APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5344
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by APOD Robot » Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:06 am

Image From the Galactic Plane through Antares

Explanation: Behold one of the most photogenic regions of the night sky, captured impressively. Featured, the band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs diagonally along the far left, while the colorful Rho Ophiuchus region including the bright orange star Antares is visible just right of center, and the nebula Sharpless 1 (Sh2-1) appears on the far right. Visible in front of the Milk Way band are several famous nebulas including the Eagle Nebula (M16), the Trifid Nebula (M20), and the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Other notable nebulas include the Pipe and Blue Horsehead. In general, red emanates from nebulas glowing in the light of exited hydrogen gas, while blue marks interstellar dust preferentially reflecting the light of bright young stars. Thick dust appears otherwise dark brown. Large balls of stars visible include the globular clusters M4, M9, M19, M28, and M80, each marked on the annotated companion image. This extremely wide field -- about 50 degrees across -- spans the constellations of Sagittarius is on the lower left, Serpens on the upper left, Ophiuchus across the middle, and Scorpius on the right. It took over 100 hours of sky imaging, combined with meticulous planning and digital processing, to create this image.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>

User avatar
alter-ego
Serendipitous Sleuthhound
Posts: 1119
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:51 am
Location: Redmond, WA

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by alter-ego » Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:12 am

APOD Robot wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:06 am ... the Trifid Nebula (M21), ...
M20 is the Trifid.
A pessimist is nothing more than an experienced optimist

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13371
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Ann » Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:18 am

alter-ego wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:12 am
APOD Robot wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:06 am ... the Trifid Nebula (M21), ...
M20 is the Trifid.
Indeed, but M21 is just nearby.

In the picture at left, cluster M21 is to the upper right of the famously red and blue nebula M20.

Ann
Color Commentator

BDanielMayfield
Don't bring me down
Posts: 2524
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:24 am
AKA: Bruce
Location: East Idaho

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by BDanielMayfield » Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:45 am

Awesome spectacle! One question though, is Antares really that yellow? I'm used to seeing it appear red to my eyes.


Bruce
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.

Locutus76

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Locutus76 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 7:52 am

Too bad there’s no annotated version of the image. I’m sure a lot of people like me are having a hard time figuring out which celestial marvel is where...

Locutus76

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Locutus76 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 7:54 am

Oops, apparently there is one :oops:

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13371
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Ann » Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:43 am

BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:45 am Awesome spectacle! One question though, is Antares really that yellow? I'm used to seeing it appear red to my eyes.


Bruce
I can so rarely see Antares from my latitude, but I have observed Betelgeuse through a telescope many times. In my opinion, the "optical appearance" of Betelgeuse (and therefore probably of Antares) is golden-yellow. Admittedly, Antares looks almost lemon-yellow in today's APOD, which I think is a mistake. Then again, Antares is probably overexposed, which makes it look white. And the surrounding reflection nebula is indeed yellow.

I deeply, deeply admire Rogelio Bernal Andreo for his incredible wide-angle and terrifically detailed images - his portrait of the Big Dipper and surrounding deep-sky objects simply blew me away.

In today's APOD, I think that the colors are not always "true". For example, Tau Scorpii, to the lower left of Antares, looks white to golden-white in this image. Tau Scorpii is really quite blue, and it typically looks blue in almost all RGB images.

In this APOD from 2015, Tau Scorpii (at right) looks very blue, while Antares looks downright white. In this picture, however, Antares is certainly golden-yellow, and Tau Scorpii (at top) is a pale blue sapphire sitting in a ruby sea.

Ann
Color Commentator

De58te
Commander
Posts: 583
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2013 6:35 pm

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by De58te » Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:04 am

This may be sentimental trivia. Antares reminded me of Uhura singing a song on Star Trek. "Antares .. going beyond Antares. That's where my heart is. Somewhere beyond Antares. Following my heart to Antares." I am not sure which episode it is but I pretty well think it was the first season and she was singing over the intercom to a lonely Lieutenant O'Reilly who happened to be locked up alone in the brig. It's funny how such a trivial song can stay with you from the year 1966 or 1967.

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by neufer » Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:26 am

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
De58te wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:04 am
This may be sentimental trivia. Antares reminded me of Uhura singing a song on Star Trek. "Antares .. going beyond Antares. That's where my heart is. Somewhere beyond Antares. Following my heart to Antares." I am not sure which episode it is but I pretty well think it was the first season and she was singing over the intercom to a lonely Lieutenant O'Reilly who happened to be locked up alone in the brig. It's funny how such a trivial song can stay with you from the year 1966 or 1967.
Art Neuendorffer

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18107
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Chris Peterson » Mon Jul 02, 2018 1:32 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:45 am Awesome spectacle! One question though, is Antares really that yellow? I'm used to seeing it appear red to my eyes.
Too our eyes, Antares is orange-red. It is, in fact, almost precisely the same color as Mars, which is the reason it's called Antares!

I've never seen an image that shows stars as they appear visually. Colors shift, brightness ratios are not the same, there is more saturation. Of course, in many images Mars appears much more yellow than it does red.
Chris

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

User avatar
rstevenson
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Posts: 2704
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:24 pm
Location: Halifax, NS, Canada

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by rstevenson » Mon Jul 02, 2018 1:52 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:45 am Awesome spectacle! One question though, is Antares really that yellow? I'm used to seeing it appear red to my eyes.
Bruce
I downloaded the image, zoomed in to 2000%, then took a screen grab of Antares and a bit of the glare around it. I think you can see from this that Antares (or its blob of saturated pixels) blushes faintly red. It's the surrounding nebula that is so very yellow.
Antares.jpeg
Rob

Sa Ji Tario

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Sa Ji Tario » Mon Jul 02, 2018 2:04 pm

It should be understood<b> "Trifid Nebula, (M21) and the Neb ..."</b>

User avatar
RJN
Baffled Boffin
Posts: 1667
Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2004 1:58 pm
Location: Michigan Tech

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by RJN » Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:33 pm

APOD Robot wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:06 am ... the Trifid Nebula (M21), ...
M20 is the Trifid.
Yes. I just changed the Messier number on the NASA APOD. Thanks and apologies!
- RJN

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by neufer » Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:51 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 1:32 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:45 am
Awesome spectacle! One question though, is Antares really that yellow?
I'm used to seeing it appear red to my eyes.
Too our eyes, Antares is orange-red. It is, in fact, almost precisely the same color as Mars, which is the reason it's called Antares! Of course, in many images Mars appears much more yellow than it does red.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarah_ibn_Shaddad wrote:
<<α Scorpii's name Antares [is said to] derive from the Ancient Greek Ἀντάρης, meaning "rival to-Ares" ("opponent to-Mars"), due to the similarity of its reddish hue to the appearance of the planet Mars.

However, some scholars have speculated that the star may have been named after Antar, or Antarah ibn Shaddad, the Arab warrior-hero. The Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his Symphony No. 2 based on the legend of ʿAntar. ʿAntarah's poetry is well preserved (said to have been suspended in the Kaaba) and often talks of chivalrous values, courage and heroism in battle as well as his love for ʿAbla. Its importance has been compared with English literature's Arthurian romances. His house and his stable were particularly legendary. One of the seven clans of Bethlehem is called the Anatreh, named after ʿAntarah. It formerly acted as the guardians of the Church of the Nativity.>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arabic_star_names wrote:
<<In Western astronomy, most of the accepted star names are Arabic, a few are Greek (e.g., Sirius & Procyon) and some are of unknown origin. Very old star names originated among people who lived in the Arabian Peninsula more than a thousand years ago, before the rise of Islam. In Europe, during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, many ancient star names were copied or translated incorrectly by various writers, some of whom did not know the Arabic language very well. As a result, the history of a star's name can be complicated.>>
Art Neuendorffer

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18107
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Chris Peterson » Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:22 pm

neufer wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:51 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarah_ibn_Shaddad wrote:
However, some scholars have speculated that the star may have been named after Antar, or Antarah ibn Shaddad, the Arab warrior-hero.
Of course, regardless of the actual origin of the name, the fact remains that when Mars is in Scorpius, it isn't always obvious which is the planet and which is the star. They appear remarkably alike.
Chris

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

jisles

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by jisles » Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:40 pm

Of course it's Rho Ophiuchi, not Rho Ophiuchus.

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

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Boomer12k » Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:07 pm

An awesome spectacle, and nice piece of work...

My "Moon Mosaic" may not be as nice as it is my first one, and I have a lot to learn...but will post in the Cafe or something...sometime. I may even have to redo it...sigh...

:---[===] *

Boodles

Re: APOD: From the Galactic Plane through Antares (2018 Jul 02)

Post by Boodles » Wed Jul 04, 2018 6:04 pm

neufer wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:26 am
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
De58te wrote: Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:04 am
This may be sentimental trivia. Antares reminded me of Uhura singing a song on Star Trek. "Antares .. going beyond Antares. That's where my heart is. Somewhere beyond Antares. Following my heart to Antares." I am not sure which episode it is but I pretty well think it was the first season and she was singing over the intercom to a lonely Lieutenant O'Reilly who happened to be locked up alone in the brig. It's funny how such a trivial song can stay with you from the year 1966 or 1967.
Season 1 Episode 13 "The Conscience of the King" Lt. Riley was in engineering and while Lt. Uhura was singing to him someone attempted to poison him for his knowledge of the events on Tarsus IV. Written by Barry Trivers and directed by Gerd Oswald.

Post Reply