Starship Asterisk*

Title: Conjunction of Jupiter & Venus , just 1/3° apart
Location: Chiayi City , Taiwan
Date: July 1st, 2015 (local time 19:54)
Credit: Yulang Kung

for best quality of image :
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/538/1946 ... 3e8e_o.jpg

Not far to Jupiter & Venus upper left, appearing much fainter, is Regulus, the alpha star in the constellation Leo.
You will find it in the large image.

The Crescent nebula, NGC 6888 by Paul Swift, on Flickr

The Red Sprites over the Czech Republic
Copyright: Petr Horálek
More info: http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=1661

As the hot and dry summertime peaks in the center of Europe, this season finally brings some strong MCS storms visible far from the Seč reservoir. And this night, exactly on the early morning of July 6th, 2015, finally came my opportunity to capture some Red Sprites just by the DSLR camera. I was waiting almost 3 hours until I finally succeeded. This one at 00:17:01 UTC (June 6th) was visible even by naked eyes even in strong moonglight! Total estimated magnitude is about -3.

This success was not accidental. I was hoping in development of strong MCS storms, coming from the Germany, and waiting on the beach of the Seč reservoir with my camera. Knowing about big count of the CG+ flashes from the storm via datas of the Czech Hydrometeorological institute, I’ve just set up my camera to the direction of the sky with the highest potential of Red Sprites in the sky. Long and almost hopeless waiting and blind-capturing of the sky turned to the success when I finally captured this only one strong Red Sprite in the sky, close to the Acturus star of the Bootes constellation. Thanks to the two-stationary observation of Martin Popek, Czech observer of Red Sprites, I was able to calculate the distance of the Sprite as 221 km.

http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/wp-conte ... 1500px.png

http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/wp-conte ... 1500px.png

Full Moon of July & Temple of Poseidon at cape Sounio, Attica, Greece


Full Moon 15.48 days old, rise behind the ancient Temple of Poseidon,
This is the first Moon of July, capture on 2th July 2015 21:15(UT+3), the Moon was on the left hand(ρ1-Sgr) of Constellation of Sagittarius and it was 371645km (230929miles) away from us, and it was about 4° above the Ecliptic. While the Sun was at the opposite site just 6° under the horizon.
This year July has two full moons the second one is on 31th of July and it call it Blue Moon.
The Moon appears huge because of the telescopic illusion, the Temple was 1540m.(5052ft) away, while the photo shot by a 1000mm f7.7 Telescope.


According to Greek Mythology, Cape Sounion is the spot where Aegeus, king of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea.
Archaeological finds on the site date from as early as 700 BC. Herodotus tells us that in the sixth century BC, the Athenians celebrated a quadrennial festival at Sounion, which involved Athens' leaders sailing to the cape in a sacred boat.


Canon eos 700D
iso800
Takahashi TOA 130 APO of the Astronomical Society of Corfu
1000mm
f7.7

IC 5070 in a modified Hubble Palette:

IC5070 aka The Pelican Nebula by chris.baron, on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98995186@ ... ed-public/


Be-star2 by Sauro Donati, on Flickr

Hi, Unlike nebulae represent the end of life of stars (as in the case of planetary nebulae for solar-type stars and supernova remnants for more massive stars or binary systems), emission nebulae (or HII regions ) represent the vast majority of nebulae to be found in our galaxy, and hydrogen are huge areas within which stars are forming. Shine thanks to the upcoming newly formed stars that ionize the atoms. In many of them are spherical dark areas, called Bok globules, which are regions where it is producing gas collapsing to form new stars. This nebula, called Laguna, and well known among amateur astronomers, is in the constellation of Sagittarius and about 5,000 light years. It has associated the star cluster NGC6530, formed by young blue stars. It is easily observable with small telescopes from dark skies.


Lagoon and trifid nebulas by Alfredo Madrigal, en Flickr

Alfredo Madrigal
Agrupación Astronómica Coruñesa Io (http://www.agrupacionio.com)

Description:

"In the municipality of A Veiga (Xares-Valdín) STARLIGHT next destination, the Milky Way is, late at night, in one of his best moments of observation, and to the south horizon, toward the galactic core, we find the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio, plagued with interesting objects and bright deep sky. In this case it is Messier 17 or Omega Nebula, or M16 Eagle Nebula, M8 Lagoon Nebula and Trifid Nebula M20. They are huge hydrogen emission regions (HII). In many of them are spherical dark areas, called Bok globules, which are regions where it is producing gas collapsing to form new stars."

combination M8 M20 M16 M17_01 by Alfredo Madrigal, en Flickr

equipment: nikon d610 + TS65Q + hutech idas nebula v4 + astrotrac mount + very dark sky

greetings and dark skies without light pollution

Magnificence meets Luminescence! Milky way with fireflies!!!
Copyright: Shekhar Phatak In the 4th week of May/1st week of June every year, thousands and thousands of fireflies congregate in certain areas of the Western Ghats and West Coast areas of India for mating. The display is just spectacular, especially since, very often, they flash in synch. This also happens to be that time of the year when the milky way in Sagittarius/Scorpio becomes almost vertical at about midnight and is completely out of the city glow or horizon haze. When I first saw this fireflies display, I imagined a frame with the milky way and the fireflies together in one frame and I was very impressed with what I saw. However, this being the pre-monsoon shower period, getting the exact frame that you have in mind is extremely difficult. If you get a nice location, the clouds could hide the milky way. If you get a perfect location and a clear night, the moon phase may not be favourable. The moon factor is all the more important in this season because even clear skies will have lot of pre-monsoon haze. It can also be very windy in that part of the year. And, to that, the result has to be achieved in those eight to ten days since the fireflies just disappear after the first monsoon shower leaving almost no trace of their existence. I was able to take this image last year after having tried for at least four years before that with a lot of patience. I must have travelled at least a thousand kilometres in all before I got this image. This year again, the weather and moon played spoil sport. Well, here it is! The result of my five year long effort and patience! I hope you like it.

Jupiter and Venus conjunction over lake
Copyright: Milan Miloradović
http://www.astroblog-yagodinac.blogspot.com/

Conjuction: Jupiter and Venus by milan miloradovic, on Flickr

M57 - The Ring Nebula
Copyright: Francesco di Biase - www.astropixel.it


M57 - The Ring Nebula by Francesco di Biase, su Flickr

Milky Way rises over the abandoned Shelter at Diaselo Avgou on Chelmos Mountain at 2100m. The 10 second capture was made under clear atmospheric conditions and without any light pollution.
EXIF data: Canon EOS 6D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, 10 sec, f/2.8, ISO 10000, single exposure

https://www.facebook.com/ThPapathanasiouPhotography

Space Shelter by Thanasis Papathanasiou, on Flickr

Universal Scale
http://theartofnight.com
Copyright: Mark Gee


Universal Scale by Mark Gee, on Flickr

Eppur si muove (NGC6946 - NGC6939)

Image Credit: Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez
Text Credit: Emilio Gálvez Ranera

Choose any area of ​​the sky such as occupying NGC6946 the spiral Fireworks Galaxy and the open cluster NGC6939. If we compare for example the marked area with an image of the same field taken by DSS (Digitized Sky Survey) many years ago we can see how some stars look that they have been displaced. Actually, all the stars move. The apparent stillness is the product of the enormous distances that separates us from them, something that makes the movement can be perceived only by comparison of different observations separated by long periods of time.
Edmund Halley first determined in 1718 the movement of the stars, comparing the positions of three very bright stars: Arcturus, Procyon and Sirius, given by Ptolemy (85-165 AD) in the famous Almagest, with whom he had measured.
The movements themselves are generally very small. A very special case is the Barnard´s star having a proper motion of 10.25 "/ year, equivalent to 1 degree every 350 years.

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Website Álvaro Ibáñez Pérez: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kokehtz/
E-mail Emilio Gálvez Ranera: emilio.galvez@planetmad.es

Full resolution, GIF 2048p:
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3746/195 ... 08b8_o.gif

1280p: Anotated version:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/309/1931 ... 8d08_o.jpg
Original:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/368/1926 ... 4502_o.jpg

Full size:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89350593@ ... 1/sizes/k/
Mosaic 6 tiles NGC7000 + IC5067 in narrowband
Copyright: Juan Ignacio Jimenez

M27 20x30sec a 800 ISO, Perl 200/1000 Neq5, Canon 60D non défiltré, 20 dark ;15 offset ;5flat
M27 by David Duarte, sur Flickr

Venus & Jupiter conjunction from Gipsy Point, Victoria
Copyright: Steve Johnston

Hello
today an eruptive prom on sun.
image © Philippe TOSI

Messier 13

Messier 13, the great globular cluster in Hercules. This is my favorite object to view with an eyepiece or shoot. Imaged with an Officina Stellare RC-250 and QSI 683 CCD camera. Paramount ME II.

Richard S. Wright Jr.
http://www.eveningshow.com

OIIIHaLRGB complex image. 56x30 mins OIII, 27x20 mins Ha , LRGB 30 mins for each channel.
Gear Veloce RH200, STL 11000, ASA DDM 60. Unguided.
Enjoy!

Colubrine cloud over the mountain "The Cat"

Crimea, Katsiveli, CRAO. "Southern Nights 2015" astrofestival near the RT-22 radiotelescope. Equipment: Canon 6D, 24-105L, exposition 10s, ISO 800.
Processing: Canon DPP, Fitswork
Full resolution image: http://vazhorov.files.wordpress.com/201 ... _0032_.jpg

Tulip Nebula by Paul Swift, on Flickr, on FlickrThis is a hybrid version of the Tulip Nebula. I wanted to try reducing the overwhelming presence of the star field to reveal some of the interesting and delicate nebula structure below. Hope you find this interesting.

Side by Side, but not really...

Both Nebulas Complex in Carina NGC 3576 & NGC 3603 seems to be related from the Earth perspective. However, these two objects are separated by approximately 13.000 light years being NGC 3603 (right nebula complex) more far away. This LRGB picture shows some distinctions out of the different reddish tad of both objects indicating, to some extend, that there are not related.

Image taken from 110 km away from Buenos Aires, Argentina with an 8 inches Orion Optics UK reflector and QSI 583 WS with TVue parabola corrector riding in a SW NEQ6 mount.

Higher resolution image and more information at
http://www.baskies.com.ar

Best regards
Sergio

Cape Palliser by Night
http://theartofnight.com
Copyright: Mark Gee


Cape Palliser by Night by Mark Gee, on Flickr

Cape Palliser on the North Island of New Zealand is one incredible place to view the night sky. The only light in this remote and rugged location is the Cape Palliser lighthouse perched high above the coastline.

This image is a seamless 360 degrees panorama features our Milky Way galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Zodiacal Light which extends up from the horizon in the right side of the image.