Starship Asterisk*

Aurora !

9 years since I last saw it . . 9 long years of looking on every clear night opportunity, hoping!

But it was worth the wait; red, amazing, beautiful, no more words needed!

I was only admiring these three stars in the sky last evening - the other way up from here!
But how I wish I could resolve all those beautiful colours with my own eyes as well.

Beautiful image! Great to see them in context with the Horsehead and Flame nebulas.

Oh well, I tried, but I now see I was barking up the wrong tree / astronomical object !! . . . not even close!

I have never heard of the Blue Snowball Nebula! This game is way beyond my abilities! . . but not beyond Beyond's

Vaguer . . . no, I meant to say Vega!!

It's a beautiful picture, although it appears almost monochrome to my Sunday morning bleary eyes! I can just about make out some colour on Triton and a hint, almost like chromatic aberration, around the edge of Neptune. The explanation paragraph is indeed a little confusing though . . "smaller ...

I'm sure I once read somewhere that it was considered possible that Jupiter might have a pure diamond core, perhaps because of the immense gravitational pressure. Not sure, but would that be about 2 light hours away from us? And I agree about Uranus having rings too, Margarita, and maybe it is that ...

Very cool APOD! The 11 second video clip (off the "remarkable... " link) is absolutely fantastic too! I've tried to see the comet myself, but we've been under miserable grey skies this week :( Note to the editors: the "discuss" link on the APOD page points towards yesterday's dis...

Well, not what did I see in the sky "tonight", but at sunrise this morning. I was rewarded with my first ever Sun Pillar; a vertical column of brightness in the peachy coloured sky extending straight up above the orange orb of the sun as it rose through low-lying mist in the valley. It was...

So that's where one of the inflatables that slipped it's tether at a Pink Floyd gig sometime in the nineties got to!

Beautiful landscapes, beautiful skyscapes . . beautiful photography!

Time and again I try to imagine a more aesthetically stunning alien world and I just can't do it! Saturn rules! And APOD ends the year on a high!

Looks like the perfect Christmas scene; beautiful photo.
Merry Christmas everybody!

Our cats really enjoyed watching this live feed, it spurred lots of interest when momma cat came into shot and the kittens all got up to greet her . . speaking personally, I can't stand the human equivalent TV program, but this is like Big Brother for cats! :kitty: . . do the lights ever go out in t...

Very nicely composed and executed view. I like seeing the multiple images as the sun rises. Checked out Ben Cooper's website too; some really stunning photography! . . well worth a look.

owlice wrote:Mirrored here.

Yep, works for me, thanks!

Thanks for the link Ann. I should qualify what I said by adding that I meant all disk galaxies. It seems counterintuitive to me that they should form into disk shapes without there being some rotation about a centre present. So, forgive me for asking again, but is the Milky Way rotating, or not? Do ...

geckzilla wrote:
Milky Way is not rotating.

How do you know?, 'cos now that does seem counterintuitive! I thought all galaxies were rotating about their own respective galactic centre, be it a black hole or whatever.

I saw my first ever perfect 'moonbow' last friday night and it gave me such a buzz! . . and that was just a moonbow, so I simply cannot imagine how incredible it would be to see an amazing aurora like this. Great capture! Thanks for sharing it with us. Some other great images on the "huge shape...

I wouldn't call it art, not by a long shot, but it certainly is a great photo! For some reason I couldn't help but think about the original (and by far the best) "Alien" movie when I saw today's picture, must be something about those outstretched arms and the vulnerability of that visor!! ...

FWIW, I was pleased to be able to vote for all three options, because they are all true! Pictures that show some context are almost always more interesting than those that don't. This Bungle Bungles view is a fine example!

Walking the dogs through the fields at dusk this evening, about half-eight, the gibbous moon hanging quite low towards the south . . . Tranquility and Serenity showing clearly . . I tipped my wink to a truly great man. Somehow, that quarter million miles seems a little further than it did before.

Thanks neufer. The background space has obviously been treated and added as a layer on this photo to make it look more acceptable. However, if you follow the link to the flickr page in the "above color-inverted image" link in the text, you can see the untreated negative image with the back...

I don't think this is a color-inverted image. It may be an inverted monochrome image, in which case it could be described as a negative, done to emphasise different tonal details. Also, I am intrigued by when clouds above the Earth are not much cooler; usage of the term "usually" would see...

Reminds me of driving through snow flurries on a winter's night; those galaxies are snowflakes in the headlights!