View allAll Photos Tagged interstellar
I could enjoy imaging of the interstellar comet in the weekend.
The comet was drifting fast toward west northwest in Virgo. Dust coma was small and round. Dust tail was short toward east. Greenish ion halo was small and round. Bluish ion tail was not visible clearly at the date, though there looked bluish area to the west of the comet on this frame. North is up, and east is to the left.
Sun distance: 1.774 AU ( 31% distant compared to the perihelion )
Earth distance: 1.925 AU ( 7% distant compared to the minimum )
Equipment: Takahashi FSQ-130ED, F3 Reducer 0.6x, IDAS Clear Filter, and EOS R-SP4II, modified by Seo San on ZWO AM5n Equatorial Mount, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, Pentax x2 Extender, ZWO ASI 174MM-mini, and PHD2 Guiding with comet tracking on.
Exposure: 8 times x 600 seconds, 5 x 240sec, and 7 x 60 seconds at ISO 1,600 and f/3.0, focal length 390mm
Exposure started at 18:46:48 November 29, 2025UTC.
This frame was cropped 1,346 x 898 pixels of the original 6,720 x 4,480 pixels, and this is comparable to a frame taken with a scope of 1,900mm in focal length.
site: 730m above sea level at lat. 37 09 41 North and long. 139 14 54 East in an empty parking of pre-season ski resort in Okutadami in Uonuma Niigata 新潟県魚沼 奥只見. Higher mountains were covered with snow and beautiful, but there was no snow yet at the elevation. Ambient temperature was around -1 degree Celsius or 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild. Atmospheric turbulence was bad, and guide error RMS was around 1.50. Sky was dark, and Sky Quality was 21.53 in SQML. The site was dark toward the east. Local fog interfered at the beginning of imaging session, though weather forecast was nice.
Here is a view of the site at the night:
Built for RogueBricks’ “A Tribute to Christopher Nolan” contest.
While building this I might got really inspired by the beautiful soundtrack from Interstellar. So, I noticed some similarities between interstellar journeys and building MOCs. I mean with both you only have a vague plan, you don’t even know exactly what will come from it. The countdown just runs 3 – 2 – 1 – 0! You put the first bricks together and your journey into the infinite depths of creativity begins. Sometimes you might reach a blockade, so you go into your “Hypersleep Pod” and leave the project alone for the time being. But you should always set a wake-up date, because your work has never been idle and will always lead to a good ending, even though the journey, your building project, sometimes seems hopeless.
So don’t give up!
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You can buy the print at: deviantART
Press "L" to view on black
Illustration by Christoffer Boman / Chrieon
Slightly altered colour grading in the tower. Matches the overall tone better. Still just a Photoshop exercise gone slightly wild.
Mars 2050 transport shuttle.
Originally made for a CB over on Swebrick which is unfortunately now put on hold. We'll see if we can get it going later on. Until then, I thought I would share the shuttle I made. Enoy :)
"We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt."
Coopers Dodge RAM 3500 pickup truck from the film Interstellar, ready to go chasing Indian Air Force Drones
Interstellar clouds near Rho Ophiuchi (close to IC 4603).
About this image:
A wide field view of a small section of the beautiful interstellar clouds of dust, gas and plasma around Rho Ophiuchi (close to IC 4603).
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:
You will notice that star colors differ from red, orange and 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:
GSO 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian Reflector Telescope.
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.
Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter.
Orion StarShoot Autoguider.
Aurora Flatfield Panel.
Celestron AVX Mount.
Celestron StarSense.
Canon 60Da DSLR.
Tech:
Guiding in Open PHD 2.6.1.
Image acquisition in Sequence Generator Pro.
Lights/Subs: 24 x 180 sec. ISO 6400 CFA FIT Files.
Calibration Frames:
50 x Bias
30 x Darks
20 x Flats
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,
and finished in Photoshop.
Astrometry Info:
nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1187386#annotated
RA, Dec center: 246.597164157, -24.4829072417 degrees
Orientation: 1.25352006052 deg E of N
Pixel scale: 5.89501590632 arcsec/pixel
Basic FITS Header Data:
RA = 246.394201383277 / Object Right Ascension in degrees
DEC = -24.376321106111 / Object Declination in degrees
CRVAL1 = 246.394201383277 / RA at image center in degrees
CRVAL2 = -24.376321106111 / DEC at image center in degrees
OBJCTRA = '16 25 34.608' / Object Right Ascension in hms
OBJCTDEC = '-24 22 34.756' / Object Declination in degrees
AIRMASS = 1.25760852461339 / Average airmass
OBJCTALT= 53.0083763980286 / Altitude of the object
CENTALT = 53.0083763980286 / Altitude of the object
DATE-LOC= '2016-07-03T19:44:33' / Local observation date
DATE-OBS= '2016-07-03T17:44:33' / UTC observation date
Martin
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The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has collected its first chemical fingerprint of an interstellar object during a recent revisit to Comet 3I/ATLAS.
This image from the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) shows the interstellar comet in three different light wavelengths and illustrates where different gases were located at the time the comet was viewed.
Water vapour spreads far beyond the nucleus because much of it is released from icy grains in the surrounding coma, while carbon dioxide and methane are more concentrated near the comet’s nucleus.
Webb made the observations on two separate dates as the comet travelled back out of our Solar System after whipping around the Sun. The first observation occurred 15 to 16 December, when the comet was about 330 million km from the Sun. This was followed by a second observation on 17 December, when the comet was about 380 million km from the Sun.
For the first time on an interstellar visitor, Webb directly detected methane gas. Methane was observed only now in Comet 3I/ATLAS, suggesting that it was buried below the comet’s surface. In this way it remained protected from evaporating until heat from the comet’s close pass to the Sun reached deeper parts of the icy outer shell. The amount of methane relative to water found is surprisingly high, and at a level that is rare in our Solar System.
Webb’s observations also confirmed that Comet 3I/ATLAS remains unusually rich in carbon dioxide, releasing far more carbon dioxide relative to water when compared to typical Solar System comets.
Both these findings point to a very different formation environment and chemistry than the vast majority of comets that formed within our Solar System.
Webb observed Comet 3I/ATLAS using MIRI’s Medium Resolution Spectrometer, a powerful instrument designed to break infrared light into its component wavelengths. This spectrometer provides a spectrum at every point in a small patch of sky, allowing the team to measure what gases are present and visualise their distribution around the comet’s nucleus.
[Image description: The composite image shows three side-by-side maps of different chemical species. The maps are mostly red with a bright orange centre, resembling pixelated clouds glowing on a black background. From left to right they are labelled “water”, “carbon dioxide” and “methane”.]
The results were published recently in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
See also NASA 3I/ATLAS blog.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Belyakov (Caltech), I. Wong (STScI), Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0
Description:
Nestled amidst the celestial splendor of Orion, M78 emerges as a mesmerizing portrait of interstellar artistry. This iconic reflection nebula, located about 1,350 light-years away, owes its ethereal glow to the light of young, massive stars scattering off the surrounding cosmic dust. Captured with a precision 9.25-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at a focal length of 1635mm, this image delves into the heart of one of the Orion molecular cloud complex's brightest treasures. Dark tendrils of dust weave through the nebula like veins, while the faint blue haze hints at the energetic processes shaping this stellar nursery. In the proximity of neighboring giant nebulae like the Orion Nebula (M42) and Barnard's Loop, M78 feels like a hidden jewel in the vast tapestry of cosmic creation. This detailed view not only highlights its scientific importance as a site of active star formation but also invites the viewer to imagine the dynamic forces at work in this bustling galactic neighborhood.
Equipment:
Telescopes: Celestron EdgeHD 9.25"
Camera: ToupTek 2600MC
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8-R Pro
Filter: Optolong L-Ultimate 2"
Accessories: Celestron 0.7X Reducer EdgeHD925
Acquisition details:
Dates:
Dec. 31, 2024 to Jan. 3, 2025
Frames:
RGB: 264×300″(22h)
Optolong L-Ultimate 2": 84×300″(7h)
Integration: 29h
Avg. Moon age: 2.09 days
Avg. Moon phase: 6.24%
What I like about being out on a perfect Sonic Clear night with cool temps and no moon is the composition options that become available in otherwise "boring" areas of the parkway. Adding to the perfection was almost total calm making long exposures in leafy areas possible. I drove several miles looking for the perfect area of road to line up with the Milky Way, and it was extremely dark and remote here coming down Apple Orchard Mountain north of the Peaks of Otter. There wasn't another soul out for quite some time so I was able to shoot anywhere in the road without interference.
I don't care much for photographer generated light painting as it almost always tends to look slightly to extremely induced and misplaced. No matter how dark all you basically need is time and the right camera settings, with the ability to layer mask in Photoshop. Here I did over 4 minutes for the road, and probably should have done a little longer. Then 25 seconds for the sky to avoid streaking and put the 2 together.
I think the night sky is to me one of the strongest testimony to God's existence. Here I am driving down a little country byway and looking off into millions of light years of distance, places that we can only imagine and will never reach in our human form. Many of these light beams originated from stars billions of years burned out but still reaching us, and many more from stars born billions of years ago that have yet to make it. There is a lot more out there than we can even imagine. It certainly did not simply make itself at some point.
An image of one of the newer tunnels built as a link from a new office complex through to the LT Underground Station at Kings Cross/St Pancras Underground Station.
I'm glad I found it in the end (thanks for the heads up Aaron!!!), I really love the way the lights move along the tunnel, creating a different aspect, this adds to the reflected light.
"Interstellar Overdrive" is a psychedelic instrumental composition written by Pink Floyd in 1966, which appears on their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_Overdrive
f4/1/50th Second/iso100/Nikon D5100/Sigma 10-20mm lens @ 12mm
Lanzarote. Canary Islands.
Check it out my Portfolio: GETTY IMAGES
Explanation: These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula and dutifully cataloged as NGC 7023, this is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers. Surrounding it, obscuring clouds of dust and cold molecular gas are also present and can suggest other convoluted and fantastic shapes. Within the Iris, the dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the cosmic dust glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. At the estimated distance of the Iris Nebula this remarkable wide field view is over 20 light-years across. (Text: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110804.html)
This picture was photographed on July 11-16, 2013 in the Crimea during the festival of amateur astronomy, "Southern Nights 2013" (height of 600 m. above sea level)
Equipment: home assembled reflector 10" f/3.8, mount WhiteSwan-180, camera QSI-583wsg, Tevevue Paracorr-2. Off-axis guidecamera SX Lodestar.
LRGB filter set Baader Planetarium.
L: L=38*600 sec. +12*200 sec. bin1. RGB: 11*300-450 sec each filter, bin.2.
13,33 hours total.
FWHM 2.05″-2.59″ , sum in L channel - 2.40″
Processed Pixinsight 1.8, Fitstacker and Photoshop CS6.
On March 18, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for thermal vacuum testing at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, which simulates the harsh conditions of space.
The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation.
In this image, the IMAP mission was loaded into NASA Marshall’s XRCF thermal vacuum chamber where the spacecraft will undergo testing.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Princeton/Ed Whitman
#NASA #space #moon #NASAMarshall #msfc #InterstellarMappingandAccelerationProbe #IMAP #SolarWind #heliophysics #Sun #XRCF
Case is running with Dr. Brand.
Movie interstellar
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/jehyung.lee.311
Starwars and LEGO blog:
NASA’s Psyche observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS over the course of eight hours on Sept. 8 and 9, when the comet was about 33 million miles (53 million kilometers) from the spacecraft. Captured by the mission’s multispectral imager, these observations help astronomers refine the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS.
Psyche’s multispectral imager instrument comprises a pair of identical cameras equipped with filters and telescopic lenses to photograph the metal-rich asteroid Psyche’s surface in different wavelengths of light. While comet 3I/ATLAS was distant from the spacecraft during these observations, the imager’s sensitivity to the comet’s reflected sunlight meant that the mission could precisely track the object. Observations by the mission have also provided more information about 3I/ATLAS’s faint coma, or cloud of gas and dust, surrounding its nucleus — the central frozen core of ice and rock.
As shown in this annotated composite image, NASA’s Psyche mission acquired these four observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS over the course of eight hours on Sept. 8 and 9, 2025, when the comet was about 33 million miles (53 million kilometers) from the spacecraft.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
#SolarSystemandBeyond #NASAJPL #NASAMarshall #jpl #psyche #asteroid #Psyche
Billions of stars...
Best viewed LARGE.
The image is not at full resolution, but is still best viewed LARGE. Zoom in and out by clicking on the image, or view in Lightbox Mode.
About this image:
A widefield mosaic of M8 and M20. This is a dense region of stars, interstellar dust clouds, and dark nebulae, reflection nebulae and emission nebulae.
The Trifid Nebula (M20)
The Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region in the Scutum spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Trifid Nebula (M20, Messier 20 or NGC 6514) is an H II region located in Sagittarius. Trifid means 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars; an emission nebula (the red portion), a reflection nebula (the blue portion) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause the trifurcated appearance; these are also designated Barnard 85).
The Lagoon Nebula (M8)
The Lagoon Nebula (M8, Messier 8 or NGC 6523), a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4000 - 6000 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy, and is classified as an emission nebula.
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
Billions of stars...
The size, distance and age of the Universe is far beyond human comprehension. The known Universe is estimated to contain over One Billion Trillion stars (the latest estimates are substantially higher).
"Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home." - Carl Sagan - Cosmos.
Astrometry Info:
View the Annotated Sky Chart for this image.
Center RA, Dec: 270.970, -23.524
Center RA, hms: 18h 03m 52.787s
Center Dec, dms: -23° 31' 24.628"
Size: 3.68 x 2.39 deg
Radius: 2.192 deg
Pixel scale: 6.47 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 91.7 degrees E of N
View this image in the World Wide Telescope.
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Martin
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[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [My Free Photo App]
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