Starship Asterisk*

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Please post your images here for January 1-4.

If you need instructions on posting images, please see this thread.

Thank you!
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<- Previous submissions


Opportunity Arriving at Santa Maria Crater Mosaic
http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsocie ... emer/K.htm
Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo
[attachment=6]opportunity sol 2451n c1_ken kremer.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Opportunity's Long Journey
http://www.rittenhouseastronomicalsocie ... emer/K.htm
Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo
[attachment=5]long journey of opportunity to santa maria_kremer.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Orion the Hunter
http://www.peterboroughastronomy.com
Copyright: Rick Stankiewicz
[attachment=4]orion the hunter-a.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Dusty Flame
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flippo/5292250314/
Copyright: Danny Flippo
[attachment=3]dustyflame.jpg[/attachment][/i]

December 2010 Total Lunar Eclipse
Copyright: Chandra Mouli
[attachment=2]LunarEclipse-2010-Circular-Composite-small.jpg[/attachment][/i]

The Pleiades and Orion over the Atacama Desert
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stars/5287560110/
Copyright: Diego Cartes
[attachment=1]panaski5 (1).jpg[/attachment][/i]

Five Months of Sun over the Netherlands
Copyright: Rijk-Jan Koppejan
[attachment=0]2010-12-26 solargraph 5 months.jpg[/attachment][/i]


<- Previous submissions

Venus-Moon Conjunction
http://www.peterboroughastronomy.com
Copyright: Rick Stankiewicz
[attachment=0]Venus Moon conjunction.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Milky Way on Old Church Fasnia
http://www.altamiraobs.org.es/
Copyright: José Francisco Hernandez
[attachment=0]Panorama_M8-3x3mRGB-28-7-2010-iglesiavieja-R.jpg[/attachment][/i]

NGC1931 - An Isolated Splendor!
http://www.schursastrophotography.com/astromain.html
Copyright: Chris Schur There is a plethora of HII regions in Auriga, and this is one of the smallest. A combination of emission nebula and cluster, with a hint of blue reflection nebulosity makes it a really unique object. The star cluster, just below the red nebula is actually NGC1931, and contains the blue nebula. Its 10th magnitude and 6 arcminutes in size. The nebula is Sharpless 237, which includes the blue nebula as part of it's description. Visually in the 12.5 inch, the object appears as a nebulous star, with the "cluster" not being so obvious.

Instrument: 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Mount: Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera: SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling
Exposure: LRGB = 120:20:20:20
Location: Payson, Arizona, Elevation: 5150 ft.

Madison Skyline and Moon
http://webpages.charter.net/darksky25/
Copyright: John Rummel
[attachment=0]Rummel_1.jpg[/attachment][/i]

M33: The Triangulum Galaxy
http://ryanhannahoe.nmskies.com/?p=364
Copyright: Ryan M. Hannahoe
[attachment=0]M33_ Hannahoe.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Canis Major and M41 over Santa Cruz
Copyright: Hector BeltrandelRio
[attachment=0]canis.jpg[/attachment][/i]

M77 in Cetus
http://home.comcast.net/~brucepipes/site/
Copyright: Bruce Pipes
[attachment=0]M77_Pipes.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Jose Fransico Hernandez, that is a wonderful portrait of the Milky Way over the Earth which could have been used in a 19th century romantic painting or as an illustration of a melancholy fantasy novel.

Chris Schur, thank you so much for the fine portrait of NGC 1931, and not least, thank you for the great information about this object!

Bruce Pipes, that is a stunning portrait of the color and "texture" of M77. The small blue knotty structure of the inner disk contrasts wonderfully with the large smooth outer "rings" of the outer disk, composed almost exlusively of old yellow stars - but some "unevenness" and a somewhat different hue is seen in the outermost "ring", which does contain some young stars and possibly a bit of star formation.

Ann

Star Trails over Death Valley
http://www.socalastro.com/misc/dvtrails01s.jpeg
Copyright: Leon Aslan

Moon-Venus Conjunction
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gurudevobservatory/
Copyright: Divyadarshan D.Purohit
[attachment=0]conjunction.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Crescent moon rising through the ancient temple of Poseidon at Sounion, Greece.

[attachment=0]IMG_6297-1100px-ok.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Orion Over the Pagoda of Kofokuji Temple
http://nice.sai.msu.ru/~chil/photo/Nara ... cc_col.jpg
Copyright: Igor Chilingarian Hong Kong Light Pollution under Star Trails
http://www.astrohome.net/attachments/ex ... bqwRpAFVgG
Copyright: Daniel Chang
[attachment=1]star trails_chang.jpg[/attachment][/url][/i]

Crossed Contrails
Copyright: Jeff Ross-Bain
[attachment=0]x contrails_ross-bain.jpg[/attachment][/i]

All the Sky for All the Year
http://www.allthesky.com/constellations ... onths.html
Copyright: Till Credner

Mirage at Perros-Guirec, Côte de Granit Rose
Copyright: Jean-Luc Issler
[attachment=0]Mirage_Issler.jpg[/attachment][/i]

NGC 2237: Rosette Nebula
http://skiesburnelectric.com/
Copyright: Kevin Rasso
[attachment=0]Mean-Caldwell-49-Ha-Scaled-CS4.jpg[/attachment][/i]

M31 and companions M32 and M110
Copyright: Evan Williams 2011


Click image for much larger version

Alpine conjonction
http://www.nuitsacrees.fr
Copyright: Stephane Vetter
Moon, Venus and Scorpion over the Alps Happy New Year

Comet Hale-Bopp over Palma de Mallorca, 1997
http://www.surfalicante.com/argazkia/foto7.htm
Copyright: Gabriel Pérez


M31: Andromeda Galaxy
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4089/517 ... d004_o.jpg
Copyright: Jonas Grinde


Lunar Eclipse from Cruise Ship AIDAvita
Copyright: Hartmut Renken
[attachment=1]tle_20101221_800x600.jpg[/attachment][/i]

M42 and M43
http://www.bareket-astro.com
Credit: Students of the Bareket Observatory, Israel
[attachment=0]m42_m43_IR.jpg[/attachment][/i]

NGC206 and Globular Clusters in the Andromeda Galaxy
http://brucepipes.home.comcast.net/
Copyright: Bruce Pipes NGC 206 - This very luminous open star cluster is located in the arms of our neighboring galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), thus placing it about 2.5 million light-years away. The striking blue glow of the stars indicates that they are young and very hot.

Over 300 globular clusters have been identified in the Andromeda galaxy. Some of those visible in this image are indicated. The ones designated by RBC are from the Revised Bologna Catalog, and the ones designated by G are from Paul Hodge's Atlas of the Andromeda Galaxy.

~ Bruce Pipes

Fireball!
http://www.galacticimages.com/
Copyright: John Chumack

Winter Starscape
http://www.tonyrowell.com
Copyright: Tony Rowell
[attachment=1]winterstarscape_rowell.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Galactic Bridge over Crater Lake
http://www.AstroPics.com
Copyright: Wally Pacholka
[attachment=0]Crater Lake - 2 Galaxies-850wp.jpg[/attachment][/i]

To the feet of Gemini's Constellation
http://www.zonalunar.com
Copyright: Alfonso Carreño In this image it is represented great part of The Gemini Constellation, The Supernova Remnant IC443, The Nebula of Emission NGC2174, The Open Cluster M35 and others objects of the catalog sharpless.

A Greeting of Alfonso Carreño.-)

Bruce Pipes, thank you very much for your beautifully resolved and detailed portrait of the NGC 206 region in Andromeda and some of its globular clusters. I so appreciate that you went to the trouble of labelling the globular clusters, too. It is fascinating that they look so faint. Well, I guess that the individual bright points that we see apparently in Andromeda are either individual supergiants, tight bright young clusters or foreground Milky Way stars, and in view of that it is not so surprising that the globulars look comparatively faint.

Me being such a color freak, I would like to ask you about the color of some of the globulars. Most of them display exactly the type of color that I expect from globular clusters, either perfectly neutral like RBC0331 or ever so slightly yellowish like RBC0005, G40 or G71. However, there are three globulars that look surprisingly blue to me, RBC0959 and G48 and G49. The two latter ones actually look pretty much exactly like one of the bright blue supergiants in NGC 206! Have you heard of any sort of explanation for the appearance of these two globulars? Could they possibly be very young as globulars go?

Ann

Ann - Thank you for the kind words about my images. I also noticed that some of the globular clusters seemed bluer than one would expect, but I have been unable to find an explanation. As you say, it would seem to indicate that they are relatively young. Bruce