Starship Asterisk*

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Please click on each image for best viewing; please click on the link below the
image title for more information about the image. Thank you!
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<- Previous submissions


Night Sky over Penmon Point Lighthouse, North Wales
http://www.photosbykev.com
Copyright: Kev Lewis
[attachment=5]penmon2000.jpg[/attachment][/i]

North American and Pelican Nebulae
http://astronomy.qteaser.com/images/NGC ... anarea.jpg
Copyright: Mark Sibole
[attachment=4]Pelican_Sibole.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Owens Valley Solar Radio Telescope
http://www.youngstudios.net
Copyright: Todd Young
[attachment=3]RadioTelescope.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Jupiter, Fogbow and Opposition Effect
http://www.guillaumepoulin.com
Copyright: Guillaume Poulin I took this picture on the early morning of August 11th, during the Perseids meteor shower. At the end of the cold night, fog came in and covered most of the sky, so only the brightest meteors where visible. That's when I started playing with my headlamp and I put it behind my head to create a fogbow, a little trick I had already done many times. But then, fog cleared just enough to keep the bow and the opposition effect visible, but also the stars above me came in sight. I carefully placed myself, the lamp and the camera with a wide angle lens to photograph the phenomena with the planet Jupiter in the center of my shadow. I think the result is eerie and weird, but also beautiful. Note that the long exposure also reveals the Pleiades (M45) on the upper left of the image, as well as the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) which is center top of the image, inside the bow.

The picture was taken in southern Quebec, at the Mont-Megantic national park, the first International Dark Sky Preserve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-sky_preserve).

Hope you enjoy it!
~ Guillaume Poulin

Jupiter Four Days before Opposition
http://www.bcastropics.com/img/gallery/ ... t_full.jpg
Copyright: Brian G. Combs IC1805: Heart Nebula
http://www.kingsparkweather.com/IC1805ANDB
Copyright: Image, Andy D'Arienzo; processing: Bob McCourt
[attachment=1]IC1805.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Milky Way over Kachemak Bay
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12308893@N07/4997698913/
Copyright: Chris Paduan Stars Rain on Messier Marathon, Iran
Copyright: Ariana Ahangary
[attachment=0]MessierMarathon_Ahangary.jpg[/attachment][/i]


<- Previous submissions

Cepheus Mosaic (NGC 7023 region)
http://www.tvdavisastropics.com/astroim ... 0000cf.htm
Copyright: Thomas Davis
[attachment=1]Cepheus-mosaic-3-frame-lrg.jpg[/attachment][/i]

NGC 7023: Iris Nebula
http://hetlage.com/images/ngc_7023_LRGB ... _large.jpg
Copyright: Chris Hetlage
[attachment=0]Hetlage.jpg[/attachment][/i]

The Jupiter, Fogbow and Opposition Effect by Guillaume Poulin is truly strange-looking, but fascinating. It looks as if the Ghost of the Cyclops that had his eye destroyed by Odysseus had come down from the heavens to haunt us all. Except that the Cyclops never got the honor of having a constellation or, as far as I know, a star named after him. But now Jupiter himself, KIng of the gods, has taken up residence in the Cyclops' empty eye socket. Maybe the divinity of Jupiter is what creates the brilliant halo around the Cyclops' head and the Bow of Triumph above him.

I usually so don't get a kick out of star trails, but when these trails are combined with a lighthouse having its lights reflected in calm waters and long red and white trails of cars passing by on a nearby bridge(?), then I like it so much better. There appears to have been meteors briefly flashing by in the sky, too.

To me IC 1805 always looks mildly indecent, but in the image posted here it almost makes me cough.

The two images of the Iris Nebula are both very beautiful and complement each other splendidly.

Ann

September Sunset from Margarita Island, Venezuela
Copyright: Ignacio A. Combellas
[attachment=5]IMG00105-20100811-1817.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Kangaroo Moon
Copyright: Chris Thomas
[attachment=4]3377 CS 5 adjust 1.jpg[/attachment][/i]

NGC 6384
http://409557.com/ngc6384-2000.jpg
Copyright: Nikolaus Sulzenauer
[attachment=3]ngc6384.jpg[/attachment][/i]

NGC 2163: Bipolar Reflection Nebula in Orion, with LBN 855, LDN 1578, LDN 1576 and LDN 1574
http://afesan.es/Astrophotography/index.htm#14
Copyright: Antonio F. Sánchez
[attachment=2]NGC 2163,LBN855,LDN 1574,1576,1578.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Iris Nebula (LBN-487) and NGC 7023 Cluster
http://observatoriagullo.files.wordpres ... ew_web.jpg
Copyright: Pere Gil
[attachment=1]FinalView_web.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Circumzenithal Arc
Copyright: Andy Wade
[attachment=0]Circumhorizon Arc.jpg[/attachment][/i]


On this note, with a smile in the sky, I am signing off until about October 1 (except for a little more clean-up work tonight before I go).

I hope very much that astrophotographers will post their images in my absence; there will be threads for submissions available to receive images. Please, if you have images to submit to APOD, also post them here. Thank you!

--error message, sorry--

On this note, with a smile in the sky, I am signing off until about October 1 (except for a little more clean-up work tonight before I go).

What? Owlice, this site will not be the same without you! I sure don't think we will get as many pictures posted when you are not here to post them for us! Please come back soon! You meant you were coming back around October the first, didn't you?

As for the last(?) images you posted for a while, the Moon and airplane one was spectacular. I'm usually not too impressed by such images, but the airplane looks so big here that it almost looks as if some super duper freight plane was carrying an extremely heavy load!

As for NGC 6384, that galaxy has long mystified me. The galaxy has a very well-developed system of spiral arms, but the color contrast between the spiral arms and the bulge and nucleus is extremely low. Judging by their color, they seem to be made up by pretty much the same kind of stars. In the overwhelming majority of spiral galaxies, the arms are far bluer than the bulge, and the bulge is far yellower than the arms. But that doesn't seem to be the case for NGC 6384.

Take a look at this image by Adam Block, where the bulge of NGC 6384 is barely yellow and the arms look light grey:
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n6384.html

NGC 6384 was the APOD for July 12, 2007. Here the photographer Ken Crawford was apparently determined to make the spiral arms look blue. As a consequence the bulge looks almost blue, too:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070712.html

It looks weird, in my opinion. Compare the white bulge of the galaxy with the yellow foreground star at bottom left.

Nikolaus Sulzenauer's image of NGC 6384 is so well-resolved that it looks like a Hubble image. But the color contrast between the bulge and the arms is the same, that is, pretty much non-existent.

And there is another beautiful picture of the Iris Nebula! The bluest blossom of the heavens sure is popular right now!

Ann

Hi folks
This is my initial post on starship Asterisk. I'm glad to be a part of it because I'm a very passionate nighttime landscape photographer and always wanted to find a community which appreciates this kind of photography. I'm not so familiar yet on how the submissions work here, but I will give it a first try. Here some recent work of me:

Waterfall and Andromeda
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmkdmkdmk/4982515186/
Copyright: David Kaplan
Starlit boulder field
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmkdmkdmk/4982515564/
Copyright: David Kaplan Thank you all for creating such a wonderful community!

Hi everyone!

I am happy that my picture of n6384 caused confusion criticism is very important for me! Thank you Ann!
And you are right Ann, it is Hubble material and therefore has an total resolution of >3000px.

I love to experiment with the perception of color and contrast in astronomical pictures, so your arguments are comprehensible

I hope you like this dusty beauty better:


"The little Sombrero" NGC 7814
http://hubble-unseen.at.tf/
Copyright: Nikolaus Sulzenauer HST/NASA/ESA Zoomable version

IC4592, IC4601 (The horsehead Nebula) in Scorpius
ProLine FLI 16803, FSQ 106 EDXIII, AP Mach1GTO
LRGB 5.33h (120:60:70:70) sub-frame 600s
Tivoli, Namibia, Afryka

Bogdan Jarzyna
http://www.starrysite.com

M16, M17 (Eagle and Swan Nebulae) in Serpens (Cauda) and Sagittarius

ProLine FLI 16803, FSQ 106 EDXIII, AP Mach1GTO
LRGB - HaR RGB 6.08h (HaLRGB 80:45:112:56:72) sub-frame Ha-600s, L-300s, RGB-480s
Tivoli, Namibia, Afryka

Bogdan Jarzyna
http://www.starrysite.com

Widefield NGC 6888 (Crescent-nebula), IC 1318 (Butterfly-nebula) and much more
- Remseck / Gemany
- FLI ML 16803 / 18x 1200sec H-alpha / 14 x 1200 sec OIII
- Mamiya 200 / 2.8 APO medium format lens

H-alpha data with some objects labeled

Rolf Geissinger

LLacertae wrote:Hi everyone!

I am happy that my picture of n6384 caused confusion criticism is very important for me! Thank you Ann!
And you are right Ann, it is Hubble material and therefore has an total resolution of >3000px.

I love to experiment with the perception of color and contrast in astronomical pictures, so your arguments are comprehensible

I hope you like this dusty beauty better:


"The little Sombrero" NGC 7814
http://hubble-unseen.at.tf/
Copyright: Nikolaus Sulzenauer HST/NASA/ESA

Click to view full size image

Zoomable version

You're welcome, LLacertae! I didn't mean to criticize your image. Hey, I think your color balance is slightly blue, but the Hubble people themselves are usually a lot worse! As for NGC 6384, I actually believe that the color of this galaxy is weird. So I'm not criticizing your image, rather pointing out the strangeness of NGC 6384 itself.

As for NGC 7814, I think that the bulge of that galaxy is also too blue in your image. But then, I don't trust the Hubble people to bring out the yellow color that I expect from bulges.

I tried to assess the "true" color of NGC 7814 by googling several pictures of it. It is clear from the pictures that NGC 7814 is indeed a "little Sombrero", a cousin of M 104. Like the more famous Messier galaxy, NGC 7814 has a very large bulge and a thin and distinct dust lane which probably contains no star formation. The color index of NGC 7814 is +1.00 (B-V), which is even redder than the Sombrero's (+0.97). Their U-B indexes are very similar too, although here NGC 7814 is marginally bluer (+0.50 versus +0.52 for the Sombrero).

A picture of NGC 7814 that I would like to post here for comparison is this one:
I'd say that the colors here are definitely enhanced. The image does bring out how the halo is bluer, or at least less red, farther away from the nucleus. This effect may be quite subtle, however, and I'm not at all sure that the Hubble picture would bring it out. It is also clear that the reddest part of the galaxy is the dust lane, which is not surprising, certainly in view of the lack of star formation there.

I also recommend a Hubble image that resolves NGC 7814 into stars. The picture is so big that I'm just posting it as a link:
http://quarks.maynau.com/ngc7814-poor.jpg

I think it is possible to discern what might just possibly be a very, very small number of blue stars in the disk of NGC 7814. Overall, the galaxy is completely dominated by "beige" - that is, pale yellow - stars.

But I enjoy your image too, LLacertae! Do post your own versions of more Hubble images!

Ann

dmkdmkdmk wrote:Hi folks
This is my initial post on starship Asterisk. I'm glad to be a part of it because I'm a very passionate nighttime landscape photographer and always wanted to find a community which appreciates this kind of photography. I'm not so familiar yet on how the submissions work here, but I will give it a first try. Here some recent work of me:

Waterfall and Andromeda
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmkdmkdmk/4982515186/
Copyright: David Kaplan
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/498 ... 83e5_b.jpg


Starlit boulder field
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmkdmkdmk/4982515564/
Copyright: David Kaplan
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/498 ... 0c3e_b.jpg

Thank you all for creating such a wonderful community!

Welcome aboard the Starship Asterisk*

Great images. Thank you for sharing.
I particularly like Waterfall and Andromeda.

owlice wrote:NGC 6384
http://409557.com/ngc6384-2000.jpg
Copyright: Nikolaus Sulzenauer
[attachment=3]ngc6384.jpg[/attachment][/i]

LLacertae wrote:Hi everyone!

I am happy that my picture of n6384 caused confusion criticism is very important for me! Thank you Ann!
And you are right Ann, it is Hubble material and therefore has an total resolution of >3000px.

I love to experiment with the perception of color and contrast in astronomical pictures, so your arguments are comprehensible

I hope you like this dusty beauty better:


"The little Sombrero" NGC 7814
http://hubble-unseen.at.tf/
Copyright: Nikolaus Sulzenauer HST/NASA/ESA
http://409557.com/ngc7814-public-2000.jpg
Zoomable version

Welcome aboard the Starship Asterisk*

Great images, hope to see more.

David Kaplan, I think your images are very beautiful. "Waterfall and Andromeda", in particular, is almost magical. The water itself seems to glow with an inner light, and the Andromeda galaxy is wonderfully postioned to look down on this starkly beautiful Earthly contribution to the cosmos.

Ann

geissi wrote:http://www.stern-fan.de/Bilder/Internet ... -color.jpg
Widefield NGC 6888 (Crescent-nebula), IC 1318 (Butterfly-nebula) and much more
- Remseck / Gemany
- FLI ML 16803 / 18x 1200sec H-alpha / 14 x 1200 sec OIII
- Mamiya 200 / 2.8 APO medium format lens


http://www.stern-fan.de/Bilder/Internet ... ger_bw.jpg
H-alpha data with some objects labeled

Rolf Geissinger

Another fine image, keep them coming.
BTW: Welcome aboard the Starship Asterisk*

NGC 6946 The Fireworks Galaxy
http://www.massimotosco.it/NGC6946.htm
Copyright: Massimo Tosco


Melotte 15
http://www.massimotosco.it/Melotte%2015.htm
Copyright: Massimo Tosco

That's a very beautiful image of NGC 6946, Massimo Tosco. It's color enhanced for sure, but you won't find me complaining!

I don't know the Melotte catalogue, but Melotte 15 must be that massively star forming region in Cassiopeia, right? The one which is called IC 1805 or something?

Ann

Boo All!!

Brilliantly stunning images that have been submitted but how on Earth did Kangaroo Moon get taken? Truly 'unreal' and certainly worth elevation to APOD. I would rate it as the very best Moon/aircraft picture I have ever seen. Well done photographer!!!!!

have fun!

R!

OzRattler wrote:Boo All!!Brilliantly stunning images that have been submitted but how on Earth did Kangaroo Moon get taken? Truly 'unreal' and certainly worth elevation to APOD. I would rate it as the very best Moon/aircraft picture I have ever seen. Well done photographer!!!!!

Not sure if it's a montage. In order to capture the airplane like that, it looks as if it would have to be flying right overhead, right? That's not impossible for a plane, but for the Moon, during daylight and at that stage?
Just an opinion, I don't claim to declare the image is a montage, but I'd like to know what others think - yes I might be wrong.

IC10 Starburst Galaxy
http://www.starkeeper.it/IC10.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi
NGC884
http://www.starkeeper.it/NGC884.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi
NGC869
http://www.starkeeper.it/NGC869.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi
Greetings to all , this is my first post

Welcome Leonardo!

I really like your image of seldom-photographed highly reddened starburst galaxy in Cassiopeia, isn't it? Look at all that dust and the big pink emission nebulae!

I like your portraits of NGC 869 and 884, too. Your somewhat enhanced color certainly brings out the M-type supergiants in NGC 884. There are no such supergiants in NGC 869, unless the lone red star in the upper right part of the image belongs to the cluster.

Well, that's a bouquet of beautiful space images! Hope to see more of you, Leonardo!

Ann

Ann wrote: I also recommend a Hubble image that resolves NGC 7814 into stars. The picture is so big that I'm just posting it as a link:
http://quarks.maynau.com/ngc7814-poor.jpg

It is somehow funny to see a crosslink to a picture I made some years ago.
The newer picture of NGC 7814 has also a single-star-resolution nature, but here I preferred to scale it in a certain way, to blur the single stars together in order to creat this ghostly, blueish-white glow.

Leonardo wrote:IC10 Starburst Galaxy
http://www.starkeeper.it/IC10.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi

Click to view full size image

Hi Leonardo!

Very beautiful picture of IC 10!
This object seems to be very hard to photograph, since there are extremely few images of in on the internet.
Some time ago I made this rendering of IC 10 with Hubble:

IC10 Starburst Galaxy
http://hubble-unseen.at.tf
Copyright: Nikolaus Sulzenauer HST/NASA/ESA Larger view!

Here you could count the stars one by one.

dkk wrote: Not sure if it's a montage. In order to capture the airplane like that, it looks as if it would have to be flying right overhead, right? That's not impossible for a plane, but for the Moon, during daylight and at that stage?
Just an opinion, I don't claim to declare the image is a montage, but I'd like to know what others think - yes I might be wrong.

Saw it here and saw it again on another forum I am a member of. It is not a montage. Have a read of this thread....

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/show ... post637450

I personally think that the blurring of the Luna landscape through the exhaust is a little too complex to render to perfection - which it is in this photo. It certainly is not a montage. But I appreciate the investigation and checking and you're right to ask - don't want to mislead any readers!

Hope this extra bit helps.

J

OzRattler wrote:Saw it here and saw it again on another forum I am a member of. It is not a montage. Have a read of this thread....

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/show ... post637450

I personally think that the blurring of the Luna landscape through the exhaust is a little too complex to render to perfection - which it is in this photo. It certainly is not a montage. But I appreciate the investigation and checking and you're right to ask - don't want to mislead any readers!

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/show ... hp?t=65931
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/show ... p?p=636024
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/show ... p?p=636542

Thanks, (Oz)Rattler and hotspur (Chris Thomas)