Starship Asterisk*

The moon seems SO big. Was it taken at magnifacation after the skyline was shot? That makes it seem like a hoax. Whit Whit, Chris has provided a thorough description of the trick behind such photos (as usual). Here is my description from a recent post involving the various factors of interest when ...

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Anthony.

Dear group,

I have not been able to locate the RA/Dec for this binary system. Does anyone have a lead in this regard?

Thanks.

Anthony.

How an astrophotographer knows he has a stupendously spectacular picture: some think the image is fake! Anthony, congratulations on your stupendously spectacular picture!! Hi owlice, I have had some incredibly successful NASA APOD's in the past but this particular result has pulverized all of them ...

A beautiful image! If anything, to try and improve it you should have touched the Parthenon and not the Moon! Those cranes there take part of the beauty away--even if it´s only an infinitesimal part!! :twisted: Alberto, The cranes and scaffolding has been in place for about ten years now due to on-...

canopia wrote:I like these alignment photos as a whole experience; planning, calculation and execution. Really nice, thank you Anthony.

Tunç Tezel

My thanks to Tunc et al for the kind words!

Judging by the emails I have received, this is one very popular result.

Anthony.

This must be a fake, because the moon is squeezed on the photo. In reality the moon ist almost perfectly circular. Both the moon and sun are deformed when near the horizon due to thermal currents. This is especially true when shooting with intervening water between the observer/photographer and the...

Somehow my login ID did not appear in the previous two replies.

Anthony.

Great picture! I'm not sure about this, but it looks like there's a star or planet at about the 4 o'clock position right on the edge of the Moon. Cool! In fact, it is a hot pixel and much too close to the lunar limb for intervention. To this end, I purposely did not remove it in the event someone n...

I gather that this "photo" is a hoax? I apologize for being the bearer of bad news but it is a single-exposure effort and which included a lot of a priori planning. I discuss the method and analysis behind such photos here: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=22820&p=142...

I really enjoy Anthony's Parthenon shot. Where's the iconic :tree: ? Do you mean the one at http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-01.htm and/or http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-04.htm and/or http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Sounion-08.htm and/or http://www.perseus...

I really enjoy Anthony's Parthenon shot. Seems like a lot of thoughtful pre-positioning and preparation went into it! I've always loved the Parthenon anyway. Thanks Anthony! Bret, Thanks for the kind words! You are indeed correct with regards to the advance planning, for such a hit requires proper ...

Hi Steve, Thanks for the kind words and for your additional image with text. No question this is one difficult target requiring dark skies. I have typical suburban skies which can be quite poor at times and the two weeks invested in early September/2010 for CTB 1 could have been better. My master O-...

The image below is the stunning, dim and difficult SNR in Cassiopeia CTB 1. This particular SNR was catalogued by George Abell as a planetary nebula in his now well-known catalog as the eighty-fifth and second-last entry (ie. Abell 85) but it was suggested by van den Bergh in 1960 and comfirmed by W...

The image below is the stunning, dim and difficult SNR in Cassiopeia CTB 1. This particular SNR was catalogued by George Abell as a planetary nebula in his now well-known catalog as the eighty-fifth and second-last entry (ie. Abell 85) but it was suggested by van den Bergh in 1960 and comfirmed by W...

http://casjobs.sdss.org/ImgCutoutDR7/getjpeg.aspx?ra=246.89049047&dec=27.90930152&scale=0.39612&width=450&height=450&opt=&query= Now this planetary nebula has certainly featured in APOD! But which? And why is it blue in the SDSS image? If it helps, this (or the central star)...

bystander wrote:Congratulations, Anthony. You made Bad Astronomy: Does this perigee make my Moon look fat?

Thanks! Phil has always been receptive to my work and the above is no exception.

Anthony.

... the object is blue, which is almost always the color where AR coatings are least effective (so you usually get blue or blue-green internal reflections). Chris, Further to what you write above, I have two sample results of mine which reinforce your comment above: (1) http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-...

Chris, Comet C103/P Hartley has an apparent motion of 0.8"/min (I checked prior to imaging it last night so as to know what length subs to pursue and thereby avoid blurring due to the differential apparent motion of the comet against the sky). Since the four sample images are supposedly 5 minut...

Hi Chris, I thought of trying to reverse engineer the plate scale by using the apparent diameter of Jupiter against the actual diameter of Jupiter in the sample images. But there is no clear border and there is lots of saturation. I did not even bother with a plate solve as I was suspect about the a...

Owlice, The four sample images are 1542x1024 and I need to know if they represent resampled versions of the original camera files or perhaps cropped versions from the originals. I should note there is a slight variation between the aspect ratio of the files in the ZIP file and the aspect ratio for t...

Hi Owlice, I have downloaded the ZIP file and I see that a Nikon D300 was used for these images as per the EXIF data. This is meaningful since I have the pixel size involved, namely 5.54 microns (and a pixel array of 4288 x 2848). If the fellow can provide the focal length of the lens (or telescope)...

Can the owner of these photos please post some information as to the working image scale so one can get a sense of what we are dealing with? Comet 1OP/Tempel is indeed in the very general vicinity (ie. in Cetus) and to the south of Jupiter. It is also quite bright which could conceivably be within r...

bystander wrote:Lunar apogee and perigee do not occur the same time every year. In a previous APOD, the relative times were reversed.

This is correct. One cannot generalize between summer and winter when discussing apogee and perigee.

Anthony.

Owlice wrote "Apogee and Perigee." No wonder it seems to be brighter in the winter. Not only is there snow on the ground to reflect the moonlight, but the moon is also closer and gives us more reflected sunlight. Thanks for mooning us twice - owlice. :shock: Actually I believe the true un...