Submissions: 2017 April

[j.s.ebersole]

IC 2948 Core of the Running Chicken Nebula
http://jebersol.zenfolio.com/
Copyright: John Ebersole

Click to view full size image

The famous Thackeray’s Globules are seen here amidst an aurora-like backdrop of ionized Ha, OIII, and SII in this narrowband image in HST palette.

[Greg Parker]

Copyright Prof. Greg Parker 2017

9 x 5-minute subs with a 1-minute gap between subs taken on a Sky 90 and M26C OSC CCD at the New Forest Observatory.
Asteroid JO25 2014 moving through Canes Venatici with bright central star SAO 63514 for reference.

Click to view full size image

[jfgout]

Asteroid 2014 JO25 was the big star yesterday. I recorded it, moving fast across the sky (about 1 degree per hour) with a simple 80mm refracting scope and a CCD camera on an equatorial mount. Thanks to its brightness, it was fairly easy to capture with basic amateur equipment, even from the light-polluted skies of Bloomington.
Images are 5 seconds exposure each. 254 images total taken between 2h15 and 2h45, April 20th (UTC). The relatively bright star in front of which the asteroid passes (although there was probably no real occultation from my location) is HIP 64077 in Coma Berenice, an anonymous star which could barely be seen to the naked eye under exceptionally dark skies (magnitude 6.2).

While one telescope was recording the images, I observed the asteroid visually with an 8-inch SCT. The asteroid appeared as a faint but clear visible 'moving star' in the light-polluted skies of Bloomington (Indiana). Motion was easy to see every time the asteroid passed by a nearby star. I managed to show the asteroid to 5 of my friends, big success!

The animation as a GIF:


And as a video on youtube :

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Clear skies!

jf

[Sandgirl]

Comet C/2015 V2
Copyrights: Ashley Marando
Larger size: http://www.astrobin.com/full/290571/0/

Spaghetti Nebula, Sh2-240
Copyrights: Rick Thurmond

Monkey Head Nebula
Copyrights: Justin Tilbrook

C/2015 ER61 Panstarrs Montage
Copyrights: Justin Tilbrook

Heart Nebula, When the Universe Falls in Love
Copyrights: Miguel Claro

Earth shadow
Copyrights: Majid Ghohroodi

Galactic lighthouse
Copyrights: Jorge Alonso Presa

IFN Surrounding M81 & M82 Galaxies
Copyrights: Terry Hancock
Larger version: https://www.flickr.com/photos/terryhanc ... otostream/

ISS occultation by Dandelion
Copyrights: David de Cuevas

Seagull and Thor's Helmet
Copyrights: Pierre Fauchet

The PILOT experiment under the Australian Sky
Copyrights: Gabriel Foenard

Late March Milky Way
Copyrights: Giorgio Pavan

ARP 238
Copyrights: Domingo Pestana

M51
Copyrights: Rodd Dryfoos

Antennae Galaxies from Hacienda Los Andes in Chile
Copyrights: Annette Manz

M101 Galaxy in Ursa Major
Copyrights: Tibor Pósán

A Roof Full Of Stars
Copyrights: Amirreza Kamkar

IC 405 and IC 410 in Auriga
Copyrights: Steve Cooper

Polar star above the Park of souls
Copyrights: Zachos Gkiotsalitis

Anticrepuscular rays and the Moon from Brasilia, Brazil
Copyrights: Paulo Cacella

Celestial X (ISS and a Boeing 757-230)
Copyrights: Tamas Ladanyi

C/2015 ER61
Copyrights: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich
Larger size: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fhhemmeri ... /lightbox/

M101 from Fagagna, Italy
Copyrights: Marco Cosmacini

Comet C/2015 ER61 with NGC 6325
Copyrights: Damian Peach

M97 M108 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak
Copyrights: Bret W

The Moon, Jupiter & moons
Copyrights: Adolfo Miranda

[Greg Parker]

Copyright: Prof. Greg Parker 2017

Asteroid JO25 2014 captured at the New Forest Observatory with a Sky 90 refractor and an M26C 10-Megapixel OSC CCD.
Image annotated and shown in negative B&W to clearly show the asteroid trajectory.

Click to view full size image

[KuriousGeorge]

Heron Galaxy. Copyright KG Observatory.

Imaging camera: QSI 660 WSG
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guiding camera: Starlight Xpress Ultrastar
Focal reducer: Celestron 0.7X
Software: PixInsight 1.8, PHD Guiding 2, Neat Image V7, Sequence Generator Pro, Maxim DL6, Adobe Photoshop CC 2014
Filters: Astrodon 1.25" R, Astrodon 1.25" B, Astrodon 1.25" G, Astrodon 1.25" L
Accessories: Innovations Foresight ONAG SC, Optec FocusLock, Starizona MicroTouch Autofocuser
Resolution: 912x942
Dates: April 2, 2017, April 5, 2017, April 20, 2017
Frames:
Astrodon 1.25" B: 69x120" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" G: 59x120" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" L: 191x120" -20C bin 1x1
Astrodon 1.25" R: 56x120" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 12.5 hours
Darks: ~20
Flats: ~20
Flat darks: ~20
Bias: ~20
Avg. Moon age: 12.27 days
Avg. Moon phase: 45.89%
Mean SQM: 19.75
RA center: 209.649 degrees
DEC center: 37.435 degrees
Pixel scale: 0.642 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 179.186 degrees
Field radius: 0.117 degrees
Locations: Home, Rancho Santa Fe, California, United States

[Stormchaser]

2016 Solar Analemma (and a Half) over The Outer Hebrides

Copyright: Giuseppe Petricca

http://0e33611cb8e6da737d5c-e13b5a910e1 ... 874958.jpg

In the composition (a six shot panoramic for the background and 56 different solar pictures) we can clearly see two solar analemmas pictured respectively in the early and middle morning. The immediate thought goes to the morning figure (the one on the left) which is complete only for the upper summer half, as a proof of the long dark nights here in the upper latitudes.

An experiment that I wanted to try, and that I can surely say has been a success, even if the doubling of everything to capture the two figures is a workload to consider. And the weather surely made all this year long adventure like a lottery win in the end!

This strange figure, with a shape of an 8 or an infinite, the analemma, is caused by the axial tilt of our planet, and by the elliptical shape of our orbit around the Sun. If we take a picture day by day, always at the same hour, the Sun is not in a fixed position, but it slowly climbs up and then down the curve.

Canon EOS 700D - 18 mm Lens - 6 Shot Panorama Background - 56 Solar Pictures - Lightroom CC - Photoshop CC
Stornoway - Outer Hebrides - Scotland

[Fede (Iko)]

41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak and Lyrid meteor.



Full http://nomadaenlanoche.com/images/full- ... fullhd.jpg

[stringdom42]

Three Views of Titan by Val Klavans, on Flickr

On the upper left is a composite of images taken through three filters that are sensitive to red, green and blue light. It shows what Titan looks like to the human eye. The image on the upper right was taken in an infrared filter to see to Titan's surface. On the bottom is a false color view of Titan. It is a composite of images taken through three filters that are sensitive to infrared, methane band, and ultraviolet light. In the infrared and false color views, darker areas are vast hydrocarbon sand dunes and seas. Titan's largest sea, Kraken Mare, is visible in the north polar region.

All images taken by the Cassini spacecraft on April 18, 2017 & processed by Val Klavans

[SteveJ]

Aurora Australis from 38 degrees south

Taken from Noojee, Victoria, Australia on 22 April 2017

[sternklar]

Messier 78 with part of Barnard's Loop, Namibia, Sept. 02 - 04 2016

http://www.sternklar.ch/images-webpages ... ept-16.htm

Exposure data:
Takahashi TOA 150/1100 APO-Refractor @ f/5.6 with SBIG STL-11000M. Exposure time: 35 x 5 minutes trough Baader RGB-filters.

Copyright: Manuel Jung, http://www.sternklar.ch

Click to view full size image

[ildiora]

Oneiric Star Trail
dariogiannobile.com
Copyright: Dario Giannobile

Click to view full size image

It is a composite image done by means of two different techniques: Infrared shooting + and star trail. The shots comes from the same camera, in the same location, at the same focal length and same position but at two different times of the day: mid-day and night.

As many infrared images, the final effect is to have a white color in the greens with the sky, and the rest, shading towards blues. This is the perfect color grading to add a star trail.
The final effect is an oneiric image picturing the dawn of Orion constellation behind the mountains in the background from an old farmhouse courtyard.

Dario G.

[Sandgirl]

Carina Nebula
Copyrights: Paulo Cacella

Summer Milky Way rising over the magnificent Organ Mountains
Copyrights: Rick Young

STS 130 Launch
Copyrights: Raymond "Lee" Marr III

Orion and Uyuni salt flats
Copyrights: Ziyi Ye

ISS lunar transit
Copyrights: Michael Seeley

The boogieman
Copyrights: Manjeet Singh

Eye of God
Copyrights: Hower Ji

Messier106 and NGC4217
Copyrights: Péter Feltóti

Comet 73P on April 9th
Copyrights: Damian Peach

Moon, Jupiter and the Galilean moons
Copyrights: Göran Strand

Day Milky Way over Nariga Lighthouse in Malpica
Copyrights: Ana García

Opposition of Jupiter
Copyrights: Marco Guidi

Full Moon
Copyrights: James Langley

NGC2903
Copyrights: Bernard Miller

Moon
Copyrights: Divyadarshan Purohit

Moon - Jupiter Conjunction
Copyrights: Uğur İkizler

M82
Copyrights: Patrick Gilliland

Heart and Soul nebula circumpolar composition
Copyrights: Jose Jimenez Priego

Keyhole Nebula / Eta Car
Copyrights: Dylan O'Donnell

Full Moon
Copyrights: Toni Sendra

NGC 3628 - The Hamburger Galaxy
Copyrights: Eric Coles

[avdhoeven]

A soap bubble and its neighbour... by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr



The "Soap Bubble Nebula" is the common name for the planetary nebula PN G75.5+1.7. This nebula was only discovered by amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich on July 6th, 2008. It was independently confirmed and reported by Keith Quattrocchi and Mel Helm on July 17th, 2008.
 
PN G75.5+1.7 is situated in the constellation of Cygnus, very near the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). It is embedded in a large diffuse nebula which, in combination with its low surface magnitude, is the reason it was not discovered until recently.
 
NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This image uses narrow band image data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years. The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away. (source: APOD)
 
I decided in 2015 that I wanted to see if I could catch this very faint nebula with my 9.2 cm refractor. I started working on imaging this in 2015, but then I only got 4 images before weather interrupted the imaging sequence. It was only in 2016 that I was able to catch more data of this region to see what would come out. In August 2016 I took for 5 days in a row images of this nebula in H-alpha, OIII and RGB.
 
Equipment:
 
Telescope: TMB92SS
Camera: QSI583ws
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ6
 
Exposures:
 
H-alpha: 39x900s (10h)
OIII: 32x1200s (11h)
RGB: 18x300s R, 12x300s B,G (3h)
 
Total: 24 hours

[robdickinson]

Aurora from Akaroa, Saturday 22nd April.

Akaroa Aurora by Rob Dickinson, on Flickr

[astromazzo]

Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson) 20" Ritchey-Chrètien F/4.2 STL6303E LRGB 40 minutes - 18 April 2017
by Dr Paolo Candy - Ci.A.O. - Italy

[astromazzo]

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak 20" Ritchey-Chrètien F/4.2 STL6303E LRGB 20 minutes - 17 March 2017
by Dr Paolo Candy - Ci.A.O. - Italy

[kokehtz]

Markarian's Chain
Copyrights: Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez

From Pioz, Guadalajara, Spain. April 21, 2017.

Full resolution:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2941/3419 ... aa98_o.png

[Sandgirl]

Black Hawk helicopter silhouetted against full Moon
Copyrights: Atle Bjanes

NGC4565 Needle Galaxy
Copyrights: Artūras Medvedevas

The Milky Way within reach
Copyrights: Petr Horálek

Waterloo researchers capture first “image” of a dark matter web that connects galaxies
Image credits: S. Epps & M. Hudson / University of Waterloo
An article: Waterloo researchers capture first “image” of a dark matter web that connects galaxies

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=37071

Hale-Bopp 20th Anniversary
Copyrights: Vicente Aupí

Sun meets Red Fort Delhi
Copyrights: Abhinav Singhai

NGC2264
Copyrights: Jose Mtanous

NGC 253 Galaxy - Great Spiral Galaxy
Copyrights: Francesco Badalotti

Boston "Pink" Moonrise
Copyrights: Chris Cook

Orion Panorama
Copyrights: Terry Hancock

Northern Lights from Iceland
Copyrights: Gísli Mar

[Sandgirl]

Eta Carinae
Copyrights: Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau

M51
Copyrights: Rodd Dryfoos

Moon Rise behind DingDuGe
Copyrights: Steed Yu & NightChina.net

M8, Lagoon Nebula
Copyrights: Diego Colonnello

M12 Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus
Copyrights: Madhup Rathi

M97 - Owl Nebula
Copyrights: Madhup Rathi

A different shadow play
Copyrights: Tunç Tezel

Globular Cluster M71
Copyrights: Ronald Brecher

Sh2-98 Emission Nebula
Copyrights: Ronald Brecher

Kitt Peak from Mt. Lemmon
Copyrights: Andre Cruz

IC 2169 (blue reflection nebula) and surroundings
Copyrights: Jeff Johnson

Aurora Over Lake
Copyrights: Mehdi Momenzadeh

Converging shadows
Copyrights: Eric Augusteijn

Startrails
Copyrights: Bitarnote

NGC 2442 - Meathook Galaxy
Copyrights: Annette Manz

Milky Way and Iridium Flare
Copyrights: Jorgelina Alvarez

The Edge of Space
Copyrights: Jonathan Zaharek

[damian.j.avila]

Una panorámica del cielo pampeano
https://www.facebook.com/lanocheysuencanto/
Copyright: Damián Avila

[Juan Lozano]

Milky way Core next to Saturn
http://observatorioelche.blogspot.com.es
Copyright: Juan Lozano de Haro

Click to view full size image

[SteveJ]

Galactic core, meteor and Venus
Copyright: Steve Johnston

Taken from Cape Conran, Victoria, Australia on 2 October 2013.
Single 60s exposure on tracking mount,14mm f/2.8, IO-1600.

[IO_12]

Ion tail of the comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson) now clearly visible
Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson) on April 24th 2017

Copyright: Velimir Popov, Emil Ivanov @ Irida Observatory

Click to view full size image

More info and hi-res images on website

[GeraldRhemann]

http://www.astrostudio.at/2_Bright%20Co ... _08_04.jpg

Click to view full size image

Comet C/2015ER61 Panstarrs April 8