Starship Asterisk*

Stargazing on the largest meteorite Copyright: Petr Horálek In the Namibian northern region Onjozondjupa, there is so much to see. But probably the most tempting is the largest found iron meteorite in the world. The Hoba West meteorite, as it’s named after the close farm, is one of the most astrono...

By the young Moon Copyright: Petr Horálek During stay in Chile to see the beauties of the Chilean desert itself, I spent a while close to the Miniques and Miscanti lagunas on 10th April 2016. The weather was not perfect and the young crescent Moon illuminated the night scape, so I used the moment t...

Pilgrims of Mars Copyright: Petr Horálek The Atacama Desert of Chile is sometimes called „the Mars landscape on Earth“. And this image can pretty much show why. When Babak Tafreshi (left) and me arrived on 4th April 2016 in the deep desert, I just went outside of the car and couldn’t breath for a w...

Prominent after-aurorae airglow by solstice night Copyright: Petr Horálek On 23rd June 2015 the solar activity woke up one of the strongest northern lights of 2015, visible even from the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, it was hopelessly overcast. But the very next night, the sky cleared up and despi...

The Milky Way by summer solstice night Copyright: Petr Horálek June is very interesting month of the year for northern countries around the world. While season of visibility of the Noctilucent clouds is ongoing, the night sky is, actually, not dark. Due to location of for example my country, which ...

Your zodiacal light image is great, Petr H, but tell me something. Is all of it in color? The Milky Way looks very colorful in your image, but the rest appears to be (almost) black and white. What is the bright source near the top in your image? Ann Dear Ann, It's result of the post-processing - fe...

That's really cool that you've uncovered a secret structure there, Petr. No doubt many subtleties could be revealed if only we could turn off the Milky Way for a moment. Indeed :-) But seriously, it would be really interesting to have some satellite shot of zodiacal light from inside if the plane i...

From Gegenschein to False dawn Copyright: Petr Horálek This is more than half-night panorama (almost 270 degrees) of the zodiacal light from the Gegenschein to morning column called "false dawn", captured over the ESO's La Silla Observatory. The zodiacal light is enhanced by several mathe...

Orion the Hunter over the temperament island Copyright: Petr Horálek Wild storm over equatorial Halmahera island of Indonesia was producing beautiful flashes and the starry sky above was completely clear. This is the view when Orion the hunter was slowly "diving" in the storm. Notice how ...

From Gegenschein to False dawn Copyright: Petr Horálek This is more than half-night panorama (almost 270 degrees) of the zodiacal light from the Gegenschein to morning column called "false dawn", captured over the ESO's La Silla Observatory. The zodiacal light is enhanced by several mathe...

Equatorial sky: From Big Dipper to the Southern Cross Copyright: Petr Horrálek ( http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/ ) While staying at Maba village on equatorial Indonesian island Halmahera in this March, I realized one amazing fact. This place with latitude only 40’N, is the best one to capture both ...

Celestial X from both hemispheres Copyright: Petr Horálek / ESO Image(s) in higher resolutions and full explanation: http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=2149 http://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1608a/ Milky Way and Zodiacal Light seen (captured) from both hemispheres in same season, giving full view...

Resting VLT and airglow „ribs“ Copyright: Petr Horálek Airglow "ribs" over the "resting" dome of one VLT telescope during cloudiness moment. In the same direction of those structures a few hours later were captured the red as told in ESOcast. More (ESOcast and the image in highe...

The galactic shot Copyright: Petr Horálek The dome of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the ESO’s Paranal observatory is hiding one of the most scientifically productive instrument of the world. Pointing it’s powerful beam in the sky, it feels like the astronomers are somehow trying to communicate ...

The Lone Ear … Really? Copyright: Petr Horálek So many object of "close" and distant Universe in the sky and the reflection of the the Swedish-ESO Submilimetre Telescope at the southern part of the large complex of La Silla Observatory. More (and images in higher dimension): http://www.as...

Celestial X of both hemispheres Copyright: Petr Horálek ( http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?page_id=17 ) This image shows view to the sky in January from both hemispheres. It ingeniously uses the compositions and timing to demonstrate different views in the Milky Way and the zodiacal light close to t...

The fairy tale of Oravska Lesna Copyright: Petr Horálek ( http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?page_id=20 ) Once upon a time, a pilgrim with a machine called camera was walking around the world. He witnessed so many wonderful places, tried so many adventures, met so many different people. But this place...

Venus and the swimming Moon Copyright: Petr Horálek ( http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?page_id=20 ) A year ago, 21 January 2015, I witnessed very unusual view to the darkening horizon before the first stars appeared above the La Silla observatory. Just a minutes after the sun set over the horizon of...

Red Sprites at Paranal Observatory Copyright: Petr Horálek ( http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?page_id=20 ) / ESO ( http://www.eso.org ) http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2015_01_27_Paranal_RS1_HoralekESO.jpg Amazing image of sprites at Paranal Observatory, captured from the V...

Stargazing at the largest meteorite Copyright: Petr Horálek In the Namibian northern region Onjozondjupa, there is so much to see. But probably the most tempting is the largest found iron meteorite in the world. The Hoba West meteorite, as it’s named after a close farm, is one of the most astronomi...

Winter sky in Kalahari desert Copyright: Petr Horalek This intimate view I was witnessed from Kalahari desert last year, as I was capturing the winter sky from Botswana. The image was capturen in windy night from 12 to 13 September 2015, which was followed by unique partial solar eclipse the very n...

Paranal before the daybreak Copyright: Petr Horálek/ESO In the Chilean Atacama desert, 2635 metres high above the sea level, there is ESO’s Paranal observatory – one of the most spectacular observatory in the world. When you stay there and watch the pure beauty of the Universe on the technically pe...

Seeking Venus under the Spitzkoppe arch Copyright: Petr Horálek There are not so many places in the world, where you can feel so small and nugatory in compassion to the nature around you, but also such grateful to the world to be the part of a moment in this beautiful natural spot. With no doubt, o...

Perseid rain over the Kolonica Saddle Copyright: Petr Horálek The annual meteor shower Perseid had absolute great conditions this year. New Moon occurred just day after the maximum as it was about 6:30 to 9:00 UTC on August 13th, 2015. Last time the „moonless Perseids“ were in 2013 and the next tim...

Perseid rain over the Kolonica Saddle Copyright: Petr Horálek The annual meteor shower Perseid had absolute great conditions this year. New Moon occurred just day after the maximum as it was about 6:30 to 9:00 UTC on August 13th, 2015. Last time the „moonless Perseids“ were in 2013 and the next tim...