Starship Asterisk*

Battle for the light

Credits: Adrien Mauduit

At 1:30 am, there is no night in Denmark, just an astronomical dawn washing out our galaxy a little bit more every day. The bright night are over us, but there is still a little window to peek at the majestic milky way and its core rising towards the south. No aurora for us last night, as our Canadian and American friends got the show, but an unforgettable night spent on the beach, stargazing in the company of eight of my students. The dawn gives awesome blue hues to the milky way and the night sky. I was hoping to spot some NLC but it is a bit too soon in the season!

Høve strand, Odsherred, Denmark, 01.30 am

Canon 6D modded + Samyang 24mm f/1.4 @ f/2.8, ISO 3200, 18 x 14'', unstacked, untracked, Lr/Ps/PTGui Pro.

NGC 4567 and 4568. Copyright KG Observatory.

Imaging telescope or lens: Celestron 8" EdgeHD
Imaging camera: QSI 660 WSG
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Focal reducer: Celestron 0.7X
Software: PHD Guiding 2, PixInsight 1.8, Neat Image V7, Sequence Generator Pro, Maxim DL6, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014, Astronomy Tools Actions Set V1.6
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" R, Astrodon 1.25" B, Astrodon 1.25" G, Astrodon 1.25" L
Accessories: Innovations Foresight ONAG SC, Optec FocusLock
Resolution: 2058x2586
Dates: May 3, 2017, May 13, 2017, May 17, 2017, May 18, 2017
Frames:
Astrodon 1.25" B: 30x120" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" G: 30x120" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" L: 101x120" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" R: 30x120" -15C bin 1x1
Integration: 6.4 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~80
Flat darks: ~80
Bias: ~20
Mean SQM: 19.75
Locations: Home, Rancho Santa Fe, California, United States

M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy by Patrick Gilliland, on Flickr

Lanterns
Photo credit: Monika Landy-Gyebnar
High resolution image: https://flic.kr/p/UocupL
Location: Városlőd, Hungary

On the evening of 19th May we had a fine weather, clear sky - only with some small cirrus patches drifting by - and my friend and fellow amateur astronomer Robert Kocor asked if we could go somewhere to spend the evening with our cameras turned to the stars. I knew a nice place without much ligh pollution and decided to go there. The place was a fine little hill with some lonesome trees and a full 360 deg. view around - but as we searched for a location to stop the car, we found a little quarry at the foot of this hill. It looked really enchanted, some trees grew on the top of the cliffs, so instead of climbing to the hilltop, we stayed there. I set up my lamp to slightly illuminate the cliffs and began to take pics.
It proved to be a good decision! We enjoyed the view, and even saw a brigh fireball. Then Robert climbed the hillside above the quarry, he had a small lantern with a candle inside and went to the cliff's edge with a small tree. Jupiter and Spica were right above, and thanks to the thin clouds both had aureoles, enhancing their colours. The result was: three lanterns, one at Robert's hand with the candle and two - Jupiter & Spica - above.
I used Nikon D5300 with 35mm lens for the pic and took two photoes which were stacked into a panorama to get a better composition with the cliff and the sky.

Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile
C:2015 V2 Johnson by Raul Villaverde, en Flickr

M81 and Holmberg IX
http://www.alsonwongastro.com
Copyright: Alson Wong

Leo Triplet

RIng Nebula. Copyright KG Observatory.

This object is positioned nicely for me to capture from 10 PM to 5 AM. I used this time to capture 3 hours of Ha and 2 hours of Luminance. I then layered this over RGB I had from July 2015. Final image is LHaRGB. I used a "Screen" blend layer in Photoshop to help merge the details in L and the color in HaRGB.

Imaging telescope or lens: Celestron 8" EdgeHD
Imaging camera: QSI 660 WSG
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Software: PHD Guiding 2, PixInsight 1.8, Sequence Generator Pro, Maxim DL6, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" R, Astrodon 1.25" B, Astrodon 1.25" G, Astrodon 1.25" L, Astrodon 1.25" 5nm Ha
Accessories: Innovations Foresight ONAG SC, Optec FocusLock, Starizona MicroTouch Autofocuser
Resolution: 633x547
Dates: July 18, 2015, May 20, 2017
Frames:
Astrodon 1.25" 5nm Ha: 13x900" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" B: 5x600" -10C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" G: 5x600" -10C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" L: 69x120" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" R: 7x600" -10C bin 1x1
Integration: 8.4 hours
Darks: ~40
Flats: ~100
Flat darks: ~100
Bias: ~20
Mean SQM: 19.75
Locations: Home, Rancho Santa Fe, California, United States

A few new images for 2017

For larger versions please go to :
http://www.pbase.com/tango33/new_images

Thanks for looking!

Kfir Simon

NGC 4565


NGC 5101 and NGC 5078


NGC 4650 gropup (together with Konstantin Buchhold)


NGC 474 group:


NGC 1291:


Hickson 44:


LDN 1676 in Scorpius:


The California nebula wide:


Messier 38 region:


NGC 2327 with VDB 88:


Barnard 163 - The FROG nebula:


The Soul nebula:


Mellote 15:

Coddington Nebula, IC2574.

This inconspicuous introvert galaxy coexists in the sky with a bright pair of M81 / M82 and astrophotographers often bypass it. But this time it could not escape the experienced view of Oleg Milantiev, who shot it with three astrographs and accumulated a total of 60 hours of exposure. Personally, I do not cease to be amazed at how big and painstaking work is behind at such pictures. The galaxy itself looks like irregular, but it has a spiral structure like our Milky Way.


Author's site: http://www.astroadventures.ru/
Copyright: Oleg Milantiev and Yuri Zvezdny

Fireflies & Stellar Traces above Cape Drastis, Peroulades, Corfu

Night landscape among the fireflies and under the traces of the stars at Cape Drastis, Peroulades, Corfu, Greece


The Lampyridae are a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous use of bioluminescence during twilight to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers.
About 2,000 species of fireflies are found in temperate and tropical climates. Many are in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food. Their larvae emit light and often are called "glowworms" in Eurasia and elsewhere. In the Americas, "glow worm" also refers to the related Phengodidae. In many species, both male and female fireflies have the ability to fly, but in some species, the females are flightless
Text: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly


Cape Drastis, in Greeks means Perpetrator or Active, it's landmark on the Clay hills of Canal D'amour in Peroulades village, Corfu.
The sediments are 1-2 million years old, from the Lower Pliocene era.
More about Pliocene Epoch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliocene

While the Stars are making rotations around the Polar Star, Polaris, almost in the middle the bright one. As the Earth rotations the axis points to the two Poles, the South Celestial pole to the North Celestial pole. We are looking right to the North Celestial pole and watching all the Stars moving from East to the West.
More about Celestial pole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_pole


The lights on the other side of the sea are from the Villages of Vlora, Albania, about 40km north of Corfu, with Ceraunian Mountains in the center, highest peak is Çika, 2012m.
The blue-green line on the water is a A cruise ship crossing the Adriatic Sea, the lights on the left are from Erikousa island one of the Diapontia Islands of Corfu.

Canon eos 6D, Samyung 14mm, f/2.8, iso1600, 280X20sec, Startrails

SN 2017eaw in NGC 6946
Copyright: Paolo Demaria

This picture shows SN 2017eaw in NGC 6946, in a field where appears also the open cluster NGC 6939.
Telescope: Skywatcher 200/1000 with Baader RCC coma corrector.
Camera: Canon Eos 450D Baader modified.
Mount: Skywatcher Eq6 Pro.
27 x 480 s @800ISO.
Location: Saint Barthelemy (Ao, Italy).
Greetings,
Paolo Demaria, Cuneo, Italy.

KuriousGeorge wrote:RIng Nebula. Copyright KG Observatory.

This object is positioned nicely for me to capture from 10 PM to 5 AM. I used this time to capture 3 hours of Ha and 2 hours of Luminance. I then layered this over RGB I had from July 2015. Final image is LHaRGB. I used a "Screen" blend layer in Photoshop to help merge the details in L and the color in HaRGB.

Imaging telescope or lens: Celestron 8" EdgeHD
Imaging camera: QSI 660 WSG
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Software: PHD Guiding 2, PixInsight 1.8, Sequence Generator Pro, Maxim DL6, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" R, Astrodon 1.25" B, Astrodon 1.25" G, Astrodon 1.25" L, Astrodon 1.25" 5nm Ha
Accessories: Innovations Foresight ONAG SC, Optec FocusLock, Starizona MicroTouch Autofocuser
Resolution: 633x547
Dates: July 18, 2015, May 20, 2017
Frames:
Astrodon 1.25" 5nm Ha: 13x900" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" B: 5x600" -10C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" G: 5x600" -10C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" L: 69x120" -15C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" R: 7x600" -10C bin 1x1
Integration: 8.4 hours
Darks: ~40
Flats: ~100
Flat darks: ~100
Bias: ~20
Mean SQM: 19.75
Locations: Home, Rancho Santa Fe, California, United States

Found more Ha amongst the noise.

Joshua Tree under Ursa Major
Copyrights: Katherine Alatalo C/2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS) on April 4th
Copyrights: Damian Peach The dusty galaxy NGC 4605
Credits and Copyrights: Data: Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing: Domingo Pestana Rivers on three worlds tell different tales
Image credits: Benjamin Black/NASA/Visible Earth/JPL/Cassini RADAR team
An article: http://news.mit.edu/2017/rivers-titan-l ... earth-0518 NGC 6188 and Surroundings
Copyrights: Leonardo Julio Mount Cook at Dawn
Copyrights: Phebe Pan Orion above Amada balm
Copyrights: OCCJ The meteor above Pumori
Copyrights: OCCJ Milky Way and airglow above Himalaya
Copyrights: OCCJ Startrails above Pumori
Copyrights: OCCJ IC2944
Credits and copyrights: Data: ESO / R. Gendler; Assembling and processing: R. Colombari / R. Gendler
Full size: http://cdn.astrobin.com/images/thumbs/2 ... ermark.jpg ALMA Eyes Icy Ring around Young Planetary System
Image Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), M. MacGregor; NASA/ESA Hubble, P. Kalas; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
An article: https://public.nrao.edu/news/2017-alma-ring-fomalhaut/ The bridge of Soul nebula - IC 1848
Copyrights: José Jiménez Priego IC410 The Tadpoles
Copyrights: José Jiménez Priego IC 1396 Elephant's Trunk nebula
Copyrights: José Jiménez Priego IC 1808 The Heart Nebula
Copyrights: José Jiménez Priego NGC2237 Rosette Nebula
Copyrights: José Jiménez Priego Hunting the Milk Way
Copyrights: José Jiménez Priego Hubble Spots Moon Around Third Largest Dwarf Planet
Image credits: Hubble
An article: http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2017-18 First radio detection of lonely planet disk shows similarities between stars and planet-like objects
Image credits: Johan Olofsson (U Valparaiso & MPIA)
An article: http://www.mpia.de/news/science/2017-06-ots44-disk After the storm
Copyrights: Paul Breuer

"Polyblepharis Leonis Minoris, or the many-eyelashes galaxy" - Wikipedia and CNG at http://www.bodifee.be/wp-content/upload ... /2_CMG.pdf
NGC 3486
LHaRGB
Larger image and info:
http://www.astrobin.com/296536/0/?nc=user

Nick Pavelchak
Altamont, NY

Milky Way in vulcanic landscape, with Gum Nebulae
Copyrights: Carlos Eduardo Fairbairn SN2017eaw in NGC6946 The 'Fireworks Galaxy'
Copyrights: Emilio Gálvez Ranera Starry "waterfall" over the island lake
Copyrights: Petr Horálek M101
Copyrights: Laszlo Bagi Stormy day over Paris
Copyrights: Bertrand Kulik Aurora from Lofoten Islands, Norway
Copyrights: Sergio Galán Sh2-185 region
Copyrights: Hans Jürgen Mayer Stormy Madrid
Copyrights: Dani Caxete C/2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS) on May 2nd
Copyrights: Damian Peach C/2015 V2 (Johnson) on May 20th
Copyrights: Damian Peach The Oxygen in Carina
Copyrights: Dylan O’Donnell / deography.com
http://deography.com/tmp/test/index.php ... 086254.jpg Milky Way Arch over a French farm
Copyrights: Guillaume Doyen Saturn in stellar clouds
Copyrights: Juan Carlos Casado The immensity of Space
Copyrights: Daniel Baraldés Sunflower Galaxy
Copyrights: Manfred Konrad NGC 6946 Firework Galaxy + SN2017ewa supernova
Copyrights: Rafael Schmall C/2015 V2 Johnson
Copyrights: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich C/2015 V2 Johnson
Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile

Dusty Theta Ophiuchi by Transient Astronomer, on Flickr

Image Credit and Copyright Tom Masterson

This isn't an image but a time lapse video of the night sky from various locations during the last 12 months. My main imaging has had to take a back seat due to family reasons and I haven't been able to devote as much time to it as I would like so I've been out and about whenever I can with my DSLR kit and "camera slider" shooting time lapse, star trails and scenic shots. Here is the last 12 months work put together in a video. The clips were taken with a Canon 80D and more recently a Sony A7S ii with different lenses ranging from 10-18mm in focal length. Exposure times varied between 20 and 30 seconds and the ISO between 800 and 25600. to create the foreground and background movement I used a Rhino Camera Gear Evo carbon slider with Motion and Arc movement controls. It is best viewed in HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R161lbi--G4

Best wishes
Gordon
gphaynes50@gmail.com

Copyrights: Raul Villaverde Fraile
comet 71:P clark by Raul Villaverde, en Flickr

Location on April 24th was between the stars Upsilon Herculis and Phi Herculis. Location on April 26th is at top. North is at left.
Taken with a Canon 40D through Tamron 300mm f/2.8 telephoto lens at ISO 1600. Tracked on Super Polaris EQ mount. April 26 image (23 x 90 secs; 34.5 mins total) aligned with and blended into April 24 image (20 x 90 secs; 30 mins total).
Taken from near Barry's Bay, Ontario, Canada.

M13
Web Page: http://www.skymonsters.net
Directl link to higher-res image: http://www.skymonsters.net/hr_immagine. ... hr_M13.jpg
Copyright: Nicola Montecchiari

M1 - Crab Nebula
Web Page: http://www.skymonsters.net
Direct link to higher-res image: http://www.skymonsters.net/hr_immagine. ... =hr_M1.jpg
Copyright: Nicola Montecchiari

NGC5371 and Hickson 68
Copyright: Bart Delsaert



High resolution widefield image

M63 - Sunflower Galaxy

Image here. http://moonrocksastro.com/wp-content/up ... /M63-P.jpg
Copyright: Paul C. Swift

M13 core and widefield
Copyright: Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez
Website: https://www.facebook.com/AIP.Astrophotography/

Two images of M13 in the constellation of Hercules, in LRGB from Pioz, Guadalajara, Spain. (May 06, 2017). You can see many micro-galaxies above all the image.

Full resolution: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4272/3407 ... 87f4_o.png
M13 Core: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4244/3404 ... 2d48_o.png
Telescope: FSQ106EDX and TS115 Triplet APO
Camera: ATIK 460exm