Starship Asterisk*

Panstarrs has appeared in the North! It took a while to find in the waning light of sunset, but showed a nice tail through 10 x 50 binocs. Very difficult to see without magnification, but it will rise each night and (hopefully) have a bit more contrast. I snapped a few images from Southern New Mexic...

Here's a gaggle of Geminids that I imaged on 12/12-13 using a Canon DSLR (T2i) and 15mm lens. Image is a composite of 30 second subs acquired from near the New Mexico Spaceport.

It's very beautiful, and I sort of like the music. I did a similar fading star trails image (not movie) when Comet Hartley 2 visited us last Fall. Yeah, it ain't the way stars really trail, but I thought it was a unique presentation style. Glad to see somebody get it published on APOD.

Indeed, the color balance is off here. This is the first time ever that I have seen a dust tail look green. And the ion tail should be bluer. It does not appear to be off by very much. Do you calibrate your monitor? On my monitors (two, both calibrated) the dust trail appears to be seen in front of...

I do not claim to be a comet expert, but the ion tail (which shows some bends and distortion) is subject to variations in the solar wind / magnetic field. The dust tail follows the comet's path and should be straight(ish) or curved depending on where the comet is along it's elliptical path. A differ...

badsocref, the simulation is amazing. I really appreciated it. Although, my question has not been explained, can anyone? Do the publishers of APOD just take the stars out? I do a fair amount of astrophotography. When photographing the moon, most cameras do not have the dynamic range to capture both...

I've posted a simulation: http://www.aslc-nm.org/EarthRise.mov (15.0 Mb) or http://www.aslc-nm.org/EarthRiseMed.mov (3.1 Mb) It's 'taken' from near the Demonax Crater Enjoy! rr In the description accompanying the APOD for 2007-11-20, the statement is made that "An astronaut standing on the luna...