Sam's Astrophtography Thread

[YosemiteSam]

Shunpike is a filthy bum!

Dark Nebulas across Taurus
Image Processing & Copyright: Oliver Czernetz - Data: Digitized Sky Survey (POSS-II)

Explanation: Sometimes even the dark dust of interstellar space has a serene beauty. One such place occurs toward the constellation of Taurus. The filaments featured here can be found on the sky between the Pleiades star cluster and theCalifornia Nebula. This dust is not known not for its bright glow but for its absorption and opaqueness. Several bright stars are visible with their blue light seen reflecting off the brown dust. Other stars appear unusually red as their light barely peaks through a column of dark dust, with red the color that remains after the blue is scattered away. Yet other stars are behind dust pillars so thick they are not visible here. Although appearing serene, the scene is actually an ongoing loop of tumult and rebirth. This is because massive enough knots of gas and dust will gravitationally collapse to form new stars -- stars that both create new dust in their atmospheres and destroy old dust with their energetic light and winds.

 

[Junglist]

You are spot on kimrose. My son is a Cowboys fan and he was asking me about Cowboys a lot and if he didn't see a player in a game, he was asking me why he didn't play etc. Believe me when I say this, I am not a member of any Giants board. I am able to follow Giants thru local news anyway. But with Cowboys I didn't have this chance. He asked me about Dez's status for a game a few years ago and I googled it and found this site. Since then Cowboyszone is my destination for all things Cowboys. My son will become a member soon. He is still young and I am not letting him roam free on internet. Soon he will join you guys and most likely I will retire from this beautiful board

Don't worry. This place is run by the damn clergy. You can't even write va6ina without it being censored.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Don't worry. This place is run by the damn clergy. You can't even write va6ina without it being censored.

It's a skill. You just need a little practice.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Southern Craters and Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)

Explanation: The Henbury craters in the Northern Territory, Australia, planet Earth, are the scars of an impact over 4,000 years old. When an ancient meteorite fragmented into dozens of pieces, the largest made the 180 meter diameter crater whose weathered walls and floor are lit in the foreground of this southern hemisphere nightscape. The vertical panoramic view follows our magnificent Milky Way galaxy stretching above horizon, its rich central starfields cut by obscuring dust clouds. A glance along the galactic plane also reveals Alpha and Beta Centauri and the stars of the Southern Cross. Captured in the region's spectacular, dark skies, the Small Magellanic Cloud, satellite of the Milky Way, is the bright galaxy to the left. Not the lights of a nearby town, the visible glow on the horizon below it is the Large Magellanic Cloud rising.

 

[Shunpike]

Sam

Do you have any more pictures like the one you posted showing US cities at night? I can't look at the North East picture enough. And I believe I even saw Chicago in it.

Where can I find more of such pictures? Thanks my friend.

 

[YosemiteSam]

The Tadpoles of IC 410
Image Credit & Copyright: Steven Coates

Explanation: This telescopic close-up shows off the otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410. It also features two remarkable inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas and dust below and right of center, the tadpoles of IC 410. Partly obscured by foreground dust, the nebula itself surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic cluster of stars. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the intensely hot, bright cluster stars energize the glowing gas. Composed of denser cooler gas and dust, the tadpoles are around 10 light-years long and are likely sites of ongoing star formation. Sculpted by winds and radiation from the cluster stars, their heads are outlined by bright ridges of ionized gas while their tails trail away from the cluster's central region. IC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away, toward the nebula-rich constellation Auriga.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Sam

Do you have any more pictures like the one you posted showing US cities at night? I can't look at the North East picture enough. And I believe I even saw Chicago in it.

Where can I find more of such pictures? Thanks my friend.

You can find them here.

 

[YosemiteSam]

How about a little bit of science / space humor today.

https://lh3.***BROKEN***/-1Jo5Wflb4cM/VujEKymSSTI/AAAAAAAAx5o/jJ8pIZIjTnc/w346-h437/unnamed%2B%25282%2529.png

 

[Shunpike]

I hate you Sam

Beautiful video

 

[YosemiteSam]

The Rosette Nebula
Image by Terry Hancock

I've posted a Rosette Nebula image before, but Terry always does a fantastic job and the colors he pulled out were incredibly vibrant. I love this image.

The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, spherical (circular in appearance), H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter.

The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of some 5,000 light-years from Earth) and measure roughly 50 light years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see. The mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses.

A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the presence of numerous new-born stars inside optical Rosette Nebula and studded within a dense molecular cloud. Altogether, approximately 2500 young stars lie in this star-forming complex, including the massive O-type stars HD 46223 and HD 46150, which are primarily responsible for blowing the ionized bubble. Most of the ongoing star-formation activity is occurring in the dense molecular cloud to the south east of the bubble.

A diffuse X-ray glow is also seen between the stars in the bubble, which has been attributed to a super-hot plasma with temperatures ranging from 1 to 10 million K. This is significantly hotter than the 10,000 K plasmas seen in HII regions, and is likely attributed to the shock-heated winds from the massive O-type stars.

Observing the Rosette Nebula
The cluster of stars is visible in binoculars and quite well seen in small telescopes while the nebula itself is more difficult to spot visually and requires a telescope with a low magnification. A dark site is a must to see it.Photographically the Rosette Nebula is easier to record and it is the only way to record the red color which is not seen visually.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Gravity's Grin
Image Credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / J. Irwin et al. ; Optical - NASA/STScI

Explanation: Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, published 100 years ago this month, predicted the phenomenon of gravitational lensing. And that's what gives these distant galaxies such a whimsical appearance, seen through the looking glass of X-ray and optical image data from the Chandra and Hubble space telescopes. Nicknamed the Cheshire Cat galaxy group, the group's two large elliptical galaxies are suggestively framed by arcs. The arcs are optical images of distant background galaxies lensed by the foreground group's total distribution of gravitational mass dominated by dark matter. In fact the two large elliptical "eye" galaxies represent the brightest members of their own galaxy groups which are merging. Their relative collisional speed of nearly 1,350 kilometers/second heats gas to millions of degrees producing the X-ray glow shown in purple hues. Curiouser about galaxy group mergers? The Cheshire Cat group grins in the constellation Ursa Major, some 4.6 billion light-years away.

 

[YosemiteSam]

A Sagittarius Triplet
Image Credit & Copyright: Christian vd Berge (DSLR Astrophotograhy)

Explanation: These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula left of center, and colorful M20on the right. The third, NGC 6559, is above M8, separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant. The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker isthe Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae, with contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid, due to dust reflected starlightThe colorful skyscape recorded with telescope and digital camera also includes one of Messier's open star clusters,M21, just above the Trifid.

 

[kimrose]

Just gorgeous, Sam. Thank you.

 

[YosemiteSam]

NGC 7822 in Cepheus
Image Credit & Copyright: César Blanco González

Explanation: Hot, young stars and cosmic pillars of gas and dust seem to crowd into NGC 7822. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing star forming region lies about 3,000 light-years away. Within the nebula, bright edges and dark shapes are highlighted in this colorful skyscape. The image includes data from narrowband filters, mapping emission from atomic oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur into blue, green, and red hues. The atomic emission is powered by energetic radiation from the hot stars, whose powerful winds and radiation also sculpt and erode the denser pillar shapes. Stars could still be forming inside the pillars by gravitational collapse, but as the pillars are eroded away, any forming stars will ultimately be cutoff from their reservoir of star stuff. This field spans around 40 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 7822.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Here is Cassiopeia both traced and natural in the sky.

The W in Cassiopeia
Image Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (Deep Sky Colors)

Explanation: A familiar, zigzag, W pattern in northern constellation Cassiopeia is traced by five bright stars in this colorful and broad mosaic. Stretching about 15 degrees across rich starfields, the celestial scene includes dark clouds, bright nebulae, and star clusters along the Milky Way. In yellow-orange hues Cassiopeia's alpha star Shedar is a standout though. The yellowish giant star is cooler than the Sun, over 40 times the solar diameter, and so luminous it shines brightly in Earth's night from 230 light-years away. A massive, rapidly rotating star at the center of the W, bright Gamma Cas is about 550 light-years distant. Bluish Gamma Cas is much hotter than the Sun. Its intense, invisible ultraviolet radiation ionizes hydrogen atoms in nearby interstellar clouds to produce visible red H-alpha emission as the atoms recombine with electrons. Of course, night skygazers in the Alpha Centauri star system would also see the rec

About Cassiopeia:

Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty. Cassiopeia was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century Greek astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. It is easily recognizable due to its distinctive 'M' shape when in upper culmination but in higher northern locations when near lower culminations in spring and summer it has a 'W' shape, formed by five bright stars. It is bordered by Andromeda to the south, Perseus to the southeast, and Cepheus to the north. It is opposite the Big Dipper. In northern locations above 34ºN latitude it is visible year-round and in the (sub)tropics it can be seen at its clearest from September to early November in its characteristic 'M' shape. Even in low southern latitudes below 25ºS it can be seen low in the North.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Since I know Shunpike loves images of Earth from Space. Here is a cool one taken recently from the International Space Station (ISS) along with some text describing what you're seeing. (seeing the active volcanoes is awesome. )

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East Indonesia Island Chain

As an equatorial country, Indonesia is often obscured by cloud cover. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station recently seized the opportunity of a relatively storm-free day to photograph nearly half the length of #Indonesia’s main island chain. Using a short lens and looking to the horizon for a panoramic effect, the astronaut captured this vast view that includes both clear skies and a murky, region-wide smoke pall. The smoke comes from fires caused by lightning strikes and by forest clearing by humans in Indonesia and northern Australia.

In this photograph looking from west to east, #Java is in the foreground, #Bali and #Lombok are near the center, and smaller islands trail off toward the horizon. More distant islands such as Sumba and Timor are almost invisible; each is more than 1600 kilometers (1,000 miles) distant from the spacecraft. The brightest reflection of the Sun off the sea surface occurs silhouettes Surabaya (population 2.8 million), Indonesia’s second-largest city.

Against this background of regional smoke, a line of volcanoes appears in sharp detail. Volcanoes are the backbone of the islands, which have been formed by the collision of the Australian tectonic plate (right) with the Asian plate (left). Note that the name of each volcano is labeled in italics.

White plumes show that at least six volcanoes were emitting steam and smoke during this ISS orbit. Even though the plumes are short (80 kilometers; 50 miles), they are prominent because the volcanoes stand above the smoky air layer near the surface. The plumes are also strikingly parallel, aligned with winds from the northeast. Every day, astronauts are sent memos alerting them to dynamic events—such as volcanic eruptions and fires—so that they might observe them from space.



https://lh3.***BROKEN***/-l5T8MiGvag4/VvARM1vl3dI/AAAAAAAAaYI/edqmR8j95E0nS3NRw4igT7Pbkldndz4VQ/w472-h709-no/iss045e079412.jpg

 

[DallasEast]

Since I know Shunpike loves images of Earth from Space. Here is a cool one taken recently from the International Space Station (ISS) along with some text describing what you're seeing. (seeing the active volcanoes is awesome. )

-----------------------------------------------------


East Indonesia Island Chain

As an equatorial country, Indonesia is often obscured by cloud cover. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station recently seized the opportunity of a relatively storm-free day to photograph nearly half the length of #Indonesia’s main island chain. Using a short lens and looking to the horizon for a panoramic effect, the astronaut captured this vast view that includes both clear skies and a murky, region-wide smoke pall. The smoke comes from fires caused by lightning strikes and by forest clearing by humans in Indonesia and northern Australia.

In this photograph looking from west to east, #Java is in the foreground, #Bali and #Lombok are near the center, and smaller islands trail off toward the horizon. More distant islands such as Sumba and Timor are almost invisible; each is more than 1600 kilometers (1,000 miles) distant from the spacecraft. The brightest reflection of the Sun off the sea surface occurs silhouettes Surabaya (population 2.8 million), Indonesia’s second-largest city.

Against this background of regional smoke, a line of volcanoes appears in sharp detail. Volcanoes are the backbone of the islands, which have been formed by the collision of the Australian tectonic plate (right) with the Asian plate (left). Note that the name of each volcano is labeled in italics.

White plumes show that at least six volcanoes were emitting steam and smoke during this ISS orbit. Even though the plumes are short (80 kilometers; 50 miles), they are prominent because the volcanoes stand above the smoky air layer near the surface. The plumes are also strikingly parallel, aligned with winds from the northeast. Every day, astronauts are sent memos alerting them to dynamic events—such as volcanic eruptions and fires—so that they might observe them from space.



https://lh3.***BROKEN***/-l5T8MiGvag4/VvARM1vl3dI/AAAAAAAAaYI/edqmR8j95E0nS3NRw4igT7Pbkldndz4VQ/w472-h709-no/iss045e079412.jpg

Breathtaking.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Today I have the Coat Hanger asterism in the constellation of Vulpecula. Again, I'm posting the natural asterism and one with the asterism displayed with lines outlining it.

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Collinder 399: The Coat Hanger
Image Credit & Copyright: John Chumack

Explanation: Is this coat hanger a star cluster or an asterism? This cosmic hang-up has been debated over much of last century, as astronomers wondered whether this binocular-visible object is really a physically associated open cluster or a chance projection. Chance star projections are known as asterisms, an example of which is the popular Big Dipper. Recent precise measurements from different vantage points in the Earth's orbit around the Sun have uncovered discrepant angular shifts indicating that the Coat Hanger is better described as an asterism. Known more formally as Collinder 399, this bright stellar grouping is wider than the full moon and lies in the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula).

 

[YosemiteSam]

Messier 43
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Obs.), Igor Chilingarian (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

Explanation: Often imaged but rarely mentioned, Messier 43 is a large star forming region in its own right. It's just part of the star forming complex of gas and dust that includes the larger, more famous neighboring Messier 42, the Great Orion Nebula. In fact, the Great Orion Nebula itself lies off the lower edge of this scene. The close-up of Messier 43 was made while testing the capabilities of a near-infrared instrument with one of the twin 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The composite image shifts the otherwise invisible infrared wavelengths to blue, green, and red colors. Peering into caverns of interstellar dust hidden from visible light, the near-infrared view can also be used to study cool, brown dwarf stars in the complex region. Along with its celebrity neighbor, Messier 43 lies about 1,500 light-years away, at the edge of Orion's giant molecular cloud. At that distance, this field of view spans about 5 light-years.

 

[YosemiteSam]

The Medusa Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: European Southern Observatory, VLT

Explanation: Braided, serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away along the southern border of the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation. The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. An unrelated, bright, foreground star is near center in this close-up, telescopic view, while the Medusa's transforming central star is actually the dimmer star below center and toward the right-hand part of the frame. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.