The Seagull Nebula. Credit: Cesar Cantu from Monterrey, Mexico, and the Chilidog Observatory
This lovely image of the Seagull Nebula was sent to us by Cesar Cantu from the Chilidog Observatory in Monterrey, Mexico. He took the image on January 4, 2011 using a Takahashi FSQ106 Telescope and a Canon 5D camera. The Seagull is near Sirius, the main star in the constellation Canis Major. The region also includes NGC 2327 – a compact, dusty emission region with an embedded massive star that forms the bird’s head and IC 2177 – forming the sweeping arc of the seagull’s wings. The image is dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen and is about 3,800 light-years away.
A sketch of the Dec. 21st lunar eclipse by Ted Judah.
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What do you do if you’re watching the lunar eclipse but don’t have your camera? Make a sketch, just like the astronomers of old. Amateur astronomer Ted Judah from California enjoyed the eclipse, but since he was away on a trip with his family and “there was no room for my astrophotography equipment in the car,” he said, Ted resorted to drawing what he witnessed. Lovely.
Below is another artistic view of the eclipse, although taken by a camera.
A unique view of the lunar eclipse by Tavi Greiner.
Tavi Greiner took this image from her yard in Shallotte, North Carolina. Her description: “The darkened sky beneath Totality’s copper Moon reveals Orion to the left and Pleiades to the right.” See more of her images at “A Sky Full of Stars.”
A recent aurora as seen by astronaut Doug Wheelock on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
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With the Sun’s activity increasing just a bit, sky watchers have witnessed an uptick in aurorae, especially northern observers. This top image is from an *extreme* northern observer, as in way up; about 320 km (220 miles) up above the Earth. Astronaut Doug Wheelock took this image from the International Space Station, and the beautiful sight made him wax poetic:
“Aurora Borealis as I will forever paint it in my dreams,” he wrote on Twitter. “Almost time to return home… no regrets… but mixed emotions. Leonardo da Vinci was right… ‘For once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been… and there you will long to return.'”
See other stunning recent aurora images from a more Earthly viewpoint:
Colorful Clouds, taken on Nov. 14, 2010 by Ole C. Salomonsen in Tromsø, Norway. Used by permission.
Describing this picture, Salomonsen said on Flickr: “With a CME expected to hit earth on Nov.14th we could still see only a faint aurora. We got frustrated and then decided to drive back towards the city where it now was reported to clear up. After 5 minutes in the car suddenly we could see a strong aurora bursting out behind the partially cloudy sky.”
Aurora over Tromsø, Norway, November 14, 2010. Credit: Ole C. Salomonsen. Used by permission
This is another gorgeous shot by Salomonsen, and on his Flickr site, he points out Ursa Major is visible in the top left, said it was just amazing how there were two rays of white and purple aurora, one moving faster than the other.
Aurora Activity near Dettah, in the Northwest Territories. Credit: Credit: Sean Davies; used by permission.
Photographer Sean Davies took this image on Nov. 13, 2010 near Dettah in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and said, “The aurora put on a great show just outside Yellowknife. The show lasted a good hour.” There’s another from Sean, below, on the same night. You can see more of Sean’s images at his Flickr site.
More aurora activity near Dettah, NWT. Credit: Sean Davies; used by permission.
The photo below was taken on November 13, 2010 in Auster-Skaftafellssysla, Iceland by Skarphéðinn Þráinsson. See more of his images at Flickr.
Aurora Borealis at Jökulsárlón (Glacier Lagoon) south coast Iceland. Credit: Skarphéðinn Þráinsson. Used by permission
This timelapse video was taken by Tor Even Mathisen, also from Tromsø, Norway.
A halo appeared around the Sun on Nov. 1, 2010 in Centurion South Africa. Credit: Alan Buff.
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Residents around Johannesburg, South Africa were treated with a rare astronomical (or actually atmospheric) sight — a halo around the Sun. These halos are striking to see, but unlike an eclipse, they can’t be predicted. Conditions in the atmosphere have to be just right, with moisture or ice crystals creating a “rainbow” effect around the Sun. Sometimes the halos surround the Sun completely, other times, they appear as arcs around the solar sphere. Basically, sunlight is reflecting off moisture in the atmosphere. These images were sent in by Alan Buff from Centurion, South Africa. See more below.
Another image of a halo that appeared around the Sun on Nov. 1, 2010 in Centurion South Africa; this one has a building blocking out the Sun itself. Credit: Alan Buff.
In folklore, these halos seen around the Sun or the Moon means precipitation is on the way, which makes sense, since moisture in the atmosphere usually makes it down to the ground. High clouds of ice crystals are called cirrus clouds, and these often form in at the leading edge of warm fronts that bring rain.
Newspaper and internet articles report that Johannesburg was buzzing about the weird halos; however, the explanation was simple and did not include aliens or end-of-the-world scenarios.
A halo appeared around the Sun on Nov. 1, 2010 in Centurion South Africa. Credit: Alan Buff.
Thanks again to Alan Buff for sharing his images with Universe Today.
A 'movie' put together from images of the October 12, 2010 approach of asteroid 2010 TD54.Image credit: Patrick Wiggins, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Utah
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Amateur astronomer Patrick Wiggins from Utah (and fellow Solar System Ambassador) was able to capture images this morning of the newly found asteroid 2010 TD54 that whizzed by Earth — harmlessly — coming within about 46,000 km (less than 30,000 miles) of our planet. The small asteroid was only detected this past Saturday, and NASA’s Near Earth Object Office predicted there was only 1 in a million chance it would hit Earth, and was small enough that it wouldn’t survive a fiery trip through the atmosphere even if it was going to make crash head-on into Earth. Patrick put together a couple of “movies” from the images he captured. They show the asteroid whispering silently through the sky, although moving along fairly quickly at 17.37 km/s. Estimates are the asteroid is about 7.3 m wide, and contained the energy of about 22 kilotons if it would have come crashing through Earth’s atmosphere. For this animation, the mount was set to allow the target to pass through the field of view, and includes 16 five-second exposures shot between 08:51:51 and 08:54:04 UTC.
There’s an additional image below.
In this animation, asteroid 2010 TD54 appears stationary as the stars move. Image credit: Patrick Wiggins, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Utah
For this set of images, Patrick set the mount set to nearly follow the target. The animation includes 23 five- second exposures shot between 09:01:27 and 09:04:39 UTC.
Patrick uses a Paramount ME, Celestron C-14 operating at f/5.5, SBIG ST-10 binned 3×3 with clear filter. The field of view in this image is about 18×26 arc minutes.
Great work! And Universe Today thanks Patrick for allowing us to post his images/animations.
While most people are breathing a sigh of relief that this asteroid didn’t hit Earth, others are of the opinion this near miss was a missed opportunity. “The message here should be: It was a pity that TD54 *missed* Earth because it would have made a nice fireball and meteorite shower!” said astronomer and writer Daniel Fischer, who writes the Cosmos4U blog.
Other astronomers and meteorite buffs said this asteroid could have ended up like the famous 2008 TC3, the first asteroid to have been spotted before hitting Earth, which crashed in northern Sudan, providing a treasure trove of information about asteroids and the early solar system in a very handy “sample return.”
Earth and Moon from 114 Million Miles.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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A new image to add to the family photo album! The MESSENGER spacecraft is working its way to enter orbit around Mercury in March of 2011, and while wending its way, took this image of the Earth and Moon, visible in the lower left. When the image was taken in May 2010, MESSENGER was 183 million kilometers (114 million miles) away from Earth. For context, the average separation between the Earth and the Sun is about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). It’s a thought provoking image (every one of us is in that image!), just like other Earth-Moon photos — Fraser put together a gallery of Earth-Moon images from other worlds, and this one will have to be added. But this image was taken not just for the aesthetics.
This image was taken as part of MESSENGER’s campaign to search for vulcanoids, small rocky objects hypothesized to exist in orbits between Mercury and the Sun. Though no vulcanoids have yet been detected, the MESSENGER spacecraft is in a unique position to look for smaller and fainter vulcanoids than has ever before been possible. MESSENGER’s vulcanoid searches occur near perihelion passages, when the spacecraft’s orbit brings it closest to the Sun. August 17, 2010 was another such perihelion, so if MESSENGER was successful in finding any tiny asteroids lurking close to the Sun, we may hear about it soon.
The Planet Pluto crossing in front of Barnard 92. Credit: John Chumack
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Last week, Pluto passed in front of what looks like a dark patch in the sky, and astrophotographer John Chumack was ready to capture the event. The dark patch is actually Barnard 92, a dark nebula. Since Pluto is usually very hard to see among the background of stars, it stands out against this dark nebula which blocks out the background stars. Still, Pluto – distant and dim as it is – is just a faint point of light, so John took special measures. “Although Pluto was easily visible in a short 5 minute exposure, I took an hour exposure to show the Dark nebula and the ‘rich & pretty’ surrounding star field,” he said.
The image was taken from John’s observatory in Yellow Springs, Ohio, using his homemade 16” Newtonian telescope and a QHY8CCD single shot color camera, captured from 01:00am until 02:00 am E.S.T. on July 6, 2010. Pluto and B92 sits within the large Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24.
Great shot, John! For more wonderful astronomical images, check out John’s website, Galactic Images.
Need a new desktop image? Usually the Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal in Chile provides us with stunning views of the cosmos. This image, however, is a gorgeous view of the observatory itself. As the Moon was setting after a long night of observing, ESO staff member Gordon Gillet welcomed the new day by capturing this stunning image from 14 km away. This image is not a montage or computer-generated (such as the infamous ‘Moon and Sun over the North Pole‘ urban legend)
The ESO website explains:
The Moon appears large because it is seen close to the horizon and our perception is deceived by the proximity of references on the ground. In order to get this spectacular close view, a 500-mm lens was necessary. The very long focal length reduces the depth of field making the objects in focus appear as if they were at the same distance. This effect, combined with the extraordinary quality of this picture, gives the impression that the Moon lies on the VLT platform, just behind the telescopes, even though it is in fact about 30,000 times further away.
Interestingly, Gillet took the image from the road leading to the nearby Cerro Armazones, the peak recently chosen by the ESO Council as the preferred location for the planned 42-meter European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which should be open for business by 2018.
Atlantis and the ISS transit the Sun. Credit: Thierry Legault www.astrophoto.fr
Here are some incredible images of Atlantis and the International Space Station captured as it transit the Sun.
You can also view space from where you are. You just need a good telescope for that. Take a look at these cool and amazing telescopes from Amazon.com.
French astrophotographer Thierry Legault has done it again. He captured a view of space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station crossing the face of the Sun on May 16, 2010 about 50 minutes before the shuttle docked with the space station. Legault took the image from Madrid, Spain at 13:28:55 UT. “Atlantis has just begun the ‘R-bar pitch maneuver,'” Legault wrote on his website, “as the shuttle performs a backflip that exposes its heat-shield to the crew of the ISS that makes photographs of it; since its approach trajectory is between the ISS and the Earth, this means that we are seeing Atlantis essentially from above, with the payload bay door opened.”
Since this may be Atlantis’ last flight to space, the image is especially poignant.
See below for the full image, and make sure you go to Legault’s website and watch the movie of how quickly the pair of spacecraft actually flew across the face of the Sun — like the blink of an eye! It’s amazing he was able to capture this incredible image at all, not to mention how clear and sharp the two spacecraft are in the photo, against the face of the otherwise spotless Sun. The shuttle’s tail is even visible!
Legault said he used a Takahashi TOA-150 refractor (diameter 150mm, final focal 2500mm), Baader Herschel prism and Canon 5D Mark II camera, at an exposure of 1/8000s at 100 ISO, extracted from a series of 16 images (4 images/s) started 2 seconds before the predicted transit time.
Full image of the Sun, with transiting shuttle and ISS. Credit: Thierry Legault www.astrophoto.fr
Venus-Moon conjuction, at Kendal Castle, England. Credit: Stuart Atkinson
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A clear night, a crescent Moon, Venus, and an ancient castle. What more could you ever want? Our pal Stuart Atkinson captured these gorgeous images taken over the weekend from Kendal, in Cumbria, England. “An absolutely stunning view, seen from Kendal’s historic, ruined castle. Not another soul around as I enjoyed the spectacle,” Stu wrote. See more of his images below, plus you can see loads more at Spaceweather.com’s gallery.
Moon through the castle window. Credit: Stuart Atkinson
Twilight. Credit: Stuart AtkinsonKendal Castle, with crescent Moon and Venus. Credit: Stuart Atkinson
