Starship Asterisk*

I find this mathematical exercise to be quite confusing — not the math, but the intent. What is the purpose of doing this? A spiral galaxy like M51 is quite clear and straightforward to see and understand as a spiral formation. This clever process of turning it into a rectangle adds nothing to that ...

“The southern winter Milky Way…”? On March 11 it was still late winter here in Nova Scotia, so I suspect it was still late summer in Chile.

Rob

The eclipse will also be visible in eastern Canada, Ann, which might make for shorter flights for your friend.

Rob

Like Ann, I’m curious about that brownish layer between the planet and its rings. Unless it’s just a processing artifact, it almost looks like the atmosphere extends out in a layer of what I’m tempted to call smog, almost all the way to the rings. Very odd. Here’s a screen grab from the central part...

Thanks Ann.

Thanks, Ann. I was wondering if that little blob was perhaps a distant galaxy, but it does look a bit nebulish.

Do you happen to know if that scattering of bright blue stars around Mu Cephei are all related, that is, do thay form an open cluster? Or are they just coincidentally near each other?

Rob

This is an extraordinary effort by a large group of Astro-imagers. I am intrigued by a few black blobs in the middle right of the image, below the blue streak, circled in my detail screen grab here… IMG_0811.jpeg In images within the Milky Way such black blobs are usually a dense cloud of gas and d...

This is an extraordinary effort by a large group of Astro-imagers. I am intrigued by a few black blobs in the middle right of the image, below the blue streak, circled in my detail screen grab here… IMG_0811.jpeg In images within the Milky Way such black blobs are usually a dense cloud of gas and du...

I want to see video of the scientists racing.

Rob

This evening (July 31, 2023) at 9:18 pm Atlantic Standard Time I looked to the SSW from my home in Halifax, to catch a glimpse of the ISS as it slid by at over 27,500 kph to the south of Nova Scotia following a generally NW to SE arc. (I used the GoISSWatch app to find where and when to look.) To m...

This evening (July 31, 2023) at 9:18 pm Atlantic Standard Time I looked to the SSW from my home in Halifax, to catch a glimpse of the ISS as it slid by at over 27,500 kph to the south of Nova Scotia following a generally NW to SE arc. (I used the GoISSWatch app to find where and when to look.) To my...

That's not a prawn. This is a prawn...
Rob (not a prawn)

When was this photo taken?

Rob

Wow I have never seen such a clear picture of Olympus Mons. This raises a question. I can see that it would be easy to climb the slopes starting at 12 to 1 o'clock, and then again at 3 to 4 o'clock but what about between 7 to 10 o'clock. There seems to be shear vertical cliffs maybe more than a tho...

What an extraordinary image! I’ve always liked galaxy images, and galaxy collisions in particular, but a face on collision is even more awe inspiring. Congratulations to all concerned.

Rob

Any chance we’ll get the CSS options back? I would be greatly relieved to have the brown interface option again.

Thanks,

Rob

For anyone who wants to know more about the device (which I’d never heard of) there’s a clear animation here of the procedure… https://www.beaumont.org/treatments/watchman In the accompanying article I was relieved to read that there have been over 43,000 implants done in the US, and that it is not ...

How large a star or moon appears in an image is entirely a product of the focal length of the imaging system and the relative distances between foreground objects. Without knowing that there is no way of knowing how this scene would look to our eyes. True. But see my reply to RJN just above Orin's ...

It should be 87° Thanks, Rob! Interesting point. However, the angular diameter across the entire frame was not given. It is common in astrophotography, as you know, to zoom in or zoom out of objects to make them appear angularly big or small compared to the angular size of the frame. This APOD (htt...

Something puzzles me. If the Earth-like planet LHS 475 b is orbiting its red star at a distance of 40 light years from the red star, than why does its sun look bigger in the sky than our Sun does to us which I believe is much closer to the Earth than even 1 light year away?? The star and planet are...

When I saw this image a few minutes ago, my initial reaction was that the star was much too small in the sky. Our Sun appears to be about 1/2° in diameter, if memory serves. We are, by definition, 1 AU away from our Sun which is 1 M☉ in radius. The equivalent figures for this exoplanet are 0.0206 AU...

And a Happy New Year to you, Ann!

I rarely use Apple’s supplied images, though I always try the new ones for a few minutes at least. I have over a thousand images saved, mostly from APODs as well as other images found here on the asterisk, from which to choose. Mostly I stick with a galaxy (currently Andromeda) or cluster pic, but s...

I haven’t found any way to track down the step by step images that are mentioned in the description. Even the imager credit, Jim Lafferty, is not linked. Does anyone know more about the image and where such info might be found? The problem is that this is a repeat of a ten-year-old APOD. The origin...

I haven’t found any way to track down the step by step images that are mentioned in the description. Even the imager credit, Jim Lafferty, is not linked. Does anyone know more about the image and where such info might be found?

Rob