APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5547
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am

APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:07 am

Image The Owl and the Galaxy

Explanation:
The Owl andthe Galaxy sail these skies
With blue and yellow star.

They go together beneath the Big Dipper,
If you wonder where they are.

The Galaxy's light shines through the night,
Ten millions of light-years away.

But never fear the Owl is near,
Inside theMilky Way.

A cosmic shroud, the Owl is proud,
its central star a must.

And the spiral Galaxy lies on edge
To show off all its dust,
Its dust,
Its dust,
To show off all its dust.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>
[/b]

User avatar
owlice
Guardian of the Codes
Posts: 8406
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 4:18 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by owlice » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:36 am

I love this APOD, every bit of it!!!!

(I'm sure that astonishes no one...)
A closed mouth gathers no foot.

User avatar
Indigo_Sunrise
Science Officer
Posts: 439
Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 1:40 pm
Location: Md

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Indigo_Sunrise » Thu Apr 02, 2015 10:22 am

This is great!
:thumb_up:
Forget the box, just get outside.

starsurfer
Stellar Cartographer
Posts: 5409
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:25 pm

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by starsurfer » Thu Apr 02, 2015 10:56 am

owlice wrote:I love this APOD, every bit of it!!!!

(I'm sure that astonishes no one...)
I was about to remark that owlice might like today's APOD!

It is a wonderful and odd pairing! You can even faintly see the halo around the Owl Nebula, which was discovered in 1992 by the astronomers Karen Kwitter, You-Hua Chu and Ronald Downes. It is usually more easily seen in narrowband images.

Another much less well known pairing of a galaxy pair and a planetary nebula is NGC 4725 and NGC 4747 along with LoTr 5.

One that has never been imaged is the southern pairing of NGC 5121 and Longmore 8.

Even more rare and interesting are pairings of planetary nebulae, there are a surprising number that are mostly southern and unphotographed:

1. Shapley 1 and VBRC 7 in Norma.
2. NGC 2899 and VBRC 2 in Vela
3. MeWe 2-4 and Fr 2-8 in Centaurus
4. Murrell 1 and Patchick 33 in Lupus


Other planetary nebula pairings include star clusters:

1. NGC 6440 and NGC 6445 in Sagittarius
2. NGC 6712 and IC 1295 in Scutum
3. NGC 2141 and WDHS 1 in Orion
4. Pismis 3 and VBRC 1 in Vela
5. NGC 5823 and the Mask Nebula in Circinus


Some other clusters just happen to share their line of sight with another planetary nebula:

1. M46 with NGC 2438 in Puppis
2. NGC 2818 with NGC 2818A in Pyxis
3. NGC 5617 with PN G314.6-00.1 in Centaurus, can be seen near the centre of this image by Kfir Simon.

However there is one planetary nebula that has been confirmed to be a true member of an open cluster, this is PN G305.3-03.1 in the cluster ESO 96-4 in Musca.

Professional astronomers have also investigated other possible open cluster and planetary nebula associations.

Finally, some globular clusters are known to contain planetary nebulae in the Milky Way and other galaxies, the most notable of which is M15 with Pease 1 in Pegasus.

leon.l7027@gmail.com

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by leon.l7027@gmail.com » Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:55 pm

imho, no need to apologize to Mr. Lear. Given his wide range of interests and abilities, I believe he would have been delighted with your homage.

AstroRockHunter
Asternaut
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 3:46 pm

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by AstroRockHunter » Thu Apr 02, 2015 3:55 pm

I'll be disappointed if this picture with poem does not become a wall poster.

And I agree that Mr. Lear would not demand or even expect an apology.

Visual_Astronomer

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Visual_Astronomer » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:36 pm

A beautiful shot indeed!

I've viewed this pairing many times; it is always fascinating to see the juxtaposition of objects like this in the night sky. Thanks starsurfer for your list - I've seen the M46/NGC2438 pair, but there were several others that were unknown to me. I'll add them to my list of targets. (at least the northern ones)

User avatar
Ron-Astro Pharmacist
Resistored Fizzacist
Posts: 889
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:34 pm
AKA: Fred
Location: Idaho USA

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Ron-Astro Pharmacist » Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:04 pm

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171941

Runcible - Clearly Edward Lear meant : l-Brucine n. - A bitter alkaloid poison resembling strychnine and extracted from nux vomica but did a terrible job of spelling. If you didn't wash that spoon off well you could be doing lots of dancing around by the light of the moon. :no: Actually he seemed to have meant runcible but you'd have to wonder why? Who likes making up their own words or theories? :yes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runcible

I'd prefer the mentioned "obsolete adjective rouncival, meaning "gigantic" which seems fitting enough for today's APOD.
Make Mars not Wars

Boomer12k
:---[===] *
Posts: 2691
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2007 12:07 am

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Boomer12k » Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:24 pm

Hoot, hoot...

:---(===) *

User avatar
Tilt
Ensign
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:02 pm
Location: Frostbite Falls, MN

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Tilt » Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:40 am

Outstanding —

Reminded me of something.... ah, Here it is:

Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines,
Tell me what makes skies so blue,
And I will tell you why I love you.

Nuclear fusion causes stars to shine,
Tropisms induce the ivy to twine,
Tyndall-Rayleigh scatter makes the sky look blue,
Testicular hormones are why I love you.

User avatar
DavidLeodis
Perceptatron
Posts: 1169
Joined: Mon May 01, 2006 1:00 pm

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by DavidLeodis » Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:04 pm

Clicking on Christoph Kaltseis in the credit brings up what is presumably the home page of Christoph's website. On that page there is what seems to be a link labelled 'Astronomy' but on clicking on that link (and trying other links) nothing comes up. I wonder if it is a problem with my connection and/or settings or does anyone else seem unable to get the links to work?

Confusingly (well it is to me :? ) in the Exif data that I was able to obtain through the APOD image properties it states the image create date is "March 16, 2015 11:27:33AM (timezone is 1 hour ahead of GMT)". A local time of 11:27:33AM would though surely be daylight, unless it was taken in a region during the period where the Sun never rises.

Thanks for any help. I need an Easter Egg or bunny smilie but here's an :owl: for the APOD connection. :)

User avatar
rstevenson
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Posts: 2705
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:24 pm
Location: Halifax, NS, Canada

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by rstevenson » Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:09 pm

DavidLeodis wrote:Clicking on Christoph Kaltseis in the credit brings up what is presumably the home page of Christoph's website. On that page there is what seems to be a link labelled 'Astronomy' but on clicking on that link (and trying other links) nothing comes up. I wonder if it is a problem with my connection and/or settings or does anyone else seem unable to get the links to work?...
I get the same results -- in four different web browsers, all of them the current versions, all of them running the latest Flash Player plug-in. Those four links are inside a Flash slide show, and that's as far as I care to explore. When I see Flash used to create interface elements, I run screaming into the night. Or just click the Back button.

Rob

quigley

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by quigley » Fri Apr 03, 2015 5:41 pm

And all this time I thought love was much more than the result of hormones...

starsurfer
Stellar Cartographer
Posts: 5409
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:25 pm

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by starsurfer » Fri Apr 03, 2015 8:25 pm

Visual_Astronomer wrote:A beautiful shot indeed!

I've viewed this pairing many times; it is always fascinating to see the juxtaposition of objects like this in the night sky. Thanks starsurfer for your list - I've seen the M46/NGC2438 pair, but there were several others that were unknown to me. I'll add them to my list of targets. (at least the northern ones)
I'm glad you found the list of use, there are many nice visual observing targets out there. An OIII filter would help with seeing the planetary nebulae more clearly.

There is actually another pairing that I forgot about, NGC 1360 and NGC 1398 in Fornax.

Roberto Capacci
Ensign
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:09 am
Location: Arezzo (Italy)

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Roberto Capacci » Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:30 am

Very good image!

pat_42

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by pat_42 » Sun May 08, 2016 6:54 pm

I wonder why the photo has been mirrored? And I really mean mirrored, not just turned by an angle.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160421.html shows the same area of sky, but in the right way.

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18529
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA

Re: APOD: The Owl and the Galaxy (2015 Apr 02)

Post by Chris Peterson » Sun May 08, 2016 7:57 pm

pat_42 wrote:I wonder why the photo has been mirrored? And I really mean mirrored, not just turned by an angle.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160421.html shows the same area of sky, but in the right way.
Orientation and reflection of astronomical images is a matter of convention only. There is no "right" or "wrong" way. This image was made with a Newtonian reflector, which mirrors the sky, and presumably the author didn't choose to reflect it again in the processing stage.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com