"Frozen Nitrogen Landscape." Credit: Stephen Guida
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Here’s another installment for our new feature, Astro Art of the Week, where we feature our readers’ artwork they have created via digital editing software and other media. On a warm summer day, this image of “Frozen Nitrogen Landscape” looks almost inviting! This image was created by UT reader “Bunnyman,” a.k.a. Stephen Guida. What was the inspiration for this image? “A couple of years ago I was reading about Pluto and its eccentric orbit,” Stephen told us, “how its atmosphere is gaseous part of the time and freezes out into solid material as it reaches its aphelion. I started to imagine a large rocky planet, many times the size of Earth, with a highly eccentric orbit and a dense nitrogen atmosphere which would freeze out into a solid at different points in its orbit. The frozen nitrogen “lake” covers most of the planet’s surface and the background mountain ranges, covered with nitrogen “snow”, poke through and tower thousands of meters above.”
Stephen said this image is a composite of images produced with three separate software tools. The frozen lake and background mountains were produced with a image-generation tool called Terragen. The stars and moon in the black sky were produced with POV-Ray, and the bright blue star was produced with Solar Cell. Check out Bunnyman’s website for more images he has created.
Thanks for sharing your photo-editing wizardry Stephen! Readers, if you’ve got a space or astronomy image you’ve created and would like to share it, submit it to Nancy . And we still haven’t found nirvana yet for what to call this new feature — so if you have any suggestions, post your idea in the comments.
Here’s the fifth edition of our new feature, showcasing our readers’ prowess with image editing software. This week’s Astro Art of the Week is a conglomeration of several images created by Aaron Nako. “The blue background with vertical lines is actually a distorted and colour-adjusted picture of the Carina nebula,” Aaron wrote, “and the stars in the electricity/waves are from a picture of NGC 6384 taken from the Rancho Del Sol Observatory. The grunge darker blueish bit coming from the top right-hand corner is actually our sun. The stars were Photoshop brushes that I changed a little bit.”
Thanks for sharing your photo-editing wizardry Aaron! If you’ve got a space or astronomy image you’ve created and would like to share it, submit it to Nancy . We’re also still mulling over what to call this new feature — so if you have any suggestions, post your idea in the comments.
Photo of a Lunar Rainbow taken from the Zambia side of Victoria Falls. The constellation Orion is visible behind the top of the moonbow. Credit: Calvin Bradshaw
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They are elusive, but powerful to see. “Moonbows” are rainbows created by light from the Moon. Conditions have to be just right, and there are only a small number of places in the world where they regularly materialize, such as Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe as seen above, Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, Yosemite Falls in California, and Waimea on Hawaii. Because they are so faint, moonbows are difficult to see with the naked eye (they usually appear just white). But with long-exposure photography, all the colors of moonbows can be seen. Below, check out a gorgeous video of stars, a moonbow and rainbow over Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile, and more moonbow images at Environmental Graffiti.
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Here’s the fourth installment of our new feature, showcasing our readers’ prowess with image editing software. This week’s Astro Art of the Week is a showdown of cosmic proportions: “Dragon Versus Eagle” was submitted by Wienie van der Oord from Negev Desert in Israel.
The image of the Eagle Nebula was taken by Wienie’s friend, Kfir Simon, with a DSI 3 pro, HAlpha filter and a Canon with 200mm lens. You can see more of Kfir’s astrophotography here. . Thanks Wienie and Kfir!
Also, we’re still contemplating a good title for this feature. We’ve tried “Astro ‘Shop of the Week,” (as in ‘Photoshop’) and now “Astro Art of the Week.” If you have any suggestions for a good title, post it in the comment section. Thanks!
The ISS and Endeavour transitting the sun. Credit: Thierry Legault
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Wow! Take a look at this image captured by award-winning French astrophotographer Thierry Legault. The visible detail of the shuttle and parts of the International Space Stations is absolutely amazing! If you remember, Legault also took images of space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope transiting the sun back in May during the HST servicing mission.
Legault is an engineer who lives near Paris. He started his digital imaging in 1994, and currently uses a SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera with AO-L system that is equipped with large and narrow band filters. He also uses a reflex Canon 5D, webcams from Philips as well as Astrovid video cameras.
The Opportunity Rover picture that never happened (sadly!) Credit: Stuart Atkinson
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This week’s Astro Art of the Week is one of my favorite creations from my pal Stuart Atkinson, and it is a picture that never happened. Oh, the Opportunity rover did take a picture of its crumpled backshell on the surface of Mars, as seen above. But look closer: Stuart has added a reflection of the rover in the shiny metal — a self-portrait that could have been taken had the rover come close enough. Stuart writes on his blog Cumbrian Skies:
“My favourite “picture that never was” is a self-portrait of Oppy that she could… possibly… perhaps… maybe… have taken as she rolled around the edge of Endurance Crater, some 350 days after landing on Mars. How cool would that have been?!?! A picture of a Mars rover taken BY a Mars rover! Okay, so it would have been a bit distorted, and blurry, but still, what a picture it would have been. A killer image to be sure. I remember thinking at the time “Go on, take the picture, it’ll be amazing! It’ll be EVERYWHERE!”, and being very frustrated and disappointed when they didn’t.
“But I can understand why they didn’t risk it. If I was in charge of a mega-expensive Mars rover, just 350 days into its mission, I wouldn’t have been too keen to drive it into a veritable minefield of bits of metal that could have got stuck in its wheels, snagged cables or worse. No, they absolutely did the right thing. But still… all these years later I can’t help wondering what that picture would have turned out like… Maybe something like this…”
Thanks Stu, for sharing your image!
And remember, we’re still looking for a good name for this new feature of using space or astronomy images created with digital image editing software, so submit suggestions in the comments. And if you like to fool around with image editing, consider submitting one of your own. Submit them to Nancy here.
Eclipse from Chongqing Municipality (Xinhua/Liu Chan)
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The total solar eclipse which just occurred on the 22nd of July 2009 was the longest maximum duration of the 21st century. Not since Saros 1991 have astronomers and eclipse chasers been treat to such an event! Totality lasted over six and a half minutes at maximum. duration. The event started in India along the western shore near Surat moved towards Butan and reached the southern tip of Nepal and the northern edge of Bangladesh.
For other lucky astronomers like Vietnamese student Dang Anh Tuan at Hanoi National University of Education, the eclipse path also took the event over cities like Chengdu, Suining, Chonging, Wuhan, Xiaogan, Hangzhou, and Shanghai – and event which yielded five minutes of totality. Leaving Shanghai the shadow path raced across the ocean, to fall across islands such as Toshima and Akusaki south of Japan and eventually the Marshall islands. Where was the longest point? The maximum eclipse duration of 6 minutes and 43 seconds occurs far off the coast in the Pacific Ocean! Are you ready to become an eclipse chaser? Then follow me…
I’ve always wanted to go on an eclipse chasing journey, but I’m afraid I’ll never quite be rich or well enough, unless it happens somewhere near me. But, my world is one that is both large and very small at the same time… And filled with wonderful friends from every corner. Bill Fish of Lubrizol Advanced Materials made my day by sending me some photos shared by their employees immediately after the eclipse had ended.
Seeing such incredible beauty, like this image of Bailey’s Beads taken in Chong Qing, and in just a few hours meeting great people like Jessica Bian, Kelly Zhou, Jun-Sheng Cao, Leo Chi, Mars Meng, Lucy Wang and Helen Tong felt so wonderful. Truly astronomy is a language we all speak! By roughly 9:00 in the morning, this is what they would have seen from their office windows or rooftops. Can you imagine what an exciting day it must have been?!
Well, needless to say, once I saw something like that, all my worries and cares for the day seemed so small. Even though I couldn’t leave my desk, the marvelous opportunity for me to become an eclipse chaser had just opened up like a fortune cookie right before my eyes. It was time for me to learn Chinese… and check out this awesome video done by Hubei Jingmen!
But he wasn’t alone… And neither was I. Millions of folks all over China were witnessing the eclipse and with each video I felt more and more like I was there, too.
“In the Zhejiang Haining, huge amounts of people were out to observe the wonderful total solar eclipse. The observation person is sea of people. But two big marvelous sight’s secret directions are the Sun, the Earth and the Moon…. “three meet”.”
Now, let’s travel to Beijing where the sky was enveloped in mist. Despite the weather, some 200 astronomy watchers queued in front of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory at 6:30 a.m. Staff at the observatory said the eclipse had sparked interest in astronomy. Yang Jing, a high-school student from Urumqi said. “I didn’t expect such a big crowd to watch the eclipse!”
Our next video comes from Chengdu… You can imagine the city stopping for just a moment to look skyward. “As soon as the totality happened, the clouds closed in so we couldn’t see the corona. That’s a pity,” said Zhen Jun, a man whose work unit had given the day off for the spectacle.
Now we move on to Hangzhou… When thousands of people thronged outdoors for the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, animals at the zoo in east China’s Hangzhou City also reacted, quickly and confusedly. The shadow of the moon disoriented birds whose body clock and direction depend on the sun. Red-crowned cranes and flamingos that had been wandering or drinking water suddenly fell asleep during the brief blackout of eclipse. But when the sun rays came out again several minutes later, the birds emerged from their cages and started the life of another “day.”
Even though I don’t understand a word of Chinese, I understand every word of “human”. Listen to them… Listen to the people talk and the children! How I wish I were there, too! Said Kang Hui:“The celestial phenomenon was a marvelous sight”. Are you ready to move again and follow the shadow? Then, let’s take a trip to Shanxi Linfen…
Now, I’ll race you to Hong Kong! Hundreds of people thronged into the Hong Kong Space Museum Wednesday morning for the Partial Solar Eclipse Observation activity. The public watched the eclipse using telescopes equipped with a safe filtering system and projection under guidance provided by the Space Museum.
Gosh, some of that footage feels like you could just reach right out and wrap your hand around that Moon, doesn’t it? Now let’s head to the middle of Anhui Yi County…
This one where you can see the corona dazzling is simply extraordinary. Can you imagine what it would feel like to be able to see this in real life? Come on… Let’s continue our eclipse chasing trip to Shanghai! It was raining in Shanghai when the total eclipse occurred at 9:35 a.m. The city put extra police on streets, and more than 30 police vessels patrolled the coast. Only street lamps were left on, as the city turned off all landscape lighting to allow people to watch the solar eclipse.
In Shanghai, more than 4,000 people ended up in suburban Yuehu Park of Sheshan Observatory and Yangshan Deep Water Port, two prime spots in the city, to observe the eclipse. Shanghai Science Hall also organized a public viewing session in downtown Fuxing Park and seventeen observation stations were set up in the solar eclipse path from Yunnan province to Zhejiang province.
Now we travel to the Henan Luoyang and say hello to these great kids and their equally excited parents and grandparents as we catch a partial eclipse.
“Luoyang’s light rain was intermittent, in the morning about 10:45, the Sun opened out the cloud layer to reveal the face of what was to come. The residents might see the partial solar eclipse! This kind of picture has not been seen here for a very long time. The Henan Luoyang partial solar eclipse looks just like the raging fire phoenix raising slowly.”
Shall we continue to Taiwan? Then grab us a cup of coffee and I will meet you at the Taibei Municipal Astronomy Scientific Culture Hall.
Shall we travel to Shenyang? This was also a partial solar eclipse location, but witnesses said the Moon “seemed like it was curved”.
Now, come with us to Ningbo. This one is so beautiful I wept when I saw it…
“This morning we just watched the total solar eclipse, which happens every 500 years. When the whole sun is blacken by the Moon. Everyone is highly excited. It’s pity I forgot to bring the camera by my side and the moment is passed away soon. But I am still lucky to see the sight. 500 years……how significant!”
When I was a child, I was charmed by a story about Ping the Duck, who lived on the Yangtze River. The last of the hundreds of videos I have watched today that I’d like to share with you is part of the Yangtze River collection.
Enjoy this beautiful composite image taken by Yang Lei at a park in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality. It has been my most wonderful pleasure over the day to spend time in the East…
Chasing the Sun!
Solar eclipse occurring over Taipei of southeast China's Taiwan
My many thanks to Bill Fish for getting me started, Jessica Bian for investigating and translating and the wonderful people at Sina for sharing!
July 22, 2009 Solar Eclipse Image Submitted By Bill Fish
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The total solar eclipse which just occured on the 22nd of July 2009 was the longest in terms of maximum totality duration of the 21st century – lasting over six and a half minutes. Not since Saros 1991 have astronomers and eclipse chasers been treated to such a length of time! The eclipse footprint started in India along the western shore near Surat moved towards Butan and reached the southern tip of Nepal and the northern edge of Bangladesh. For other lucky astronomers, the eclipse path also took the event over the Chinese cities of Chengdu, Suining, Chonging, Wuhan, Xiaogan, Hangzhou, and Shanghai – yielding five minutes of totality. Leaving Shanghai the shadow raced across the ocean to fall across islands such as Toshima and Akusaki south of Japan and eventually the Marshall islands. Where did the longest time occur? The maximum eclipse duration of 6 minutes and 43 seconds was far off the coast in the Pacific Ocean! As I write this announcement, our readers are sending in their photos and stories to my home email (send them!!) and I just couldn’t wait to show you some of the beginning results. It will take a short time to do a little translation work… But it’s a small, wonderful world and this article will be updated very soon!
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Here’s the second installment of our new feature, showcasing our readers’ prowess with image editing software. This week’s Astro Art of the Week was submitted by Laura Gardiner from Tucson, Arizona USA. This seemed to be a perfect image to use, as during Apollo 11 festivities on Monday, astronauts repeatedly talked about inspiring the next generation of space explorers. This is a collage Laura created several months ago with Photoshop, using several PS brushes downloaded from deviantart.com, along with a photo of her daughter and nephew. “I’ve gotten a lot of positive comments about it,” she said. “I was new to Photoshop then, but I’ve been having fun learning new things. I probably would have done some things differently now, but all in all I think it turned out pretty neat. It was an experiment because I was fascinated by the idea of Photoshop’s “brushes,” so that’s where the stars/galaxies/etc. came from. I didn’t have any particular picture or project in mind when I made it…it just sort of came together after several hours of fooling around with stuff.”
In case you missed the news last week, “Astro ‘Shop” is a new feature on Universe Today where readers can submit astronomical images they have messed around with using image editing software. Interested in submitting? A few rules: the images submitted must be space or astronomy related and they must be in good taste. The images can be submitted to Nancy here. Also, we’re still contemplating a good title for this feature. We’ve tried “Astro ‘Shop of the Week,” (as in ‘Photoshop’) and now “Astro Art of the Week.” If you have any suggestions for a good title, post it in the comment section. Thanks!
This image shows a large impact shown on the bottom left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility
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As we reported yesterday, an amateur astronomer snapped evidence of an impact on Jupiter. Now, NASA has confirmed the black spot on the giant gas planet is in fact an impact and not just a weather-related disturbance. And Anthony Wesley has now made the biggest observation of his life.
“It still feels very surreal right now,” he told Universe Today. “I guess it will take some time to really sink in (pun intended). I guess it shows that persistence and many hours at the scope eventually pays off.”
The Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, has imaged the south polar region Jupiter, confirming the impact, which occurred on July 19. New infrared images show the likely impact point, with a visibly dark “scar” and bright upwelling particles in the upper atmosphere detected in near-infrared wavelengths, and a warming of the upper troposphere with possible extra emission from ammonia gas detected at mid-infrared wavelengths.
Anthony said imaging Jupiter has been his main passion since 2004. “It’s such a dynamic system that every image I take shows something new and different,” he said, “It keeps me coming back year after year, with bigger and better equipment each time. I never expected to see anything like this of course, but even the routine imaging of Jupiter’s storm systems can reveal a tremendous wealth of detail.”
Anthony said this is one of the areas where amateurs can make a significant contribution to science. “The the study of planetary atmospherics is a very hot topic at the moment and nowhere are the dynamics more evident than on Jupiter,” he said. “Researchers are coming to rely on amateur images of Jupiter for much of their data, augmented by professional images whenever something truly significant occurs that justifies the cost of using the larger instruments.” Anthony Wesley from Canberra, Australia has captured a new impact spot on Jupiter. Credit: Anthony Wesle
“It’s significant that in each of the last 3 years amateurs have made the initial discoveries of new features in the Jovian atmosphere, the colour change of the previously white Oval BA to red in 2007 by Chris Go of the Philippines, the formation of another (smaller) red spot last year by myself, and then this event in 2009. In all cases the amateur work was followed up with imagery from Hubble and other major telescopes.”
This new impact occurred exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, and as the celebrations of the Apollo 11 moon landings are taking place.
Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL and his team of astronomers kicked into gear early in Monday morning and haven’t stopped tracking the planet. They are downloading data now and are working to get additional observing time on this and other telescopes.
“We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn’t have planned it better,” he said.
The top image taken by the Infrared Telescope Facility, was taken at 1.65 microns, a wavelength sensitive to sunlight reflected from high in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and it shows both the bright center of the scar (bottom left) and the debris to its northwest (upper left).
“It could be the impact of a comet, but we don’t know for sure yet,” said Orton. “It’s been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing.”
Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a comet that had been seen to break into many pieces before the pieces hit Jupiter in 1994.
