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Yesterday, scientists published evidence from a 15-year dataset for the existence of 'stochastic' gravitational waves. If you are not an astrophysicist or astrophysics aficionado, you will likely wonder what the big deal in that is. Although background gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein in 1916 as a part of his grand theory of general relativity, the phenomenon was not empirically proven and remained the next major frontier in Physics. To simplify, gravitational waves could be thought of as ‘disturbances’ or ‘ripples’ in the fabric of spacetime, somewhat like –but much weaker than– a body of water hit by a boulder. These 'waves' of undulating spacetime were predicted to propagate from massive accelerating cosmic objects (e.g., black holes or neutron stars), or cataclysmic events (such as collision of two black holes) of the early universe. To detect and measure them, one needs two components: galactic amount of space and a lot of time. Where could one find so much space on this tiny planet Earth? Enter Pulsars. Pulsars are a subclass of neutron stars (burnout remnant of past massive stars) that rotate rapidly and beam their emission along their magnetic axis at a certain frequency. You could think of them as galactic lighthouses that emit radio waves as incredibly regular pulses from all around the cosmos. With appropriate listening devices (gigantic telescopes), one could keep track of their position in the spacetime fabric. Should pulsars –that are spaced around the galaxy– undulate due to gravitational waves, spacetime between them and earth will be stretched causing variation in arrival times of their pulses in a correlated way (Hellings and Downs correlation, if you are nerdy). NANOGrav scientists painstakingly collected data for arrival times of such pulses for 15 years. And now, their analyses reveal that the 68 pulsars tracked for all these years were wildly dancing in those protracted ‘stochastic gravitational waves’, which have been rippling all over the universe from the dawn of time. How cool is that? Somewhere among those stars up there, Einstein must have muttered yesterday, ‘…told ya!’.

Now, upon lunatic reflections, one realizes that cataclysmic events of our own past often reverberate in our thoughts, actions, and our existence. Could those be our personal gravitational waves that ride the cosmos of our soul? Are there any pulsars in our being to detect these waves? Do these waves cause emissions of our existence to reach other ports delayed or hurried? I am not sure. Somewhere among those stars up there, Einstein will likely know and mutter, ‘…the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious’.

PS: 'Waves' in lake waters above were caused by a loopy tourist, who decided to deal with distorted gravitational waves of his soul by stripping down and jumping in the ice-cold lake for a stochastic swim.

this whiteboard perfectly represents the chaotic mind of an astrophysicist

Captured in London, England. December 2019.

Captured in London, England. January 2020.

È stato un periodo felice per mio figlio, ma poi ha preferito abbandonare questo 'lavoro'.

Era molto stimato dal suo professore, (che è stato veramente dispiaciuto quando se ne è andato) ma la paga, lavorando anche 12 h al giorno, era di 900 euro al mese. Ne pagava solo 850 per una casa piccolissima e fatiscente. E la prospettiva di un posto stabile all'università lontanissima.

Una vergogna in Italia. Aveva in progetto anche lui gli Stati Uniti, ma la vita è andata diversamente e i motivi sono stati diversi.

Un peccato per lui ( che comunque è contento) e per l'Italia.

Paolo (allora con i capelli un po' lunghi) e Maria, ora sposati, segnati con un puntino turchese.

Col puntino arancione il Prof Andrea Ferrara, autore di varie pubblicazioni, ordinario di Cosmologia alla Scuola Superiore Normale di Pisa e Professore anche all'università di Tokio

The Researchers of Astrophysics of the University of Pisa

M13 is a large, bright, globular star cluster in the constellation, Hercules. The cluster is a popular telescopic target for visual observers and is spectacular photographically as well. Captured under dark skies near Goldendale, WA.

Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8 @ f/7

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO

Integration: ~11 minutes (11 x 1 min) each of RGB

Processing: PixInsight 1.9, Adobe Photoshop

Williams Bay, Wisconsin 42.570006, -88.556230

The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 to 2018. The observatory, often called "the birthplace of modern astrophysics," was founded in 1892 by astronomer George Ellery Hale and financed by businessman Charles T. Yerkes. The observatory's main dome houses a 40 in-diameter doublet lens refracting telescope, the second-largest refractor ever successfully used for astronomy. From Wikipedia

Technical: Panorama in lightroom using 4 images. I don't like the distortion (probably should have taken more pictures). But I do like the picture.

COPYRIGHT 2024 by JimFrazier All Rights Reserved. This may NOT be used for ANY reason without written consent from Jim Frazier.

240206cz7-2101-Pano-2500

RGB HDR composition: data from my archive

180", 60" and 5" frames to compose the HDR for each RGB channel.

T:Takahashi FSQ 106ED reduced @f3.8

M: Astrophysics Mach1 GTO

C: QSI 690ws-g8

G: Lodestar X2

F: Astrodon LRGB E-Gen2 set;

Foc: Sesto Senso - Primalucelab

CPU: Eagle-S Primalucelab

Sw: Sequence Generator Pro - PHD2 - Pixinsight 1.8

bias: 512

dark: 64

flat 30:30:30

ASTROBIN : astrob.in/0sbsky/0/

# Seriously, I just found this discard on a drop drive, let it sit on my desk hitting me with guilt vibes for allowing it to languish... so, its premier! Actually, I like oddities, but remain uncertain how many minutes it will survive in my stream. [sigh] Well, what the hell? ;-}

# I do have a large collection of experimental solar photography, including sun spot imagery, high ISO shots, et al., some results of which are posted here, shot w/ a relatively pedestrian Fuji. This looks like it might have been shot with an iPhone, however! But if you like it... it stays. 8^)

Taken from Coral Towers Observatory using a Skynyx 2-2 high speed camera and 16-cm Astrophysics Apochromatic Refractor at F/16 on a software bisque PME mount.

M2 is a large, bright globular cluster in the constellation Aquarius. This image was acquired under dark skies near Goldendale, WA, using a telescope and cooled CCD camera designed for astroimaging.

Telescope: Celestron Edge HD 8

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach 1 GTO

Integration: 25-30 minutes each of RGB (5 minute subs)

Post Processing Software: PixInsight, Adobe Lightroom

Captured in London, England. January 2022.

Captured in London, England. October 2021.

Taken from Coral Towers Observatory using a Skynyx 2-2 high speed camera and 13-cm Astrophysics Apochromatic Refractor at F/16 on a software bisque PME mount.

For Toby!

Captured in London, England. January 2021.

Captured in London, England. July 2020.

publ. by Julia Comerford; Univ. CA, Berkeley on her web site in "Research Summary In the News" (title: as mentioned above):

"While visually inspecting postage stamp images of COSMOS galaxies, we serendipitously identified .. "

Gran Telescopio Canarias is a 10.4 m telescope build at 2300 m above the sea level at Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain.

NGC 4216 is a spiral galaxy that we see nearly edge-on in the constellation Virgo. Nearby are NGC 4222 (below left), IC 3064 (above right), and several dimmer galaxies from the Virgo galaxy cluster. On the same night my scope and camera were acquiring this image, a friend and I visually observed the same galaxy triplet through his 20" Dobsonian telescope -- a real treat!

Taken (and viewed!) under dark skies near Goldendale, WA.

Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8" f/10

Reducer: 0.7x

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO

Integration: 50 minutes (10 x 5 min) each RGB; 100 minutes (20 x 5 min) Luminance

Post-Processing Software: PixInsight 1.8.8, PaintShop Pro

65% illuminated, London, UK. January 2020.

M106 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canis Venatici. This image was captured from dark skies near Goldendale, WA. Due to some equipment issues, I was only able to capture about 25 minutes of data per RGB channel and hope to revisit the galaxy later this year to capture additional data for a deeper final image.

Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8 @ f/7 (1422mm focal length)

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1GTO

Integration: 8-9 x 3 mins (24-27 mins total) per channel

Post Processing: PixInsight 1.8, Adobe Lightroom.

Captured in London, England. October 2019.

Captured in London, England, January 2020.

RGB Ha + OIII composition

7575:75x180"=R:G:BX180"

55x1200"= Ha x T

55x1200" OIII x T

T:Takahashi FSQ 106ED @f/5.0

M: Astrophysics Mach1 GTO

C: QSI 690 SW-g8

G: Lodestar X2

F: Astrodon RGB set E-type Gen 2 + Astronomik Ha and OIII 6nm

Foc: PrimaLuceLab Sesto Senso 2

CPU: Eagle-S Primalucelab

Sw: Sequence Generator Pro - PHD2 - Pixinsight 1.8.8-8

Also on Astrobin at: astrob.in/4ep1pa/0/

RGB composition

50:50:50x300"=R:G:BX300"

T:Takahashi FSQ 106ED @f/5.0

M: Astrophysics Mach1 GTO

C: SBIG STL 11000

G: Lodestar X2

F: Baader Planetarium RGB set

Foc: PrimaLuceLab ESATTO 4"

CPU: Eagle-S Primalucelab

Sw: Sequence Generator Pro - PHD2 - Pixinsight 1.8.8-6

Captured in London, England. May 2020.

One of the paradoxes of our age, which has so far not distinguished itself as an Age of Faith, is that millions of men who have found it impossible to believe in God have blindly submitted themselves in human faith to every charlatan who has access to a printing press, a movie screen, or a microphone.

Men who cannot believe in the revealed word of God swallow everything they read in the newspapers. Men who think it absurd that the Church should be able, by virtue of the guidance and protection of the Holy Ghost, to make infallible pronouncements as to what has or has not been revealed by God concerning doctrine or morality, will believe the most fantastic claims of political propaganda, even though the dishonesty of propagandists has become, by now, proverbial.

They find it impossible to believe the Pope when, with the extreme caution and reserve which is characteristic of Rome, he makes one of his rare and guarded ex cathedra pronouncements within the very narrow field of “faith and morals” concerning which, as the Vicar of Christ on earth, he might be expected to know something.

And yet if some movie star or other celebrity, who stalled for three years in the eighth grade and finally gave up all hope of high school, makes a dogmatic declaration on anything from marriage to astrophysics, they will regard it as “authoritative.”

-Thomas Merton, Ascent to Truth.

Captured in London, England. September 2019.

A slithery crescent captured in London, England. April 2022.

Captured in London, England, March 2022.

neither causes nor consequences

www.fluidr.com/photos/125601701@N03&opSize=l&opMe...

www.fluidr.com/photos/125601701@N03/interesting

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 02.29 and 02.50 EDT

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Temperature 12° C.

* Total exposure time: 10 minutes

* 540 mm focal length telescope

___________________________________________

Description:

One of the most famous and best known objects in the sky is this large spiral galaxy, which can be seen with the unaided eye in a dark-sky location late in the northern hemisphere summer and in the autumn.

M31 is about 50% larger than our own Milky Way galaxy, and lies at a distance of about 2.5 million light years. For more information about M31, click here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy

For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/29251167742

___________________________________________

Technical information:

Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 101is apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head

Ten stacked frames; each frame:

540 mm focal length

ISO 4000; 1 minute exposure at f/5.4; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

Subframes registered in RegiStar;

Stacked and processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast, colour balance, sharpening)

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HA+OIII+RGB composition

15:15:15x80"=R:G:BX80"bin 2x2

15x300"=Ha x300" bin 2x2

171x300"=OIII x 300" bin 2x2

T:Takahashi TOA 130

M: Astrophysics Mach1 GTO

C: QSI WSg8

G: Lodestar X2

F: Astromomik - RGB set + Astronomik Ha 6nm

Foc: PrimaLuceLab Sesto Senso 2

CPU: Eagle3 Primalucelab

Sw: Sequence Generator Pro - PHD2 - Pixinsight 1.8.8-9

I composed an HOO image for the WR shell and surroundings and an RGB image for the stars; I merged the two into the final image.

Captured in London, England. April 2022.

New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the intricate structure of the galaxy NGC 4696 in greater detail than ever before. The elliptical galaxy is a beautiful cosmic oddity with a bright core wrapped in system of dark, swirling, thread-like filaments.

Read more: bit.ly/2gLGojx

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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M51 in Ursa Major is the first galaxy for which a spiral structure was detected. William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, observed and sketched M51's spiral arms using his 72" telescope in Ireland. M51 tidally interacts with an adjacent smaller companion galaxy, NGC 5194, creating the extended area of brightness you can see below and to the right of the galaxy pair.

Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8"

Reducer: 0.7x (1440mm Focal Length)

Camera: QSI 683wsg

Filters: Baader RGB-CCD + UV/IR Cut

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO

Integration: 40-50 mins each LRGB (5 min subframes)

Processing Software: PixInsight v1.8

NASA has selected a science mission that will allow astronomers to explore, for the first time, the hidden details of some of the most extreme and exotic astronomical objects, such as stellar and supermassive black holes, neutron stars and pulsars.

Objects such as black holes can heat surrounding gases to more than a million degrees. The high-energy X-ray radiation from this gas can be polarized – vibrating in a particular direction. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission will fly three space telescopes with cameras capable of measuring the polarization of these cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about these turbulent and extreme environments where gravitational, electric and magnetic fields are at their limits.

“We cannot directly image what’s going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects,” said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA has a great history of launching observatories in the Astrophysics Explorers Program with new and unique observational capabilities. IXPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through. Today, we can only guess what we will find.”

To read the full story, click here.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Captured in London, England. January 2020. 13% illuminated.

Taken from Coral Towers Observatory using a Skynyx 2-2 high speed camera and 16-cm Astrophysics Apochromatic Refractor at F/32 on a software bisque PME mount.

LINK

Other images from this series:

1. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51171518803/

2. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51170617397/

3. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51170617367/

Captured in London, England, October 2022.

Captured in London, England. March 2021.

Captured in London, England, April 2022.

The lunar eclipse of 07.09.2025

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_2025_lunar_eclipse

A time line photo of the eclipse, I made 703 photos and in this photo I made a timeline of 10 minutes interval between each moon photo

also I made a time-laps clip of the eclipse out of the 703 photos, using PIPP and AutoStakkert! and photoshop for building the clip

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYJT1szQWio

you can buy this photo as a print on my shop

www.etsy.com/listing/4390174820/timline-of-lunar-eclipse-...

or a digital file for self print

www.etsy.com/listing/4391884489/timline-of-lunar-eclipse-...

Crop from a wider FOV. Reprocessed from my 2016 data.

T:Takahashi FSQ 106ED reduced @f3.8

M: Astrophysics Mach1 GTO

C: QSI 690ws-g8

G: Lodestar X2

F: Astrodon Ha 5nm; Astronomik OIII and SII 6nm

Foc: Sharp Sky Pro foucser

CPU: Eagle-S Primalucelab

Sw: Sequence Generator Pro - PHD2 - Pixinsight 1.8

Narrowband composition

HA:OIII:SIIxTv=33:33:33x1200"

Bias: 512

Dark: 64

Flat: 31

Captured on London, England. February's Super Snow Moon / Full Moon 2020.

Captured in London, England. March 2021.

Captured rising amongst the clouds in London, England. June 2021.

Supernova Remnant: The Veil Nebula

Taken over 17 nights between August 10 and October 11, 2021 near Seattle, WA

Telescope: TEC 180FL with Quad-TCC @ f/5

Camera: QHY 600M

Guide Camera: Starlight Xpress Lodestar

Mount: Astro-Physics Mach2

Exposure:

4-Panel Mosaic

Panel 1:

Ha: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

OIII: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

Panel 2:

Ha: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

OIII: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

Panel 3:

Ha: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

OIII: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

Panel 4:

Ha: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

OIII: 10 hours (40 x 15 minutes, bin 1x1)

Total Integration Time: 80 hours

Bi-Color Combination:

R: Ha

G: .1*Ha + .9*OIII

B: OIII

Processed in PixInsight 1.8.8-9