Starship Asterisk*

Wow that is a superb image . It's like a curled chameleon tongue shooting out to catch prey!

Regarding the date the image was acquired it was "August 24, 2016 2:14:10AM (timezone not specified)" according to the Exif data that I was able to obtain.

Thanks alter-ego for your help. :) Your annotated version has greatly improved my understanding of what is in the excellent image. I should perhaps have known that Centaurus and Cepheus are constellations, not stars. It was however the use of "bright" in the APOD's explanation's "brig...

From the explanation it seems that Centaurus is the obvious bright star at the left end of the Milky Way arc and it would seem to imply that Cepheus is to the far right end of the arc but there is no obvious bright star there. I wonder therefore if Cepheus is the bright star just above the small tre...

It's a terrific picture :). I'm wondering if the line of wispy 'clouds' on each side of the Moon was just coincidentally there or is the line an image artefact caused by perhaps light from the just set Sun? They do appear to be wispy clouds but it is odd there seems to be no other so obvious clouds ...

What is the very bright 'object' that seems as if it is being held in the left hand? It would seem likely that it is the Moon but the explanation states the "component images were taken early last month" thus early July 2016. Thanks to Judy Schmidt's helpful annotation I now know which is ...

The diffraction spikes (along with the rest of the point spread function) probably tell more about the instrument doing the imaging than the objects themselves. Hubble's infrared PSF is a dead giveaway, though. Anyone who has spent time looking at Hubble data can probably tell an infrared dataset w...

Thanks for that interesting information Chris .

There is a star to the top left and one about in the far right middle that have very obvious diffraction spikes. I am curious why their diffraction spikes colours differ so much. I assume the left one is a red star and the right one is a blue one but the very marked differences in their spikes colo...

It's a fascinating image :). Trying to understand the concept of warped spacetime does cause my brain to struggle. I even have flights of fancy that it might be wrapped spacetime where light wraps round objects and causes the lensing! There is a star to the top left and one about in the far right mi...

I just cannot decided whether to color it in true or false colors . Should I use the Hubble Palette or what? .

The following annotated link shows well the Pencil Nebula's location in the Vela Supernova Remnant http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0803/Ve ... er1200.jpg

In regard to the dates that the image data was acquired this should help. When clicking on the "featured recently released composite image" an image labelled 'PR Image heic1613a' can be found which is a small version of that used as the APOD. In the information when that image is clicked o...

What an amazing sight :). Even allowing for exposure time enhancement of detail I'm sure that the scene would still have been beautiful to see. I wonder how long such dark enough skies sites will be around, as ever increasing light pollution will sadly make them a thing of the past. From where I liv...

In the information with the nice photo in Malcolm Park's section in the SmugMug photo hosting website it states "Circle Of Confusion 0.030 mm". Could someone please state what that means? :? Perhaps more than you need, but the Wikipedia page " Circle of Confusion " has it all la...

In the information with the nice photo in Malcolm Park's section in the SmugMug photo hosting website it states "Circle Of Confusion 0.030 mm". Could someone please state what that means? :? Why don't you link directly to whatever you are talking about instead of only describing it? It ma...

In the information with the nice photo in Malcolm Park's section in the SmugMug photo hosting website it states "Circle Of Confusion 0.030 mm". Could someone please state what that means?

What please is ISTIL as that link in the credit is dead in the 2 browsers that I've tried? What does ISTIL stand for? ISTIL stands for Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dell'Inquinamento Luminoso (Italian: Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute) Try simplifying the link to just http://www....

What please is ISTIL as that link in the credit is dead in the 2 browsers that I've tried?

The "visual appearance" link in the explanation brought up information due September 2016! Wow, a peek into the future!

The third "anticrepuscular rays" link in the explanation should apparently bring up a video but that is not available (at least on my internet connection) using two browsers. As nobody has made any comment about a failed link I assume that it must be a problem with my internet. I would be ...

Another great photo of the fascinating place that Pluto is. I like Pluto :). OK, it may be a bit chilly and not so good air but nothing that a good down-filled anorak and some oxygen tanks won't cure! :wink: PS. "Pluto's pitted plains" is almost a tongue twister! PPS. Krun Macula sounds li...

I would be grateful if someone can help me with information about the image. In information that I was able to obtain through the APOD image properties it stated "Metadata Date 2016:04:12 12:20:20.307198" and "Date Created 2016:04:13 12:00:00". The Date Created is the same as the...

In some information in Wikipedia it states of the JunoCam "A visible light camera/telescope, included in the payload to facilitate education and public outreach. It will operate for only seven orbits around Jupiter because of the planet's damaging radiation and magnetic field". If I had no...

I don't see the point of the image brought up through the "scientifically assigned colors" link as it gives no information as to what the image's assigned colors are. They may be the Hubble Palette colors but could be another palette. :? David, when I processed the image, the colours were...

I don't see the point of the image brought up through the "scientifically assigned colors" link as it gives no information as to what the image's assigned colors are. They may be the Hubble Palette colors but could be another palette. :? Also there seemed to be no point astronomically spea...

First link is dead, fwiw. It seems the AAO is constructing a new image gallery. Links to the images at the old gallery are available, NGC 5101 and NGC 5078 . Thanks for those links bystander :). It came as quite a surprise when I clicked on the links to those 2 in the explanation to get a message f...