Starship Asterisk*

[quote]starsurfer wrote:
Well it's only when it's upside down that it looks like a Witch's Head![/quote]

[float=right][img2]http://www.belugalakeobservatory.com/photos/thumbnails/witchhead1a_700x700.jpg[/img2][/float] Well, "right side up" it looks like a full figure of some sort, with a slightly bear-like lowbrow head with a protruding snout, a female bosom, a short protruding arm and a windblown, diaphanous dress.

I used to think that the "right side up" figure was the Witch Head!

Ann

[quote="Ann"][quote="starsurfer"]Great image of this wonderful reflection nebula! The various background galaxies are delightful to find! :D[/quote]

Indeed! For us northerners, the nebula is upside down :wink: , so the upper part of the picture is the southern part of the Witch Head Nebula. And there are many beautiful galaxies in the upper, that is southern, part of the image, but apparently none at all in the lower, northern part of it, in the direction of supergiant stars and major nebulas of Orion.

Ann[/quote]
Well it's only when it's upside down that it looks like a Witch's Head!

[size=200]BOO!![/size] to you all.

Hey, this is YESTERDAY's commentary!

Thanks Ann. I was curious about the statement in the text about Rigel being off to the right.

[url]http://www.belugalakeobservatory.com/photo.php?Rigel-and-the-Witch-Head-Nebula&photo=52[/url]

I like the photographer's site [url=http://www.skycrumbles.net/Pages/IC2118_en.html]link[/url] as it shows in the sky where the photograph was taken for us wannabe astronomers.

[quote="starsurfer"]Great image of this wonderful reflection nebula! The various background galaxies are delightful to find! :D[/quote]

Indeed! For us northerners, the nebula is upside down :wink: , so the upper part of the picture is the southern part of the Witch Head Nebula. And there are many beautiful galaxies in the upper, that is southern, part of the image, but apparently none at all in the lower, northern part of it, in the direction of supergiant stars and major nebulas of Orion.

Ann

Great image of this wonderful reflection nebula! The various background galaxies are delightful to find! :D

I agree with Ann, this Nebula is only blue,
it is not " blue blue " ( VB)
This image is Halloweeeeeeen :mrgreen:

I don't know - maybe a more appropriate name for this cosmic visage coul be "Ex-Wife's Head Nebula"... :P

And a great images of it to be sure. Along with the blue, indigo and violet colors...

And the laughing ghost coming out of the top of her hat! :shock:

Happy Halloween, tomorrow!

:---(===) *

Oh, I forgot to say that it's a great APOD, and so suitable for today! :D

Ann

As a color commentator, I find the color of the Witch Head Nebula particularly interesting. And that is not primarily because the Witch Head is blue, but because it isn't [i]very[/i] blue.

Sky Catalogue 2000.0, Volume 2, lists bright nebulas in the sky and estimates their color.The bluest nebulas are described as "VB", very blue, and the reddest ones are described as "VR", very red. The Antares nebula is described as "VR", whereas all the various Pleiades nebulas are described as "VB". The Witch Head Nebula, IC 2118, is described as "B", blue. Not "VB".

I agree. IC 2118 is like the sky of the Earth: part blue, part cloudy.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6V5u7y1wEc[/youtube]

Ann

Your title is a ghostbuster. As a Rosorch(sp?) test I saw the full figure of a ghost before I switched to see the witch's head. anyone else see the ghost? it is quite striking. Just take a distracted gaze and it will be there for you to enjoy.

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151030.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_151030.jpg[/img] [size=150]The Witch Head Nebula[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] [url=http://www.potw.org/archive/potw283.html]Double, double toil and trouble;[/url] Fire burn, and cauldron bubble .... maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. A suggestively shaped [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011228.html]reflection nebula[/url], this cosmic crone is about 800 light-years away though. Its frightening visage seems to glare toward nearby bright star Rigel [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150316.html]in Orion[/url], just off the right edge of this frame. More formally known as [url=http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0241]IC 2118, the interstellar cloud[/url] of dust and gas is nearly 70 light-years across, its dust grains reflecting Rigel's starlight. [url=http://www.skycrumbles.net/Pages/IC2118_en.html]In this composite portrait[/url], the nebula's color is caused not only by the star's intense bluish light but because the [url=http://leo.astronomy.cz/mix/mix.html]dust grains scatter blue light[/url] more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes [url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/BlueSky/blue_sky.html]Earth's daytime sky to appear blue[/url], although the scatterers in planet Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen.

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