Starship Asterisk*

Airglow impact over the Yellowstone
Copyright: Petr Horálek
More info and image in higher resolution: http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=3300

Two eclipses of August 2017
Copyright: Petr Horálek / ESO (http://www.eso.org/public/) / Solar Wind Sherpas (http://project.ifa.hawaii.edu/solarwindsherpas/)
More info and image(s) in higher resolution:
http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=3268
http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=3248
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1733a/

Sharpless 171 Image description and imaging details may be viewed here:
http://www.waid-observatory.com/sh2-171-2017-09-20.html
(Click on the displayed images to view at higher resolution.)

Copyright: Donald Waid
http://www.waid-observatory.com

Iris Nebula

Iris Nebula (explore #140) by Eric Ganz, on Flickr

A while ago I saw a post from Pete Lawrence from BBC Sky at Night in which he showed that you can see the lunar limb profile in the images from the Baily beads taken during the solar eclipse. When I started making an beads sequence I remembered this post and thought it was worthwhile to see if I could do something like that also. It showed that I had about 15 bead images during C2 and C3 and so I started adding them to my image and I was heavily surprised.

Using Solar Eclipse Maestro I then generated a lunar limb profile (80x exaggerated) to compare with my imagery. This is shown as the white line on the inside of the beads. What surprised me was that the limb was so clearly visible, but even more that also in the part outside the beads you can still see limb features in the solar chromosphere clearly.

In the image I tried to link some of the features to the chromosphere banding that is visible. This is a nice example how you can even do some 'science' using your own eclipse data.

The images were taken with a Nikon D810a equipped with a Nikon 300mm f/4 lens.


Lunar Limb profile from Solar Eclipse imagery by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

http://astrob.in/full/313463/B/
image of SH-230
Imaging telescope or lens: William Optics gt-81 GT-81

Imaging camera: qhyccd 163m

Mount: Losmandy GM-8 Gemini 2 gm-8 with Gemini 2

Focal reducer: William Optics Flat 6A

Software: Planewave PlateSolve 2 Platesolve 2, Deep Sky Stacker 3.3.4 deepskystacker, Photoshop CC

Filter: Astrodon 36mm

Accessories: Moonlite DRO focuser&rotator moon, qhyccd polemaster



Resolution: 4656x3522

Dates: Sept. 24, 2017

Frames: Astrodon 36mm: 102x80" -10C bin 1x1

Integration: 2.3 hours

Darks: ~20

Flats: ~20

Flat darks: ~20

Avg. Moon age: 3.68 days

Avg. Moon phase: 14.53%

Mean SQM: 19.62

Temperature: 18.00

Astrometry.net job: 1742568

RA center: 79.691 degrees

DEC center: 33.864 degrees

Pixel scale: 2.016 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: 116.415 degrees

Field radius: 1.635 degrees

Locations: backyard, Queen Creek, Arizona, United States

Widefield view of Auriga - Flaming Star Nebula(IC 405), IC 410, M38
2 hrs total integration, in Hwacheon, South Korea

Taken by Jiyong Youn (https://atik.kr)

http://moonrocksastro.com/wp-content/up ... e-Veil.jpg


Pickering's Triangle in the Veil

website and image: http://moonrocksastro.com/wp-content/up ... e-Veil.jpg

Copyright: Paul C. Swift

Pickering's Triangle in the Veil by Paul C. Swift, on Flickr

Comet C/2017 O1 (ASAS-SN) Slides by the Pleiades and California Nebula by Transient Astronomer, on Flickr

Image Credit and Copyright Tom Masterson

Copyright Prof. Greg Parker 2017
A Deep M45 using the MiniWASP array at the New Forest Observatory, U.K.

The Grus Triplet - Interacting Galaxies

This group of galaxies are located in the southern skies, in the constellation of Grus. Translated from Latin, it means ‘the crane’. The constellations of Grus, Pavo, Phoenix, and Tucana are collectively known as the ‘Southern Birds’.

The common name for this group is The Grus Triplet. They are interacting galaxies. If you look carefully, the tidal tales of the galaxies can be seen fairly easily in the two smaller galaxies on the right side of the frame. The image contains several hours of H-Alpha (Ha) data. This is a specific deep-red visible spectral line, and is often used by astronomers as it is emitted by many emission nebula. I included this within the image to highlight these emission areas within the small galaxies

Full Frame Version


Cropped Version


Terry

The Wizard Nebula
This image was taken with 20inch RC with SBIG Adaptive optic system & PL09000 cooled CCD camera .
ASTRODON 3nm Narrow band filter: SAO(300min/300min/300min)
http://www.miki-hosp.or.jp/BIND/
Copyright: Nobuhiko Miki

Messier 33
Copyright: Danny Flippo

NGC 6559
http://www.astropilar.com.ar/nebulosas/NGC6559_1.html
Copyright: Ezequiel Bellocchio

Simeis 3-210
An obscure part of the Veil Nebula I like to call Leaping Leopard Nebula

Copyright: Mark Hanson Here is a very interesting part of the Veil Nebula Simeis 3-210 is a long, thin filament at the extreme southern end of the Veil Nebula and is virtually unknown (not listed separately in SIMBAD) Never imaged at this resolution to my knowledge, take peak at the larger version here:

https://www.hansonastronomy.com/veil-nebula-simeis-3210

Thank you,
Mark Hanson

Ancient Memories Across a Landscape
http://www.ancientskys.com
Copyright: Marc Toso This is an ancient petroglyph called a waterglyph, found along the Utah/Arizona border. They may be sacred sites, or perhaps navigational markers, they are estimated to be 1,000-2,000 years old.

The Crescent Nebula
URL of website, http://moonrocksastro.com/wp-content/up ... escent.jpg
Copyright: Paul C. Swift

Upside-down by Paul C. Swift, on Flickr

Dust-Scape in Cygnus
URL of website, http://moonrocksastro.com/wp-content/up ... -scape.jpg
Copyright: Paul C. Swift

Dust-Scape in Cygnus by Paul C. Swift, on Flickr

This image is an further work on a previous image that I released last week. After finding that it was possible to bring out details of the lunar limb using the imagery made during the total eclipse I started looking a bit further into the topic. It showed that there is very nice software from the International Occultation Timing Association, called Occult, that contains a very accurate height model of the moon that can be used to for timing of occultations of stars by the moon. This same software can also generate lunar limb graphs for solar eclipses.

I decided to put the software to the test and see how well it would coincide with the images that I made. So I used the GPS coordinates that I grabbed during the eclipse and started to look at the generated graphs for the exact times of the 2nd and 3rd contacts. I was astonished to see the accuracy of the software. The graphs exactly coincide with the Bailey beads that I observed and imaged. In this way you can retrieve the times that the images were taken to about 1/10 of a second accurate.

In this image I have tried to put it all together. On the sides you can see images taken around 2nd and 3rd contact together with the height model and locations in yellow where the sunlight passed through the valleys between the craters. In the central image you can see a 'stack' of all my bead images that leads to an impression of the lunar surface structures on the limb during the eclipse from our location, Teton Village, WY.

All images were taken with a Nikon D810a with a 300mm Nikon lens.



Lunar features visible during totality... by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

Faint van den Bergh 158 and LBN534
http://www.buckeyestargazer.net
Copyright: Joel Short

M101 - 15h exposure time

Skywatcher Esprit 100 APO
ATIK 460ex mono
Skywatcher AZ-EQ6
Pixinsight 1.8

NGC 6946 with SN 17 eaw, NGC 6939

Full quality
http://www.astrobin.com/full/313552/B/?nc=user

http://www.astrobin.com/314486/0/?nc=user

Stack of 166 images of Corona Arch (near Moab, Utah). Thin crescent moon was lighting the arch.
I used my own freeware "Startrails.exe" to stack the images

http://www.astrobin.com/314487/?nc=user

Startrails above the The Kaibab National Forest
While sleeping in our campervan close to the Grand Canyon I took a series of images to make startrails. First I was disappointed because of the one car driving by, but now I am happy because otherwise the trees wouls have been much darker...
I used my own freeware "Startrails.exe" to stack the images

Cygnus-Starfield - between Cocoon and Crescent Nebula, Berne, Switzerland, Aug. 20, 2017

http://www.sternklar.ch/images-webpages ... Aug-17.htm

Exposure data:
Carl Zeiss Milvus Planar T* 85 mm 1:1.4 ZE @ f/2.8 with Canon EOS 6Da. Exposure time: 117 x 2 minutes @ 800 Asa.

Copyright: Manuel Jung, http://www.sternklar.ch