Starship Asterisk*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070807.html
An awesome photo! Even the red star below Jupiter shows up nicely. I believe ti must be Antares. The Milky-way scenes are always nice. Living in a city obscures much of the night sky, making it impossible to view the Milky-way; although Jupiter and Venus usually always show up nicely.
Orin

Uncertain yet as to the name of the red star but it does reside in scorpious.

Yeah, that would be Antares, Heart of the Scorpion!

I'm going to set this one into a file I use for desktop items. I like the way Old faithful seems to be showering Jupiter and Antares. 8)
Orin

Does anyone know why Jupiter has spikes and what causes the steam to be illuminated?

Simple Peasant wrote:Does anyone know why Jupiter has spikes and what causes the steam to be illuminated?

Starlight filter?

Could the apparent illumination be caused by a longer exposure?

This is a beautiful image combining the land, sky and star scapes... What an awesome capture!

Andy Wade wrote:

Simple Peasant wrote:Does anyone know why Jupiter has spikes and what causes the steam to be illuminated?

Starlight filter?

Could the apparent illumination be caused by a longer exposure?

Thank you for your imput Andy.

Perhaps I am just being too picky but I am getting a little tired of this digital age and all the image manipulation. The "spikes" were caused by either a 'starburst' filter or perhaps with image software.

The apparent illumination could not have been caused by a longer esposure because the steam cloud would move in a second or two.

Because I am aware of the manipulation as sighted above I can not help but wonder what else was manipulated in this picture.

Simple Peasant

OH I really do have to move even farther out of the city lights so I can see the night sky like this or simular. Anyone have a cabin in the bush to rent to a little old lady with three kids?

Simple Peasant wrote:Does anyone know why Jupiter has spikes and what causes the steam to be illuminated?

i think, a high aperture (f/8) or so is the reason. a digital software can also be responsible for the spikes.

nevertheless... a fantastic image

jens

I think the steam acutally has moved in the picture. It looks streaked. Not to mention, you generally need at least 30 seconds exposure to get a good picture of the Milky Way. The very minor streaking of the stars also suggests this is the case.

I'm guessing the illumination comes from lights at the visitors center behind him. Notice the ground and trees are partially illuminated, too. It's also possible he used a flash or even a flashlight to briefly light up the plume. On a long exposure even subtle details are visible.

There are lens filters you can buy that create diffraction spikes on point light sources, and the brighter the source, the more defined the spikes. This seems most likely because even the moderately bright stars show a little bit of diffraction.

the spikes could be caused by refraction, couldn't they? There is a cloud of steam right in front of them.
I know if my eyes are a little watery and I look at lights the same effect happens. however, in those cases there are only four spikes...

but it could be refraction right?