Starship Asterisk*

Thanks for your answers, Ann, Bruce, and Chris.

noob question: How do we deduce the drop in brightness is not because of an object passing in front of Betelgeuse? The second image where the bottom of the star is darkened led me to the question.

Going by the video, between 10 secs to 20 secs, it appears our Sun (Sol) is part of a Globular Star Cluster. Is that really the case? Or is it a result of insufficient data of the Milky Way so far?

Dear authors of APOD, My day on the Internet always begins with APOD. Checking email comes in second. The choice of photographs and its description, to me, are just as important as the numerous hyperlinks that you provide with the text. They have led me to even more fascinating glimpses into our Uni...

I too have found flags of the 2 countries mentioned earlier. In fact, the Canada splayed across the picture was possibly the first thing that grabbed my attention. The blue reflection at the back was also quite interesting.

Thanks a lot BMAONE23 & Case for your directions in locating the Comet. I'll try to locate it tonight if it doesn't rain tonight! I could locate Cassiopeia and there was a bright object to its right, but with my binoculars too i wasn't able to see the "coma" that is being spoken of. Un...

Hi,
I would like to know if the clouds in the horizon in the following snap - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu/1876165170/ - are noctilucent or just light pollution.
By the way, i was searching for Comet Holmes, couldn't locate it so took this snap of my favourite constellation.[/url]

The distance between stars, when compared to the diameter of the stars is quite large. Indeed astronomical. Therefor, collisions between stars are extremely rare even during the time that galaxies are colliding. Thanks for correcting me. I searched a little on the web to find out that Star collisio...

It was interesting to note that in M64's Black eye there were 2 concentric counter-rotating system of stars. One in the inner 3,000 light years and the other extending to 40,000 light years. I wonder what happens at 3,000 light years or the horizon where the rotations of both system of stars interse...

There i found the original one

Isn't this image being repeated?
I do remember seeing it a few months back along with the same description, I could tell what was written without even reading it.(or is it a Deja vu?)

It does to me, too. I think this is better image. Yeah that certainly is a better image. So what it means is that, the shadow falling on the lighter gray square (Square B) makes it as dark as Square A. But instead of comparing A & B, we compare B and its adjacent dark square. "Now I'm a be...

I too have got difficulty in understanding how the colours are the same. It seems like a gradient on the gray scale. Was hoping the explanation on APOD itself would explain. But the explanation is not satisfactory. Now i'm hoping some genius out here will elucidate upon this mystery.