View allAll Photos Tagged Copernicus
Copernicus and Kepler are a stunning pair! Their namesakes are legendary in astronomy. Nicholaus Copernicus gave astronomy a heliocentric theory of the solar system, and Johannes Kepler derived the fundamental laws of planetary motion.
Near the upper left is Kepler. This crater is 32 km in diameter and 2.6 km deep. The crater proper features sharply terraced walls and a central peak. A gently sloping rampart surrounds the crater wall, and transitions downward to the dark basaltic plain of Mare Insularium below. A bright ray system extends outward for up to 300 km. Interestingly, one of Crater Tycho's rays intersect Kepler, a reminder of the real life connection between Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.
Copernicus, toward the lower right of the frame, is a larger example of the features found in Kepler. This crater is 93 km in diameter, and 3.9 km deep. It has three central peaks that overlook the crater floor. The ray system extends outward for 800 km. This bright, large crater can be seen from Earth with binoculars.
Meade LX850 (12" f/8), ZWO ASI290MM
Autostakkert! (stacking - best 10% of 3,000 frames)
Registax (sharpening)
Photoshop (final processing)
ASI290MM, Astronomik ProPlanet 807 IR-pass filter, 2x barlow lens, Sky-Watcher Skyliner 350P Flextube. 6% of 3000 frames stacked.
Waxing Gibbous Moon at 92.4%, 2023-01-03
This is a portion of the 11.61 day old moon near the terminator.
Kepler Crater, an isolated circular impact formation with an extensive ray system. The prominent rays (radial streaks of fine ejecta thrown during impact) extend over 300km. They are most visible in this image above the crater. Dimensions: 31km X 31 km, height 8,300 feet.
Copernicus Crater, an impact formation with hexagonal form. Copernicus is visible with binoculars. Located slightly NW of the center of the moon’s visible face. Dimension: 93km X 93km, 11,400 feet high
Full disk image from VMA. (Image 2)
Imaging equipment:
Celestron EdgeHD 8, 2032mm focal length,
Mesu 200 MKII mount,
ZWOASI294MM Pro camera
Astronomic 642 (R-IR) filter
Best 3% of 5,000 images stacked with AutoStakkert!, processed with IMPPG & Photoshop.
This portion of the lunar surface stretches from Copernicus on the left (southwest) to Eratosthenes and the southern end of Montes Appeninus (northeast) on the right. Just over 73% of the sunlit side of the Moon was facing the Earth at the time; it was 8.9 days past new. I wanted to show the change in illumination from near the terminator, where Copernicus was, to the mountains, which were in more direct sunlight. The total distance on the moon from the left to right edge of the image is about 540 km.
Images were taken with a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" scope and 3x Barlow using a Point Grey color CCD shooting at 50 fps. Seeing was good, but transparency average to poor; humidity was above 90%. AVIs were 600 frames in length, and the best 150 frames were stacked in AutoStakkert. Initial wavelet processing was done in PixInsight, and images were mosaiced with Microsoft ICE. A few final touches were done in PS CS 5.1
Copernicus, Reinhold and Lansberg craters, Montes Apenninus upper right corner. Below Apenninus Sinus Aestuum, Sinus Medii and Mare Vaporum.
Equipment
Skywatcher 250/1200 (10") Flextube dobson scope
Zwo ASI224MC camera
Baader IR-Pass filter
Eq platform
Apollo 17 Hasselblad image from film magazine 151/OO - Lunar orbit
Image credit Project Apollo Archive.
Michael L Hyde (c) 2015
Sentinel-1B logo applied to the Soyuz fairing in preparation for the 22 April 2016 launch. This stage of the launch campaign took place on Friday 15 April in the S3B preparation building of the Guiana Space Centre.
Once in orbit, it will provide radar images of Earth for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.
With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago.
More about Sentinel-1:
Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016
Taken with my ZWO AS120MM-mini guide camera Skywatcher 130PDS and a a x3 barlow. Video recorded in Sharpcap, processed in Autostakkert and sharpened in Registack.
It was my late father who got me into astronomy with the Moon being one of his favourites. I vividly remember his pointing this out when showing me.
I've not really got into closeup Moon photography before so abit of a first for me. My sister and brother came to visit and stayed in their camper van. My brother in law Nick is interested in taking up the hobby at some point so we set up the equipment. When the Moon is so full you have to take pictures of the Moon.
I'm not sure I sold it very well because there was a lot of faffing about. I've not done it for a while, it was cold, I was using my rubbish laptop and the seeing was terrible.
Anyway, we managed to get some pic's and in the end it wasn't too bad.
The Sentinel-3A satellite team members signed the logo applied to the Rockot fairing, on 10 February 2016, at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
Once safely in orbit and fully commissioned, this new satellite will begin its mission to map Earth’s oceans and land surfaces with its powerful optical and radar systems. The Sentinel-3 mission is set to play a key role in the world’s largest environmental monitoring programme – Copernicus.
Credit:
High resolution (300m/pixel) mosaic of Copernicus crater and surroundings. About 40 images were used for this mosaic.
This time I insulated my C11 with thermal foil that ensures that no internal currents are present. The result was much better than I ever had before.
Telescope: Celestron C11 @ f25 (powermate 2.5x)
Camera: DMK21-618
Mount: Skywatcher NEQ-6
Focal length: 7,0 m
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image captures the intricate blend of natural, rural and urban landscapes around Kunshan, a city in eastern China.
Situated in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta region in Jiangsu Province, Kunshan is home to about 1.6 million people. It nestles between the major hubs of Shanghai to the east and Suzhou to the west.
Kunshan covers over 900 sq km of mostly flat terrain. Owing to its low-lying geography, the city has historically been prone to flooding, a challenge exacerbated by rapid urbanisation. In response, Kunshan has implemented a polder system consisting of dikes with waterways managed through gates and pumps.
Zooming into the urban areas, the smaller red buildings typically indicate houses, while larger white and light-blue buildings denote factories and warehouses.
Kunshan is also known for its well-preserved ancient water towns, including Zhouzhuang, the most famous in China. Dating back more than 900 years, Zhouzhuang, at the bottom centre of the image, is known for its ancient houses and scenic waterways.
The city is also dotted with numerous lakes, the largest of which visible in the image include Dianshan Lake, partially visible in the bottom centre, Cheng Lake to its left, and Yangcheng Lake at the city edge in the top left.
Yangcheng Lake is an important freshwater resource for the whole province and is famous for the Chinese mitten crab, which is considered a delicacy. The rectangular crab farming ponds are clear to see in the middle of the lake, while water plants stand out in bright green.
Rivers and forests cover more than a quarter of the city. The Wusong River, visible in light green across the centre of the image, winds through the city, while smaller rivers form a grid-like pattern.
Covering an area of around 15 sq km, Forest Park, an ecological wetland filled with a variety of plants, and Tinglin Park, known for its lush green peak and pristine waters, offer scenic escapes from the urban centre.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites are just below Copernicus and adjacent to the two smaller craters (Reinhold & Lansberg) below and left.
Taken afocally with a Sky-Watcher Skymax 127, Baader Hyperion 8-24 Zoom eyepiece, and Sony RX100 II.
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the Mackenzie River, a major river system in the Canadian boreal forest. Its basin is the largest in Canada and is the second largest drainage basin of any North American river, after the Mississippi.
The Mackenzie River flows through a vast region of forest and tundra through the Northwest Territories from the Great Slave Lake to the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Its delta covers an area around 12 000 sq km, measuring more than 190 km from north to south and is around 80 km wide along the Arctic shore. The maze of branching and intertwining channels is dotted with numerous lakes and ponds.
This wintery, radar image combines three radar acquisitions from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission to show changes in land and water surfaces between three acquisition dates: 18 November 2019, 5 December 2019 and 10 January 2020. In the top of the image, parts of the frozen Arctic Ocean can be seen. The different colours are due to the movement and cracking of sea ice between the acquisition dates.
The landscape pictured here is very typical for these latitudes, with the whole region subject to a harsh winter climate. Many of the lakes are frozen during the winter months, with the exception of some of the lakes visible in black in the centre of the image, which are ice-free. One of the lakes appears red most likely due to new ice which has formed between image acquisitions.
The town of Inuvik lies along the east channel of the Mackenzie River delta, around 100 km from the Arctic Ocean and approximately 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk lies on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and is the only community in Canada on the Arctic Ocean that is connected to the rest of Canada by road.
Around 75% of the Mackenzie basin sits within a permafrost area. Permafrost, ground which remains completely frozen for at least two consecutive years, is common in high latitude regions. With increasing temperatures causing permafrost to thaw, it not only releases methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but it can cause erosion, flooding and landslides.
Satellite data can be used to map permafrost, even in remote and inaccessible areas such as the Mackenzie River delta. The maps, using data from ESA’s Climate Change Initiative, are the longest, satellite-derived permafrost record currently available.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019-20), processed by ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Le cratère Copernicus, un des plus imposants cratères d'impact lunaires.
Il a un diamètre de 93 km, et une profondeur de 3800m.
Newton SW 200/1000
EQ6-r pro
Caméra T7 mono (ASI 120mm)
Barlow Televue x3
Acquisition FireCapture
Traitement Autostakkert!3 + Registax6
60 images /300
The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument is an outdoor sculpture commemorating and depicting Nicolaus Copernicus, installed along Solidarity Drive outside Chicago's Adler Planetarium, in the U.S. state of Illinois. Bronislaw Koniuszy's replica of Bertel Thorvaldsen's original 1830 sculpture in Warsaw, Poland, was created, installed, and dedicated in 1973. Adler Planetarium erected the monument to mark the 500th anniversary of Copernicus' birth.
83.1 Waxing 2019-11-07 Shot through light clouds.
C8 + ZWO ASI183MM. Baader 610nm filter. Best 150 of 4500 frames. AS!3 and IMPPG.
This morning’s view of the wildfire smoke coming out of Turkey’s Antalya and Muğla regions. As seen from the
Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI).
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, the world’s largest human gathering, which took place in the city of Prayagraj in northern India.
Recognised by Unesco in its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Kumbh Mela is a Hindu pilgrimage held every few years, attracting tens of millions of pilgrims from India and across the globe. The event this year was held from 13 January to 26 February.
Four sacred cities take it in turn to host the festival, where pilgrims come to bathe in a cleansing ritual. In 2025 it was a Maha (Great) Kumbh Mela, which occurs only every 144 years, making it even more significant.
The images in the slider show the area at the confluence of the Ganges with the Yamuna river near Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad. The image on the left was captured on 13 December 2024, one month before the beginning of the festival, while the image on the right was taken on 27 January 2025, during the festival, and clearly shows the extent of the temporary structures built for the event.
A vast area covering more than 40 sq km along the banks of the Ganges river was converted into a sprawling tent city, with housing, electricity, drinking water, parking lots, around 150 000 toilets and 11 hospitals. A series of floating bridges are also visible in the river, connecting the two banks of the Ganges.
The name Kumbh Mela translates to ‘Festival of the Sacred Pitcher’ in Sanskrit, where Kumbh refers to the pitcher or pot that contained the nectar of immortality in Hindu mythology, and Mela means fair or gathering. Hindus believe that drops of the nectar fell on the four sacred cities that now host the pilgrimage.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024-25), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Mosaico lunar 27-09-2020
200 frames
Toya 114mm
ASI 120MC + Celestron Omni Barlow 2x
FireCapture, PiPP, AutoStarket, PhotoShop e AstroSurface
Matupá/MT
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured a rare, almost cloud-free image over the Mekong Delta and the city of Can Tho in southwest Vietnam.
The Mekong Delta is a vast flood plain formed by the longest river in southeast Asia, the Mekong, which can be seen in the top right corner of the image. Its exceptionally fertile soil has established the area as one of the world’s richest agricultural regions.
The extensive patchwork of rice paddy fields can be seen across the image, intersected by an intricate web of irrigation and drainage canals. Vietnam is one of the world’s top rice producers and this region is often labelled Vietnam’s ‘rice bowl’.
Different colours in the fields could signify either different stages in plant growth or different agriculture methods being used for the crops. The various colours could also be the result of a common agricultural practice in the area: post-harvest, many fields are burned to clear and prepare for the next planting cycle. Recently burned fields appear black, while those where some time has passed since burning appear in shades of brown. Notably, wisps of smoke can be spotted, particularly in the left of the image, over some plots that were being burned at the time the image was captured.
There are very few roads in this area – the network of canals and waterways are used to transport people and products. All villages and cities in the area are therefore built along waterways.
The large river in the image, south of the Mekong, is the Hau River, a major branch of the lower Mekong River. On its left bank lies Can Tho, the largest city of the delta region and visible as a large grey area.
A large inland port, Can Tho is renowned for floating markets and for picturesque rural canals. Zooming in northwest of the city reveals the clear outline of the Can Tho International Airport.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Sentinel-3A satellite encapsulated within its Rockot fairing, on 9 February 2016, at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
Once safely in orbit and fully commissioned, this new satellite will begin its mission to map Earth’s oceans and land surfaces with its powerful optical and radar systems. The Sentinel-3 mission is set to play a key role in the world’s largest environmental monitoring programme – Copernicus.
Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016
Je me suis trompé à la prise de vues (fichiers .Fits au lieu de .Ser) résultat, beaucoup de mal à traiter et aspect final bizarre, impossible de lisser les pixels. On croit que l'on progresse mais il reste encore du chemin.
Instrument de prise de vue: Sky-watcher T250/1000 Newton F4
Caméra d'imagerie: QHY5III462
Monture: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 Pro Goto USB
Instrument de guidage: sans
Caméra de guidage: Sans
Logiciels: Stellarium - ScharpCap - AutoStakkert - RegiStax 6 - Darktable - FastStone Images Viewer
Filtres: IR-Cut / IR-Block ZWO (M48)
Accessoire: GPU coma-correcteur Sky-watcher + Barlow Keppler x2.5 (x3.83 env. suivant mon montage)
Dates: 10 Mai 2022- 21h51
Images unitaires: Fits (500x109.34ms) 8% retenues - Gain 0
Intégration: --
Échantillonnage: 0.17 arcsec/pixel
Seeing: 1.27 "Arc
Echelle d'obscurité de Bortle: 4.50
Phase de la Lune (moyenne): 74% -
Copernicus Sentinel-1D has begun its journey and is preparing to leave Europe. It left Thales Alenia Space’s facility in Cannes on Monday, 1 September, and arrived the next day in Turin. From there, it will be flown on an Antonov plane to French Guiana on 10 September.
Sentinel-1D, part of the European Commission’s Copernicus programme, is designed to carry an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface.
It will be launched on an Ariane 6 in Q4 2025.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
Frombork, Poland
Monument to Nicolaus Copernicus, was replaced in the mid-1950s as the monument erected by Imperial Germany's Wilhelm II was destroyed in WW II
Greece’s largest and most populous island, Crete, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.
The two identical Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites carry radar instruments, which can see through clouds and rain, and in the dark, to image Earth’s surface below. The sea surface reflects the radar signal away from the satellite, making water appear dark in the image, while cities on the island are visible in white owing to the strong reflection of the radar signal.
Crete extends for approximately 260 km from west to east, and is approximately 60 km across at its widest point. Crete is known for its rugged terrain and is dominated by a high mountain range crossing from west to east. This includes the Lefká Ori, or ‘White Mountains’ in the west, Mount Ida, Crete’s highest mountain, visible in the centre of the island, and the Díkti Mountains in the east. Crete’s capital and largest city of the island, Heraklion, is located along the northern coastline.
Several other smaller islands are dotted around the image, including Gavdos, Chrisi and Dia.
Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage. Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration (PFAC) where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders linked to international metrology standards to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch.
This PFAC network has been operating for around two decades, with a main calibration validation station located on the island of Gavdos and a dedicated transponder site in the Cretan mountains. A transponder receives, amplifies and re-transmits the radar pulse back to the radar altimeter in space where the signal is recorded. The transponder measurements are used to determine the range and datation of the satellite altimeter data in a unique manner – something that is very difficult to achieve on the ground.
Western Crete was identified as a unique location for the inter-comparison of satellite altimeters owing to its unique positioning of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 orbit crossing points.
The sea surrounding the island has minimal tides, and the rugged mountainous landscape means that the transponder signals can be measured from space with little interference, but most importantly, in the sky above it, a number of satellites in orbit converge. This allows each satellite flying above to be cross-calibrated with the next one at one specific meeting point using the same instrumentation.
The Fiducial Reference Measurements for Sentinel-6 is the latest activity designed to bring the full power of the PFAC to check the performance of the upcoming Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite – the next radar altimetry reference mission extending the legacy of sea-surface height measurements until at least 2030.
Every 10 days, Sentinel-6 will provide sufficient measurements to map the sea-surface height of the ocean from which sea-level rise can be computed. As part of the ESA contribution to the long-term verification and validation of both Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 missions, the PFAC is being extended with a second transponder to be installed on Gavdos Island, southwest of Crete, as seen in the Sentinel-1 radar image. This gives the ‘big picture’ allowing us to chart the sea level with confidence.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Darmstadt – home to ESA’s European Space Operations Centre.
The image pictured here shows the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region in south-central Germany. With a population of almost six million people, the region includes the main cities of Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Offenbach and Darmstadt.
Frankfurt, Germany’s fifth-largest city, is visible at the top of the image, located on both sides of the Main River. The southern part of the city contains the Frankfurt City Forest, the largest inner-city forest in Germany, visible in dark green. Frankfurt Airport can be easily spotted southwest of the city centre.
The Rhine River can be seen in the left of the image. The river flows for around 1230 km in a northerly direction through Germany and the Netherlands, before emptying into the North Sea. Darmstadt is located between the Rhine and the Odenwald, a forested plain in the bottom-right of the image. Darmstadt is often referred to as a ‘City of Science,’ as it’s a major centre of scientific institutions including ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat).
ESOC is home to the engineering teams that control spacecraft in orbit and across the Solar System. On 21 November, the Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich ocean-monitoring satellite will launch on a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from California, US, and once safely in orbit, ESA’s ESOC Operations Centre will take over the reins.
Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will replace the Jason series of satellites currently providing data on Earth’s oceans. Over the subsequent days after launch, the Sentinel-6 mission control team will manoeuvre the satellite into its correct path, which will fly in tandem with the Jason-3 spacecraft it will replace, and then fall into position right behind it.
Once the Sentinel is through the critical early phase and drifts towards its target orbit, Eumetsat will complete the final ‘orbit acquisition’ and take on responsibility for commissioning, routine operations and distribution of the mission’s vital data.
Copernicus Sentinel-6 will join a fleet of Earth’s monitoring spacecraft in the low-Earth orbit – flying at a mean altitude of 1336 km. ESA’s Space Debris Office, also based at ESOC, will be on-hand through the critical early days, monitoring and calculating the risk of collisions with swirling space debris and advising on how to keep the mission safe.
Read more on Sentinel-6's challenging early days.
This image, captured on 23 June 2020, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
69% waxing gibbous moon January 2021. Crater copernicus and the Appenine mountains as clear features.
Copernicus is 93 km wide and is located within the Mare Imbrium Basin, northern nearside of the Moon (10 degrees N., 20 degrees W.). This image from NASA's Lunar Orbiter shows crater floor, floor mounds, rim, and rayed ejecta.
T.G. Elger, author of a moon book and first Director oft the Lunar Section oft the British Astronomical Society, christened the crater Copernicus „the Monarch oft he Moon.“
Celestron 14 at fair seeing conditions.
Jefferson Park, Chicago. The former Gateway Theatre is inside the Copernicus Center. Built in 1979 as a Polish Cultural Center. The building is a meeting place for Polish Americans, Chicago Historical Society, Jefferson Park Chamber of Commerce and many more. The Solidarity Tower resembles the historic Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. The Taste of Polonia is held here also every year.