Starship Asterisk*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070212.html
Is that one of the Magellanic Clouds above the comets tail?
Orin

I, too, would be interested in the answer to Orin's question, but I would also ask about the slightly more diffused patch at the photo's top edge directly above Orin's unidentified feature.

I, too, am curious. I suspect the lower smudge is the SMC and the smudge at the edge of the photo is the LMC.

After I started this post I downloaded the picture on my desktop and then I also noticed what looked like what may be another cloud like glow at the edge of the top. My bet is that we have no only the Milky Way; Comet McNaught; and a meteor: but also the LMC and SMC.
Orin

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070212.html

Did the ISS astronauts get good space based photos ?

orin stepanek wrote:... My bet is that we have no only the Milky Way; Comet McNaught; and a meteor: but also the LMC and SMC.
Orin

Ah, but which is which? Would not the larger (and lower one) of the two smudges be the LMC?

FWIW, according to Wikipedia, the LMC is 168,000 ly away, and the SMC is 197,000 ly away. I seem to recall the opposite case -- the larger is farther, etc.

RJ Emery wrote:Ah, but which is which? Would not the larger (and lower one) of the two smudges be the LMC?

We can't see all of the one at the upper edge of the photo. I believe that one is the LMC. The one in full view is the SMC. IMHO

also see

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060809.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060806.html

bystander wrote:We can't see all of the one at the upper edge of the photo. I believe that one is the LMC. The one in full view is the SMC. IMHO

I think you have it nailed.

I am having a problem with the McNaught image from New Zealand (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070212.html). As an amatuer astronomer, and a better photographer, I can not resolve how this image was taken. The ground and background lights appear to be the result of camera shake. More than that, the angles of the obvious ground lights on the right appear to be a mirror to the angles on the left. I would expect with camera shake, that all ground lights would follow the same track.

More importantly, the star fields, comet and other celestial objects in this photo are perfectly imaged. Why would such a perfect looking astrophotograph have such imperfect ground focus and obvious camera shake? Any camera shake at all would effect the lights in the sky as well, wouldn't it? Especially the comet, the brightest object in the sky. But it is razor sharp...

kbmcdowell

The SMC is further identified by the two globular clusters, 47 Tucanae just below and NGC 362 slightly to the right.

Quite an impressive photo. Too bad we can't see all of the LMC.

Just went and looked at Minoru Yoneto's other photo's. There are several with both Magellanic Clouds visible. Lot's of nice photos.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mkyoneto/star/mcnaught.htm

Spectacular image link from apod/ap070212

Bystander,
Thanks for not being one. I like the 35th inage down the list better than the one that was used. it contains the LMC, SMC, Comet Mc Naught, and The Aroura Australis. NICE LINK

The night sky turns. This exposure was time lapse and the camera took that turning into account. Thus from the perspective of the camera, the sky stayed perfectly still, but the ground turned... causing ground lights to move but sky lights to be perfectly still.

Takes some skill and patience, but that's how people are able to image deep sky objects.

Alternately, if you didn't move your camera, you end up with perfectly sharp ground lights and startrails in the sky.

Yeah, that's an incredible photo! Would have taken ages to set the camera up right

FreebirdsWB wrote:The night sky turns. This exposure was time lapse and the camera took that turning into account. Thus from the perspective of the camera, the sky stayed perfectly still, but the ground turned... causing ground lights to move but sky lights to be perfectly still.

Ahh, yes, I see that now, and it must be a very wide angle lens. I see that the lights on the left and the lights on the right appear to have a very slight concave trail, and would be along the same circle, if you connected them, which makes sense, especially for a wide angle lens. Thanks for the reply!