Starship Asterisk*

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Please click on each image for best viewing; please click on the link below the
image title for more information about the image. Thank you!
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<- Previous submissions


SH2-64 and Dust Complex
http://www.starkeeper.it/SH2-64.htm
Copyright: Leonardo Orazi NGC7023: Iris Nebula
http://www.astrophoto-sv.com/index.php?p=1_67
Copyright: Sergi Verdugo Martínez M17
http://Astronomy.Qteaser.com
Copyright: Mark Sibole IC5146: The Cocoon Nebula
http://www.astrosky.it/
Copyright: Davide Bardini Proxima Centauri
http://www.starrysite.com/index.php?sit ... ryitem,199
Copyright: Michał Żołnowski With a first look at this image, nothing happens -- boring field of stars covering more than 6 square degrees. But when we stare patiently at it, we can find a small gray arrow, which is pointed to the closest star to our Solar System, Proxima Centauri. Hard to believe that this small, dim reddish star is only 4.2 light years from us. On the right side of the image, we see a halo coming from her Sister -- very bright Alpha Centauri -- a star with the distance 0.21 light year from Proxima. ~ Michał Żołnowski
<- Previous submissions

NGC 5139: Omega Centauri
Copyright: Andy Blanchard
[attachment=0]ngc-5139.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Watch Dr. Nemiroff's lecture on star clusters here.

From Southern Cross to Eta Carina
http://www.astrofotografia.com.pl/photo ... a-1200.htm
Copyright: Piotrek Sadowski

Moon-Venus Conjunction Over Colorful Mountain
Copyright: Masoud Rafiei
[attachment=0]hdr_panorama_masoudrafiei.jpg[/attachment][/i]

The Pelican Wide Field
http://www.pbase.com/boren
Copyright: Harel Boren
[attachment=0]the-pelican-nebula-1300-pixels.jpg[/attachment][/i]

Globular Cluster M3
Copyright: Paul A. Wilson & Anders Overaa
[attachment=0]m3.jpg[/attachment]

I love the Moon-Venus Conjunction Over Colorful Mountain image. It's one of the most beautiful landscape photos I've seen in a very long time. Congratulations Masoud.

Rob

Thanks for your kind words, Rob.

Hi:
In addition to the photo of Masoud, the southern Milky Way is a great picture, without underestimating the Sergi's NGC7023.
Many grettings
Cesar

The Veil Nebula
http://www.alsonwongastro.com/veil.htm
Copyright: Alson Wong Higher resolution images available at URL listed above.

M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
http://www.skyfactory.org/m51/m51.htm
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Image processing: Davide De Martin. Zoomify image available at URL listed above.

M8: The Lagoon Nebula
http://www.caelumobservatory.com/gallery/m8.shtml
Credit and copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona Larger version available at URL listed above.

M20: The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M20-Mosaic.html
Credit: Image data acquired by Ryan Hannahoe from Moorook Obervatory, Australia.
Processing and copyright: Robert Gendler Larger versions available at the URL listed above.

M8 and M20: Trifid and Lagoon, with the added bonus of NGC 6559
http://www.alsonwongastro.com/m8-m20.htm
Copyright: Alson Wong Larger versions available at the URL listed above.

As always, some more stunning images.

I think Robert Gendler's M20: The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius is one of the best compositions of the Trifid I have seen.

I've always liked the M51 Whirlpool. This image is a reprocessing of the data featured in APOD 2008 Jan 05, but the zoom at Skyfactory is simply amazing.

Globular Clusters I always find fascinating, though I think the Spitzer composite of Omega Centauri is my favorite of that cluster.

You don't see many images of the entire Veil Nebula (Cygnus Loop), usually just pieces, particularly the Witch's Broom Nebula. I think my favorite was featured in APOD 2005 Dec 06.

I've always thought the Iris Nebula beautiful. I particularly like the CFHT image featured on APOD 2005 Dec 29.

SH2-64 and Dust Complex is stunning.

All I can say about Moon-Venus Conjunction Over Colorful Mountain is WOW. I hope Masoud doesn't mind, but I have this on my desktop.

I think Masoud's image would make a fabulous wall mural. And desktop. And framed print. And... well, you get the idea; it's a lovely picture.

And yes, these are "some more stunning images," indeed! All of these amaze me; that we get to see these.... !!! How lucky we are, and how wonderful the astrophotographers are to share their images with us!

Beyond said:

bystander wrote:I think Robert Gendler's M20: The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius is one of the best compositions of the Trifid I have seen.

I agree. Gendler manages to make this rather over-photographed object look brilliantly beautiful and fantastic.

Like everyone else, I, too, love Masoud's image, which is stunningly beautiful indeed.

Mark Sibole's image of M17 is not stunningly beautiful or even beautiful at all, in my opinion, but I like it. In the small version, I see a "face" in the nebula, with two black dots for eyes, a line for a mouth and a protrusion for what may be a rabbit ear!

I like another thing about Sibole's image, which is that it brings home the energy of the newborn young stars of this massive star formation region. The light blue or pale cyan part of M17 is caused by the "champagne flow" of this rich young cluster. I'm not absolutely sure what a "champagne flow" is, but I think it is the combined very strong stellar wind of the hot young stars, which causes an outflowing jet similar to the Earthly force that makes a champagne cork pop and sends it flying.

Ann