Even the most exotic of emission nebulae can be easily overlooked, when neighboring the great Eta Carina nebula. Case in point, the seldom imaged, but none-the-less striking, NGC3572, portrayed here in HST palette.
Re: Submissions: 2016 April
Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 7:33 pm
by Bi2L
The Glory of our Galaxy
Via lactea, our Galaxy Milkyway floting above the Ionian sea, a cosmic island measure some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter and with almost 100–400 billion stars. Our Solar System is about 27,000 light years away from the Galactic Center, while we are on the inner edge of the spiral in the Orion Arm. The rotational period at the position of the Sun is about 240 million years.
The capture is from Chalikounas beach, near lagoon Korission a natura 2.000 area, Corfu, Greece, Earth. While in any other picture you’ve seen the Milky-Way from ABOVE is either another galaxy or an artist’s interpretation.
The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which is a component of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster.
Canon eos 40D, Ef 15mm fisheye, SW Eq6, Iso800, 2X240sec, DSS,
24.06.2011
Re: Submissions: 2016 April
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 7:25 pm
by avdhoeven
Recently on the Dutch site astroforum.nl an initiative was started to share raw image data and see if it was possible to combine different datasets to get more out of the data. The first object that was decide upon was NGC2237, aka the Rosette Nebula. Several observers uploaded their data to an ftp site and it was shared again between all observers to be processed on their own accord.
This is my result of combining the different datasets, resulting in a 34,5h exposure of the heart of this beautiful nebula. For this image Ha, OIII, SII and RGB data was combined.
The people who provided data for this image are: Michael Van Doorn, Irving Pieters, Ruud de Vries, Rob Musquetier and myself.
I did the processing and stacking of this image using Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop.
I think this image is a nice example how sharing raw image data can provide opportunities to improve the final result considerably.
The Coma Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies that contains over 1,000 identified galaxies.
The cluster's mean distance from Earth is 321 million light years. Its ten brightest spiral galaxies have apparent magnitudes of 12–14 that are observable with amateur telescopes larger than 8". The central region is dominated by two supergiant elliptical galaxies: NGC 4874 and NGC 4889. Most of the galaxies that inhabit the central portion of the Coma Cluster are ellipticals. Both dwarf and giant ellipticals are found in abundance in the Coma Cluster.
The full extent of the cluster was not understood until it was more thoroughly studied in the 1950s by astronomers at Mount Palomar Observatory.
Imaging telescope or lens: Celestron 8" EdgeHD
Imaging camera: QSI 660 WSG
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2
Focal reducer: Celestron 0.7X
Software: PHD Guiding 2, Neat Image V7, PixInsight 1.8, Photoshop CS3, Sequence Generator Pro, Maxim DL6, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014, Astronomy Tools Actions Set V1.6
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" R, Astrodon 1.25" L, Astrodon 1.25" B, Astrodon 1.25" G
Accessories: Starizona MicroTouch Autofocuser, Bahtinov Mask
Resolution: 2588x2100
Dates: March 16, 2016, March 30, 2016, April 4, 2016
Frames:
Astrodon 1.25" B: 23x300" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" G: 23x300" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" L: 93x300" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" R: 24x300" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 13.6 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~80
Flat darks: ~80
Bias: ~20
Avg. Moon age: 17.95 days
Avg. Moon phase: 45.30%
RA center: 194.978 degrees
DEC center: 27.990 degrees
Pixel scale: 0.637 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 84.831 degrees
Field radius: 0.295 degrees
Locations: Home, Rancho Santa Fe, California, United States
That illusive fifth moon of Jupiter Copyrights: Dominique Dierick
Comet 252P and M14 on the Milky Way Copyrights: José J. Chambó
The solar corona as seen from Ternate Indonesia 9 March 2016 Copyrights: Robert Slobins
Venus and Moon over Madrid Copyrights: Dani Caxete
Comet 252P/LINEAR passing globular cluster M14 Copyrights: Chris Cook
Waiting for Perseus on cliffs Copyrights: Pablo Martinez Alemparte
"A Smile in the Sky" - Solar Halo, Sundogs, Circumzenith Arc Copyrights: John Chumack
Re: Submissions: 2016 April
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 3:44 am
by shtutik
55 years ago, April 12, 1961 for the first time in human history man made space flight.
It was Yuri Gagarin. After 108 minutes of flight, he landed in the Saratov region, Russia. At the landing site, this monument was erected( 51.270668°, 45.997330°). Above the monument flies the International Space Station.
A narrowband image of the area around NGC 3603 and NGC 3576.
Acquisition info:
4" ED doublet, AZ-EQ6, QSI 690 WSG8, Astrodon 3nm HA, OIII and SII filters, 23 hours of exposure from Paddington in Brisbane, Australia.
Look ma... Comet...
Last saturday (Apr2nd), as usual, I went out for Astrophotography. By 2:30AM, moon had risen. I just took some milkyway shots and returned home. As I was processing the images, I saw something green, comet like...
Turns out it is indeed a comet (252/P Linear).
It is now a good time to photograph the comet with the Milkyway. The comet is in Ophiuchus and is moving fast.
Comet 252P/LINEAR was photographed near the M14 globular cluster in Ophiuchus early in the morning of April 6, 2016. The M14 cluster is seen below and to the left of the comet while the dimmer (10th mag) globular cluster NGC 6366 is seen to the lower right. The image was made of a stack of 38 twenty second exposures with a Canon 70D and a Canon 200 mm f/2.8L lens at f/3.2. (ISO 1000). Tracking was done with an iOptron Sky Tracker.
Re: Submissions: 2016 April
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 12:28 pm
by philto
Hello a superb solar eruption today 2016 7th of April
204 mm Ha refractor.
Philippe TOSI
