APOD: Mars Between Nebulas (2018 Mar 27)

[APOD Robot]

Mars Between Nebulas

Explanation: What that bright red spot between the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas? Mars. This gorgeous color deep-sky photograph captured the red planet passing between the two notable nebulas -- cataloged by the 18th century cosmic registrar Charles Messier as M8 and M20. M20 (upper right of center), the Trifid Nebula, presents a striking contrast in red/blue colors and dark dust lanes. Across the bottom right is the expansive, alluring red glow of M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Both nebulae are a few thousand light-years distant. By comparison, temporarily situated between them both, is the dominant "local" celestial beacon Mars. Taken last week, the red planet was only about 10 light-minutes away.

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[neufer]

can't sleep, clown will eat me....

---

Coulrophobia is an informal neologism coined for a specific fear of clowns.

Clown costumes tend to exaggerate the facial features and some body parts, such as hands and feet and noses. This can be read as monstrous or deformed as easily as it can be read as comical. The significant aberrations in a clown's face may alter a person's appearance so much that it enters the so-called uncanny valley, in which a figure is lifelike enough to be disturbing, but not realistic enough to be pleasant—and thus frightens a child so much that they carry this phobia throughout their adult life. Additionally, clown behavior is often "transgressive" (anti-social behavior) which can create feelings of unease.>>

[Ann]

I'm very glad to see this great photo become an APOD!

Sebastian Voltmer posted this picture in the Recent Submissions thread less than a week ago, and I was duly impressed by it!

Sebastian Voltmer then told me that Mars had been described as a "very bright optical transient near the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae" - as if the "transient" had been a nova, for example - by someone who didn't understand that they were seeing Mars!!!!

Anyway, this is a great image and a splendid APOD. Just a few words from the Color Commentator:

APOD Robot wrote:

What that bright red spot between the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas? Mars. This gorgeous color deep-sky photograph captured the red planet passing between the two notable nebulas -- cataloged by the 18th century cosmic registrar Charles Messier as M8 and M20. M20 (upper right of center), the Trifid Nebula, presents a striking contrast in red/blue colors and dark dust lanes. Across the bottom right is the expansive, alluring red glow of M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Both nebulae are a few thousand light-years distant. By comparison, temporarily situated between them both, is the dominant "local" celestial beacon Mars. Taken last week, the red planet was only about 10 light-minutes away.

Well, there is a lot of red in this APOD, except that the "red" of Mars is really orange, and the "red" of the the Lagoon and Trifid is really mostly pink!

Ann

[Petrus]

Is there any reason why Mars does not show sharp contours in the picture? Is it because it is too bright compared to the background? I would have expected to see a more defined image for a planet...

[Ann]

Is there any reason why Mars does not show sharp contours in the picture? Is it because it is too bright compared to the background? I would have expected to see a more defined image for a planet...

In my amateur opinion, Mars is too overexposed here to show a limb. According ot my software, the current magnitude of Mars +0.4. That is quite bright, and far, far brighter than the apparent magnitude of the Lagoon or Trifid Nebulas or any of the stars in this image.

Ann

[orin stepanek]

Is there any reason why Mars does not show sharp contours in the picture? Is it because it is too bright compared to the background? I would have expected to see a more defined image for a planet...

In my amateur opinion, Mars is too overexposed here to show a limb. According ot my software, the current magnitude of Mars +0.4. That is quite bright, and far, far brighter than the apparent magnitude of the Lagoon or Trifid Nebulas or any of the stars in this image.

Ann

Probably true, Ann! If the camera were focused on Mars; the nebula probably would have been out of focus!

[neufer]

Is there any reason why Mars does not show sharp contours in the picture? Is it because it is too bright compared to the background? I would have expected to see a more defined image for a planet...

In my amateur opinion, Mars is too overexposed here to show a limb.

---

<<Mars and Venus is a panel painting of about 1485 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful baby satyrs. Venus watches Mars sleep while two infant satyrs play, carrying his helmet (a sallet) and lance as another rests inside his breastplate under his arm. A fourth blows a small conch shell in his ear in an effort, so far unsuccessful, to wake him.

In the foreground, a swarm of wasps hovers around Mars' head, possibly as a symbol that love is often accompanied by pain. Another explanation is that the wasps represent the Vespucci family that may have commissioned the painting. Their coat of arms included wasps, as their name means "little wasps" in Italian, and the wasps' nest, in a hollow in the tree in the top left corner, is exactly in the place in the panel where the coat of arms of a patron was often painted.>>

[Chris Peterson]

Is there any reason why Mars does not show sharp contours in the picture? Is it because it is too bright compared to the background? I would have expected to see a more defined image for a planet...

On the main page image, the scale is about 11 arcseconds per pixel. On the full resolution click-through image, it's about 6 arcseconds per pixel. Mars currently has an angular diameter of about 8 arcseconds.

So on the smaller image, Mars is less than a pixel in size, and on the larger image it's just a hair larger than a pixel. In other words, it's optically unresolved and has no contours. A point source. All we see in this image is the scattered and diffracted light of the planet, not the planet itself.

[Wha?]

can't sleep, clown will eat me....

---

Coulrophobia is an informal neologism coined for a specific fear of clowns.

Clown costumes tend to exaggerate the facial features and some body parts, such as hands and feet and noses. This can be read as monstrous or deformed as easily as it can be read as comical. The significant aberrations in a clown's face may alter a person's appearance so much that it enters the so-called uncanny valley, in which a figure is lifelike enough to be disturbing, but not realistic enough to be pleasant—and thus frightens a child so much that they carry this phobia throughout their adult life. Additionally, clown behavior is often "transgressive" (anti-social behavior) which can create feelings of unease.>>

? Why'd you call in the clowns?

[neufer]

? Why'd you call in the clowns?

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<"Send In the Clowns" is a song written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1973 musical A Little Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night. It is a ballad from Act Two, in which the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of life.

The "clowns" in the title do not refer to circus clowns. Instead, they symbolize fools, as Sondheim explained in a 1990 interview: "I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about; I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she's an actress, but it's not supposed to be a circus [...] It's a theater reference meaning "if the show isn't going well, let's send in the clowns"; in other words, "let's do the jokes." I always want to know, when I'm writing a song, what the end is going to be, so "Send in the Clowns" didn't settle in until I got the notion, "Don't bother, they're here", which means that We are the fools.">>

[Ann]

can't sleep, clown will eat me....

---

Coulrophobia is an informal neologism coined for a specific fear of clowns.

Clown costumes tend to exaggerate the facial features and some body parts, such as hands and feet and noses. This can be read as monstrous or deformed as easily as it can be read as comical. The significant aberrations in a clown's face may alter a person's appearance so much that it enters the so-called uncanny valley, in which a figure is lifelike enough to be disturbing, but not realistic enough to be pleasant—and thus frightens a child so much that they carry this phobia throughout their adult life. Additionally, clown behavior is often "transgressive" (anti-social behavior) which can create feelings of unease.>>

? Why'd you call in the clowns?

I've seen that Simpson episode (it is about Lisa's first word, and Bart's and Maggie's), but I don't understand what that episode, or that clown, has to do with today's APOD.

Do you think that the conjunction between Mars and the Lagoon and Trifid nebulas looks like a clown face? That seems far-fetched to me.

Ann

[neufer]

? Why'd you call in the clowns?

I've seen that Simpson episode (it is about Lisa's first word, and Bart's and Maggie's), but I don't understand what that episode, or that clown, has to do with today's APOD. Do you think that the conjunction between Mars and the Lagoon and Trifid nebulas looks like a clown face? That seems far-fetched to me. Ann

• can't sleep, ann will eat me....

[ta152h0]

On the rare occasions of a clear sky and I want to photograph the North Star, what would be a good starting set up > I have a Nikon d3300, a SIGMA 18-250 Zoom, a tripod and lots of patience with a warm coat . I am at 48N, 122W

[Bird_Man]

I assume that you want to capture the stars around the North Star. Too. Set your Sigma to 18mm with the aperture open as wide as it will go, f2. Shutter speed of 30 seconds and ISO at 3200. This assumes you have a good dark sky, with little light pollution. See haw that works for you and adjust accordingly. You may be able to get by with a lower ISO. May need a little trial and error. Focus should be set manually at infinity. You may need to adjust the focus a little too, to get the starts as sharp points. Good luck.

On the rare occasions of a clear sky and I want to photograph the North Star, what would be a good starting set up > I have a Nikon d3300, a SIGMA 18-250 Zoom, a tripod and lots of patience with a warm coat . I am at 48N, 122W

[ta152h0]

Thank you. All I nee now is aclear night, a power outage and an ice cold one.

[MarkBour]

Capture1.jpg (23.26 KiB) Viewed 68197 times

? Why'd you call in the clowns?

I've seen that Simpson episode (it is about Lisa's first word,
and Bart's and Maggie's), but I don't understand what that
episode, or that clown, has to do with today's APOD. Do you
think that the conjunction between Mars and the Lagoon and
Trifid nebulas looks like a clown face? That seems
far-fetched to me. Ann

• can't sleep, ann will eat me....

[neufer]

---

• The last of the crew needs especial remark,
   Though he looked an incredible dunce:
  He had just one idea — but, that one being “Snark,”
   The good Bellman engaged him at once.
  He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,
   When the ship had been sailing a week,
  He could only kill Beavers. The Bellman looked scared,
   And was almost too frightened to speak:

[Ann]

• can't sleep, ann will eat me....

Click to view full size image

Perhaps I'll eat a fly named Art?

Ann

[neufer]

• can't sleep, ann will eat me....

Perhaps I'll eat a fly named Art?

• I don't know why?

<<In English, the phrase fly in the ointment is an idiomatic expression for a drawback, especially one that was not at first apparent, e.g. We had a cookstove, beans, and plates; the fly in the ointment was the lack of a can opener. The likely source is a phrase in the King James Bible: Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour. (Ecclesiastes 10:1)

For five centuries, 'a fly in the ointment' has meant a small defect that spoils something valuable or is a source of annoyance. The modern version thus suggests that something unpleasant may come or has come to light in a proposition or condition that is almost too pleasing; that there is something wrong hidden, unexpected somewhere.>>

[Ann]

• can't sleep, ann will eat me....

Perhaps I'll eat a fly named Art?

• I don't know why?

<<In English, the phrase fly in the ointment is an idiomatic expression for a drawback, especially one that was not at first apparent, e.g. We had a cookstove, beans, and plates; the fly in the ointment was the lack of a can opener. The likely source is a phrase in the King James Bible: Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour. (Ecclesiastes 10:1)

For five centuries, 'a fly in the ointment' has meant a small defect that spoils something valuable or is a source of annoyance. The modern version thus suggests that something unpleasant may come or has come to light in a proposition or condition that is almost too pleasing; that there is something wrong hidden, unexpected somewhere.>>

Click to view full size image

Well, there are chocolate-covered ants, and you can even buy them in some stores. So who knows, maybe there are chocolate-covered flies for sale, too?

Ann

[MarkBour]

Well, there are chocolate-covered ants, and you can even buy them in some stores. So who knows, maybe there are chocolate-covered flies for sale, too?

Ann

The closest I could come to this was "Harry Potter chocolate flies", a product that is not real chocolate-covered flies.

The attachment Capture2.jpg is no longer available

http://hpcooking.blogspot.com/2012/03/f ... zbees.html

http://thundertongue.blogspot.com/

https://seeds.ca/pollination/tales/chocolate-fly
The Chocolate Fly
“A tiny fly no bigger than the head of a pin is responsible for the world's supply of chocolate.” —Allen Young, a leading cacao expert

Is it surprising that chocolate lovers around the world have a little fly to thank every time they take a bite of delicious chocolate? Granted, saying fly and chocolate in the same sentence is rather unappetizing, but it must be done.

Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), native to South America's tropical rain forest. The Mesoamericans were the first to discover how to process the cacao seeds to get the substance we know distinctively as chocolate. The historical origin of Theobroma cacao in its wild state was the upper Orinoco and Amazon river region, and from there it spread to Guiana, Central America and southern Mexico. The white cacao flowers, which when pollinated produce the prized seed pods, do not grow from the tree's branches. Instead they grow directly out of the tree's trunk. This unusual formation is referred to as "cauliflory" by botanists, and most likely plays a role in the tree's insect pollination. The flowers are very small and intricate in their design, so it makes sense that they would need a small pollinator.

Some mystery still surrounds the pollination of the precious Theobroma cacao. The tiny pollinators are midges -small, gnat-like flies, in the family Ceratopogonidae, various species of Euprojoannisia and Forcipomyia. The midges tend to be most active in their pollination at dusk and dawn, correlating with the opening of the cacao flowers, which are fully open just before dawn.

[MarkBour]

I'm beginning to hate the Asterisk BB editor. It will not let me post more than one image. It keeps "forgetting" the second one.

[rstevenson]

I'm beginning to hate the Asterisk BB editor. It will not let me post more than one image. It keeps "forgetting" the second one.

I had the same problem last week. I eventually forced it to comply by combining the two images into one and posting that. PITA.

Rob

[Chris Peterson]

I'm beginning to hate the Asterisk BB editor. It will not let me post more than one image. It keeps "forgetting" the second one.

I had the same problem last week. I eventually forced it to comply by combining the two images into one and posting that. PITA.

Rob

There's at least one moderator who is pretty aggressive about tracking down and fixing bugs. But only if she knows about them. That's why we have a forum just for pointing them out.

[rstevenson]

I didn't know it was a problem. I thought it was a "feature" of the new version.

Rob