Astrophotos

Amazing Astrophoto: The Phases of Venus

May 24, 2012

Wow! Take a look at how Venus has changed in the night sky the past five months! “The Planet Venus, The Roman goddess of love and beauty and the closest planet to us — especially now just as it gets closest — will transit across the Sun soon,” said astrophotographer Efrain Morales. “This sequence is [...]

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Eclipse Images from Around the World

May 21, 2012

What a view! Here are some awesome eclipse images and videos from around the globe as skywatchers in Asia, the northern Pacific region and western North America experienced the annular eclipse on May 20/21, 2012. Above is a stunning combination of shots from various stages of the eclipse in Tokyo, Japan from Kim Nilsson. For [...]

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Astrophoto: Lovely Crescent Venus by John Chumack

May 20, 2012

Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus has never looked more gorgeous! Prolific and accomplished astrophotographer John Chumack captured this shot of a crescent Venus on May 14, 2012 as it moves in for a transit of the Sun. Just 14% of Venus’ face was illuminated, 22 Days before the June 5th [...]

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Ring of Fire! Annular Solar Eclipse on May 20

May 17, 2012

There’s a great reason to look up this weekend and hope for clear skies! On May 20-21 an annular eclipse of the Sun will be visible from a 300 kilometer-wide track that crosses eastern Asia, the northern Pacific Ocean and the western United States. An annular eclipse means the Moon will not cover the Sun [...]

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See the Winners of the Earth & Sky Photo Contest

May 16, 2012

Enjoy this delightful video put together by Babak Tafreshi from The World At Night showing the winners of the third International Earth and Sky Photo Contest. With the theme of ‘Dark Skies Importance,’ these are lovely landscape astrophotos, “ in appreciation of the night sky beauty as an essential element of our nature, importance of [...]

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Astrophoto: Meteor Fireball Passing through the Milky Way

May 14, 2012

Northern Minnesota is famous for its bountiful lakes, and clear, dark skies. This beautiful astrophoto combines both — and more — as photographer Luke Arens captured a big meteor fireball reflecting off a northern Minnesota lake just as the Milky Way core rose above the scene. Luke took this image over the weekend as part [...]

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Big Sunspot; Little Chinese Space Station

May 13, 2012

Astrophot0grapher extraordinaire Thierry Legault has made a name for himself with his images of spacecraft transiting across the face of the Sun. He has done it again by capturing the first-ever image of the Tiangong-1 space station transiting the Sun. The monster sunspot, AR 1476 absolutely dwarfs the Chinese space station (inside the circle), but [...]

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Your ‘Supermoon’ Images from Around the World

May 6, 2012

We asked for ‘em, and you sent ‘em in: here are great images of the perigee Moon on May 5, 2012, the largest full Moon of the year taken by our readers.

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2012 Venus Transit – The Countdown Is On!

May 3, 2012

Head outside on any clear night this week and you won’t be able to miss brilliant Venus decorating the western horizon. Right now it’s surrounded by a host of bright winter stars like Capella, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran and the Pleiades. But, don’t stop there. Use any type of optical aid and you’ll see the planet is [...]

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Stunning Astrophoto: Auroral Explosion of Color

April 30, 2012

This gorgeous and unusual aurora display was captured by Brendan Alexander from the North Coast of Donegal, Ireland. “We were treated to an absolutely stunning aurora display on the morning of the 24th of April 2012,” Brendan wrote on our Flickr page. “Easily the best I have seen in my eventful four years of sky [...]

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Astrophoto: Galaxies Galore!

April 27, 2012

What a great view of Markarian’s Chain! Amateur astronomer Richard Richins took this image with a 300mm Canon f/4 lens (mounted to a Canon T2i). Look closely, as Richard says there are well over 100 galaxies in this image! Click the image for a larger, better view of Markarian’s Chain, which is a stretch of [...]

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See Big and Bright Saturn at Opposition This Weekend

April 13, 2012

Now is the time to take a look at the planet Saturn, as the ringed planet will be at opposition this weekend, making its closest approach to Earth on April 15, 2012. Its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun, so get out those telescopes, binoculars and your imaging equipment! We want to see [...]

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Alqueva: Some of the Darkest, Clearest Skies on Earth

April 10, 2012

It’s a place with dark skies, clear nights and ancient astronomical megaliths. What more could you want in an astro-destination? The Great Lake Alqueva Dark Sky Reserve in Portugal is the first site in the world to receive the “Starlight Tourism Destination” certification and has good atmospheric conditions for stargazing for more than 250 nights [...]

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Astrophotos: A Colorful Moon

April 10, 2012

Recognize this? Yes, it is our own Moon, but using Photoshop, the photographer, César Cantú from the Chilidog Observatory in Monterrey, Mexico extracted the Moon’s colors and exaggerated them just a bit. “Although exaggerated, the color components are the real highlights,” César said, “with blue indicating a significant amount of titanium, and the orange areas [...]

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Planetary Conjunction Mashup

April 9, 2012

A Boulder Side of Venus – Conjunctions 2012 from Patrick Cullis on Vimeo. So far, 2012 has brought us a plethora of planetary conjunctions, with Venus pairing with the Moon, Jupiter and the Pleiades. Not all at the same time, of course, but photographer Patrick Cullis has put them all together in this wonderful timelapse [...]

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Astrophotos from Around the World of the Venus-Pleiades Conjunction

April 5, 2012

The past several evenings, Venus has been snuggling up to one of the most famous star clusters, the Pleiades. Universe Today readers have taken some beautiful images of that event, and they have generously shared them with us. Above is John Chumack’s stunning view from Ohio in the US; see below for more images from [...]

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One Night, Dozens of Triple Conjunctions

March 26, 2012

Last night (March 25, 2012), Jupiter, Venus and the Moon put on quite a show, and Rick Ellis from Toronto, Canada captured it — over two dozen times. This composite image was created from 31 frames taken five minutes apart, each with an exposure time of 5 seconds. Thanks to Rick for creating this image [...]

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Astrophoto: Pulp Fiction by César Cantú

March 18, 2012

Astrophotographer César Cantú from the Chilidog Observatory in Monterrey, Mexico calls this image “Pulp Fiction” for its violent areas of hot, deadly gases being expelled by the young stars, solar windstorms, huge accumulations of cosmic dust. But the two features show here are actually are named after things much more peaceful in nature: The Cone [...]

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Space Timelapse: With a Vengeance by Jason Ahrns

March 18, 2012

Cool! That’s how I describe this amazing timelapse of the Aurora Borealis during the onset of the geomagnetic storm on March 12, 2012. Jason Ahrns captured the timelapse in Fairbanks North Star Borough County, Alaska at 15 second exposure and 18 second interval. Check out this link for more timelapses from Jason.

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Astrophoto: Conjunction Symmetry by Rick Ellis

March 17, 2012

It’s poetry in motion! Rick Ellis from Toronto, Canada created this 27 frame-composite of the conjunction between Venus and Jupiter on March 13, 2012, with 6 second exposures five minutes apart. Rick used a Canon A460, ISO 80. Beautiful! Check out Rick’s website for more poetry — seriously — and more images. See our previous [...]

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