Helix Nebula
Copyright: Carlos Malagon [attachment=2]la foto_carlos.jpg[/attachment]
Unpaved Roads http://www.AstroArn.com
Copyright: Robert Arn [attachment=1]unpaved roads red.jpg[/attachment]
August 6 Aurora
Copyright: Philippe Moussette [attachment=0]aur6août11_3.jpg[/attachment]
Re: Recent Submissions
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 7:43 am
by owlice
NGC 7000: The North America and Pelican Nebulae http://www.philippemoussette.com
Copyright: Philippe Moussette [attachment=4]ngc7000_10juil11.jpg[/attachment]
Solar Halo from CTIO http://www.lcogt.net
Copyright: John Martinez and James Baumann, LCOGT [attachment=3]canon digital elph_20110823_953am.jpg[/attachment]
Full Solar Disk Hydrogen Alpha Mosaic http://www.galacticimages.com
Copyright: John Chumack [attachment=1]Sun_082511FullMosaicChumackHRweb.jpg[/attachment]
Farmakopoulos Antonis, your Bridge of Preveli in Grand River is fantastically beautiful. The soft reddish-brown, green and tan colors of the forground contrast beautifully with the blue of the sky and the river. The composition is lovely. The Big Dipper is almost surrealistically clear and bright and placed perfectly above the bridge. We can even see one star reflected bright and perfect in the still water of the river - would that be Merak, Beta Ursa Majoris, the lower of the two pointer stars?
Note the stars above the Big Dipper. They belong to Draco, the dragon wrapping itself around the northernmost parts of the heavens. The reddest of the stars, pretty much right above the pointer stars of the Big Dipper, is Lambda Draco, a cool M-type star. (Why does "Lambda Draco" remind me of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter universe?) To the upper left of Lambda Draco is Kappa Draco, an intrinsically bright blue B-type star. The blue star at top is Thuban, Alpha Draco, a blue A-type giant that was the Pole star around 2700 BC!
Ann
Re: Recent Submissions
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:52 am
by Ann
Sergio Eguivar, your portrait of M6 is fantastically clear and beautiful. Note in the large version how stars tend up to line up in "chains". Note how, between the "head" and the "body" of the butterfly shape of M6, there are two lines of circa tenth magnitude stars, which together form the shape of a "V". How lovely!
The image is just wonderfully resolved, and the colors are splendid!
Scorpius over the 1.6 m telescope of the Pico dos Dias Observatory (Brazópolis, MG, Brazil)
Copyright: Tania Dominici (MCTI/LNA) http://www.lna.br/~tdominici/IMG_0029.JPG (very large file) [attachment=0]brazil.jpg[/attachment]
Video of the sun setting behind the McMath Solar telescope atop Kitt Peak in southern Arizona USA. Video was obtained on August 28th, 2011, 12.2 miles from the observatory using a Questar 3.5 and a Canon 5D Mark II camera in video mode at 1080p. A full aperture thousand Oaks Solar filter was used to mitigate the extreme brightness of the Sun's disk. Video is sped up by a factor of 2 for brevity.
I haven't gotten around to commenting on it before, but to me as a lover of blue things, Martin Pugh's portrait of M27 is the most beautiful one I've seen of this particular planetary. I really like the "dynamic details" of the nebula, too. A "bar" or "jet" which looks bright "inside" the main oval nebula becomes extremely dark outside. Suddenly the dark "jets" seem to hit something and break sharply. Two bluish curved "trails" are, well, "trailing" behind, as if the entire nebula was rotating clockwise. Really fascinating and beautiful!
I also love Mikel Martínez portrait of the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus. I love how the image seems to combine the advantages of "narrow-banding" with the advantages of an RGB image. The details both of the large red hydrogen alpha structure and the small Crescent Nebula dominated by OIII emission are fantastic, and the overall color balance is delightful.
Robert Arn and David Kaplan are two well-known astrophotographers. Their images here are very beautiful and perfectly composed.
There are no less than three Jupiter portraits here, and I like all three of them. Jupiter is such a handsome planet! It's fantastic to see Ganymede, the largest moon of the solar system, peek out over Jupiter's "shoulder". And John Rozakis' portrait of the Ruler of Gods and Planets is fantastic. The cloud details are so sharp, the colors are very satisfying, and Jupiter almost shows off a "face" in this image! The round cloud feature with a dark interior in the middle of the North Equatorial Belt could almost be an eye. The oblong dark feature in the same Equatorial Belt could perhaps be a misshapen other eye! And the Great Red Spot would be the mouth, of course!
And the Fallstreak Hole (Punch Hole Cloud) image looks rather amazing, Adam Allerhand.
Scorpius is an extremely beautiful constellation, and Robert Flatman does it splendid justice.
Gerry Smerchanski, I like both your mammatus cloud pictures! What a sky show that must have been!
Finally, thanks for submitting your beautiful skyscape painting, Kristen Vasques!
Ann
Re: Recent Submissions
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:14 pm
by islader2
Ann {without an E} IMHO Preveli Bridge is the best. Thanks for all the work you do to keep us astro-nuts feasting our eyes on such magnificent pictures and your superb explanations with such cool demeanor.
Re: Recent Submissions
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:49 pm
by bystander
islader2 wrote:Ann {without an E} IMHO Preveli Bridge is the best. Thanks for all the work you do to keep us astro-nuts feasting our eyes on such magnificent pictures and your superb explanations with such cool demeanor.
It is owlice who keeps this thread running. Ann just comments on the pictures.
Re: Recent Submissions
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:43 am
by islader2
bystander: I have reading this "blog" long enough to know and admire deeply the work that owlice does. Ann has commented on the Bridge picture==and I wanted to agree with her and add a well-deserved kudo. owlice has my infinite gratitude==How else could I say it? Thanx.
