The Sun in H-Alpha with close-up on a rushing prominence on 02-07-2013. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.
“The Sun was amazing yesterday!” wrote John Chumack, one of our favorite astrophotographers, sending us these great shots of incredible prominences on the western limb, and one detached solar prominence, along with several filaments on the disk and 3 Sunspots!
You might get a “rush” from the close-ups of the large prominences blasting from the Sun. John shot these with a hydrogen alpha filter from his backyard in Dayton, Ohio. See more below:
Full disk of the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha Light on 02-07-2013. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.
John’s tools of the trade for these images were a Lunt 60mm/50F H-Alpha Solar telescope, DMK 21 AF04, 2x barlow, for close-up, 1/54 Sec exposure, 724 frames; a DMK 31 Camera for Full Disk, 1/387 second exposure, 561 Frames, Stacked in Registax 6.
Prominences from the Sun on 02-07-2013, with one detached prominence achieving liftoff!. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.
These Sun has been fairly active the past few days. Here’s a video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of a C9-class solar flare. produced from Active Region AR1667 on February 6, 2013:
And John wasn’t the only one imaging the active Sun in the last few days. Here’s another photo of the Sun captured by Paul Stewart in New Zealand.
The Sun by Paul Stewart
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
A composite image of NASA's space shuttle. Credit: NASA/Richard Silvera.
This fantastic — or perhaps fantastical — image of a space shuttle launching through the clouds has been getting a lot of comments on the social media circuits. But is it real?
No, it is a composite of two different images put together by photographer Richard Silvera.
“The picture of the sky and clouds was taken by me from an airplane,” Silvera wrote on his website, “and the shuttle is a picture from NASA. Then the assembly was done in Photoshop & Lightroom.”
While this is a beautiful image, as some have commented on the G+ Space Community, there are several tell-tail signatures that this image could never have been taken. The shuttle did not launch perfectly vertical (roll program starts shortly after launch, about 10 seconds after main engine ignition), and with the restrictions on aircraft being in the area during a launch, no one could have had this perspective and been so close as to take a picture like this.
However, here is a “real” image to compare, of Atlantis launching through the clouds, during the STS-129 mission in 2009:
Space shuttle Atlantis emerges through the clouds over Launch Pad 39A on a balmy Florida afternoon at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff on its STS-129 mission came at 2:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 16, 2009. Credit: NASA
Thanks to Richard Silvera for allowing UT to post his composite image. You can see more of his work on his website.
Northern Lights from Osar, Iceland 1-19-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco.
Photographer Jack Fusco recently took a trip to Iceland, hoping to capture the unique Icelandic landscapes and night skies but ran into bad weather. “The weather wasn’t favorable for photography during the day and the skies completely cloud covered at night,” Jack said on Flickr, “and the last night I spent in Iceland was the only night that I was able to see the stars.” But what a night it was!
“I wasn’t completely sure what the Northern Lights would look like when I saw them, but when I first spotted them streaking across the sky I could hardly contain my excitement. I may not have gotten to photograph all of the spots that I had hoped, but on this night, for me, I felt like I truly had found something incredible,” he said, and the experience reminded him of Carl Sagan’s words, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
The Northern Lights fill the Icelandic Sky on 1-20-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
Thor’s Helmet Nebula (NGC 2359) in the constellation of Canis Major. Credit and copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen.
At first glance, you might expect this beautiful image to be from a big ground-based observatory or even one of the space telescopes. But this image was taken by “amateur” astronomer Rolf Wahl Olsen. We’ve featured his work before, and he’s done amazing stuff – such as the first amateur image of another solar system — but even he says this latest image of an emission nebula might be his best image to date.
It’s a stunning look at what is known as Thor’s Helmet. This helmet-shaped feature (complete with wings!) is an emission nebula is located in the constellation of Canis Major, about 15,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is a large expanding bubble illuminated by a central star in its last stage of life — a massive Wolf-Rayet star which is shedding its outer layers of gas at an extremely high rate due to intense radiation pressure. Wolf-Rayet stars are thought to represent a brief stage of evolution near the end of life for giant super massive stars; the last unstable phase before the star explodes as a brilliant supernova.
The nebula is some 30 light years in diameter is embedded among a dense star field consisting of thousands of multi-colored stars, adding more beauty to the scene.
Thanks to Rolf for sharing this gorgeous image with Universe Today.
Here’s more details from Rolf:
Date: 8th, 14th, 19th December 2012 and 5th, 6th, 9th January 2013
Exposure: LRGB: 530:44:33:33m, total 10hrs 40mins @ -28C
Telescope: 10″ Serrurier Truss Newtonian f/5
Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider
Filters: Astrodon LRGB E-Series Gen 2
Taken from his observatory in Auckland, New Zealand
A wider view:
Thor's Helmet in Canis Major. Credit and copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter are clearly visible just above a halo around the Moon, seen over central Italy on January 21, 2013. Credit: Giuseppe Petricca
Last night, the Moon and Jupiter snuggled up in the sky, coming within 29 arcminutes of each other. This will be the closest conjunction of these two bodies in the sky until 2026. The waxing gibbous Moon and the gas giant planet made for a great pair in the western night sky, and some astrophotographers, like Giuseppe Petricca in the image above, were also able to capture some of the Moons of Jupiter as well.
See more images from around the world, below.
Jupiter and the Moon 1-21-13. The Moon is intentionally overexposed so you can see three moons. Ganymede on the left and Io and Callisto on the right (Europa was transiting at the time). Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks.Moon & Jupiter Conjunction, January 21, 2013. Quick 2-frame collage of this remarkable conjunction between our Moon and the giant planet. This was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T2i DSLR and a Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. Credit an copyright: Gustavo Sanchez/Observatorio Guajataca.Reflections over Lavender Bay, Sydney Australia, Jupiter and Moon conjunction. ‘By this point I had to leave the bay area but one last look back and I saw this frame, so I tried my best to capture it whilst the timer on my parking ticket was quickly running out.’ Credit and copyright: Carlos Orue (ourkind on Flickr.)Moon-Jupiter January conjunction. Taken with Nikon 55-300 + kenko 2X, 3 different shots for each body. Credit and copyright: Alejandro García (bokepacha on Flickr).Planet Jupiter vs. the Moon. The small orb on the lower left is the planet Jupiter visible near the moon in the night sky of January 21, 2013. Credit and copyright: Daniel Lowe/danieldragonfilms.com./IStockTimelapse.comIn some areas of South America, the conjunction actually became an occultation. This picture captures the moment when about half of Jupiter was behind the (dark part of) the disk of the Moon. Credit and copyright: Sergio Gorbach, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sergio Gorbach, from Buenos Aires, Argentina sent us this image, showing how he was in a region where the conjunction turned into an occulation. “This captures the moment when about half of Jupiter was behind the dark part of the disk of the moon,” Sergio wrote via email. “On the scope three of the Galilean moons where visible, but not on this picture, unfortunately. The picture quality is not great since they were taken by a smartphone held by hand in front of the eyepiece of my (cheap) telescope, but the resulting image is not that bad.”
Not bad indeed!
Jupiter and the Moon over London, England on January 21, 2013. Credit and copyright: Sculptor Lil on Flickr. Jupiter and the Moon. Hooligan handhelded shot series with EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Credit and copyright: Sergei Golyshev. Luna con Jupiter -- as seen from Spain. Credit and copyright: Jordi Villanueva Alberich.Moon/Jupiter Conjunction - 21st January 2013. Canon EOS Rebel T3, f5.6, 1/4000 sec. ISO 6400, 300mm. Credit and copyright: Apple Lily.Moon and Jupiter conjunction Jan. 21, 2013. Two exposures back to back to compensate for the exposure differences. Credit and copyright: jimnista on Flickr.This is a collage of three photos, all taken on January 21, 2013: one of the Moon and Jupiter, another focusing on Jupiter’s Moons (both with a Canon Rebel T2i), and another through an 8 inch Dobsonian telescope of Jupiter, which was scaled to size and overlayed on Jupiter to provide some detail. ‘The moons are obviously not to scale because they are out of focus, I think it makes the photo a bit more dramatic,’ said photographer Chris Gorman.Who says you can't enjoy the night sky even in Urban areas! This photo of Jupiter and the Moon in close proximity was taken in the light polluted suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. This photo is one shot - not a collage! Credit and copyright: Dave Hudson.
Dave Hudson took this great shot on Tuesday, January 21, 2013 @ 10:32pm EST.
Camera and Telescope: Celestron C8 on a Celestron CG5 EQ mount
Canon 60D using Eyepiece projection with MAXIM adapter and Celestron .63 Focal Reducer
17mp picture, ISO 100, 1/60 second exposure, no filters
Telescope: 203.2 mm aperture, 2000mm focal length, F10 – reduced to F6.3 using Celestron Focal Reducer
Jupiter-Moon Conjunction, Jan 21, 2013 from San Diego, California. Shot with a Fuji Finepix 2000hd. Credit and copyright: Bob Gould. .Jupiter-Moon conjunction on January 21, 2013. Credit and copyright: Paul Latham.Jupiter-Moon conjunction 1/21/13 from Houston Texas. Credit and copyright: Chris Grabo.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
Meteor still shot from 'Death Valley Dreamlapse.' Credit: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.
Here’s yet another gorgeous timelapse from Gavin Heffernan and his team. As we previewed in our Geminid Meteor Shower post, the Sunchaser Pictures team trekked to the world-famous Eureka Dunes in Death Valley National Park to search for some of the darkest skies on Earth during the meteor shower peak on the night of December 13th, 2012. They braved a long journey, a tough climb cold temperatures.
“But it was all worth it when the skies cleared and showed us an incredible galactic palette!” Gavin writes on Vimeo.
In addition to Geminids, there are star trails, planets and a weird spiraling object at about 1:30-1:35. It makes three broad circular sweeps over the desert – although in timelapse it appears to be moving fast, but the 5 seconds of time in timelapse equals about 50 minutes, so it’s actually not moving all that fast. It can also be seen cutting through the circular star trails picture below. There’s another 25-second exposure that of the object moving that makes it look almost like a colored rope.
“I don’t think that ‘rope’ look is unusual for a normal plane etc.,” Gavin told Universe Today via email. “The circular motion, and very slow movement are what really make it interesting/unusual. It’s definitely worth noting that the site is definitely near some kind of military installation or air force base, because we saw the spectacular sight of F-16 fighter planes zooming over the dunes, not too far off the ground. I know for sure it wasn’t a helicopter, because we would have heard it.”
Shots from the timelapse:
Star trails from 'Death Valley Dreamlapse.A 25 second exposure of an object flying through the field of view. Credit: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.
Winning photograph in the Earth and Space category in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition, 'Star Icefall' by Masahiro Miyasaka (Japan).
It’s back! The 2013 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is now open and accepting submissions. This is the fifth year of the competition, which is is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with Sky at Night Magazine. Every year it produces some of the most beautiful and spectacular visions of the cosmos, whether they are striking pictures of vast galaxies millions of light years away, or dramatic images of the night sky taken much closer to home.
“Every year brings something new to see in the sky and the arrival in March of the predicted Comet C/2011 PANSTARRS will hopefully inspire some memorable pictures in this year’s competition,” said Dr. Marek Kukula, Public Astronomer at the ROG and judge in the competition. “It will be great to see even more entries from talented young photographers and newcomers to astrophotography who prove year after year that all you need to do is pick up a camera.”
Entries to the competition must be submitted by June 13, 2013. There are some great prizes, too. The overall winner will receive £1,500. Category winners will receive £500. There are also prizes for runners-up (£250) and highly commended (£125) entries. The Special Prize winners will receive £350, with an £125 prize for the People and Space Special Prize runner-up. All of the winning entries will receive a one year subscription to Sky at Night Magazine.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013 has four main categories:
Earth and Space – Photographs that include landscape, people and other earth-related things alongside an astronomical subject ranging from the stars, the Moon or near-Earth phenomena such as the aurora.
Our Solar System – Imagery which captures the Sun and its family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets.
Deep Space – Pictures that capture anything beyond the Solar System, including stars, nebulae and galaxies.
Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year – Pictures taken by budding astronomers under the age of 16 years old.
There are also three special prizes: People and Space recognizes the best photo featuring people in the shot; Best Newcomer is awarded to the best photo by an amateur astrophotographer who has taken up the hobby in the last year and who has not entered an image into the competition before; and Robotic Scope, is awarded for the best photo taken using one of the increasing number of computer-controlled telescopes at prime observing sites around the world which can be accessed over the internet by members of the public.
The winning images will be showcased in the annual free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich from September 19, 2013 to February 23, 2014.
Find more info and enter online by visiting www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto . Each entrant may submit up to five images to the competition.
To call Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio a magician is definitely not an exaggeration! Take a look at his latest handiwork, this amazing 3-D animation of Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula, IC 1805.
Metsävainio has previously produced outstanding images in 3-D the usual way, with stereo pairs and anaglyphs, but his new experimental 3-D work is incredible!
He explained to Universe Today how he created this and other 3-D animations:
Melotte 15. Credit: J-P Metsävainio.
“My 3-D experiments are a mixture of science and an artistic impression,” he said via email. “I collect distance and other information before I do my 3-D conversion. Usually there are known stars, coursing the ionization, so I can place them at right relative distance. If I know a distance to the nebula, I can fine tune distances of the stars so, that right amount of stars are front and behind of the object.”
He uses a “rule of thumb” method for stars: brighter is closer, but if a real distance is known, he uses that. Many 3-D shapes can be figured out just by looking carefully the structures in nebula, such as dark nebulae must be at front of the emission nebulae in order to show up.
“The general structure of many star forming regions is very same,” Metsävainio explained. “In this image, there is a group of newly born young stars, as an open cluster inside of the nebula. The stellar wind from the stars is then blowing the gas away around the cluster and forming a kind of cavitation – or a hole — around it. The pillar-like formations in the nebula must point to a source of stellar wind, for the same reason.”
For just the observing alone, this image is forty-five 1,200 second exposures (that equals 15 hours!)
He compared his processing workflow to sculpting, and said the result is always an approximate reality.
“How accurate the final model is, depends how much I have known and guessed right,” he said. “The motivation to make those 3-D-studies is just to show, that objects in the images are not like paintings on the canvas but really three dimensional objects floating in the three dimensional space.”
Another reason he creates these time-intensive 3-D animations is because they are fun to do, in addition to the old adage of why we do anything: “Because I can,” he said.
“This generally adds a new dimension to my hobby as an astronomical imager — (Pun intended),” he said.
Venus and the Moon on 1-10-13 from Tucson, Arizona. Credit: Robert Sparks
For the past week or so, we’ve had either a waxing or waning crescent Moon (save for the New Moon on January 11) and astrophotographers have been out in full force capturing the beauty of this sliver of light, and sometimes, like the image above by Rob Sparks (hale_bopp37 on Flickr) even a little Earthshine. Enjoy these stunning photos from our readers around the world!
Luna, January 14, 2013. Credit and copyright: Raymond GilchristThe 2% waxing crescent Moon at sunset, January 12, 2013. Credit and copyright, Tavi Greiner.Waxing crescent Moon on January 14, 2013 from London, England. Credit and copyright: Sculptor Lil on Flickr.The crescent Moon taken at sunrise on January 9, 2013 from Carmyllie, Scotland. Credit and copyright: Mike Walton.Earthshine on January 15, 2013 from Kuala Lumpur. Credit and copyright: Shahrin Ahmad.The crescent Moon -- the 'easy way' -- a hand-held camera, no tripod, just a Lumix DMC-FZ48 at maximum optical zoom. Credit and copyright: Daniel Fischer.
Astrophotographer (and blogger) Daniel Fischer notes that his image, above, was taken freehand with a simple camera, “a ‘work’ of a few seconds,” he said. “Might encourage others to give it a try with their own cameras.”
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
The International Space Station Transiting across the disc of the Sun on January 9, 2013. Credit: Efrain Morales
The Sun has been active recently along with showing several sunspots. But astrophotogher Efrain Morales captured an additional ‘man-made’ sunspot as the International Space Station transited across the face of the solar disk.
“It was a challenge as the Sun was low on the horizon at 19.5 deg. elevation, just above the canopy of the forest,” Efrain said via email, “along with and the ISS being over 250 miles distant from my location passing over Haiti at the time. His home base is the Jaicoa Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Equipment: SolarMax40, P/B CGE mount, Flea3 Ccd.
Below, see an animation of the ISS transit:
Animation of the International Space Station Transiting across the disc of the Sun on January 9th at about 20:32 UTC. Credit: Efrain Morales.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
