APOD: IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula (2013 Sep 23)

[APOD Robot]

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula

Explanation: South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, radiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen. At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across, spanning an area equivalent to four full moons on the sky. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as The Prawn Nebula.

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[/b]

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=32164

[ozalba]

Does anyone else see a hooded cobra, rising at upper left. Or Jar Jar Binks?

[xmetman]

Hi

Why is this image so much different to the one in 2006?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061020.html

I can't see any immediate similarities in the two images. I know they are put together from images of different wavelengths and they are some times zoomed up and flipped but this one beats me.

Bruce.

[Boomer12k]

ooooo....Lobster meat....is that a fish stick too???

Yummy!!!

:---[===] *

[Boomer12k]

Does anyone else see a hooded cobra, rising at upper left. Or Jar Jar Binks?

Hooded Cobra...Yes...Jar Jar....not so much...our right half of the face....looks like a BUTTERFLY!!! Seen sideways....Below on the left that dark area....a faint impression of a hand print...the white meaty part in the center....a cat or dog impression jumping into our space....Oh....now you have ME SEEING THINGS AGAIN!!!!

Dr. Feldman...Dr. Feldman!!!!

:---[===] *

[ozalba]

....a faint impression of a hand print...the white meaty part in the center....a cat or dog impression jumping into our space....Oh....now you have ME SEEING THINGS AGAIN!!!!

Dr. Feldman...Dr. Feldman!!!!

:---[===] *

Fery eenteresting... do you see a woman... your mother, perhaps? How long haff you had zese feelings? I'm just going to give you somezing to calm you down... ziss von't hurt a bit...

[starsurfer]

Hi

Why is this image so much different to the one in 2006?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061020.html

I can't see any immediate similarities in the two images. I know they are put together from images of different wavelengths and they are some times zoomed up and flipped but this one beats me.

Bruce.

This image combines exposures taken with the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory with old data taken by Martin Pugh. The reason it looks different is it combines amateur colour data taken with a small telescope with more detailed exposures of the structure taken with a very large telescope, so obviously there is going to be more resolution.

[neufer]

Why is this image so much different to the one in 2006?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061020.html

I can't see any immediate similarities in the two images. I know they are put together from images of different wavelengths and they are some times zoomed up and flipped but this one beats me.

This image combines exposures taken with the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory with old data taken by Martin Pugh. The reason it looks different is it combines amateur colour data taken with a small telescope with more detailed exposures of the structure taken with a very large telescope, so obviously there is going to be more resolution.

• Not the VLT per se but the smaller 2.65 m VST: the VLT Survey Telescope (which didn't even exist in 2006).

[b][color=#0000FF]The first released VST image shows [size=150]the Swan Nebula[/size], as it has never been seen before. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars lies in the heart of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The VST field of view is so large that the entire nebula, including its fainter outer parts, is captured — and retains its superb sharpness across the entire image. [/color][/b]

---

<<The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is the latest telescope to be added to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed in an enclosure immediately adjacent to the four Very Large Telescope (VLT) Unit Telescopes on the summit of Cerro Paranal. The VST is a wide-field survey telescope with a field of view twice as broad as the full Moon. It is the largest telescope in the world designed to exclusively survey the sky in visible light.

The VST is an alt-azimuthal wide-field survey telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 2.65 meters (comparable to Hubble's 2.4 meters) that was constructed from 2007-2011 at the ESO Cerro Paranal Observatory, in Chile. With a field of view of one square degree (i.e., 3600” x 3600” vs. 160”x160” for Hubble's Wide-Field Camera 3), its main scientific role is as a wide-field imaging instrument for exploring the large-scale structure of the universe (as visible from the southern hemisphere), able to identify the most suitable candidates for detailed examination by the VLT. Together with its camera OmegaCAM, the VST is able to obtain a high angular resolution (0.216 arcsec/pixel vs. Hubble's resolution of ~0.05 arcsec), and it is capable of performing stand-alone survey projects in the visible part of the spectrum.

The second released VST image may be the best portrait of the globular star cluster Omega Centauri ever made. Omega Centauri, in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), is the largest globular cluster in the sky, but the very wide field of view of VST and its powerful camera OmegaCAM can encompass even the faint outer regions of this spectacular object. The view includes about 300,000 stars.>>

[wonderboy]

Does anyone else see a hooded cobra, rising at upper left. Or Jar Jar Binks?

i kinda do. more than i can see a prawn thats for sure.

[neufer]

Does anyone else see a hooded cobra, rising at upper left. Or Jar Jar Binks?

i kinda do. more than i can see a prawn thats for sure.

• You're not trying hard enough!

[geckzilla]

Hi

Why is this image so much different to the one in 2006?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061020.html

I can't see any immediate similarities in the two images. I know they are put together from images of different wavelengths and they are some times zoomed up and flipped but this one beats me.

Bruce.

Really? They look so similar to me even though the processing is different. The bright arc in the center is a dead giveaway. The orientation for both images is the same. Maybe if you see the two images without color information you can see that they are both the same object?

[Boomer12k]

NEUFER.....did you notice in your picture....on the right....the dark area.....the chest, neck and head of DARTH VADER?????

:---[===] *

[Beyond]

NEUFER.....did you notice in your picture....on the right....the dark area.....the chest, neck and head of DARTH VADER?????

:---[===] *

BOOMER, you just gotta quit drinking that Klingon stuff

[neufer]

NEUFER.....did you notice in your picture....on the right....the dark area.....the chest, neck and head of DARTH VADER?????

:---[===] *

BOOMER, you just gotta quit drinking that Klingon stuff

----------------------------------------------------------------

• Big Bang Theory : The Weekend Vortex

----------------------------------------------------------------
(Sound of cheering)

Amy: That’d be my boyfriend.
Happier playing his dopey Star Trek game with his friends than hanging out with me.

Penny: Wars.

Amy: What?

Penny: Star Wars. They get all cranky when you mix the two up.

Amy: What’s the difference?

Penny: There’s absolutely no difference.
-----------------------------------------------------------

[Beyond]

Penny: Star Wars. They get all cranky when you mix the two up.

Amy: What’s the difference?

Penny: There’s absolutely no difference.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Try telling that to the Wookie and see what happens

[Anthony Barreiro]

The video zooming in on IC 4628 in Nick Risinger's sky survey is really beautiful and looks very three-dimensional. It looks like we're seeing the nebula through a hole in an otherwise dense conglomeration of closer stars. Very cool.

[Beyond]

The video zooming in on IC 4628 Nick Risinger's sky survey is really beautiful and looks very three-dimensional. It looks like we're seeing the nebula through a hole in an otherwise dense conglomeration of closer stars. Very cool.

Yeah! I liked the whole thing.

[Boomer12k]

NEUFER.....did you notice in your picture....on the right....the dark area.....the chest, neck and head of DARTH VADER?????

:---[===] *

BOOMER, you just gotta quit drinking that Klingon stuff

You're right....the RIGELLIAN stuff is MUCH better!!!!

:---[===] *

[Beyond]

NEUFER.....did you notice in your picture....on the right....the dark area.....the chest, neck and head of DARTH VADER?????

:---[===] *

BOOMER, you just gotta quit drinking that Klingon stuff

You're right....the RIGELLIAN stuff is MUCH better!!!!

:---[===] *

hic

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

Maybe it’s my imagination but frequently (in photographs like this that show many stars) I see what looks like a line of stars that seem to be associated with each other. I wish I knew how to annotate the groups I am seeing to clarify my question.

Do you suspect it’s just a coincidence or could small clusters form around the same time to create a linear-like pattern?

[geckzilla]

Maybe it’s my imagination but frequently (in photographs like this that show many stars) I see what looks like a line of stars that seem to be associated with each other. I wish I knew how to annotate the groups I am seeing to clarify my question.

Do you suspect it’s just a coincidence or could small clusters form around the same time to create a linear-like pattern?

It's likely that what you see as a line is only visible as such from our point of view. Move a few light years in any direction and the patterns take on wholly different appearances due to some being much closer and some others being much farther away. Clusters of stars form in spherical areas rather than in lines.

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Maybe it’s my imagination but frequently (in photographs like this that show many stars) I see what looks like a line of stars that seem to be associated with each other. I wish I knew how to annotate the groups I am seeing to clarify my question.

Do you suspect it’s just a coincidence or could small clusters form around the same time to create a linear-like pattern?

Like the collinear Collinder 399 Coat hanger :
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081223.html
Sometimes a coat hanger is just a coat hanger

Our eyes are trained to zero in on linear features and 99% of the time linear asterisms are due to this innate selection process.

However, there are some long linear features like shock fronts & interacting galactic tails that might produce a line of young stars.

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

Yes, just like a waist, an imagination is a terrible thing to mind. Thanks for your replies. I will learn to annoatate some day and my questions will be easier to show.
Actually I'll give it a try. Hope it works. Ron

http://a.nnotate.com/docs/2013-09-25/F4 ... index.html

[Beyond]

How come all the dotted 'boxes' have little dotted i's in their upper left-hand corner