View allAll Photos Tagged Starcluster
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Nikon D780 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
Imaging session commenced 22:47 UT
26 x 30s at ISO 2500
Also 16 dark frames.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and levels adjusted with Lightroom & G.I.M.P.
Final image cropped.
Prints on sale at Fine Art America:
fineartamerica.com/featured/angelica-in-delirium-gate-gus...
Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm:
for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave:
the coals thereof are coals of fire,
which hath a most vehement flame.
Song of Solomon 8:6
King James Version
㊚ ♊ ♋ ✞
All rights reserved.
L'Amas globulaire M15 (Messier 15 ou NGC7078) est l'un des amas les plus compact de la galaxie. Situé dans la Constellation de Pégase, il se trouve à environ 33000 années lumière de la Terre. Il a été découvert par Jean-Dominique Maraldi en 1746 et ajouté au catalogue de Messier quelques années plus tard.
M15 is a globular cluster in the constellation Pegasus. It is is one of the most densely packed globulars of the Milky Way galaxy.
*Acquisition:
Nikon D5300 + Zenithstar 73
iOptron CEM26 + iPolar
Optolong L-Pro
ZWO ASI224MC + WO Uniguide 120mm
26 x 3min (Exp=78min) -- ISO400
Astro Photography Tool (APT) & PH2D
*Traitement :
Siril & Gimp
AstroM1
(rsi1.b2)
NGC 3532 (also called the “Wishing Well Cluster”) is a cluster of middle-aged stars — about 300 million years old — that covers nearly twice the size of the full Moon in the sky. X-rays from Chandra (purple and white); optical from ESO/MPG 2.2m (red, green, and blue)
Visual Description:
This image of the NGC 3532 star cluster resembles a black canvas stippled with thousands of drops of colorful paint, flicked from an artist’s brush. From this vantage point, the stars range from minuscule to merely tiny. They range in color from white and golden yellow, to oranges, reds, blues and purples. Some of the stars have white cores with colorful outlines, while others gleam and have large, translucent, outer glows. The purple and white stars are those detected in X-rays by Chandra. A faint, hazy, brick orange cloud streaks across the middle of the image.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: ESO; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #StarCluster
Both known for their beauty Venus and the 7 Sisters appear over the Gore Range in Summit County, Colorado. www.danielmcvey.com Sharing is Appreciated.
Messier 13 (M13) was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714. Charles Messier, on June 1, 1764 , added it to his list of objects not to mistake for comets; Messier's list, including Messier 13, eventually became known as the Messier Catalog. It has become a favorite listing of objects, fascinating to stargazers of all levels.
High overhead in August night skies, about one third of the way from Vega to Arcturus, four bright stars in the constellation of Hercules form the Keystone asterism. M13 can be seen partway between two of these stars, Zeta Herculis and Eta Herculis. Although only telescopes with great light-gathering capability fully resolve the stars of the Cluster, M13 can be visible to the naked eye depending on circumstances. With a low-power telescope, Messier 13 looks like a comet or fuzzy patch. With an apparent magnitude of 5.8, it is barely visible with the naked eye on clear nights.
In traditional binoculars, the Hercules Globular Cluster appears as a round patch of light. At least four inches of telescope aperture will allow resolving the stars in M13's outer extents as small pinpoints of light.
About 145 light-years in diameter, M13 is composed of several hundred thousand stars. M13 is 22,200–25,000 light-years away from Earth.
Compared to the stars in the neighborhood of the Sun, the stars of the M13 population are more than a hundred times denser. They are so densely packed together that they sometimes collide and produce new stars. The newly formed, young stars, so-called "blue stragglers," are particularly interesting to astronomers.
This image is my first foray into deep-sky color imaging using my dedicated color planetary camera, the ASI224MC. No flats, no darks, nor any other calibration frames. A set of 102 10-sec exposures were stacked using Sequator software.
ZWO ASI224MC camera
Explore Scientific ED80APO triplet refractor telescope
Celestron Advanced VX mount.
This was an experiment to see how PixInsight would handle combining images from different sessions shot at two slightly different focal lengths. I took several exposures between 270 s and 300 s from Joshua Tree, CA, on 2017-11-17, and I had some data from the same region of the sky from a March 2015 trip to Death Valley. After star alignment and image integration, the results looked decent enought to work with.
All data taken with an Nikon D80 with 18.0-135.0mm lens piggybacked on a Celestron Edge HD scope and Celestron CGEM mount. The Death Valley data was shot at a 22.0 mm focal length, and the Joshua Tree data at 24.0 mm focal length. All shots at ISO 1600.
Image size is 28.2° x 47.6°
Image center (J2000):
RA 6h 7m
DEC -1° 9'
Red Mars is here approaching the Beehive star cluster, aka Messier 44, in Cancer, on May 2, 2025. This is a telescopic close-up as Mars was less than 1.5º from the centre of the cluster this night.
Mars was closest to M44 two nights later. but this was a much clearer night. However, the sky was moonlit by a 6-day-old Moon not far away in the western sky. Its light and lingering twilight add the blue tint to the sky, retained for artistic effect. As are the diffraction spikes added in processing, to add "sparkle" to the stars.
The field of view is 3.1 by 2º. North is up here.
Technical:
This is a stack of just 2 x 60-second exposures with the Askar APO120 refractor at f/5.6 with its 0.8x Reducer, and the Canon R5 at ISO 400. It was on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount, tracked but unguided.
This 100 million-year-old globular cluster is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and a birthplace for billions of stars. The cluster is approximately 160,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. Typical of globular clusters, it is a spherical collection of densely packed stars held together by mutual gravitational attraction. Unlike most globular clusters, however, the stars of NGC 1850 are relatively young. Globular clusters with young stars such as NGC 1850 are not present in our own Milky Way galaxy.
Astrophysicists theorize that when the first generation of stars in NGC 1850 was born, the stars ejected matter like dust and gas into the surrounding cosmos. The density of the newly formed star cluster was so high that this ejected matter could not escape the cluster’s gravitational pull, causing it to stay nearby. The intense gravity of the cluster also pulled in hydrogen and helium gas from its surroundings. These two sources of gas combined to form a second generation of stars, increasing the density and size of this globular cluster.
In 2021, scientists detected the presence of a black hole in NGC 1850. They have also detected many brighter blue stars that burn hotter and die younger than red stars. Also present are around 200 red giants, stars that have run out of hydrogen in their centers and are fusing hydrogen further from their core, causing the outer layers to expand, cool, and glow red. Surrounding the cluster is a pattern of nebulosity, diffuse dust and gas theorized to come from supernova blasts, visible here as the blue veil-like structures.
NGC 1850 is approximately 63,000 times the mass of the Sun, and its core is roughly 20 light-years in diameter. Astronomers used Hubble Space Telescope observations at a wide range of wavelengths to image this large star cluster and learn more about star formation.
Credit: NASA, ESA and P. Goudfrooij (Space Telescope Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
Hubble studied this star cluster using different filters with to examine particular wavelengths of light. This image includes some near-infrared light along with visible light. For a second image and more info, visit:
www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-captures-d...
For an older Hubble image of NGC 1850, visit:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2001/news-2001-25.html
For Hubble’s Star Clusters page, visit: www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-hubbles-star-clusters
A portrait of the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, with her various star clusters and emission nebulas, and with the area laced with dark nebulas.
For nebulas — At upper left is IC 1805 and IC 1848, the Heart and Soul Nebulas. At upper right is NGC 7822 and Ced 214. At bottom is NGC 281 the Pacman Nebula. Just below centre is the faint IC 59 and IC 63 reflection nebulas near the star Gamma Cassiopeiae.
For star clusters — at far left is the Double Cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884. Left of centre is NGC 663. Below centre is NGC 457. At bottom right on the edge of the frame is NGC 7789. I should have framed the scene a bit farther to the south!
This is a stack of 11 x 6-minute tracked but unguided exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 85mm lens and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1600, blended with a single simular exposure through a Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows. All were also shot through an Astronomik CLS clip-in filter, to reduce sky glow and enhance the nebulas. Taken December 4, 2020 from home on the AP Mach 1 mount.
The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is dominated by got blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from the formation of the cluster, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.
Taken a year after my first attempt ( flic.kr/p/2e9R1Dq ) with some equipment and knowledge upgrades, I'm happy with the progress. This cluster is simple elegance in my eye and will never get old.
A total of 3.5 hours of exposure time using 140 90 second exposures.
One of the highlights of my 2013 training schedule was the night photography workshop I ran in Arches National Park in late August/September. The conditions were awesome and the students were a lively bunch that added a lot to the experience.
In this image taken more for marketing purposes, I got positioned under Delicate Arch and looked back toward the northern end of the Milky Way. With Perseus, Cassiopeia and the Andromeda Galaxy in view, I made sure to get in position to have the thicker clouds of the Milky Way crossing near the fragile elbow of Delicate Arch.
There is a lot more to this post... see the rest of the backstory, the technique, and get free wallpaper from www.coloradocaptures.com/sandstone-arch-meets-milky-way-skies
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Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm, 1200mm f/l Newtonian Reflector, Nikon D780 at prime focus with Skywatcher Coma Corrector, EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
Imaging session commenced 21:51 UT
26 x 20s at ISO 2500
18 x 20s at ISO 3200
18 dark frames & 15 flats.
Full frame image cropped on final processing.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and levels adjusted with Lightroom & G.I.M.P. Collage and annotations added using G.I.M.P. layers tool.
Best viewed using the expansion arrows.
The combined image from the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories of RCW 86 shows the expanding ring of debris that was created after a massive star in the Milky Way collapsed onto itself and exploded. Both the Chandra and XMM images show low energy X-rays in red, medium energies in green and high energies in blue. The Chandra observations focused on the northeast (left-hand) side of RCW 86, and show that X-ray radiation is produced both by high-energy electrons accelerated in a magnetic field (blue) as well as heat from the blast itself (red).
Properties of the shell in the Chandra image, along with the remnant's size and a basic understanding of how supernovas expand, were used to help determine the age of RCW 86. The new data revealed that RCW 86 was created by a star that exploded about 2,000 years ago. This age matches observations of a new bright star by Chinese astronomers in 185 A.D. (and possibly Romans as well) and may be the oldest known recordings of a supernova. Supernova explosions in galaxies like ours are rare, and none have been recorded in hundreds of years.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al. XMM-Newton: ESA/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al.
#NASA #NASAMarshall #chandraxrayobservatory #ChandraXRay #cxo #astronomy #space #astrophysics #starcluster
A picture of the open star cluster Caroline's Rose (NGC 7789) in Cassiopiea over Monticello last night. 13 thirty second images were taken using a ZWOASI183MC Pro deep sky camera on an Explore Scientific 102ED refracting telescope. The images were processed with ASIStudio, Adobe Lightroom, and Topaz AI.
This composite image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located about 160,000 light years from Earth. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44, so named because it is the 44th nebula in a catalog of such objects in the Magellanic Clouds. The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found. The optical light from the 2.2-m Max-Planck-ESO telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.
A long-running problem in high-energy astrophysics has been that some superbubbles in the LMC, including N44, give off a lot more X-rays than expected from models of their structure. These models assume that hot, X-ray emitting gas has been produced by winds from massive stars and the remains of several supernovas. A Chandra study published in 2011 showed that there are two extra sources of N44’s X-ray emission not included in these models: supernova shock waves striking the walls of the cavities, and hot material evaporating from the cavity walls. The Chandra observations also show no evidence for an enhancement of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the cavities, thus ruling out this possibility as a third explanation for the bright X-ray emission. Only with long observations making full use of the capabilities of Chandra has it now become possible to distinguish between different sources of the X-rays produced by superbubbles.
The Chandra study of N44 and another superbubble in the LMC was led by Anne Jaskot from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The co-authors were Dave Strickland from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, Sally Oey from University of Michigan, You-Hua Chu from University of Illinois and Guillermo Garcia-Segura from Instituto de Astronomia-UNAM in Ensenada, Mexico.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/n1929/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
NGC 2547, is a southern open cluster in Vela constellation.
The image was taken from my backyard with the following setup:
*Telescope: refractor Orion ED80 (600mm focal length);
*Mount: SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro;
*Camera: QHY163M
*Filters: H-alpha 7nm Baader and LRGB Optolong;
*Local: Silvânia/GO/Brazil
Imaging parameters:
*27 frames with 300 seconds (h-alpha 7nm filter);
*38 frames with 300 seconds (Luminance filter);
*12 frames with 180 seconds (Red filter);
*12 frames with 180 seconds (Green filter);
*14 frames with 180 seconds (Blue filter).
Gum 14/15 Vela Complex (HOO)
Gum 14 (RCW27 or Ru64; the Pie) is a large emission nebula (left of image) which contains many types of objects; Emission, dark and reflection nebulae (NGC2626), an open cluster (NGC2671) and planetary nebulae too (PK259+00.1, PK260+00.1 and PK260+00.2)
The beatiful stawberry like object (bottom centre) is an HII region Gum15
On the right of couse we can see parts of the famous Vela SNR.
More details; astrob.in/mi88mc/0/
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
120 lights x 90 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
The field of clusters and nebulosity in Auriga, with — from left to right — Messier 37, Messier 36, and Messier 38, as the main open star clusters here. Below M38 is NGC 1907. The nebulosity at right is IC 410 and IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula. In between them is the colourful asterism known as the Little Fish. Messier 38 is also known as the Starfish Cluster while Messier 36 is called the Pinwheel Cluster. The bright red nebula at top is Sharpless 2-235. The litttle nebulas at centre are NGC 1931 and IC 417.
The field is similar to that of binoculars.
This is a stack of 5 x 3-minute exposures with the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800 and 200mm Canon L-Series lens at f/2.8. Taken with the Fornax Lightrack tracker as part of testing. Diffraction spikes added with Astronomy Tools actions. Taken from home on a rare fine and mild winter night, January 4, 2019.
Orion and his Dog Stars, Sirius (bottom) and Procyon (left), in Canis Major and Canis Minor. Many red nebulas are also visible in this area of the northern winter Milky Way, as well as star clusters such as M41 below Sirius, and M50 at far left. The Orion Nebula, M42, is below the Belt of Orion in Orion’s Sword. Betelgeuse, Procyon and Sirius form the “Winter Triangle.”
This is a stack of 4 x 5 minute exposures at f/2.8 and ISO 800 with the 35mm lens and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII, plus 2 x 2.5-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the Kenko Softon filter for added star glows. However, haze this night added natural star glows. Taken from Quailway Cottage near Portal, Arizona, December 5, 2015.
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat +51.542 Long -3.593
Skywatcher 254mm Newtonian Reflector, Olympus E410 at prime focus. EQ6 Syntrek Mount.
23 frames used in stacking
14 x 50s at 800 ISO.
9 x 50s at 1600 ISO
Also 10 dark frames.
Imaging session commenced at 23:35 UT 14-04-2020.
Processed with Deep Sky Stacker and final levels adjusted with G.I.M.P.
The final image is slightly cropped but it displays coma towards the edges. This is one drawback of a parabolic f/4.8 Newtonian.
This is a framing of the most spectacular area of the southern Milky Way, from Centaurus at left, to Carina at right, with Crux, the Southern Cross, at centre.
In this field are arguably the sky's finest examples of various classes of celestial objects:
- the finest telescopic double stars: Alpha Centauri at far left and Acrux at the bottom of the Southern Cross
- the finest globular star cluster: Omega Centauri at top left
- the best dark nebula: the Coal Sack beside Crux (at bottom is the long "Dark Doodad" in Musca)
- the best emission nebula: the Carina Nebula at right (to the left of it is the Lambda Centauri nebulosity)
- the best open star cluster: NGC 3532 or the Football Cluster to the left of the Carina Nebula, with IC 2602, the Southern Pleiades below the nebula a fine runner up. Many other superb star clusters populate this field such as the Jewel Box, NGC 4755, beside Crux.
This is a stack of 8 x 4-minute exposures with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 48mm and f/2.8, on the Canon Ra at ISO 800, with an URTH light pollution filter to help increase contrast. All on the MSM Nomad tracker. Taken from Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, Australia on a superb night March 5, 2024.
Even during the full Moon as yesterday, M3 is a fantastic sight in a medium size telescope. It has an extraordinary presence!
Half a million stars are estimated in this globular cluster many of them are variable and are used to estimate its distance (33900 light years away)
45 exposures of 60s in LRGB (21 in L).
C11 + STL 11Km
Globular cluster M14. When the moon is full and there are only a few hours of anything vaguely resembling darkness (and most of that time under clouds), options for targets are somewhat limited. But globular clusters are nice, bright objects that can be captured quickly, and there are still a few we haven't imaged yet. This one had so far evaded being imaged and now it's another Messier object I can tick off the list.
[From Wikipedia] Messier 14 (also known as M14 or NGC 6402) is a globular cluster of stars in the constellation Ophiuchus. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764.
At a distance of about 30,000 light-years, M14 contains several hundred thousand stars. At an apparent magnitude of +7.6 it can be easily observed with binoculars. Medium-sized telescopes will show some hint of the individual stars of which the brightest is of magnitude +14.
The total luminosity of M14 is in the order of 400,000 times that of the Sun corresponding to an absolute magnitude of -9.12. The shape of the cluster is decidedly elongated. M14 is about 100 light-years across.
15/07/2022
014 x 180-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
015 x dark frames
015 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 42 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Filter: Light Pollution filter and Optolong L-Pro
The Globular Star Cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules.
10 frames
1 minute exposure each frame
combined & processed in PS3
Images taken through a Takahashi refractor.
The sky wasn't that good last night, and I was mostly playing around.
Like Sherlock Holmes’s magnifying glass, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope can peer into an astronomical mystery in search of clues. The enigma in question concerns the globular cluster Ruprecht 106, pictured here. Unlike most globular clusters, Ruprecht 106 may be what astronomers call a single population globular cluster. While the majority of stars in a globular cluster formed at approximately the same location and time, it turns out that almost all globular clusters contain at least two groups of stars with distinct chemical compositions. The newer stars will have a different chemical make-up that includes elements processed by their older, massive cluster companions. A tiny handful of globular clusters do not possess these multiple populations of stars, and Ruprecht 106 is a member of this enigmatic group.
Hubble captured this star-studded image using one of its most versatile instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Much like the stars in globular clusters, Hubble’s instruments also have distinct generations: ACS is a third-generation instrument which replaced the original Faint Object Camera in 2002. Some of Hubble’s other instruments have also gone through three iterations: The Wide Field Camera 3 replaced the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) during the last servicing mission to Hubble. WFPC2 itself replaced the original Wide Field and Planetary Camera, which was installed on Hubble prior to its launch.
Astronauts on the space shuttle serviced Hubble in orbit a total of five times and were able to either upgrade aging equipment or replace instruments with newer, more capable versions. This high-tech tinkering in low Earth orbit has helped keep Hubble at the cutting edge of astronomy for more than three decades.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Dotter
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-investigat...
An unguided image of the open star cluster NGC 2264 in Monoceros also know as the Christmas tree cluster.
M37 is one of three Messier objects that is an open cluster in the constellation Auriga. It passes overhead from my latitude. This was a somewhat humid night, which I think accentuated the colors of stars in the cluster.
Stack of 19 45s exposures shot through a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD with Baader UHC LP filter. Preprocessing in Nebulosity, stacking and initial processing in PixInsight, final touches in PS CS 5.1.
The image center (J2000) is at
RA 5h 52m 22s
DEC +32° 32' 52"
The constellation Scorpius and the Milky Way. An older shot I've just recently processed after more experience processing shots like this. Two exposures combined to reduce the noise a bit, 120s and 60s. Taken near San Pedro de Atacama, in the Atacama desert of Norther Chile. Please press L to view on black for better contrast.
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Shot from the bird sanctuary on the edge of the Sua Pan near Nata, Botswana in July 2011. This is a stack of 25 10s exposures and 5 30s exposures with darks subtracted. The camera was a Canon Ti1 at ISO 3200 at f/3.5. Preprocessing, stacking, and most processing in PixInsight. Final processing in PS CS 5.1.
We learn best when we play, and this is my latest product from playing with this data.
Image center (J2000) is at:
RA 17h 39m 32s
DEC -28° 18' 56"
This is red Mars passing across the northern edge of the Beehive star cluster, aka Messier 44, on May 5, 2025. A bright waxing gibbous Moon lights the sky deep blue. I have framed the scene to include the stars Asellus Australis (Delta Cancri) at lower left, and Asellus Borealus (Gamma Cancri) at upper left.
The field of view is 3.3º by 5º.
Mars was closest to the cluster the night before, but alas clouds!
There is also a version (v1) with the camera framed horizontally for a landscape format.
Technical:
Taken from home May 5, 2025, in a stack of 7 x 30-second exposures with the Askar SQA85 astrograph at f/4.8 and the Canon R5 at ISO 100. On the AP Mach1 mount, tracked but not auto-guided. Star glows and diffraction spikes added in post for artistic effect.
Do you know anything about the iconography (in the Middle Ages) depicting a rooster and a hen together?The reason was astronomical... There were a series of ancient proverbs linking the rooster, the hen, and Saint Catherine!For example, the most significant one was: "On Saint Catherine’s day, the Hen sets."
What does it mean? It means that on Saint Catherine's day, the constellation of the Pleiades sets below the horizon… also known as the "little hens!"This is followed by a long discussion about the heliacal rising… the first seasonal dawn appearance of the Pleiades: this was of great importance to the ancients!
First rising: marks the beginning of the sailing season and the grain harvest.
Last rising: signals the end of the sailing season and the start of plowing the fields!
Roughly 210,000 light-years away, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of our Milky Way galaxy’s closest neighbors. In fact, this small galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s “satellite” galaxies, which orbit our home spiral galaxy.
Nested within the SMC is this spectacular star cluster, known as NGC 346. Its hot stars unleash a torrent of radiation and energetic outflows, which erode the denser portions of gas and dust in the surrounding nebula, N66. Dozens of hot, blue, and high-mass stars shine within NGC 346, and astronomers believe this cluster contains more than half of the known high-mass stars in the whole SMC.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and C. Murray (Space Telescope Science Institute); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASA #galaxy #ESA #NASAGoddard #SmallMagellanicCloud #StarCluster
Comet C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) meets up with open star cluster M41 located in the constellation Canis Major four degrees south from the bright star Sirius on May 28th 2020 @0809UT. Data was captured using iTelescope T09 located in Siding Spring, Australia.
This image of NGC 281 shows X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The high-mass stars in NGC 281 drive many aspects of their galactic environment through powerful winds flowing from their surfaces and intense radiation that heats surrounding gas, "boiling it away" into interstellar space. This process results in the formation of large columns of gas and dust, as seen on the left side of the image. These structures likely contain newly forming stars. The eventual deaths of massive stars as supernovas will also seed the galaxy with material and energy.
Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #galaxy #supermassiveblackhole #starcluster
The Pleaides (the Seven Sisters) star cluster, and the stars of late autumn and winter rising over Elbow Falls in Kananaskis Country in Alberta, on a moonlit night, with a waxing gibbous Moon providing the illumination.
This is a 20-second exposure at f/2.8 with the 24mm lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 1250. A brief wash of LED light painted the foreground water.
Comet Wirtanen 46P with the star clusters of Taurus: the Pleiades (M45) at top, the Hyades with yellow Aldebaran at lower left, and NGC 1647 at far left. The comet was nearly at its closest point to Earth and at its brightest.
This is a stack of 6 x 1-minute exposures with the Rokinon 85mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 1600, on the Star Adventurer tracker, taken December 14/15 as the skies cleared in the Chinook winds of southern Alberta. Star glows added with Orton effect in Luminar.
This Hubble Space Telescope image of M80 features observations in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths of light. This data helped scientists learn more about the sequence of cosmic events that lead to the formation of various sub-populations of stars in globular clusters like this one.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Piotto (Universita degli Studi di Padova); Image Processing: Gladys Kober
For more of Hubble's Messier Catalog, visit: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog
This is a widefield framing of the rich area in central Aurigai that contains the trio of bright star clusters (from L to R): Messier 37, Messier 36, and Messier 38, the latter with its smaller companion cluster NGC 1907. The red nebula at right is IC 405, aka the Flaming Star Nebula. The round nebula to the left of the Flaming Star is IC 410. Between the two main nebulas is an asterism of stars catalogued as Melotte 31, aka the Flying Minnow. The small nebula below M38 is IC 417. The very tiny intense red nebula at upper left is Sharpless 2-235. The dark nebula to the right of M37 at lower left is Barnard 34.
The field of view is 15º by 10º, so wider than most binoculars but similar in extent, to serve as an illustration of a binocular field.
Technical:
This is a stack of 10 x 30-second exposures with the Canon RF135mm lens at f/2 and on the astro-modified Canon EOS R at ISO 800. It was on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker. Taken from home in Alberta in mid-April 2025, with the field low in the northwest, as this was late in the season for winter sky targets in Auriga. The lens had an URTH Night filter on it, a broadband nebula filter.