Starship Asterisk*

The Butterfly - Magnified & Hi-Res
http://www.pbase.com/boren
Copyright: Harel Boren
http://i.pbase.com/o2/27/876727/1/14493 ... pixels.jpg

LBN 47, SH-2 109 and LDN 889 / IC 1318

RA 20h 26m 36s, Dec +40° 15' 53"
Pos Angle +91° 37', 4.22"/Pixel

The full res image is 1450x1073 pixels at http://www.pbase.com/boren/image/144696939

Supergiant star Gamma Cygni lies just outside the bottom of this skyscape, featuring a complex of stars, dust clouds, and glowing nebulae along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. The field of view spans over 2 degrees (126.87 arc min, which is larger than four Full Moons) on the sky and includes emission nebula LBN 47, SH2-109 and the dark rift dark nebula, catalogued as LDN 889. The image is shaped like two glowing cosmic wings divided by a long dark dust lane, receiving the understandably popular name, the Butterfly Nebula (some of this is ref. http://apod.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search).

The entire nebula complex of which this image is part, is illuminated by a solitary visually obscured class O9 star, and is referred to as IC 1318. It comprises three distinct visible components, IC1318 a, b, and c. IC 1318 b and c constitute a single giant HII cloud bisected by the thick obscuring dust (LDN 889) running between the two components (b and c). The bisecting dust lane is 20 light years thick and is physically bound to the emission nebula and its parent molecular cloud complex.

Though this immense HII region is located visually close by to the class F8 star known as Sadr or Gamma Cygni (in Cygnus the Swan), there is no true proximity between the two: the nebula's distance from Earth is estimated to be about 5000 light years, whereas Sadr is only about 750 light years away, and therefore not related to the nebulosity (ref. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/IC1318text.html).

I have found several very impressive images of the region and adjacent areas on NASA APOD, each highlighting a different interest aspect of the region:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101119.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091027.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081107.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080424.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070104.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040728.html

Snake Nebula.
Copyright: César Cantú
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8022/7632 ... 70cb_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mexhunter/7632462564/

A medieval chapel and two friends under the Milky Way in Teruel, Spain
Copyright: Maria Rosa Vila

http://imageshack.us/f/40/dsc008072bx.jpg/

Cocoon Nebula, iC5146 Rosebud at Cygnus
http://www.tonimancera.com
Copyright: Toni Mancera



Direct link to big size image
http://www.tonimancera.com/astrophoto/iC5146_RGB.jpg

Milky Way over the world
Copyright: Maria Rosa Vila
http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/3913/dsc008142bx.jpg

Joie de vivre for star gazing
Milky Way on the ruins of an Iberian settlement 2,500 years old in Teruel, Spain
Copyright: Maria Rosa Vila
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/7304/dsc007982bx.jpg

Titulo: Nebulosa Norteamérica
Copyright: Jose Manuel González
Valencia (Spain)

NGC7635 (Bubble) widefield

http://www.astromarcin.pl
Copyright: Marcin Paciorek

You can find higher resolution here: http://www.astromarcin.pl/images/nebula ... e_2200.jpg

Last few days I have been experimenting with my Canon 100mm lens on my CCD camera. This to gain experience for imaging during my holidays in Austria. In the end I used 3 nights for this image. The experimenting took its time, but I think this could have been done in one night. At least now I know how it works...

Here is the image info:

Lens: Canon 100mm F2.0 @ F2.8
Camera: SXV-H9
Ha: 14x300s (custom scientific 4,5nm)
OIII: 12x600s (astrodon 3nm)
S2: 12x600s (astrodon 5nm)
Total: 5,2h

Mount: NEQ-6
Guiding: no
Full size: http://www.astro-photo.nl/photoblog/ima ... 072012.jpg

Mittens and Sisters

Venus, Jupiter and the Seven Sisters rising over the "Mittens" in Monument Valley (Navajo Nation, Utah) at sunrise.

Constellations Auriga and Taurus are also visible over this landscape.
(c) David Pearson

Milkyway - 6th National Annual Star Party of Greek Amateur Astronomers - Mt. Parnon, Pelloponisos, Greece

Canon eos 5D mk2
ef 15mm fisheye
iso1600
44sec
photoshop

Here in higher resolution: http://www.astrovox.gr/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=15287

These pictures are truly incredible!!!
I just started shooting night shots and they are much, much, much harder then they look. I have a Canon DSLR I have been shooting with, but not having a lot of luck. I've also been playing with my Canon XH A1 to shoot some video shots. It's a ton of fun!

- Sara

The Moon, Waxing Crescent 3,59 day old

Takahashi Toa130
temma2 em200
1000mm
f7.7
Canon eos 40D
iso800
1/1000sec-8sec
Photomatix, Photoshop

Here in better quality: http://www.astrovox.gr/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=15286

Hello,

I let you here an object that was discovered only in May 2011 by N.Outters!
This elusive squid it was the most dificult object I ever photographed! Even with 11h15m of OIII data the signal is so dim that it is very hard to process!
Here the data:

OU4 nebula in Sh2-129
Takahashi FS102NSV @ 641mm + QSI532WS-M1 + OIII-3nm + Ha-5nm
OIII- 675 min
Ha- 85 min
Photographed from the 17 - 21th of July 2012 @ Portugal.

Regards,
paulo

Hello,

this is my IC1318 with 18 hours exposure in LRGB and HA with 12" f/4 and Moravian G2-8300.

Regards

Reinhold

Meeting Celestial Over Paris Beach
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegastarca ... otostream/
Copyright : VegaStar Carpentier

Cygnus Wall in NGC7000
http://www.deepskyobjects.com/
Copyright: Behyar Bakhshandeh
Date: 7/20/2012
Place: Palomar Mountain, CA

SBIG ST10-XME
Tak FSQ-106N, 530mm fl @ f/5
2 Hours of Sii, Ha and Oiii 3nm filters mapped as RGB
AP900 Mount

Captured with Maxim/DL, processed with CCDStack and PS CS5

One day moon next to the Palomar Observatory
http://www.deepskyobjects.com/
Copyright: Behyar Bakhshandeh
Date: 7/20/2012
Place: Palomar Mountain, CA

Dust and light in Corona Australis

Copyright: Geert Vanhauwaert Larger version can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_gvan ... otostream/

Propeller Nebula
http://www.deepskyobjects.com/
Copyright: Behyar Bakhshandeh
Date: 7/21/2012

Noctilucent Clouds
http://www.clearskies.se
Copyright: P-M Hedén
[attachment=5]River NLC.jpg[/attachment]

Large Sagittarius Star Cloud
http://www.joebergeron.com
Copyright: Joe Bergeron
[attachment=4]Large Sag Star Cloud.jpg[/attachment]

Collinder 399: The Coat Hanger/Brocchi's Cluster
http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-Cluster-Cr-399.htm
Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis
[attachment=3]dso-cluster-cr-399-850pix.jpg[/attachment]

Airglow
http://www.kopfgeist.com
Copyright: Jens Hackmann
[attachment=2]airglow.jpg[/attachment]

A Trio in Sagittarius
http://atalas.businesscatalyst.com/imag ... tack_2.jpg
Copyright: Louie Atalasidis
[attachment=1]sag_trio_Louie.jpg[/attachment]

NGC6744: Spiral Galaxy in Pavo
http://www.glitteringlights.com
Copyright: Marco Lorenzi
[attachment=0]ngc-6744_HaLRGB_med.jpg[/attachment]

Arp 81: Interacting Galaxies in Draco
http://skycenter.arizona.edu/gallery/galaxies/ngc6621
Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona Cascade Stratovolcano Family Portrait
Copyright: Andrew Laszlo
[attachment=0]Cascade portrait 3 APOD.jpg[/attachment]

Ngc 6559 Complex
http://www.massimotosco.it/NGC6559.html
Copyright: Massimo Tosco

How would the sky look like if we could see h-alpha radiation with our own eyes? This image comes close. It was made from 9 images made from my backyard using a 100mm Canon lens with a SXV-H9 ccd camera. It's the tail of the Swan (Cygnus).
The full scale can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avdhoeven/ ... hotostream

M20 (NGC 6514), Trifid Nebula - starforming emission and reflection nebula, with open star cluster, in Sagittarius

http://www.elateobservatory.com

Copyright: Velimir Popov
Big size is avaliable here

Thank you for looking...