View allAll Photos Tagged Starcluster
It's hard for us today to imagine that Yemen - country of horrible modern bloodshed - down through millennia until relatively recently was called Arabia Felix, l'Arabie heureuse, Blessed Arabia. Yet it was remote and exploratory voyages were first made relatively late. Albert Deflers (1841-1921), French botanist living in Egypt after 1881, in his exciting Voyage au Yemen (1889) in which he gives an account of his collecting excursion to Yemen in 1887 prefaces it with a discussion of earlier voyages of naturalist discovery. The first is the Danish expedition fitted out and financed by kings Frederick V and Christian VII in 1761-1764, to which he gives much attention.
The naturalist member of that expedition was Peter Forsskål (1732-1763), and he gave a first description of Pentas lanceolota under the marvelous name 'Ophiorrhiza lanceolota'. He'd seen it in the mountains of Al Hadie, southwest of Sana'a. Deflers for a number of reasons changed the name to Pentas lanceolota; mentioning Forsskål's finding place, Deflers remarks that he's seen our plant everywhere along the roads of Manakhah in the same general area. Apparently it's not only beautiful but also used by the local populace as an antidote to snake venom (at least in the times of Forsskål and Deflers).
Zebra Longwing, Heliconius charithonia, hails from the tropical Americas. But it seems to have no problem with Egyptian Starcluster in its natural meeting for succor. Regard that tongue!
The galactic center is a busy place. In this image, globular cluster M22 floats amidst dense star clouds of the Milky Way, partially obscured by lanes of dark dust.
Telescope: Tele Vue 76mm f/6.3 refractor with 0.8x reducer
Camera: Canon XSi (450D)
Mount: Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO
Integration: 21 minutes (7 x 180 sec)
Software: PixInsight 1.8, Adobe Lightroom
Shot using Skywatcher 80ED Pro, Celestron NexStar GoTo Mount 127 SLT, Nikon D3300, 85 lights x 20s, ~100 flats, ~100 bias, ISO 1600. Stacked in DSS and post processed in Photoshop
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D3300.
77 lights x 30 s @ ISO 1600, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
65 lights x 60 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
Very excited that I finally had time this month to go outside to do astrophotography !
This picture was taken with a Canon 600D at prime focus of a 8" newtonian telescope.
49 frames of 60 seconds each were necessary to obtain this outcome.
I wish I could capture longer this deep sky object but I was disturbed by fog...
Technical Datas :
Canon 600D (unmodified sensor)+ 200/800 mm Reflector + lxd75 mount
49 x 60 seconds at ISO 1600
800 mm + cropped picture
F/4
No DOF (no darks, offsets and flats)
stacked with Deep Sky Stacker and processed with Lightroom + Gimp
Location : Normandy, France
The Double Cluster in Perseus
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
RA 2h 20m Dec 57° 08′
The Double Cluster (Caldwell 14) is the common name for the open clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884 (also h Persei and χ Persei) which are close together in the constellation Perseus at 7,500 light years.
Tair-3S 300mm f/4.5 + Canon EOS 4000D - EQ5
[I used 600 seconds of integration (20x30sec) under a sky with SQM 21.6, therefore very dark, and at 1400m of altitude. However, I think the difference was made by the use of high ISO, here at 3200 and 6400.]
View Large on Black (really improves this one)
Oh I don't know, maybe Orion was just "pond-ering" his existence in quiet reflection. ;-)))
This image also clearly shows the Sirius star and the Pleiades Star Cluster rising above Greeley's light pollution.
Notes: Single 30 second exposure at 1600 ISO, f/3.2. It's interesting to me that the star streaks are more apparent/longer in the reflection than the sky.
Taken during an excursion to Mt. Pinos on the night of 2021-10-29, this portion of the Milky Way is rich with star clusters and interstellar dust. The California Nebula (NGC 1499) is near the center of this picture with the Pleiades star cluster (M45) to its right. The bright star Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster are in the lower right corner. The largest main belt asteroid, Ceres, was among those stars when this image was taken. Toward the upper left, the bright star is Mirfak, with the open cluster Melotte 20 in its vicinity. This group of stars have a chemical makeup that is very similar to that of our Sun, though these stars are significantly more massive. Capella is the bright star in the lower left. When you observe stars of different colors, remember that blue means hotter stars and red means stars with cooler surface temperatures.
This is a stack of 28 images of about 105 s each taken with a modified Nikon D5100 at ISO 4000. The camera was mounted on an omegon Mini Track LX2. Images were preprocessed, registered, and stacked in PixInsight, which is also where most of the processing occured. Final touches were done in Photoshop.
The image shows an area of the sky that is roughly 46° by 32° with east and north roughly at the top and left, respectively.
Four composite images deliver dazzling views from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope of two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster. Each image combines Chandra's X-rays — a form of high-energy light — with infrared data from previously released Webb images, both of which are invisible to the unaided eye. Data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (optical light) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared), plus the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton (X-ray) and the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope (optical) is also used. These cosmic wonders and details are made available by mapping the data to colors that humans can perceive.
NGC 346 is a star cluster in a nearby galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, about 200,000 light-years from Earth. Webb shows plumes and arcs of gas and dust that stars and planets use as source material during their formation. The purple cloud on the left seen with Chandra is the remains of a supernova explosion from a massive star. The Chandra data also reveals young, hot, and massive stars that send powerful winds outward from their surfaces. Additional data from Hubble and Spitzer is included, along with supporting data from XMM-Newton and ESO’s New Technology Telescope. (X-ray: purple and blue; infrared/optical: red, green, blue)
Image credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, XMM: ESA/XMM-Newton; IR: JWST: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI, Spitzer: NASA/JPL/CalTech; Optical: Hubble: NASA/ESA/STScI, ESO; Image Processing: L. Frattare, J. Major, and K. Arcand
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #astronomy #chandra #NASAChandra #NASA #STScI #jwst #jameswebbspacetelescope #NASAGoddard #starcluster
Read more about the Chanddra X-ray Observatory
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D3300.
192 lights x 60 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
Four composite images deliver dazzling views from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope of two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster. Each image combines Chandra's X-rays — a form of high-energy light — with infrared data from previously released Webb images, both of which are invisible to the unaided eye. Data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (optical light) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared), plus the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton (X-ray) and the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope (optical) is also used. These cosmic wonders and details are made available by mapping the data to colors that humans can perceive.
NGC 1672 is a spiral galaxy, but one that astronomers categorize as a “barred” spiral. In regions close to their centers, the arms of barred spiral galaxies are mostly in a straight band of stars across the center that encloses the core, as opposed to other spirals that have arms that twist all the way to their core. The Chandra data reveals compact objects like neutron stars or black holes pulling material from companion stars as well as the remnants of exploded stars. Additional data from Hubble (optical light) helps fill out the spiral arms with dust and gas, while Webb data shows dust and gas in the galaxy’s spiral arms. (X-ray: purple; optical: red, green, blue; infrared: red, green, blue)
Image credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, XMM: ESA/XMM-Newton; IR: JWST: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI, Spitzer: NASA/JPL/CalTech; Optical: Hubble: NASA/ESA/STScI, ESO; Image Processing: L. Frattare, J. Major, and K. Arcand
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #astronomy #chandra #NASAChandra #NASA #STScI #jwst #jameswebbspacetelescope #NASAGoddard #starcluster
Read more about the Chanddra X-ray Observatory
Pentas lanceolata can withstand full sunlight and need little to no care, growing even in locations that are dry and hot.
Taken w/ Skywatcher Evostar Pro 80 ED (w/.85x reducer/corrector & QHYCCD Polemaster), Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
180 lights x 90 s @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~45 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
About this image:
A two panel widefield mosaic of a section of the large Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, including IC4603, IC4604 and the Globular Cluster Messier 4 (M4). Rho Ophiuchi is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi of the constellation Ophiuchus (close to the red Supergiant star Antares).
About the Interstellar Cloud Colors:
Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. The atoms of gaseous clouds that are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Back-lit dust clouds block light and appear dark. Antares (a red super-giant star, and one of the brighter stars in the night sky), lights up the yellow-red dust clouds. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula. Interstellar clouds are even more colorful than we can see in visible light, emitting light across a large portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
About the Star Colors:
Star colors vary from red, orange, yellow, to blue. This is an indication of the temperature of the star's Nuclear Fusion process. This is determined by the size and mass of the star, and the stage of its life cycle. In short, the blue stars are hotter, and the red ones are cooler.
Gear:
William Optics Star 71mm f/4.9 Imaging APO Refractor Telescope.
William Optics 50mm Finder Scope.
Celestron SkySync GPS Accessory.
Orion Mini 50mm Guide Scope.
Orion StarShoot Autoguider.
Celestron AVX Mount.
QHYCCD PoleMaster.
Celestron StarSense.
Canon 60Da DSLR.
Astronomik Clip-In CLS Light Pollution Filter.
Tech:
Guiding in Open PHD 2.6.3.
Image acquisition in Sequence Generator Pro.
Lights/Subs:
18 x 180 sec. per mosaic panel.
ISO 3200 RGB (CLA FITS).
Calibration Frames:
30 x Bias/Offset.
30 x Darks.
30 x Flats & Dark Flats.
Image Acquisition:
Sequence Generator Pro with the Mosaic and Framing Wizard.
Plate Solving:
Astrometry.net ANSVR Solver via SGP.
Processing:
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,
and finished in Photoshop.
Astrometry Info:
Annotated Sky Chart for this image.
Center RA, Dec: 245.705, -24.459
Center RA, hms: 16h 22m 49.215s
Center Dec, dms: -24° 27' 31.791"
Size: 5.31 x 2.18 deg
Radius: 2.872 deg
Pixel scale:9.35 arcsec/pixel
Orientation:Up is 97 degrees E of N
View this image in the World Wide Telescope.
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Dawn makes the horizon look a bit bright. There is a satellite trail in the background. This is time lapse so the trees on the horizon are blurred (due to the movement of the telescope.) The Pleiades (or Seven Sisters) is a star cluster that glows in the winter sky not far from Orion. Some people call it the little dipper ... or the tiny dipper.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(star_cluster)
Here is a link to the real Little Dipper or Ursa Minor. www.flickr.com/photos/drphotomoto/4744993924/
Soaring just above Sagittarius in our southern skies, the Eagle nebula (M16; NGC 6611) is part of a large emission cloud of hydrogen atoms and is the home of a young open cluster of stars, 7,000 light years from Earth. At the center of the nebula are the pillars of star-forming dark clouds. Made famous by images from the Hubble Space Telescope (www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation), these "Pillars of Creation" are understood to be a stellar "nursery" and stretch roughly 4 to 5 light years in length. Nearby, off to the northeast (towards the lower left in this image) is another "Black Pillar" spire, about 9.5 light years long. [in Explore, 8 August 2019]
Hydrogen alpha (red color) combined with OIII, which in this image is manifest in areas where reddish hue is whitened.
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Image captured:
2-3 August 2019
South Shore, Lake San Antonio, CA.
Narrow band data:
9 x 15 min of Ha
8 x 15 min of OIII
(4.25 hrs of total integration)
Unbinned (1x1)
QSI-690
AT6RC with Field Flattener
Looking south over Morro Bay, the sprinkle of lights from the town of Los Osos lights up the misty air above them. In the sky directly above that is the Milky Way through the archaic constellation Argo Navis. The portions that are visible here are the modern constellations Puppis and Pyxis, along with part of Vela. This ship is much better viewed from the Southern Hemisphere rather than the Central California coast. From here, the ship is always partially sunken.
A portion of Morro Rock appears at the right edge. You could hear the squeaks of baby otters from the bay, but they would be disguised among the kelp beds in this wide field view.
The bright star in the upper right portion of the image is Sirius, in Canis Major. Rigel and the Orion Nebula just make it into the upper right corner. The Milky Way is much less prominent in the evening in February than it would be in July, but there are still a bevy of star clusters to find if you check out the full resolution image.
Some photographers might be tempted to edit out the car that was parked some 50 m away. But that car and its driver were there. He was taking in the view of the bay just as I was, and leaving him and his vehicle in the picture helps to fix the moment in time. We can't and shouldn't digitally remove objects and people in all our photographs.
That being said, the sky is a stack of 14 images with the settings shown in the EXIF info. They had dark frames subtracted and were stacked and initially processed in PixInsight. That view was paired with one of the land and water from the shoot in Photoshop where final touches were applied.
This star-studded image shows the globular cluster Terzan 9 in the constellation Sagittarius, toward the center of the Milky Way. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this glittering scene using its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound groups of tens of thousands to millions of stars. As this image demonstrates, the hearts of globular clusters are densely packed with stars. Terzan 9 is dotted with so many glittering stars that it resembles a sea of sequins, or a vast treasure chest crammed with gold.
This starry snapshot is from a Hubble program investigating globular clusters located toward the heart of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way’s central region holds a tightly packed group of stars known as the galactic bulge, which is rich in interstellar dust. This dust makes globular clusters near the galaxy’s center difficult to study, as it absorbs starlight and can even change the apparent colors of stars in these clusters. Hubble's sensitivity at both visible and infrared wavelengths allows astronomers to measure how star colors change due to interstellar dust. Knowing a star’s true color and brightness allows astronomers to estimate its age, and thereby estimate the globular cluster’s age.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #astrophysics #gsfc #starcluster
A winter star cluster for our location in Arkansas, USA. is now rising about midnight (above our forested view to the northeast night sky). It is located just above the constellatioin Taurus At about 444 light years from earth, it's one of the closest star clusters to us and one of the easiest star clusters to view in the night sky with the unaided eye.
(9-30-22_Pleadis_D72K-a-c)
(20 exposures @ 30 seconds; Nikon D7200 - modified; @ ISO 2500 via Svbony 503 80mm OTA with field flattner)
Objects captured (look to the east):
Antares, the main and brightest star of the constellation Scorpius
M6 Butterfly Star Cluster
M7 Star Cluster
NGC6231 Star Cluster
Constellation Sagittarius
M25 Star Cluster
M20 & M21 - The Trifid Nebula
M8 – Lagoon Nebula
M22 Star Cluster
Exposure 15secs to reduce star trail and lens fogging This was the very first time I actually saw and captured the Milky Way
In fact scorpius was one of the very first constellation that I observed in detailed with a pair of binoculars years before, in sg. There were so many beautiful bright star clusters especially the m6 & m7.
This was unlike anything I'd seen in SG. Simply mind-blowing sight. The number of stars visible to the naked eye were just staggering. As the day made way for the night, the sky gradually transformed into an awesome dazzling display of glittering multi-coloured jewels.
A far cry from the light-polluted skies in SG. It's a big celebration for us in SG if we are able to peek beyond a few brightest stars like sirus.
Note : during the night shoot, a couple of kangaroos came within a few feet from me. I heard footsteps but could not see what the hack was that in the near total darkness. They came into view until I point my touch light at the direction where the sound came from. The one nearest to me was standing at about 5ft in height. He gave me a curious look and together with the rest disappeared into the darkness.
My constant companion during the night shoot was a cat, a huge furry black one. He would climbed up a small tree just beside me studying my every move. Sometimes he would laugh at me, by that I mean laugh like one of us. That was the only sound that came out of him. Never met him in the day. To this day, I'm still wondering was it a cat or something else.
See the southern cross :
www.flickr.com/photos/lonesomecrow/28063105520/stats/
Pic taken @Pemberton, Western Australia
A portrait of green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in Taurus beside Aldebaran and the Hyades on February 14, 2023. The star cluster NGC 1647 is at upper left.
This is a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon RF 70-200mm lens at f/5 on the Canon R5 at ISO 1600. Star glows with MagicLight extension in Luminar Neo.
This glittering gathering of stars is Pismis 26, a globular star cluster located about 23,000 light-years away. Many thousands of stars gleam brightly against the black backdrop of the image, with some brighter red and blue stars located along the outskirts of the cluster. The Armenian astronomer Paris Pismis first discovered the cluster in 1959 at the Tonantzintla Observatory in Mexico, granting it the dual name Tonantzintla 2.
Pismis 26 is located in the constellation Scorpius near the galactic bulge, which is an area near the center of our galaxy that holds a dense, spheroidal grouping of stars that surrounds a black hole. Due to its location within the dust-heavy bulge, a process called “reddening” occurs, where dust scatters shorter wavelength blue light while longer wavelength red light passes through. Reddening distorts the apparent color of cosmic objects. Globular clusters are groups of stars held together by mutual gravitational attraction. They contain thousands of tightly packed stars and appear almost spherical in shape. Astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to study visible and infrared light from Pismis 26 to determine the cluster’s reddening, age, and metallicity.
Image credit: NASA, ESA and R. Cohen (Rutgers the State University of New Jersey); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAGoddard #ESA #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #astrophysics #globularcluster #starcluster
Longwood Gardens Pa.
Many thanks to all who take the time to view, comment and favoring my images. Enjoy the day.
M11, an open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, is nestled against a rich background of Milky Way stars and dust. Also visible toward the left side of this image is a smaller star cluster, NGC 6704.
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 110mm f/7 APO
Reducer: 0.8x
Camera: Canon 450D (modified)
Mount: iOptron iEQ45 Pro
Integration: 45 min (9 x 5 min)
Processing Software: PixInsight 1.8, Adobe Lightroom
Capture Location: Near Goldendale, WA.
This Hubble image shows the star cluster NGC 1850, located about 160,000 light-years away. For this image, five filters were used with the camera to gather data. Two of the filters were at near-ultraviolet wavelengths, two more at visible light wavelengths, and the final one was in the near-infrared. The data gathered through the two ultraviolet filters is violet and blue. The data from the two visible light filters is green and orange. The color red denotes near-infrared data. The image follows chromatic order, which means the shortest wavelength in the image is blue while the longest wavelength is red. Chromatic order allows us to visualize wavelengths of light beyond our eye’s sensitivity in a way that is familiar to us.
Image credit: NASA, ESA and N. Bastian (Donostia International Physics Center); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAGoddard #ESA #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #astrophysics #starcluster
Yellowstone night. On this night photo you can see part of the constellation Perseus, Taurus, Aries , Auriga, Seven Sisters star cluster (M45), Algol - variable star.
More stars and more geysers (compare to other night photos from the Yellowstone trip).
See other Yellowstone night-scape photos on my Flickr account, video www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cN7cPSHLbY
Geyser eruptions show that the Yellowstone supervolcano is still active. Nobody knows when next giant eruption will happen.
Canon 60Da; Wide Angle Lens EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM; Exposure 15.0 sec; f/2.8; ISO 3200. Old Faithful geyser. Night sky of super volcano.
Sometimes you just get lucky! About 90 min of star trails at 45 second exposures each. Captured 45 minutes outside of DC Metro area. Canon 6D.
Auriga is busy; DeepSkyStacker registered 50k+ stars in this extent. DSOs include the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405), the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410), the Spider (IC 417) and Fly (NGC 1931) Nebulae, the Pinwheel Cluster (M 36), the Starfish Cluster (M 38), dark nebulae MLB 35, B 222, and CB 27 (on the lower right), and Sharpless 232, 231, and 235 (emission nebulae on the upper left, flic.kr/p/Ru8EmT).
Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 50 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken on Nov. 21, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies.
Taken w/ William Optics Redcat 51, QHYCCD Polemaster, Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
100 x 90s lights @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~80 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop & PixInsight
M39 (NGC 7092), a large open star cluster in the constellation Cygnus, is a beautiful sight in modest binoculars or small telescopes and is nestled amidst a rich background of dimmer Milky Way stars.
Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 110mm f/7, with 0.8x reducer.
Camera: Canon 450D (modified)
Mount: iOptron iEQ45 Pro
Integration: 30 minutes (6 x 5 min)
Software: PixInsight 1.8, Adobe Lightroom
Capture Location: Near Goldendale, WA
Acquisition: 2024-06-07 and 2024-06-08.
Optical system: SW ED80, SW 0.85 FF/FR
Camera : QHY8c
Mount and guiding: SW EQ6Pro, SW 9x50 finderguider with QHY5L-IIc
Exposure: 9x20min, Gain 4%, Offset 123, dark, flat, bias
Software: Nebulosity3, Pixinsight 1.8, PS-CS6
Location: Mađerkin breg, Croatia 14.10.2017.
The Pleiades rise over the west side of Mt. Adams, coinciding with the best part of the Perseid meteor shower, with no moon in the sky.
CAMERA: Yashica Lynx 35mm rangefinder
LENS: 45 mm f/1.4
FILM: Fuji G-800 color negative
EXPOSURE: 30 seconds @ f/1.4
SCANNED FROM: 5" x 7" print
FILE NO.: 96-12 #2
An unguided image of the globular star cluster M22 taken with SharpCap using a ZWOASI183MC Pro camera attached to a Celestron 130mm f/5 reflecting telescope. Five 20 second images were combined and processed using DeepSkyStacker, Gimp, and Lightroom.
Astronomers have made the most extensive study yet of how magnetically active stars are when they are young. This gives scientists a window into how X-rays from stars like the Sun, but billions of years younger, could partially or completely evaporate the atmospheres of planets orbiting them.
Many stars begin their lives in “open clusters,” loosely packed groups of stars with up to a few thousand members, all formed roughly at the same time. This makes open clusters valuable for astronomers investigating the evolution of stars and planets, because they allow the study of many stars of similar ages forged in the same environment.
A team of astronomers led by Konstantin Getman of Penn State University studied a sample of over 6,000 stars in 10 different open clusters with ages between 7 million and 25 million years. One of the goals of this study was to learn how the magnetic activity levels of stars like our Sun change during the first tens of millions of years after they form. Getman and his colleagues used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory for this study because stars that have more activity linked to magnetic fields are brighter in X-rays.
They combined their results for the open clusters with previously published Chandra studies of stars as young as 500,000 years old. The team found that the X-ray brightness of young, Sun-like stars is roughly constant for the first few million years, and then fades from 7 to 25 million years of age. This decrease happens more quickly for heftier stars.
This composite image shows one of those clusters, NGC 3293, which is 11 million years old and is located about 8,300 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. The image contains X-rays from Chandra (purple) as well as infrared data from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory (red), longer-wavelength infrared data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope (blue and white), and optical data from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile appearing as red, white and blue.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./K. Getman et al.; Infrared: ESA/NASA JPL-Caltech/Herschel Space Observatory/JPL/IPAC; NASA JPL-Caltech/SSC/Spitzer Space Telescope; Optical: MPG/ESO/G. Beccari
#NASAMarshall #Chandra #NASAChandra #ChandraXrayObservatory #stars #supernovaremnant #starcluster
This is a portrait of the complex of nebulosity in northern Cygnus, with many wreaths and arcs of hydrogen gas interspersed with patches and tendrils of dark dust of varying densities. The main nebula is the North America (NGC 7000) at upper left, with the smaller Pelican Nebula (IC 5067) beside it in the "Atlantic Ocean." At bottom right is the Gamma Cygni complex, aka the Butterfly Nebula or IC 1318, while at the bottom right edge is the small arc of the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). The field is filled with other fainter nebulas catalogued in the Sharpless and DWB catalogues. Above Gamma Cygni right of centre are two small patches of blue reflection nebulosity, van den Bergh 131 and 132. Numerous star clusters also populate the area, some yellowed by interstellar dust. The main region of dark sky at centre is the Northern Coal Sack.
This is a blend of exposures taken in "normal" broadband light and exposures taken in red H-alpha light, to bring out the faint nebulosity. This is a stack of 12 x 1.5-minutes through an URTH Night filter to cut sky glow and bring out nebulas somewhat, plus a stack of 14 x 1.5-minutes with a 12nm Astronomics Hydrogen-Alpha clip-in filter, all with the Canon RF135mm lens at f/2 (it is f/1.8 wide open) and the filter-modified Canon R camera, at ISO 800 for the broadband images and ISO 6400 for the H-a images. The camera was on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker with no autoguiding.
The H-a images were converted to monochrome B&W and blended in with a Lighten blend mode with just the R channel on, and with Blend If and Fill Opacity controls to affect the degree of blending and to prevent the nebulas from becoming too monochrome red, preserving the subtle range of red and magenta tones. PhotoKemi Nebula Filter and Star Reduction actions also brought out the nebulosity.
Taken from home on July 8/9, 2023 on a night with reduced transparency and with the waning quarter Moon rising as the H-a set began (I planned it that way!). But between solstice twilight, high haze and moonlight, the sky conditions were not ideal. It also took some effort this night as the sky was getting dark to get the framing just right! But it was worth it, as the composition works very well following classic Rule of Thirds and Golden Spiral placement of key elements.
A guided image of the globular star cluster M12 in Ophiuchus taken through a Celestron 130mm f/5 reflecting telescope using a ZWOASI183MC Pro camera. Thirty 30 second light images and 20 dark images were stacked using DeepSkyStacker and processed using adobe Lightroom to create the picture.
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the sparkling globular cluster NGC 6569 in the constellation Sagittarius. Hubble explored the heart of this cluster with both its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, revealing a glittering hoard of stars in this astronomical treasure trove.
Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound clusters containing tens of thousands to millions of stars and are associated with all types of galaxies. The intense gravitational attraction of these closely packed clusters of stars means that globular clusters have a regular spherical shape with a densely populated center, as seen at the heart of this star-studded image.
This observation comes from an investigation of globular clusters which lie close to the center of the Milky Way. Previous surveys avoided these objects, as the dusty center of our galaxy blocks their light and alters the colors of the stars residing in them. A star’s color is particularly important for astronomers studying stellar evolution, and can give astronomers insights into their ages, compositions, and temperatures.
The astronomers who proposed these observations combined data from Hubble with data from astronomical archives, allowing them to measure the ages of globular clusters including NGC 6569. Their research also provided insights into the structure and density of globular clusters towards the center of the Milky Way.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #astrophysics #gsfc #starcluster #globularcluster
Thousands of sparkling young stars are nestled within the giant nebula NGC 3603, one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy.
NGC 3603, a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way about 20,000 light-years away, reveals stages in the life cycle of stars.
Powerful ultraviolet radiation and fast winds from the bluest and hottest stars have blown a big bubble around the cluster. Moving into the surrounding nebula, this torrent of radiation sculpted the tall, dark stalks of dense gas, which are embedded in the walls of the nebula. These gaseous monoliths are a few light-years tall and point to the central cluster. The stalks may be incubators for new stars.
On a smaller scale, a cluster of dark clouds called "Bok" globules resides at the top, right corner. These clouds are composed of dense dust and gas and are about 10 to 50 times more massive than the sun. Resembling an insect's cocoon, a Bok globule may be undergoing a gravitational collapse on its way to forming new stars.
The nebula was first discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1834.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #astronomy #space #astrophysics #solarsystemandbeyond #gsfc #Goddard #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #ESA #EuropeanSpaceAgency #nebula #starcluster
The open star cluster NGC 1755 resembles a pinch of salt strewn on a jet-black tablecloth in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This collection of stars resides in one the Milky Way’s near neighbours — the Large Magellanic Cloud — and measures 120 light-years from side to side. Despite this impressive breadth, NGC 1755 is a member of the smaller class of star clusters. Star clusters are gravitationally bound collections of stars, and come in two main varieties — smaller open clusters like NGC 1755, which are hosts to younger stars, and gargantuan globular clusters, which can contain millions of older stars.
Hubble gazed into the heart of NGC 1755 in order to better understand how different populations of stars can co-exist in a single cluster. A population of stars is a group of stars with similar properties such as age or chemical composition, and these populations provide astronomers with valuable insights into the births, lives, and deaths of stars. Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds are particularly useful natural laboratories thanks to the Clouds’ proximity to the Milky Way. Hubbles’s eagle-eyed vision was a vital asset when observing NGC 1755 — with so many stars packed into a small area of sky, Hubble’s high-resolution Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 allowed individual stars in the cluster to be distinguished.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Milone, G. Gilmore CC BY 4.0
The Coma Berenices star cluster, aka Mel 111, with a smattering of galaxies, taken under dark skies on a spring evening. The edge-on galaxy NGC 4565 is at left.
I shot this as a test of the William Optics RedCat 51mm f/5 astrographic refractor (which provides a focal lengthof 250mm). This was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker, a popular portable mount to use with the RedCat. I used it unguided for a set of 2-minute exposures. Of the 20 exposures, 12 were relatively untrailed and so were selected for stacking for this image.
This is a stack of 12 x 2-minutes at ISO 1250 with the Canon EOS Ra. Stacked and blended in Photoshop CC. The little RedCat astrograph is very sharp to the corners. The field is about 8° by 5.5°.
NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, NGC 6996, NGC 6997, and IC 5070, the Pelican Nebula.
Exposure: 21x6min exposures (2.1hr)
Date: 2015.04.09
100mm f/5.5,
5D2, ISO 1600,
Thoughts?
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the constellation of Taurus on the night of Feb 10, 2023. The comet is the cyan-coloured glow above bright orange Mars.
At right is the Pleiades star cluster, while the Hyades star cluster with reddish Aldebaran is below. Other NGC catalogue star clusters are in this framing: NGC 1647 below centre, NGC 1746 below right of the comet and Mars, and NGC 1817 at lower left. Mars appears to be at the tip of a dark lane of interstellar dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds.
This is a stack of 8 x 2-minute exposures at ISO 800 with Canon R5 and with the RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 65mm. The lens was stopped down from f/2 so the iris blades added the diffraction spikes. Tracked but unguided on the AP Mach1 mount, and taken from home. A mild diffusion effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in.
Taken w/ William Optics Redcat 51, QHYCCD Polemaster, Skywatcher EQM-35, Nikon D7500.
55 x 90s lights @ ISO 800, ~45 dark, ~80 flat, ~100 bias, stacked in DSS and post-processed in Photoshop
Bright reddish Mars above the Hyades star cluster with yellow Aldebaran below Mars to serve as a "compare and contrast " to Mars. The blue Pleiades are at upper right. Two other NGC clusters in Taurus are in the frame: NGC 1647 to the left of the Hyades and NGC 1747 at the right edge of the frame. The small clusters NGC 1817 and 1807 are at lower left. The Taurus Dark Clouds are at upper left. Aldebaran is magnitude +1 while Mars was -0.2 this morning and getting brighter by the day as it approached its December opposition this year, 2022.
I shot this on the morning of September 7, 2022 with some haze and smoke in the sky, so not the best for transparency.
This is a stack of just 2 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 85mm RF lens on the Canon R5 at ISO 800, on the Star Advenrturer Mini tracker. A third exposure through the Kenko Softon A filter added the star glows for photogenic effect and to accentuate the colours.
M78 (NGC 2068) and Barnard's loop in Orion along with lots of dust and gas in this star forming region. Other objects around M78 include NGC 2064, NGC 2067, NGC 2071. The cluster just at the left edge is NGC 2112.
I planned to get a good bit more exposure on this object, but thin clouds meant that time was better spent sleeping!
Exposure: 25x6min (2.5 hr)
Date: 2016.02.10
Telescope: 100mm f/5.5
Camera: 5D2 (unmodified), ISO 1600
Thoughts? [bad processing, will redo]