Astrophotos Archives

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Planet Aurora

A 'polar panoramic effect' view of the aurora in Finland on Feb. 9, 2013. Credit and copyright: Martin Stojanovski.

I love these ‘Polar Planet Effect‘ images, and this one is awesome. Photographer Martin Stojanovski traveled from Macedonia to Finland during an #AuroraTweetup event in early February 2013 to try and capture the aurora. And he really wanted to try doing one of these “planet” pictures.

“This was one of the photos that I really wanted to create on my aurora trip during #AuroraTweetup and it came together at last,” Martin said via email. “It is really hard to get the final result as the aurora is so dynamic (it changes every second) and also the night sky is difficult for stitching, but the end result came up great. That night Aurora was amazing, and it got really bright and colorful from time to time, as our guide said that night the best of the season.”

In this image the aurora stretches more than 120 degrees from side to side, and a faint glow go higher up towards zenith. It was created from 21 30-second exposures at f-4, 10mm ISO 1600. Image of the whole sky and foreground was taken at the Aurora Camp on Lake Inari in Finland.

He took some other great shots, too, like this one:

Aurora borealis over Lake Inari in Finland. Shot on 9th Feb. 2013 during #AuroraTweetup. Credit and copyright: Martin Stojanovski.

See more images from his trip at his website.

We featured another ‘Polar Planet’ image in our astrophotos of the full Moon yesterday.

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.

February 21, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Giant Sunspot Group on the Sun

Sunspot 1678 in Hydrogen alpha light, taken on February 19, 2013. Credit and copyright: Paul Andrew.

On February 19 and 20, 2013, scientists watched a giant sunspot form in under 48 hours. It has grown to over six Earth diameters. This image by astrophotographer Paul Andrew shows a detailed, close-up view of this sunspot group, named AR 1678, imaged with a hydrogen alpha filter.

NASA said the spot quickly evolved into what’s called a delta region, which has a magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 45% chance of M-flares and a 15% chance of X-flares during the next day.

Below is an image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of this region on the Sun:

This image of AR 1678 combines images from two instruments on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which takes pictures in visible light that show sunspots and the Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA), which took an image in the 304 Angstrom wavelength showing the lower atmosphere of the sun, which is colorized in red. Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center — This image of AR 1678 combines images from two instruments on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which takes pictures in visible light that show sunspots and the Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA), which took an image in the 304 Angstrom wavelength showing the lower atmosphere of the sun, which is colorized in red. Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center

February 19, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Luckiest Photo Ever: The Moon, Jupiter … and More

'Fly Me to the Moons' -- a view of the Moon with Jupiter and the four Galilean moons, along with a passing airplane. Credit and copyright: Greg Gibbs.

“No matter how much you plan and prepare,” said photographer Greg Gibbs, “sometimes you just have to be very lucky.”

As we mentioned last week, Jupiter and the Moon were going to have a close encounter in the sky on February 18, with an occultation visible in some areas. And so Gibbs was preparing to get shots of the occultation through his telescope from his location in Victoria, Australia, and was using an automated timer to get shots at about 10 second intervals But then he noticed lights from a plane coming close to the Moon.

“I realised that there was a chance that it would pass in front of the Moon,” he said, “so I quickly canceled the remote timer I was using to take the shots and instead started shooting high speed continuous frames. I managed to get this plane crossing the moon in five individual frames just as Jupiter was about to be occulted by The Moon.”

This final product, as Gibbs notes on his Facebook page, is a two image composite. The Moon, Jupiter and the plane are all one single image. Then he took an overexposed image to bring up the Galilean Moons of (from left to right) Io, Callisto and Europa. At the time of this shot, Ganymede had already been occulted by The Moon.

There’s the old saying, “If you can’t be good, be lucky…”

This shot may have been lucky, but it sure is good, too!

See more of Gibbs astrophotography at his website, Capturing the Night.

Additionally, Peter Lake from Australia put together this video from last night’s occultation:

February 11, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Desert Space Station

The International Space Station, as seen from Saguaro National Park East in Arizona. Credit: Robert Sparks.

Old meets space-age in this image of the International Space Station passing over an ancient saguaro cactus at the Saguaro National Park East near Tucson, Arizona. Robert Sparks (a.k.a. @halfastro or hale-bopp37 on Flickr) captured this beautiful image on February 6, 2013. While the ISS is just over 12 years old, the saguaro seen here could be upwards of 200 years old. These prickly old soldiers don’t usually start to grow arms until they are between 50 to 100 years of age, and they may live for perhaps 200 years or more.

Rob also captured the expanse of the awesome desert night sky, too.

February 8, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: An Amazing Rush from the Sun

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. — 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.

February 5, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Incredible Space Shuttle Picture: Is it Real?

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:

Atlantis Breaks Through the Clouds — 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.

January 30, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: Northern Lights Over Iceland

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 - 1-20-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco. — The Northern Lights fill the Icelandic Sky on 1-20-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco.

January 25, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Incredible Astrophoto: Thor’s Helmet in Canis Major

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.

January 22, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: Jupiter and the Moon Conjunction

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: Alejandro García (bokepacha 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.com

In 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 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.

January 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition Now Open for 2013

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 view the entries submitted so far, visit www.flickr.com/groups/astrophoto

So get out there with your camera! And good luck!