Starship Asterisk*

Hello,

Below is a photo I took of the aurora over the Ashokan Reservoir, New York, USA. Typically this is too far south to see it, 41.98 degrees north latitude, but the geomagnetic storm from the sunspot group in AR3664 (Kp9 index) pushed the aurora oval much further south than usual. A greenish glow and pillars were clearly visible.

I took this photograph on May 10, 2024 at 11:52pm.

Camera and lens: Nikon Z6 ii, Sigma 14mm f/1.8 lens.
Capture details: ISO 800, 8 seconds, f/1.8 aperture.

Aurora over Ashokan Reservoir
https://flic.kr/p/2pR3PmU
Copyright: Gabriela Levit Enjoy!

Gabriela

Here's the Aurora thumbnail, because somehow it didn't make it to my previous post: Flickr URL: Enjoy!

Gabriela

The eye of the aurora by Martin Lefranc, sur Flickr

The eye of the aurora

This 360 panorama I took on the 11th of may, at aproximately 4 am.
After the the northern lights started to dance in pillars, ribbons, and arcs, I went for a drive in order to find a nice composition. When I found this little shepherd cabin I set up myself but I didnt knew where to look : the sky was full of amazing things to look at in all directions. So I decided to take a 360 panorama in order to catch kind of the exact scene I was stargazing at.

I find this picture quite interesting because you can see the Earth's curvature in the Aurora shape.

You can also see the Milky way core, and of course the magnificent aurora

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and will remember it for the rest of my life.

And I love how the result of the panorama turned out, despite a lot of hours stitching the frames manually as AutoPano seemed to be confused by the aurora.

Nikon D7500 and sigma 18-35mm f/1.8
40 images @ 18mm f/1.8 10s iso 3200

Hello, this is my fist time imaging M17 the Omega nebula. It's an SHO composition using foraxx palette. I acquired over 6 hours of total integration time over 3 nights from May 4 to May 6 2024. This wonderful target never rises above 36 degrees from my location so i had roughly just 2-3 hours of imaging time for each night, keeping only the best frames for stacking.

Acquired from my home terrace in Ragusa, Italy (Bortle 6).

Telescope: Orion Optics UK 8" IDEAL 8L Newtnonian telescope F6
Camera: QHYCCD 268M
Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R-PRO
Filters: Optlong SHO 6.5nm Narrowband Filters

M17 Omega Nebula - SHO - Foraxx palette
Copyright: Renato Jean Piero Tradardi
https://flic.kr/p/2pRxiZN

After a year of data acquisition from my terrace, I have an image of the Shark Nebula. I started taking exposures around May 2023, and finished a week ago. Along the way I had to delete around 50h worth of data, which is a shame, since I would love to get more hours on this target.

Equipment:
Williams Optics Redcat 51
Touptek 2600kpa
Skywatcher HEQ5-pro belt modded

480x300s subs, gain 100, offset 50, -15ºC, guided and dithered

My Instagram for the curious: https://www.instagram.com/_astro_apollo/
Full resolution image here: https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/spMB7Ww ... gPgUnG.jpg
Copyright: Eric Maurício

Thanks for the read and have a good day!

When the Aurora is at its peak it is said to look like soaring birds overhead? How many different birds do you see?

Other than the colours from the camera sensor these images represent what I saw visually the night of the powerful G5 magnetic storm on Mother's’ day 2024.
The space weather data was strong that evening. With a hemispheric power of 328GW the aurora was building to a strength not seen in over 20 years, and the resulting display was one for the ages.

While we enjoyed a show in the early evening, somewhere around 2am EDT the aurora changed. It became a pulsating, magnetically charged light show surrounding us in every direction.

I love these images because they reflect the beautiful pale white winged creatures floating over my head that night, flying and soaring through the the stars.

Shot from the Ottawa Canada backyard, with a NIkon Z6ii and a Laowa 15mm lens at f/2.8 ISO 3200 1sec exposures.

Can you see the auroral birds? by Andrea Girones, on Flickr

Hi!

My name is Ali Al Obaidly

This is my submission for APOD, captured in Al Salmy, kuwait.

Links to the Image:

Astrobin: https://astrob.in/s3yz0f/0/
Flicker: https://flic.kr/p/2pRJ11C



Description:

You may be mesmerized by Scorpio's claws, reflecting the light of multiple stars and painting them yellow and blue, furiously beautiful. But have you ever looked underneath? Antares demands most of the attention, and rightfully so. Scorpio's tail pierces the heart of the Milky Way, and many famous nebulae are scattered in its wake—the Prawn, the Cat's Paw, and other Sharpless objects in between. Yet, it is still baffling that this triplet star system, π-Scorpii, and the surrounding gas and dust are overlooked by many.

This image, captured in the deserts of Kuwait, is a reminder that beauty exists everywhere, in all things, and it is we who sometimes lack the capacity to behold it. It took a total of 8 hours of integration time to reveal the clouds of dust you see in this image. The bright red emissions of Hydrogen Alpha took a further 5 hours of narrowband imaging to reveal. π-Scorpii peaks at 34° in Kuwait, so a constant battle with the horizon is expected. Fighting the gradient of light this low altitude introduces was challenging, though with modern methods, a clean image is possible. The Hydrogen-Alpha signal was extracted, subtracted with methods of continuum subtraction, and added to the main image.

It is worth remembering that the universe holds endless marvels, waiting to be discovered by those who seek them. Clear Skies!

Acquisition details:
Dates:
May 9 - 10, 2024
May 16, 2024

Frames:
RGB: 96×300″(8h)
ZWO Duo-Band 2": 60×300″(5h)
Total Integration: 13h

Equipment:

Telescopes: Celestron EdgeHD 9.25"
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro
Filter: ZWO Duo-Band 2"
Accessories: Celestron 0.7X Reducer EdgeHD925

Thank you for taking the time to consider my image,

Clear Skies,

Ali.

______________________________________________________
My Socials:

Email: astrapharmaq8@gmail.com
Website: https://astrapharmaq8.com/
Instagram: @astrapharma_q8

SH2-188 "Shrimp Nebula"
Full version : https://team-ouranos.fr/wp-content/uplo ... 2_logo.jpg

Sh2-188 (sometimes nicknamed the "Shrimp" - or Firefox - Nebula, because of its shape) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cassiopeiae.
Although included in the Sharpless catalog, it is in fact an unusual planetary nebula, located at a distance of around 711 light-years.
It appears as a well-marked envelope on the eastern side and very scattered on the western side, where it seems to have already dissolved. In appearance, it is reminiscent of the Sh2-274 nebula.
Thanks to its rate of expansion, an age of around 7,500 years has been determined. Although its appearance resembles a supernova remnant, this possibility has been ruled out by the nature of its emissions.
For this image, acquired in Ha and OIII, we opted for a more complex mix than the traditional HOO, to approximate a SHO rendering.

AstroSib 360 - AP 11000GTO - G4-16000 - Chroma Filters (3nm)
Ha : 84 x 600s
OIII : 93 x 300s
Total : 29h10
02/10 to 18/11 2023 - Corsica (France)
Pixinsight & PS

Copyright: Team OURANOS (Jean-Baptiste Auroux, Jean Claude Mario, Mathieu Guinot & Matthieu Tequi).
https://team-ouranos.fr/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Team_OURANOS/

surreal sunset "in front" of clouds


Larger size https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/i ... 194219.jpg

Driving home the other night i caught something odd out of the corner of my eye at sunset: the horizon was bright orange with the setting sun lighting up a thin cloud. below that a thick bank of dark clouds went down to the horizon. in front of that was the grapefruit pink disk of the setting sun.
WAIT, IN FRONT OF THE CLOUDS?!
simple explanation is that the sun is shining through the clouds.
there's likely a bit more going on: the top of the grey cloud bank looks just too dark and thick to let the sun through, but lower down, at the level of the sun it seems to lighten a bit. suggesting the refracted sun is passing through a lighter layer of clouds/fog lower down.

more images and detail at
https://astrowhw.blogspot.com/2024/05/5 ... louds.html

NGC 2903

A pretty spiral galaxy in Leo, with a very obvious bar (estimated to contain 20% of the galaxy's mass), tightly wound arms, and a lot of starburst activity in the center.

Details:
QSI 660 camera on 250mm RC, Astronomic RGB filters.
40 minutes each red, green, and blue.
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop.
Final image resolution 0.71 arcsec/pixel, 21 arcminute wide field.
_

SAR Arc, auroral oval, and moonset in northern France

Copyright: Julien Looten





It has already been a week since the intense auroral activity that left such an impression on us. Having finally found the time to process the photos, I tackled the most challenging task: assembling the 76 shots into a 360° view.
Before heading to Étretat, I set up in the countryside near Neufchâtel-en-Bray, where I had spotted a beautiful isolated tree on a hill, offering an unobstructed view of the horizon. Between midnight and 1 a.m., an impressive SAR arc was visible.
A SAR arc (Stable Auroral Red) is a red arc that appears south of the main auroral oval. Unlike classical (boreal) auroras, which display a variety of colors and dynamic patterns, SARs show a fixed color and remain stationary for several tens of minutes. The formation of SARs remains a debated topic within the scientific community...
Since northern France was directly under the auroras (under the auroral oval), the SAR arc was only visible further south, well above the zenith. Thus, the sky was almost entirely red, except for the southern horizon.
A SAR arc (Stable Auroral Red) is a red arc that appears south of the main auroral oval. Unlike classical (boreal) auroras, which display a variety of colors and dynamic patterns, SAR arcs show a fixed color and remain stationary for several tens of minutes. Although geomagnetic activity due to an eruption of charged particles from the Sun triggers both auroras and SAR arcs, their formation mechanisms differ slightly. While auroras are created when energetic particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere, SAR arcs are generated by the enormous thermal and kinetic energy of the Earth's atmosphere (around 3000°C).
This photo is a 2D image representing the entire sky and landscape in 360°, resulting in distortions (similar to those of a terrestrial planisphere). For example, the furrows in the field, which are actually perfectly straight, appear curved. The south is located beneath the arc, while the north is just to the right of the tree.
Canon 6D MK1 Astrodon – 28mm f1.4 (f/2) - 76 x 8s – ISO2000 – Autopano/Hugin/Ps

https://linktr.ee/julienlootenphotographie

From Eagle to Lagoon and beyond


From Eagle to Lagoon and beyond by .zombi., on Flickr

Imaging telescopes: Samyang 135mm F2.0 ED UMC
Imaging cameras: Canon EOS 6D (modified)
Mounts: Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi
Software: PixInsight Ripley · Adobe Photoshop

Frames: 28×120″ (56')
Frames: 10×180″(30′)

Photographic technique: DSLR/RGB

Integration: 1h 26'
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 1/2

Location: RPA - Blesfontein Guest Farm
Dates: April 18-19, 2023

Description:
A small mosaic made of material collected during an astrophotography expedition to South Africa

Image Credit & Copyright: Przemysław Ząbczyk
Links:

http://www.astrobin.com/users/zombi/
https://www.astropolis.pl/tags/zombi/

Omega Centauri in centaurus constellation. (ω Cen o NGC 5139)
34 frames 60 seconds of exposure
telescope 6"f2.8 and apsc sensor color
taken from Atemajac de brizuela Jalisco
photographer Emmanuel Delgadillo

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/537 ... c95e_o.jpg

Title: Aurora 180
Copyright: Olle Bjernulf

Hello Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell,

My name is Ali Al Obaidly

This is my submission for APOD, captured in Al Salmy, kuwait.

Links to the Image:

Astrobin: https://astrob.in/full/w20wbw/0/?real=
Flicker: https://flic.kr/p/2pS4FjQ

Title: M106 - Spewing Radiance (HaLRGB)



Description:
Oh boy! What did I get myself into? We've all seen those incredible Hubble images of this marvelous galaxy, M106, spewing jets of hydrogen alpha from its core. That image has always stuck with me since the first time I saw it. Naturally, I decided I wanted to capture those hydrogen emissions for myself. To my absolute horror, THEY WERE SO FAINT. Still, I kept grinding away at the target, trekking back and forth into the Kuwaiti desert until I gathered around 14.5 hours of total Ha integration time.

M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a stunning spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It’s famous for its peculiar, extra set of spiral arms glowing in hydrogen alpha, a telltale sign of intense star formation and dynamic activity within the galaxy. These jets are believed to be caused by the supermassive black hole at its center, making it a fascinating subject for any astrophotographer. Despite my best efforts, I was defeated by M106 this year. Those elusive hydrogen alpha emissions played hard to get. But fear not! Next year, I won't be knocked down so easily. We'll push those hours right up to 30 and beyond, and we'll see if that opposite strand of Ha still hides among the light!

For now, this is what I've managed. I hope you like it, and I hope to see you all again next year for some more rounds of cosmic adventure!

Equipment:
Telescopes: Celestron EdgeHD 9.25"
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro

Filters:
-Chroma Blue 36 mm
- Chroma Green 36 mm
- Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 36 mm
-Chroma Lum 36 mm
-Chroma Red 36 mm

Accessories:
Celestron 0.7X Reducer EdgeHD925
Acquisition details

Dates:
Feb. 7 - 8, 2024
March 8, 2024
April 18, 2024
May 9 - 10, 2024
May 16, 2024

Frames:
Chroma Blue 36 mm: 55×180″(2h 45′)
Chroma Green 36 mm: 55×180″(2h 45′)
Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 36 mm: 87×600″(14h 30′)
Chroma Lum 36 mm: 206×180″(10h 18′)
Chroma Red 36 mm: 48×180″(2h 24′)

Integration:
32h 42′

Locations: Al Salmy Desert, Al Jahra Governorate, Kuwait

Thank you for taking the time to consider my image,

Clear Skies,

Ali.

______________________________________________________
My Socials:

Email: astrapharmaq8@gmail.com
Website: https://astrapharmaq8.com/
Instagram: @astrapharma_q8

We have had a good few clear nights again down here in our little corner of Australia.

While the kangaroos grazed in our back yard, doing their best to destroy our grass, I used those clear nights to capture around 70 hours of data on IC 2948, and here is a crop from the image.

My telescope is a PlaneWave CDK17, mounted on a Planewave L500 mount and wedge. My camera is an FLI Proline 16803, and I use Astrodon's E Series filters. All of this is housed in a roll-off roof observatory. For processing, I used CCDStack, Pixinsight, and Photoshop.

I hope you like my image.


email: nicholasclarke3568@gmail.com

www.nicholasclarke.space
www.nightskypilot.com

The Hedgerow Prom
All eyes are on the sun after last weeks’ massive solar activity caused a worldwide auroral display. Although the sunspot region responsible for that display has rotated to the far side of the sun, there are potentially new active regions rotating into Earth view. This large prominence located on the Southeast rim of the sun May 19th 2024 is likely from a big active region that we as yet cannot see.

Imaged from the backyard with hobbyist equipment including the Starfield Optics 102 ED refractor, a Quark Chromosphere solar filter and a monochrome planetary camera. This timelapse of 1.5 hours was processed and colourized using Bill Blanshan’s Solar toolbox developed for Pixinsight which is a new solar look for me. What do you think?



The Hedgerow Prom by Andrea Girones, on Flickr

Sun - Full disc & prom closeup (May 19, 2024)


Copyright: Behyar Bakhshandeh, Carlsbad, CA
http://www.deepskyobjects.com/

Look out for the angry unicorn - Sunspot AR3664 - 09-05-24

We all remember the once in a lifetime viewing of “that” aurora from your home location on the night of 14th May 2024. But do many people who witnessed it know where it came from?

As we approach our Sun’s next solar cycle peak (we know it to be every 11 years thanks to German amateur astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe’s observations and discovery in 1843) sunspot designation AR3664 revealed itself from around the solar limb earlier that same week. It was so large people were comparing it to the Carrington sunspot of 1859.

Astronomer Richard Carrington of Redhill, Surrey, England studied and discovered various aspects of our sun. Both he and Richard Hodgson on 1st September 1859 had observed the first Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) an eruption near the sun’s surface due to changes in its localised magnetic fields, throwing immense energy into space. Both of them had observed the effects the flash had had on Earth based magnetometers from currents arising from enhanced ionospheric ionization. Carrington reported the event to the Royal Astronomical Society.

A day later on 2nd September (after around 17 hours of having witnessed the flash from the CME) the effect of what they had witnessed was seen and felt. Having travelled the distance between the Sun and Earth the high energy solar particles ejected from the CME Carrington and Hodgson had witnessed bombarded the Earth’s magnetic field (magnetosphere). The estimated energy that was released was estimated to be 10^35 electron volts of energy, equivalent to a 10 megaton nuclear bomb or the amount of energy the sun releases in 10 seconds. The aurora caused by the particles interacting with the magnetosphere causing atoms to glow was witnessed far south and north into the tropics akin to turning night into rising sunlight, causing havoc to telegraph systems causing fires in some instances, disruption to naval navigation systems and reportedly causing shocks to some people interacting with metal objects.

Carrington had deduced the two events were connected and his observations of the sunspot he had observed and sketched and the resulting event was named in his honour.

AR3664 was estimated to be around 200,000KM in length spanning the equivalent of 15 Earths side by side. It had expelled at least four CME’s into space towards Earth, as the energy hit our magnetosphere it revealed colourful auroras far further afield than around the northern and southern poles as people across a lot of Canada and the USA, down to southern Europe in the northern hemisphere and up to Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina in the southern hemisphere witnessed the colourful spectacle. It was a sight to behold.

So when news of the appearance of AR3664 had been announced this perhaps very rare event I had to see for myself so on the 9th May 2024 I setup my solar rig to visually see in white light and hydrogen alpha the magnificence of AR3664 and have compiled my images into one composition to share, hope you enjoy it, oh and look out for the angry unicorn…

See it here:

IC4592 Blue Horsehead Nebula
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Pav1007/
Copyright: Pawel Radomski - "astroscapes"
https://cdn.astrobin.com/images/5214/20 ... 8d57ec.jpg

Messier 106 Galaxy
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Pav1007/
Copyright: Pawel "Pav1007" Radomski
https://cdn.astrobin.com/images/5214/20 ... 05e492.jpg

Asteroid Pallas at Opposition

The asteroid Pallas
This was my first time trying to image an asteroid called Pallas and you can see how much it moves over the course of a night. It was very bright as you can see, mainly due to it being directly opposite from the sun at the moment ( at opposition) Pallas was one of the original “big 4 asteroids” discovered by early astronomers but since the discovery of many others it has been demoted to the 10th largest asteroid the orbiting the sun with a diameter of 513 kms..
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most of this ancient space rubble can be found orbiting our Sun between Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt.
Many science fiction movies involve space ships flying through asteroid belts, humans trying to mine them for valuable minerals and/or blowing up the ones heading towards a collision with Earth.
Thankfully Pallas is just minding its own business travelling through the stars from the constellation Hercules on its way to Corona Borealis.
Redcat 51, AM3, ASI2600MC camera.
300s exposures over 4 hours May 17-18 2024.


Asteroid Pallas at Opposition by Andrea Girones, on Flickr

Hello and thank you in advance for taking my upcoming submission into consideration.

The image I'm submitting is an integration of NGC 4565 Needle Galaxy .

Dates:
05.04.2024, 07.04.2024, 08.04.2024, 09.04.2024, 10.04.2024 [dd/mm/yyyy]

Location:
Dâmbovița, România

My name:
Radu Marinescu

Total integration time:
24h 48′

Description:
NGC 4565, commonly known as Needle Galaxy is a grand spiral galaxy “piercing” the Coma Berenices constellation with its extraordinary beauty. Located at a distance of 45 million light years, this beauty presents an almost perfect side profile with a thin but exceptionally bright structure and a bustling hub of cosmic activity and billions of stars. Beyond the focal point of the galaxy itself, my image shows three distinct and remarkably detailed neighboring entities: NGC 4562 (a smooth galactic plane with visible dust regions and nebulae structures), IC 3546 (a small but intricate spiral galaxy) and IC 3543 (resembling a miniature side-on rendition of Needle). Behind the main objects, we are met with an abundance of hundreds, maybe over a thousand distant galaxies and luminous quasars, spanning across billions of light-years.

Equipment:
SkyWatcher 10" 250PDS / 250mm 1200mm, Hypertuned EQ6R-Pro, ZWO ASI294MM Pro, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW, ZWO LRGBHSO, ZWO OAG w/ ZWO ASI120MM-Mini

Processing details:
Pixinsight - WBPP, local normalization, DBE with GraXpert, SPCC, SCNR, generalised hyperbolic stretch, local histogram equalization, HDR multiscale transform, Ha integration with pixel math, BXT, NXT, final adjustments with curves; stars were processed separately, SXT, convolution & masks to fix saturated star cores typical for Newtonian, SCNR, selective color saturation, morphological transformation, lightness reduction, re-integration with Pixel Math.

Links:
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/43q4to/
Full resolution and no crop: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cqUhp8 ... sp=sharing

Preview:

M 106 Galaxy
https://www.facebook.com/tommaso.m.stella
Copyright: Tommaso Stella
From: Stigliano-Taranto (Italy)

Technical details
Luminance
2024 05 10 - Stigliano (MT-Italy), SQM 21.2
Telescope Omegon CC Pro 203/2436 @ 1827mm, Mount SW AZEQ6-GT, Camera QHY 294m pro
Lights: 93x180s, Optolong Astronomy Filter L-CCD
Chrominance
2019 05 28 - Maruggio (TA-Italy), SQM 20.60
Telescope TS Apo triplet 102/714, Mount SW AZEQ6-GT, Camera ZWO 294mc Pro
Lights: 200x40s, Optolong Astronomy Filter L-Pro

Hello. I used an image from the Rosa Ursina (published in 1630) to make an animation of sunspot activity from 1625: 399 years old this month! Given the recent solar activity, I thought it might be of more general interest.

The animation itself, together with some discussion and links (and an animation of this month's sunspots) are at this web page:

https://teachingandlearninglabs.com/All ... 1625.shtml



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Teaching And Learning Labs