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Jupiter and the Leaves Before the Storm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/radicalret ... 144906251/
Copyright: Marion Haligowski


Jupiter and the Leaves Before the Storm by Radical Retinoscopy, on Flickr

111 thirty second exposures were combined using StarStaX to make this 55 minute star trail exposure. This photo was taken in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as the centered tree was illuminated by a waxing moon. Supplementary lighting was done by light painting with a LED flashlight. The camera was a Canon t2i with a Sigma 10-20 mm lens at f/4.5 at ISO 400. I was fortunate the weather and conditions were favorable this evening to take this photograph. A few days after this photo was taken, wind and rain from hurricane sandy stripped the beautiful leaves from this tree.

Broadcasting to the Stars
http://astrocamera.net/
Copyright: David Kodama
[attachment=0]kodama.jpg[/attachment]
http://astrocamera.net/2012/1028/DSC_9985.jpg
http://astrocamera.net/2012/1028/
The view looking up at Cygnus and the Milky Way from the antenna farm next to the Mt. Wilson Observatory is a reminder that our broadcasts are also being sent to the stars. The bubble of our radio transmissions is currently around 100 light-years in radius, plus or minus a few years, depending if you measure from our first dots and dashes or voice transmissions.

The antenna array is the main point for commercial broadcasts covering the Los Angeles Basin. From 1928-1980, Mt. Wilson Observatory was operated in a partnership between the Carnegie Institution and Caltech, but is now operated by the independent Mt. Wilson Institute. Illumination is from the rising nearly full moon as well as the lights of Los Angeles.

Image info: 28 Oct. 2012 / Nikon D700 / ISO 1600 / Sigma 12-24 zoom @ 12mm, f/4.5 / 15 sec.

NGC 7293 (The Helix Nebula) - Planetary Nebula in Aquarius

http://www.elateobservatory.com

Copyright: Velimir Popov
Large scale and more information is avaliable here ...

Thank you for looking ...

"Hunter's Moonrise"

There were some beautiful colors of Earth's shadow and the belt of Venus during the "Hunter's Moon" moonrise over Tucson, Arizona Monday night.

http://500px.com/photo/17133113

NGC 281 - The Pacman Nebula in Cassiopea and its core
Mapped colours of a narrow band image

Authors: M.Angelini - F. Antonucci - F. Tagliani
ADARA Astrobrallo - http://www.astrobrallo.com

NGC281 The core NGC 281
Full-Size: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/var/ ... 1351814371
Details: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/inde ... 281-S2HaO3

The core:
Full-Size of the core: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/var/ ... 1351814371
Details: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/inde ... aO3-CROP-1

Melotte 15 and sourroundings: the core of IC 1805 Nebula in Cassiopea
Mapped colours narrow band image

Authors: M.Angelini - F. Antonucci - F. Tagliani
ADARA Astrobrallo - http://www.astrobrallo.com
Melotte 15
Full-Size: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/var/ ... 1351814371
Details: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/inde ... tte-S2HaO3

The Tarantula Nebula and Super Star Cluster R136
http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.com
Copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen Link to large image (2MB)

The Tarantula Nebula, named for its appearance that somewhat resembles a giant spider in the sky, is the largest known emission nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It is about 1000 light years wide and would appear incredibly bright if it were located in the place of the Orion Nebula. It is however located 160,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the largest of the dwarf galaxies that accompany our Milky Way.
In the very centre of the nebula lies R136, a super star cluster which is a very large region of star formation thought to be the precursor of a globular cluster. It is a very young cluster at only 1-2 million years and consists of giant and supergiant stars of which the majority are spectral type O3. The cluster also contains several Wolf-Rayet stars.
Speculation long sorrounded the nature of the central component of the cluster, named separately as R136a, and it was once thought to be a single hypergiant star of an incredible 1500 solar masses. R136a's true nature was recently resolved by holographic speckle interferometry and found to be a dense star cluster containing very massive and luminous stars. Three extremely luminous stars (R136a1, R136a2 and R136a3) dominate this cluster and are separated by only 0.10 and 0.48 arc seconds. R136a1 is the most massive star found to date with 265 solar masses, as well as being the most luminous at 10 million times the brightness of the Sun.
The entire R136 super cluster produces most of the energy that makes the Tarantula Nebula visible. The estimated mass of the cluster is 450,000 solar masses, suggesting it will probably become a globular cluster in the future.
A super star cluster, named Westerlund 1, also exists in the Milky Way but is heavily obscured by galactic dust.

Date: 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th October 2012
Exposure: LRGB: 83:67:27:27m, total 3hrs 24mins @ -30C
Telescope: 10" Serrurier Truss Newtonian f/5
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2

Messier 31

Hires here: http://www.tamanti.it/Galaxies/M_31_FSQ.htm

http://www.tamanti.it/astronomy.htm

Thanks for looking, best regards
Copyright: Andrea Tamanti

Moon and Jupiter conjuntion 2012-11-02 por manolo.castillo.v, en Flickr
Copyright: Manuel Castillo Vela
Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, Spain

Calcium K Line Active Region 1598 (SOHO)


CaK LIM 4 post by Sullij1, on Flickr

Copyright: Joe Sullivan, Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project (CBSAP)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49217915@N ... otostream/

Calcium K Sun


FULL DISKCAK by Sullij1, on Flickr

The sun in Calcium K as imaged through a refractor telescope.

Copyright: Joe Sullivan, Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project (CBSAP)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49217915@N ... otostream/

Hunting conjunction over the Great Cupola of Meudon
http://clubastro.obspm.fr
Copyright: Miguel Montargès and Club Astro de l'Observatoire de Paris
Here is an HD version : http://clubastro.obspm.fr/sites/default ... _01_HD.jpg

The conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter, Orion, Sirus, and the Hyades over the Great Cupola of Meudon (near Paris, France) in which there is the Great Double Refractor of Meudon, 3rd of the world by its size (its restauration is still undergoing)

NGC 6357 Pismis 24 The Lobster / Crab / War and Peace Nebula
http://www.pbase.com/boren
Copyright: Harel Boren Mid Res 1600x1303 pixels - click: http://www.pbase.com/boren/image/146391038/original
Hi Res 2736x2228 pixels - click: http://www.pbase.com/boren/image/146385803

Massive stars lie within NGC 6357, the central part of which is shown in the very middle of this image. That central region spans about 10 light years and the whole expansive complex lies about 8,000 light years away in the tail of the constellation Scorpius.

In fact, positioned just below center in this view of NGC 6357, star cluster Pismis 24 includes some of the most massive stars known in the galaxy, stars with over 100 times the mass of the Sun. The nebula's bright central region also contains dusty pillars of molecular gas, likely hiding massive protostars from the prying eyes of optical instruments. The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. The overall glow of the nebula results from the emission of light from ionized hydrogen gas (ref. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081009.html; http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101121.html).

The unusual name of “War and Peace” was given to this nebula not because of the famous novel by Tolstoy, but was given to this object by scientists working on the Midcourse Space Experiment (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midcourse_Space_Experiment). They noted that the bright, western part of the nebula resembled a dove, while the eastern part looked like a skull in their infrared images. Unfortunately this effect cannot be seen in the visible-light image presented here. The object is also occasionally nicknamed the Lobster Nebula (ref. http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=28928).

NGC 6357 was first recorded visually by John Herschel from South Africa in 1837. He only recorded the brightest central parts and the full scale of this huge nebula was only seen in photographs much later.

M74: The Perfect Spiral
http://www.starkeeper.it/M74.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi

The North American Nebula and the Pelican nebula. A composite of 3 images captured using a C14 and Hyperstar with a modified Canon T2i camera. 100 x 30 second exposures for each panel were combined to make the individual frames used to create this mosaic.

North America and a Pelican
Copyright: Tim Jensen

Proxima Centauri - the nearest star to our Sun.

Cheers,

Kfir Simon


And Closeup:

30 Doradus as seen by VISTA:

Composite of VISTA DR1 images in Y/J/Ks. The original image (which is also available as a 3-color jpg) has ~192 Mpix from which I cut out the 30 Dor region. The image becomes most impressive when one can see the resolution at 100%, so check out the original linked to my webspace.
Here the original resolution:
http://homepage.univie.ac.at/stefan.mei ... _large.jpg

cheers

Vdb15 and Sharpless 202
http://www.woodlandsobservatory.com
Copyright: Alistair Symon

Active Region AR11598 & AR11599
Email:luckwlt@hotmail.com
Copyright: Wang Letian

The Rosette Nebula complex (NGC 2237-2238-2239-2244-2246) and its "dust belt" studded with Bok globules
Authors: M.Angelini - F. Antonucci - F. Tagliani
http://www.astrobrallo.com

The Rosette Nebula The "dust belt" Rosette Nebula:
Full-Size: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/var/ ... 1351814365
Details: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/inde ... S2HaO3-fin

"dust belt":
Full-Size: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/var/ ... 1351814371
Details: http://www.astrobrallo.com/gallery/inde ... ROP-CATENA

NGC 1491 (Sh2-206)
http://www.emilivanov.com/CCD%20Images/NGC1491.htm
Copyright: Emil Ivanov Larger scale image can be found here

NGC 1579: "Trifid of the North" in Perseus
http://flic.kr/p/dpdMsM
Copyright: Oleg Bryzgalov, Ukraine

M33: Triangulum Galaxy
http://flic.kr/p/dpdZio
Copyright: Oleg Bryzgalov, Ukraine

Hello,

I would like to show you my new NGC281 Pacman Nebula with 27 hours exposure time at my 12" f/4 Newtonian.
You find this image with higher resolution at www.wittich.com

Best wishes

Reinhold