails from about 550 photos which span a period of 5 hours exposure.

Cederblad 201 and Barnard 175 – “The Cepheus Flare”
http://danks.netfirms.com/astronomy.htm
Copyright: T.A. Danks
A three panel mosaic taken with a 14.5 inch AGO iDK telescope and a SBIG STL-11002XM CCD camera from Nova Scotia Canada. Total integration time for all panels, 27.5 hours.

Perseid meteors together with airglow over the mountain Wasserkuppe in Hessia, Germany
August 13th 2018 3-4 a.m. EST
Five Image Stack

www.marcorank.com
Copyright: Marco Rank

Although it is not an actual conjunction, it represents the appearance of the planets, from left to right, of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, which mark, very graphically, the line of the ecliptic.
It is a composite image of 4 images sewn from the Canon 6D, with the Sigma lens of 14 mm f / 1.8, Iso 1600 and 0.4 seconds.


http://www.astrocolorsllc.com/_data/i/u ... a56-me.jpg

Cocoon_Final by Edward Popovitch, on Flickr

NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula - HaRGB
http://www.far-light-photography.at
Copyright: Arno Rottal
NGC 281 - Pacman Nebula - HaRG
7x1200sec Ha
each 11x600sec RGB
Moravian G2-8300 on Esprit80.
APT (Astrophotography Tool)

full resolution can be found here:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/361384/0/?real=&mod=

22 Perseid meteors in 60min next to the Milkyway and Mars with a bright greenish Airglow (visible to the naked eye for a few minutes).
This image is a composit of 21 single exposures (time frame: 60min starting at 0:50 EST), 35mm, f/1.4, Iso 10.000, 10sec each.
Seen from Wasserkuppe mountain, Hessia, Germany, August 13th 2018.

www.marcorank.com
Copyright: Marco Rank
Bigger version: https://marcorank-my.sharepoint.de/:i:/ ... g?e=9S3Fxl

On the night of the 12th to the 13th of August I have been observing the Perseid meteor shower from Steinborn in the Eifel, Germany. During the night I had two camera's running all night taking images of the sky to see if I would be able to catch some of the Perseids. This image was made using a Nikon D810a with a Nikon 14-24mm lens. I programmed the camera to take constantly 60s images of the sky using ISO1600. In the end I have caught about 40 Perseids, which I was very happy with. This image shows a single image from the series overlaid with all the Perseids that were captured during the session in their exactly right positions in the sky. This was quite easy to establish as I used a Skywatcher Star Adventurer to follow the stars during their motion along the sky, and as such the field of view showed the same star field all the time.

The brightest Perseid in the view showed a nice dust trail that was visible on images for over 20 minutes! An animation of this dissipating trail can be seen here:

https://youtu.be/twiapfdloEU

Very nicely also the radiant in Perseus can be seen in the image if you follow the tracks...



Perseid Meteor Shower from the Eifel, Germany by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr



Perseid Meteor Shower from the Eifel, Germany by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

Perseids 2018
http://NightChina.net
Copyright: Steed Yu

Take the shower
Copyright: Ma Jin https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1773/301 ... 406a_h.jpg

Ma Jin, China. Picture taken in Inner Mongolia, China.

One beautiful wish
Copyright: Pavel Váňa
This photo was captured at Astronomická expedice Úpice (www.expediceupice.cz). In the picture there are many objects like Chi and h Persei, Heart and Soul nebulae, Perseid and commet 21P/Giacobini/Zinner. These objects are located near to the radiant of Perseid meteor shower so I hoped that I will capture some meteors. http://i67.tinypic.com/2ufsj9t.jpg
For higher resolution see http://tinypic.com/r/whmipx/9.

Perseids 2018

Perseid meteor shower in Sardinia
www.ivanpedretti.com
Copyright: Ivan Pedretti https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1791/4224 ... 93af_h.jpg

VdB 152 and its neighborhood, wide field Imaged at remote site from Negev Desert
QHY367c/FSQ 130ED/Mach1 CT4: 86x300s
Additional links:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/leoshatz/ ... 088139044/
https://www.astrobin.com/359293/

Perseids and airglow
During the night from August 12th to 13th, 2018, massive airglow could be observed in Germany in addition to many Perseids. The picture shown contains all the Perseids of that night.
http://addicted2light.de

Copyright: Levin Dieterle

Pelican IC5067 and HH objects

This is the IC5067 ionization front region of the Pelican Nebula. Also visible are Herbig-Haro objects HH555, 564, 565, 566, 567, and 568.

Larger images and exposure info are here:
https://www.astrobin.com/361534/?nc=user

Nick Pavelchak
Altamont, NY

PLEIADES AND THE MOUNTAINS OF MUNHOZ
First image of the meeting, a very simple image, realized with unique frame, but it was a magical moment, look at the sky and see the pleiades in a place so privileged.

better quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/361398/0/?nc=user

Equipments:
Canon 6D
Lens 50mm 1.8
30 second exposure frame
Munhoz - MG - Brazil
Copyright: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes

EAGLE NEBULA
I present to you, Nebula of the Eagle with the Pillars of Creation.
I made this image in Sao Carlos, but I was able to process it now.

better quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/356348/0/

Equipments:
Esprit 150mm
Qhy 16200
Halpha, SII and OIII - 49 frames taken of 500 seconds each.
June 30, 2018
Sao Carlos - SP

Copyright: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes

Paulee97 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 10:55 am One beautiful wish
Copyright: Pavel Váňa
This photo was captured at Astronomická expedice Úpice (www.expediceupice.cz). In the picture there are many objects like Chi and h Persei, Heart and Soul nebulae, Perseid and commet 21P/Giacobini/Zinner. These objects are located near to the radiant of Perseid meteor shower so I hoped that I will capture some meteors.
2ufsj9t[1].jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/2ufsj9t.jpg
For higher resolution see http://tinypic.com/r/whmipx/9.

The colors are splendid here!

The Heart and Soul nebulas are properly red. The meteor is bright green, the color of fresh grass, fading into reddish. The meteor is a much more bluish green or turquoise. The brightest star, hot B2-type Epsilon Cassiopeia, at upper center left, is clearly blue. Cool K3-type giant Eta Persei, at 4 o'clock, is yellow-orange. Chi and H Persei, being far away and somewhat reddened, look whitish.

What a superb collection of objects, and how splendid the colors are!

Ann

barretosmed wrote: ↑Wed Aug 15, 2018 8:58 pm PLEIADES AND THE MOUNTAINS OF MUNHOZ
First image of the meeting, a very simple image, realized with unique frame, but it was a magical moment, look at the sky and see the pleiades in a place so privileged.

better quality:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/361398/0/?nc=user

Equipments:
Canon 6D
Lens 50mm 1.8
30 second exposure frame
Munhoz - MG - Brazil
Copyright: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes

Click to view full size image

A simple image in a way, but I wholly agree with you: It is magical.

Ann

NGC 5981 , NGC 5982 , NGC 5985 DRACO TRIPLET

Saturn, August 04-2018
This was one of the photos I liked the most about Saturn this year. The motif is simple as it gives it to perceive those fundamental details of the Lord of the Rings such as: Hexagon well detached as well as the eye of the mainemnet hurricane in the infrared photo. Easily visible and colorful colorful planet tracks.
Cassini's division well delineated as well as a glimpse of Encke's division, ring C visible in both color photo and IR photo.
But what caught my attention was the realization that the storm first seen by my great friend Maciel stretched out, seeming to run like lint.
Anyway, a photo to keep in my gallery of the 10 most of Saturn.

Perseids from Stone Dolls, Kratovo, Macedonia on August 12, 2018. The Stone Dolls are natural geologic phenomenon that resemble human figures, hence the name. In the folklore these rocks are presented as wedding ceremony with bride and groom in the center, guests on the right side and in-laws on the left side. This composite photography is made during 3:20 hours shooting where 46 Perseids are visible.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13924746@N00/29129517697/



Kristijan Siskovski
www.orion.mk

Stephan's Quintet. KG Observatory.

From August 5th through August 15th we were very fortunate to experience extremely steady, clear and dark skies in Julian, CA. This is the first of 6 objects I captured during this time.

"Stephan's Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies of which four form the first compact galaxy group ever discovered.The group, visible in the constellation Pegasus, was discovered by Édouard Stephan in 1877 at the Marseille Observatory. The group is the most studied of all the compact galaxy groups.The brightest member of the visual grouping is NGC 7320 that is shown to have extensive H II regions, identified as red blobs, where active star formation is occurring.

NGC 7320 indicates a small redshift (790 km/s) while the other four exhibit large redshifts (near 6600 km/s). Since galactic redshift is proportional to distance, NGC 7320 is only a foreground projection and is ~39 million ly from Earth versus the 210-340 million ly of the other five."

Imaging telescope or lens:Planewave CDK24
Imaging camera:FLI Proline 16803
Mount:Planewave L600
Guiding camera:Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Focal reducer:None
Software:Planewave PWI4, Planewave PWI3, PixInsight 1.8, Maxim DL6, PHD Guiding 2, Neat Image V7, Photoshop CS3, Sequence Generator Pro
Filters:Astrodon 50mm R, Astrodon 50mm B, Astrodon 50 mm G, Astrodon 50mm L
Accessories:FLI CFW-5-7, Astrodon Monster MOAG, Hedrick Focuser, Planewave Delta-T, Planewave EFA
Resolution: 1134x1019
Dates: Aug. 5, 2018, Aug. 6, 2018, Aug. 7, 2018
Frames:
Astrodon 50 mm G: 8x900" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 50mm B: 8x900" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 50mm L: 24x900" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 50mm R: 8x900" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 12.0 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~80
Flat darks: ~80
Bias: ~20
Avg. Moon age: 23.96 days
Avg. Moon phase: 31.55%
Mean SQM: 21.60
Astrometry.net job: 2202005
RA center: 339.009 degrees
DEC center: 33.965 degrees
Pixel scale: 0.468 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 179.167 degrees
Field radius: 0.099 degrees
Locations: KG Observatory, Julian, CA, United States
Data source: Backyard