Submissions: 2023 August

[Michael Tz]

Big and bright satellite the "BlueWalker 3" from AST Mobile company, entering earth's shadow...
The sky are getting denser...
Telescope pw600
Camera zwo 290mm

[airliner]

Perseids meteor shower by Fotis Mavroudakis, on Flickr


Perseids meteor shower

The Perseids meteor shower, a yearly spectacle unfolding in mid-August, is renowned for its abundant shower of shooting stars. This phenomenon arises from Earth's passage through the remnants of the Swift-Tuttle comet. While this year held promise with favorable sky conditions and minimal lunar obstruction, an untimely dense canopy of clouds prematurely curtailed the celestial display.

Photographer: Fotis Mavroudakis
Location: Drama, Greece
Gear: Nikon D850, Nikor AF-S F2.8 14-24

[Harles99]

I have successfully captured the first glimpse of extraterrestrial life here on earth. They are here, they are real and they are among us …ok it’s just a Praying Mantis that hopped on the lens while I was shooting the Perseid Meteor shower. Shot on a Fuji XT5, 40” exposure , ISO 3200, Rokinon 8mm F2.8 Fisheye.

©NebulosityMedia 2023

"They're Here" - Alien Milky Way by Harley Grady, on Flickr

[Harles99]

For those who did not get to see this years Perseid Meteor shower , I give you this composite image, made up of over 40 photos taken with my @fujifilmx_us XH2 with a 16mm F1.4 lens. Each steak of light you see is one of the remnant’s from Comet 109P/ Swift-Tuttle. The meteors the selves are no large than a grain of sand, and hit the earths atmosphere at 133,200mph, as they pass over my family’s farm.

©NebuloistyMedia 2023

Perseid's and Milky Way Over the Farm by Harley Grady, on Flickr

[KuriousGeorge]

NGC7006 – A remote outpost of the Milky Way

KG Observatory, Julian, CA.

NGC 7006 is a compact and distant globular star cluster that lies in one of the smallest constellations in the night sky, Delphinus (The Dolphin).

NGC 7006 resides in the outskirts of the Milky Way. It is about 135,000 light-years away, five times the distance between the Sun and the centre of the galaxy, and it is part of the galactic halo. This roughly spherical region of the Milky Way is made up of dark matter, gas and sparsely distributed stellar clusters.

Like other remote globular clusters, NGC 7006 provides important clues that help astronomers to understand how stars formed and assembled in the halo. The cluster has a very eccentric orbit indicating that it may have formed independently, in a small galaxy outside our own that was then captured by the Milky Way.

Although NGC 7006 is very distant for a Milky Way globular cluster, it is much closer than the many faint galaxies that can be seen in the background of this image. Each of these faint smudges, well over 100 million light-years away, is probably accompanied by many globular clusters similar to NGC 7006 that are too faint to be seen.

https://esahubble.org/images/potw1137a/


https://www.astrobin.com/1lnyfh/

[peterJaroslav]

IC1274,
This object is a good representation of a classic reflection nebula, showing pinks and blues, its such a nice honest object. Over shadowed by its more popular neighbour The Lagoon Nebula it doesn't get a s much attention. Imaged remotely from Spain with the ASA12N f3:6 and the asi2600mm pro.
Imaged in RGB 90x 120s in each filter
Full res can be found on my images page https://www.astrobin.com/users/asteroidbelter/

Thanks for looking
Peter Shah

[russmac76]

A Needle in the Eye of God.
Lately, I've not had many clear nights where I live, but last night (August 12th) there were some breaks in the clouds. I set up my RedCat51 with my ASI294MC Pro (and Optolong L-Extreme) and let it run with the Helix Nebula as the target. I did not expect to get a shot like this!

Acquisition Details:
Telescope: RedCat 51
Camera: ZWO ASI294 MC Pro
Filter: Optolong L-Extreme
GuideCam/Scope: ZWO ASI120MM on an SVBony SV165
Mount: Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTI
Integration Time: 2.8 hours 300 second subs
Acquired using an ASI Air Pro
Processed in PixInsight and Photoshop (BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarXT)
Location: Pike Road, Alabama
Image Capture Date: August 12-13, 2023
Copyright: Russ McKinney

[avdhoeven]

Completely reprocessed and updated with OIII data:


Barnard 150 / SH2-129 with Outers 4 and Comet Atlas by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

[matuutex]

Villarica volcano (Rukapillán) aligned with the milky way.
Copyright: Marcelo Maturana Rodríguez (@matuutex)
Location: Pucon, Araucania Region, Chile
Date: 16 December 2022
Instagram: @matuutex
Nikon d5600, Tokina lens 14/20mm f2 iso 2000 20 segs
Vertical Panorama (3 Photos)

Villarica volcano (Rukapillán) aligned with the milky way by Marcelo Maturana, en Flickr

[Robin_Onderka]

Perseids 2023

Copyright: www.instagram.com/robin_onderka
Date: 11-13 August 2023
Place: Vysočina region, Czech Republic

Perseids 2023 by Robin Onderka, on Flickr

Info:
Last weekend, from August 11th to 13th, 2023, I had the privilege of capturing one of the most breathtaking celestial events - the Perseid meteor shower. With friends, we spent several nights at a cabin, conveniently located close to this picturesque spot. Armed with favorable conditions and two lenses, 14mm and 24mm in focal length, I embarked on photographing this astronomical marvel.

Memories of this weekend will be unforgettable. Not only was I free from the stress of traveling home and staying late till morning, as previous years was, but I could also comfortably photograph meteors while I was inside the cabin, having fun with my friends. However, the nights were not without their challenges. August nights can be very humid, especially near a pond like I was, and my initial enthusiasm quickly waned as I realized that my lens was fogging up from dew. Thankfully, due to my foresight, a thin napkin and the dew heater strip I luckily had in my bag, I overcame this obstacle and saved the whole project.

Most of the night, I aimed my camera towards Perseus constellation, but later I decided to aim it towards the Lyra constellation and capture as many meteors as possible, which I planned to compose around the center of the Milky Way arc. I now have about 30 stunning meteors in my archive!

Canon 6Da, Samyang 14 mm, Samyang 24mm
360 degree panorama, 15" F/2.8 ISO 8000 per panel.
Panorama stitched in PTGuI, edited and composed in Photoshop

[Zapo]

Andromeda and Perseid

A single 60" shot from the Montsec mountain (Àger), in the observation field of the Sabadell Astronomical Group (AAS).

Samyang 135mm F4
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Mount: iOptron GEM28

Jaume Zapata

https://www.instagram.com/jaumezr/

[ImNewHere]

Here is M22 taken with 7 One Click Observations through the Telescope Live CHI-1-CMOS setup. It is in such a heavy star field that is can be a challenge to process this one properly without blowing it out. I almost left the luminance off because you can see some of the brighter stars in the unstretched output fits file, but I didn't because there is a technique to recover blown stars, and I used it.

This image was a total of 21x 300s each of LRGB for a total of 7 hours of integration, taken with a Planewave CDK24 and QHY600M with Astrodon filters. I processed it in APP and Photoshop. If you would like to see the full size version check it out here on my Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/p3ezq9/

M22-LRGB by Scotty Bishop, on Flickr

[nardes]

JWST 14th – 15th August 2023, Slip-sliding away in Sagittarius.

After watching an enthralling Netflix documentary covering the James Webb Space Telescope, (JWST), I opened the JPL Horizons Web Application and searched for the JWST.

The ephemeris from JPL Horizons indicated that the JWST, would be high up in the skies, located in the constellation of Sagittarius. Even better, outside, the skies were clear.

I managed to collect 5 sets of image runs, whilst dodging some intermittent thin, wispy clouds.
Run 02 - 60 frames 8:07PM to 9:08PM AEST (UT+10)
Run 03 - 57 frames 9:15PM to 10:13PM AEST (UT+10)
Run 04 - 48 frames 10:223PM to 11:11PM AEST (UT+10)
Run 05 - 60 frames 11:13PM to 00:14AM AEST (UT+10)
Run 06 - 60 frames 00:26AM to 01:27AM AEST (UT+10)

Each Run was processed separately in PixInsight, with the 5 output files then Aligned and Combined into a final composite image revealing the curved trail of the JWST.

Imaging start time - 2023-08-14 10:06:36 UTC (Run 02)
Imaging end time - 2023-08-14 15:27:46 UTC (Run 06)

Raw Image details.
Tak Mewlon 210 F11.5
Tak x0.8 Reducer/Flattener
QHY268M Camera
Scale: 0.726 arcseconds/pixel
2137mm F10.2
14th – 15th August 2023
Brisbane, QLD

Dennis Simmons

[Wah!]

20230814 Venus Conjunction

On the day of conjunction, I used a long sunshade to avoid my telescope being toasted by the fierce sunlight.
The seeing was quite good in the morning and I tried my best to process the images but still didn't find any hints of the full ring.

[andyc]

"Inferior Approach"
Andy Casely
Taken from the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia



A triptych set of Venus entering inferior conjunction, passing underneath the Sun with north up, but passing above the Sun in my sky from Sydney. Between 4th and 11th August (9, 4 & 2 days before conjunction), Venus' crescent shrank from 3.4% to 1.0% illuminated and it closed from 15°-8° from the Sun. As it is passing quite far to the south side of the Sun, the lit portion of the crescent slides around from the northeast to the north side of the planet, in this set oriented with celestial north up. I used the roof of my house to protect the telescope during capture.

No telescopes, eyes, or passing cockatoos were harmed during these captures - with a 14" mirror pointed far too close to the Sun...


"Smile if you see Venus!"


The pick of my three inferior conjunction images, Venus is 57" wide, 1.4% lit, and just 9.8° from the Sun. The horns of the crescent extended to approximately 205°. The image is an IR-RGB image: luminance data comes from a 7x30s 642nm IR image set, and colour data from 7x30s shooting with a UV/IR cut filter.

Equipment: Celestron C14, ZWO ASI462MC, IR & colour (UV/IR cut) filters.

Credit: Andy Casely https://www.instagram.com/interplanetary_storm_chaser/

[Galactic-Hunter]

Hello,

Here are two images I would like to submit for APOD. Both of these targets are great objects to capture right now.

1) Blue Horsehead Nebula (IC 4592)

Observing location: Death Valley, USA
Object(s): IC 4592 - The Blue Horsehead Nebula
Camera: QHY600C
Telescope: Meade 70mm APO
Exposure time total: 12 hours
Notes:
This image shows the large reflection nebula IC 4592 (also known as the Blue Horsehead Nebula) in Scorpius. It is a magnificent object that gets its blue color from the bright star Nu Scorpii. The Blue Horsehead Nebula is completely different from the “regular” Horsehead Nebula in Orion. It is much fainter!
I have recently reprocessed this image and this is my final result.

Written blog post if more information is needed: https://www.galactic-hunter.com/post/ic4592

IC 4592 - Blue Horsehead Nebula

2) Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae (M8 and M20)

Observing location: Utah Desert Remote Observatories, USA
Object(s): M8/M20
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC
Telescope: Celestron RASA8
Exposure time total: 8 hours
Notes:
At 400mm of focal length, both objects fit perfectly fine together in the frame, and a lot of surrounding gas is visible as well. No filters were used, which was fine as it was still very simple to bring out most of the gas thanks to the f/2 and Bortle 2 sky.

Written blog post if more information is needed: https://www.galactic-hunter.com/post/m8 ... oon-nebula

M8 and M20

Thank you for considering these images for an APOD feature.

Credit:

Antoine & Dalia Grelin
https://www.galactic-hunter.com/

[Kinch]

SH2-132 - Foraxx & SHO Palette Mix

SH2-132-ForaxxSHO-Mix.jpg

Click on above to enlarge.

Higher Resolution @ https://www.kinchastro.com/sh2-132-2022.html

[Blanconuclear]

SH2-129-OU4-C2023ATLAS by Corregidor, en Flickr

Recently, last 12th and 13th August, comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) crossed along OU4, the Giant Squid Nebula, in its way throgh the Solar System.
I was informed about this fact, but my intention was to take shots of Sh2-129 and OU4 with my OSC camera using a narrowband (Halpha and OIII) filter. For some kind of serendipity, my IDAS NBZ filter band pass is not as narrow as for not let pass the C2 comet's emission band.
So, in the first frame appeared a greenish spot that moved in the next shot and so on. The night after, the comet was going out of the frame as shown in the photo, so I integrated the comet's signal expecting to collect more data for the background. I spent next weekend nights shooting at the same object completing 15h 20m distributed in 600s exposures.

Tecnical data:
Location: Pastrana, Guadalajara (Spain)
Camera: QHYCCD 294ProC
Lights: 92*600s Gain 1600 offset 10 temperature -10C, Darks, Bias, Flats.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ 85 EDX & QE 0.76 Reducer
Mount: SkyWatcher HEQ5Pro
Control computer and power distribution: RBFocus Gaius-S
Focuser: FocusLynx
Guiding scope and camera: ZWO miniguide scope and ASI 120MC-S
Software: PHD2, NINA, PixInsight and Photoshop.

My Flickr gallery https://flic.kr/ps/CBjnF

[isultan]

Iris Nebula

Equipment:
ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Optolong UV/IR Cut Filter
Svbony SV503 80ED 80mm refractor
Star Adventurer GTi, ZWO 30mm f/4 guidescope, ASI120MM Mini guidecamera, ASIAIR Pro

31x300 sec light; flat/bias/dark frames

Software: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight, Photoshop

Location: NW Illinois, Bortle Class 3
Date: August 12, 2023
Copyright: Imran Sultan

[peterJaroslav]

Calamari and Comet for starters

Comet C/20223 E1 (Atlas) meets The Squid (Ou4) and The Bat Nebula SH2-129. Imaged Remotely from Spain with the Tak Epsilon 130ED and the asi6200mm pro
Exposure times were 75x 120s in each RGB filter 36x 300in Ha and 125x 300s in OIII. The comet was passing by in the early hours on the 30th of July 2023.
Those who have imaged this part of the sky will know what a challenge it is to do, this took me several iterations to before I was happy it. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop. 

Thanks for looking
Peter Shah

[Giancarlo Melis]

The reflection nebula LBN 437 near the emission nebula SH2-126.
Also known as the Gecko Nebula due to its bizarre shape, it is curiously located within the constellation of the Lizard.
The final part of Sh2-126 is clearly visible (the two red filaments on the left, a typical Ha emission color). The Gecko Nebula is composed of several dark, unilluminated clouds with emissions visible in the carbon monoxide (CO) band, masses of ionized and luminous gas, and some small reflection nebulae illuminated by the stars. The image, captured from the backyard of a small town in southern Sardinia, is the result of integrating 10 shots, each lasting 10 seconds, to avoid overexposing the brightest stars, and 120 shots, each lasting 3 minutes, for a total of 6 hours of exposure. The shots were taken with an 8" Celestron RASA telescope with a focal length of 400mm at f/2, a cooled color camera (ZWO ASI 183 MC-Pro), and an Optolong L-Pro light pollution filter. The night was quite humid, with a not perfectly transparent sky, under a Bortle 4 sky.


The Gecko Nebula by Giancarlo Melis, su Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/531 ... 4791_k.jpg

[a.carrozzi]

The Iris Nebula - NGC 7023 by Alessandro Carrozzi, su Flickr

The Iris Nebula, also known as NGC 7023, is a reflection nebula located in the Cepheus constellation about 1400 light-years away from us. Reflection nebulae are clouds of gas that reflect light from nearby stars, in this case HD 200775, located in the center of the nebula, which is responsible for its distinctive blue color. The nebula is part of a larger complex of dark nebulae, which occupy almost the entire field of view and emerge, as in this case, in long-exposure photos
Technical data. Newton SkyWatcher 200mm f/5. Atik 4000 LE. 18x600s L, 3x420s RGB.

[WolfHeart]

Perseids Meteor Shower over the Western Desert of Egypt

Perseids Meteor Shower over the Western Desert of Egypt by Ahmed Waddah, on Flickr

Image captures the meteor shower all over the sky with the milkyway towards Cygnus with Andromeda clear in view.

All elements of the final image were taken by the same lens at 14mm and the same camera. Foreground was shot at the beginning of blue hour. Around 38 meteors were captured on the camera on a tripod on the night of the 12th into the 13th.

Nikon Z6II
Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S
SGP

Sky tracked
60x30" - f/2.8 - ISO 3200
Sky Meteor
f/2.8 - ISO 6400 - 20s
Foreground
1/160s - f/8 - ISO 100 - 14mm

https://www.astrobin.com/s3fwoc/

Social:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waddah.photography
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/WolfHeart/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/waddahphotography/

[salvatorecerruto]

Perseids Over the Iblean Countryside by Salvatore Cerruto, su Flickr

Perseids Over the Iblean Countryside
Description: This image captures a moment of astronomical interest: the Perseids, an annual meteoric phenomenon resulting from Earth's interaction with the debris of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The luminous streaks in the image represent the fragments of debris that, upon entering Earth's atmosphere at high speeds, give rise to the phenomenon of shooting stars. The visual context, featuring the typical terraced landscape of the Iblean countryside, offers a captivating geographical reference. This coupling of the night sky with the terrestrial landscape underscores the nature of this phenomenon, stemming from the collision between our planet and comet particles. The image attests to the event through a scientific perspective, blending astronomy with local geography in a visually engaging interpretation.

Technical data: Nikon D800 + Samyang 14mm
@f/3.2, ISO 3200, 20 seconds for sky and Perseids (15 frames)
@f/3.2, ISO 160, 30 seconds for landscape (taken while blue hour before sunrise, same location same position)

Location: Modica, Sicily, Italy
Author: Salvatore Cerruto
Date: 2023-08-13

[DanyJrt]

https://storage.googleapis.com/dso-brow ... 4x2160.jpg

This Perseid fireball streak across my field of view during the night of the 13th of August around 4am local time, in the national parc of Sierra de las Nieves, in Spain, while I was actually shooting a panorama of the milky way.
A huge yellow flash occured at the entry of the celestial dust particle in our atmosphere illuminating the entire national parc, followed by a long persistent train, due to very slow wind speeds in the upper atmosphere.
The entire sequence is composed by 25 shots of 30 seconds each, with 5 seconds interval, illustrating the distorsion of the ionized gas over an incredible timelapse of 12 minutes.

Equipment : Canon Eos Ra and Sigma lens 24mm at F/1.4
Edited on Pixinsight for noise reduction and Photoshop for contrast enhancement.
Date : August the 13th, 2023
Location : Sierra de las Nieves, Spain
Copyright : Daniel Jouret