Astrophotos Archives

August 1, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Stunning Astrophoto: Road to the Stars by Jack Fusco

Last week we posted an astrophoto by Jack Fusco, and when I looked at more of his images, this one just absolutely blew me away! Jack took a trip to Acadia National Park in Maine, USA, and his night sky images from that location are just gorgeous. “It’s amazing to me that every single person in Acadia isn’t awake the entire night out stargazing,” Jack said on Google+ . “The amount of stars is just absolutely incredible here and I could not have asked for any better conditions.”

Of this image, Jack said, “It’s important to not just worry about the destination, but to notice all of the things that we go through on our path there,” and then quoted musician Frank Turner: “We’re going nowhere slowly, but we’re seeing all the sights.”

See more of Jack’s work on Flickr, Google+ and his website, www.jackfusco.com

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.

July 31, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Milky Way Over the Bungle Bungles by Mike Salway

Photographer Mike Salway recently took a trip to the western Australia Kimberly Region of the Outback, and has posted some amazing night sky images of his adventures. This picture — and the name of the geologic features — especially caught my eye. The Bungle Bungles of Purnululu National Park are an incredible sight in themselves, huge beehive-shaped sandstone formations. But Mike was able to take a panoramic view of the Milky Way arching over the formations, a symmetrical halo of light in the full sky.

“You know the skies are dark when you can see the Milky Way overhead, even when there’s a more than half-moon shining brightly high in the west sky,” Mike wrote on his website. “And that’s what it was like at the Bungle Bungles.”

This image is an 8 frame panorama, taken on the Piccaninny Creek bed with his Canon 5D Mk II and Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens.

See more images from Mike’s trip, and all his other work, too, plus check out his IceInSpace website, a collection of amateur astronomer images of the Solar System.

July 25, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: On the Lookout for the Milky Way

Caption: ‘The Lookout’ – Bass Harbor Lighthouse – Acadia National Park, Maine. Credit: Jack Fusco.

This gorgeous shot of the Bass Harbor Lighthouse — seemingly on the lookout for the Milky Way — almost got away from astrophotographer Jack Fusco, but luckily he had a backup plan!

Jack’s description of the photo:

This was the shot that almost got away. I had this in mind and planned out well before I had arived in Acadia. Before the Milky Way was in place on my first visit, the sky was covered by almost the only clouds I saw all trip. A change in forecast for the night before my drive back to New Jersey gave me one last chance to capture it. I set up to take some star trails while waiting for everything to be in position only to have my battery die moments before I took this. Luckily, I had a fully charged backup battery in my bag. I ran to grab it, set back up and started to shoot again. Sitting out under the stars and listening to the water crash against the rocks was an experience that words can not do justice.

Checkout more of Jack’s work at his Flickr page.

July 10, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: Monster Sunspot Evolution

Caption: A 5-day sequence of sunspot group AR1520. Credit: Shahrin Ahmad, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Click to see a larger version.

There’s a monster sunspot making its way across the face of the Sun, and it’s captured the attention of several astrophotographers. This first image is from Shahrin Ahmad, who created a sequence of images as the sunspot moved to face towards Earth from the southeastern limb. He used a Skywatcher 120ED at F/15 (2X barlow) with a Baader Solar Filter and a IMG132E camera for his images.

AR1520 stretches more than 127,000 km (10 Earth diameters) from end to end, and the magnetic field of this enormous sunspot harbors energy for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate an 80% chance of M-flares and a 25% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours, according to Spaceweather.com.

Here are some more looks at AR1520:

Caption: Closeup of monster sunspot AR1520. Credit: John Chumack.

One of our favorite astrophotographer, John Chumack, took this image of AR1520 in white light on July 8, 2012 using a Lunt Solar Herschel Solar Wedge filter, DMK 21AF04 Fire-wire Camera, 2x barlow, with 1/1000 second exposure. See more at his Flickr page, or his website, Galactic Images.

Caption: Sun and sunspots: Credit: Mike Black

Mike Black took this one on July 9, 2012

Gear: Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 400mm f/2.8 + 2x Extender III. Baader solar film in front of lens. See more on Mike’s Flickr page.

Want to see a size comparison of AR1520? The mascot of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Camilla the Rubber Chicken posted this comparison to Jupiter, the biggest planet in the solar system:

Caption: Size comparison of AR1520 to Jupiter. Credit: Camilla_SDO on Twitter.

Here’s a look at the previously active region on the Sun, which last week blasted out numerous M-class flares and at least one X.1-class flares, again a sequence of images from Shahrin Ahmad:

Caption: A 7-day sequence of sunspot AR1515. Credit: Shahrin Ahmad, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their images!

July 9, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Things on the Sun: Zipper, Airplane and Spots

Caption: ISS Solar Transit. Credit: Fred Locklear.

A couple of awesome pictures of the Sun today from amateur astrophotographers: Above is a composite view of the International Space Station transiting across the Sun, making it look like a zipper on the Sun’s face. This great image is by Fred Locklear (zAambOni on Flickr) using a Celestron C6-N and a SPC900NC webcam. Also visible is the big region of sunspots that spewed out dozens of flares this past week. Fred took this image on July 1, 2012.

What else can we find on the Sun?

Caption: A plane crossing the Sun. Credit: Steve Scheer.

This incredible shot of an airplane crossing the Sun was taken by Steve Scheer on July 7, 2012.
“Luck was on my side as I happened to go outside and saw a plane about 90 deg away from the Sun,” Scheer wrote UT, “so I quickly setup the scope, pulled the battery off charge, fitted the camera to the scope, pointed to the Sun and crossed the fingers. Luckily the focus was already set from a previous Moon imaging session as I had literally seconds to spare.”

More spots show up on this image including the monster new Active Region AR1520 on the left, which is larger than Jupiter.

Specs:
Telescope- C102-HD refractor
Camera- 500D with t-ring
Solar filter

July 5, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Milky Way Over Afghanistan

Here’s a lovely image of the Milky Way as seen from Afghanistan — Istalef Valley to be precise, about 20 kilometers from Kabul. This was taken by Yunos Bakhshi, one of the founders and leaders of the Afghanistan Astronomy Association. We wrote about Bakhshi and his work to share the wonders of astronomy with the Afghan people, and how dangerous it can actually be at times.

Bakhshi sent us this image, telling us he is still leading groups of people out to look at the night sky, and he pointed out the light pollution in this image coming from the Bagram US military base, which has huge flood lights on at all times. “I would like to ask you once again to pay attention to this light pollution, which disturbed the beauty of night sky,” Bakhshi said. “Kabul and suburb still have good and dark sky.”

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.

Image caption: The Milky Way over Istalef Valley. Credit: Yunos Bakhshi

July 1, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Galactic Relaxation

Ah, the good life! “Probably one of my favorite things to do is sit outside underneath the stars,” said astrophotographer Harley Grady from Texas, who took this self- and galactic-portrait on June 19, 2012. Grady said this is a single 30 second exposure, with a red LED light to illuminate himself and 6″ Dob telescope.

How many of our other readers could take a similar picture of themselves?

Shot with a Nikon D700,Tokina 16-28mm f2.8 Lens, ISO 3200, WB 4000K.

June 25, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: Crazy Solar Prominences

We’ve got three cool images of the hot Sun submitted by various astrophotographers! Raymond Gilchrist enhanced his image from June 23, 2012 of three solar prominences using Inspire Pro on his iPad. He used different colors to differentiate the the various “strands” of the prominences, which highlights the “texture” of these huge solar features. See more of Raymond’s great astrophotos at his Flickr page.

See more below:

Renown Australian amateur astronomy Month Leventhal captured this pyramid-shaped prominence on the NW limb of the Sun, which reaches an approximate height of 93,000km! Wow! Monty took this image early today (June 25, 2012) using a Canon 600D camera, H-alpha 6Å filter and a Meade S.C. 10 inch telescope.

This is an awesome look at the Sun on June 16th from Efrain Morales Rivera from the Jaicoa Observatory in Puerto Rico. Visible are a huge prominence, several active regions, (AR1504, 5, 7 & 8), and interesting filaments. At the time this image was taken, Efrain noted that AR1504 had developed a ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar flares. See more at the Jaicoa Observatory website.

Lead image caption: Solar Prominences, imaged edited with Inspire Pro. Credit: Raymond Gilchrist.

Second image caption: Prominence on the NW limb reaching an approximate height of 93,000km. Credit: Monty Leventhal.

Third image caption: Several sunspots, prominences and filaments on the Sun on June 16th 13:27UT. Credit: Efrain Morales Rivera, Jaicoa Observatory

June 22, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Supernova PTF11kly During and After

It was literally an event of stellar proportions! In August 2011, a new Type Ia supernova was seen in spiral galaxy M101 a.k.a the Pinwheel Galaxy, located 25 million light-years away. Called PTF11kly, the bright supernova was a target for many astrophotographers. But what does it look like now? Here is a side-by-side comparison by Bill Schlosser from Ohio. It shows his image of the supernova on Sept. 26th, 2011 and then more recently, on June 9th, 2012. “The first was taken through my Astro Tech 10″ RC (I have since sold it) and the second through my TEC 140mm APO,” Bill wrote, and it clearly shows the supernova at its height (brightest object in the left picture, in the lower left side of the galaxy) to what it is today — a small blue blob in the right-hand image. Bill is wondering if it is possibly a becoming nebula now?

Great comparison shots! Check out Bill’s Flickr page for more great photos.

June 19, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Noctilucent Clouds by Brendan Alexander

It’s Noctilucent Cloud season! And Brendan Alexander in Donegal Ireland captured this beautiful view on the morning of June 18, 2012. “The skies cleared before dawn and I was treated to the best Noctilucent Cloud display I have seen this season so far,” Brendan said on Flickr. We’ve featured Brendan’s work many times on Universe Today.

Details:
Location: Killygordon, Lifford, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Date: 18 June 2012
Time: 02:00-02:30
Camera: Self modded Canon 1000D, Simga 20mm
Exposure: 6sec, ISO 400 F5