The closest planetary conjunction of the year graced the skies this morning, and astrophotographers were out in force to marvel at the beauty. The duo were just 11.9’ apart, less than half the diameter of a Full Moon. Also joining the view was M44, the Beehive Cluster. We start with this gorgeous shot from Queensland, Australia by one of our longtime favorite astrophotographers, Joseph Brimacombe.
But wait… there’s more! Much more! See below:
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Wow! The astrophotographers out there are getting artsy! Take a look at some of the most artistic images of the full Moon we’ve seen yet.
The August 10 full Moon was a so-called “super” Moon — and it was the “super-est” of a trio of full Moons being at perigee, or its closest approach to the Earth in its orbit. It was just 356,896 kilometers distant at 17:44 UTC, less than an hour from Full. You can see a comparison shot of the perigee and apogee Moons this year immediately below. Find all the technical details here, but enjoy a gallery of great images from around the world
It was prom night in Cairns… so the fancy cars were out. See Joseph’s other “prom supermoon” image here.
Even NASA got into the “super Moon” astrophoto craze. NASA photographer Bill Ingalls took this beautiful image at The Peace Monument on the grounds of the United States Capitol, in Washington D.C. :
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How would you like to have one of your astrophotos sent up to the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station? Since arriving on the ISS back in May, astronaut Reid Wiseman has been posting beautiful images on social media of the International Space Station passing overhead, taken by people from all around the world.
There’s a dedicated team of people working behind the scenes back on Earth to make sure Wiseman and his crewmates get to see as many images as possible. This is all part of the #SpotTheStation, a project to get people to look up and see the ISS — to increase the “visibility” off the space station, so to speak — to make the general public more aware of the station and what benefits it brings to science. Of course, being able to see the space station fly overhead is always a fun experience!
The #SpotTheStation project is getting photographers more involved, too. We get several images a week posted on our Flickr site of space station passes (see the gorgeous one above by David Murr).
Take a look at some of the recent images @Astro_Reid has posted on Twitter:
How do you get your images sent up to the ISS? You can email your picture to [email protected] and include a description of your images of the ISS (location, date, times, maybe exposure information and techniques involved). Please also include your Twitter handle, Facebook or website information.
You can also just share your image through your social media outlets using #SpotTheStation hashtag.
How do you find out how to see the ISS? There are several different tools:
NASA’s Spot the Station website: Enter your Country, Region, City along with an email address or mobile phone number. Then give your preference for notifications in the evening, morning or both and that’s it. About twelve hours before the station is due to fly overhead, you’ll get a notification from NASA.
Heaven’s Above: A great website that will provide times and locations of where to look for the ISS and many more satellites that are flying over your location.
People are getting involved in this project, even if they’ve never taken a picture of the ISS previously. For example, photographer George Krieger who had never taken an image of the ISS before he heard of the #SpotTheStation project. He got right to it and on June 3 he captured two amazing ISS passes over Hollister, California. Take a look below:
Here are a few more pics from our Flickr pool:
Join in and maybe you can tell all your friend that YOUR image has been sent up to the International Space Station!
You might think the image above of the famous Antenna Galaxies was taken by a large ground-based or even a space telescope. Think again. Amateur astronomer Rolf Wahl Olsen from New Zealand compiled a total of 75 hours of observing time to create this ultra-deep view.
“To obtain a unique deep view of the faint tidal streams and numerous distant background galaxies I gathered 75 hours on this target during 38 nights from January to June 2014,” Rolf said via email. “At times it was rather frustrating because clouds kept interrupting my sessions.”
But he persisted, and the results are stunning.
He used his new 12.5″ f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian telescope, which he said gathers approximately 156% the amount of light over his old 10″ f/5 telescope.
Rolf even has put together comparison shots from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope of the same field of view:
And if you look even closer you can see an incredible field of distant background galaxies. “Apart from the Antennae itself, what I like most about this scene is the incredible number of distant background galaxies,” Rolf told Universe Today. “This area in Corvus seems very rich indeed. The full resolution image is worth having a look at just to see all these faint galaxies littering the background. There are many beautiful interacting pairs and groups which would be fantastic targets in themselves if they were only closer.”
Here’s a collage of some of the background galaxies that Rolf compiled:
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Astrophotographer Leo Aerts from Belgium took advantage of the recent opposition of Mars and captured the Red Planet both “coming and going” in this montage of images taken from October 2013 to June of 2014. Mars reached opposition in April of this year, meaning it was closest to Earth, allowing for the brightest and best viewing.
Leo even shows the changing locations in the sky where Mars appeared across the months, allowing also for the apparent retrograde motion through Virgo during the months on either side of opposition.
Opposition of Mars (or any planet) means that planet and the Sun are on directly opposite sides of Earth. From our perspective on a spinning Earth, the other planet rises in the east just as the Sun sets in the west. Then, after staying up in the sky the entire night, the other planet sets in the west just as the Sun rises in the east.
Mars’ opposition happens about every 26 months. Opposition time is also a good time to send spacecraft to Mars, since our two planets are the closest, meaning less fuel (and time) will be needed to reach the planet. Hence, we’ve got two missions on their way to the Red Planet: MAVEN will arrive at Mars on September 21, 2014, and India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will get there on September 24.
This year’s opposition was pretty close, but we’re currently on an improving trend: the next opposition in 2016 Mars will look even bigger and brighter and during the 2018 opposition, Mars will nearly be as close as it was in 2003.
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Here’s another beautiful astrophoto, courtesy of photographer Justin Ng from Singapore. He’s currently on a photography trip to Malaysia and by chance captured this absolutely stunning view.
“Knowing that the sky would clear after sunset, I led a group of photographers to this location to film a time-lapse of the rising Milky Way above a lonely boat,” Justin explained via email, “but what happened soon after we started shooting was amazing. We were treated to a spectacular lightning display for about an hour from 9:30pm onwards before the clouds caught up with the rising Milky Way and dominated the skies eventually.”
The image is a result of stacking 12 photos (11 shots of lightnings and 1 shot for everything else) from his time-lapse sequence.
We’re looking forward to seeing the timelapse!
See more images from his current trip here, and you can see more of Justin’s fantastic astrophotography at his website, on G+, Facebook and Twitter.
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Last week, we encouraged those of you with a decent sized backyard telescope (and a little patience) to try and spot tiny dwarf planet Pluto, which was at opposition over this past weekend.
One of our favorite astrophotographers, John Chumack, did just that using the “Sagittarius Spoon” to zero-in on Pluto’s location.
“Most astronomers are familiar with the Great Tea Pot of Sagittarius, but just above the Teapot’s Handle is the Sagittarius Spoon!” John said via email. His annotated image, above, shows the spoon and the arrow points to Pluto.
See a non-annotated version, below, and try to also spot some very familiar deep sky objects in this field of view:
Can you see:
Globular Clusters M22, M28, NGC-6717
Open Star Clusters M25, M18
Emission Nebulae M17 The Swan or Omega Nebula & M16 The Eagle Nebula
M24 The Sagittarius Star Cloud, (also awesome in binoculars, John says)
John used a modified Canon 40D DSLR & 50mm lens @F5.6, ISO 1600 for a Single 4 minute exposure while tracking on a CG-4 Mount. And friends from Dexter, Iowa provided the view!
Update:
Larry McNish from the Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada also sent in two images of Pluto at opposition. All the details are on the images, but they emphasize just how difficult capturing Pluto can be:
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A trio of talented Dutch astrophotographers have captured a series of magnificent views of the rare and beautiful phenomena known as Noctilucent Clouds, or NLCs, during a spectacular outburst on the night of July 3, 2014 in the dark skies over southern Holland – coincidentally coinciding with the fireworks displays of the Dutch 2014 FIFA World Cup team and America’s 4th of July Independence Day celebrations!
“I suddenly saw them above my city on the night of July 3rd and ran for my camera!” said Dutch astrophotographer Rob van Mackelenbergh, who lives in the city of Rosmalen and excitedly emailed me his photos – see above and below.
“I was lucky to see them because I left work early.”
Noctilucent clouds are rather mysterious and often described as “alien looking” with “electric-blue ripples and pale tendrils reaching across the night sky resembling something from another world,” according to a NASA description.
They are Earth’s highest clouds, forming on tiny crystals of water ice and dust particles high in the mesosphere near the edge of space by a process known as nucleation, at altitudes of about 76 to 85 kilometers (47 to 53 miles).
NLCs are generally only visible on rare occasions in the late spring to summer months in the hours after sunset and at high latitudes – 50° to 70° north and south of the equator.
Another pair of Dutch guys, Raymond Westheim and Edwin van Schijndel, quickly hit the road to find a clear view when they likewise saw the mesmerizingly colorful and richly hued outburst on July 3rd and also sent me their fabulous NLC photos.
“To have a free view to the horizon, we drove to the countryside just north of the city of Oss. On a small road we have stopped to witness these beautiful NLCs and to take pictures,” said Westheim.
See a gallery of Raymond’s and Edwin’s photos herein.
“The NLCs of last night were the most beautiful ones since 2010. They were remarkably bright and rapidly changing and could be seen drifting towards the South,” Westheim explained with glee.
“These pictures were taken a few kilometers north of our city Oss between 23:15 p.m. and 0:15 a.m. (Central Europe Time) on Thursday evening, July 3,” said Edwin van Schijndel.
Rob, Raymond and Edwin are all members of the “Sterrenwacht Halley” Observatory which was built in 1987. It houses a planetarium and a Celestron C14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The observatory is located about 50 kilometers from the border with Belgium, near Den Bosch – the capitol city of southern Holland. The well known club hosts astronomy lectures and star parties to educate the public about astronomy and science.
The spectacular NLC sky show is apparently visible across Europe. Spaceweather.com has received NLC reports “from France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, England, Estonia and Belgium.”
Here are some additional NLC Observing Tips from NASA:
NLC Observing tips: Look west 30 to 60 minutes after sunset when the Sun has dipped 6 degrees to 16 degrees below the horizon. If you see luminous blue-white tendrils spreading across the sky, you’ve probably spotted a noctilucent cloud. Although noctilucent clouds appear most often at arctic latitudes, they have been sighted in recent years as far south as Colorado, Utah and Nebraska. NLCs are seasonal, appearing most often in late spring and summer. In the northern hemisphere, the best time to look would be between mid-May and the end of August.
The first reported sighting of NLC’s are relatively recent in 1885 by a German astronomer named T.W. Backhouse, some two years after the enormous eruption of the Krakatoa Volcano in 1883 that wreaked enormous death and destruction and which may or may not be related.
Over the past few years, astronaut crews aboard the ISS have also photographed splendid NLC imagery from low Earth orbit.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing OCO-2, GPM, Curiosity, Opportunity, Orion, SpaceX, Boeing, Orbital Sciences, MAVEN, MOM, Mars and more Earth & Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Learn more about NASA’s Mars missions and Orbital Sciences Antares ISS launch on July 11 from NASA Wallops, VA in July and more about SpaceX, Boeing and commercial space and more at Ken’s upcoming presentations.
July 10/11: “Antares/Cygnus ISS Launch from Virginia” & “Space mission updates”; Rodeway Inn, Chincoteague, VA, evening
During the summer months, many of us hit the trails and do a little camping. But how often do you get a view like this?
Wow! Click on the image above to see larger versions on Flickr.
Astrophotographer Tanja Sund and a companion pitched their tent in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, a 200-kilometer-long mountainous range in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, with the tent sitting just 10 meters from a 1 kilometer-high vertical drop. “This is the home of the Tugela Waterfall, second highest waterfall in the world,” Tanja wrote on Flickr.
“The hike up to the top of the Amphitheatre took about 3 hours from the Sentinel car park, using the chain ladders to reach the summit,” Tanja said. “This is the only day hiking trail which leads to the top of the Drakensberg escarpment. We overnighted next to the Tugela falls to catch the Milkyway, which rises to the east over the local settlements.”
The image was taken on June 29, 2014.
According to the website about Drakensberg, the Zulu people named it ‘Ukhahlamba’ and the Dutch Voortrekkers ‘The Dragon Mountain.’ The Drakensberg Mountains are known for the hiking trails, areas for rock or ice-climbing, abseiling, white water rafting or helicopter rides to view the “awe-inspiring basalt cliffs, snowcapped in winter, that tower over riverine bush, lush yellowwood forests and cascading waterfalls.” At the top of Sani Pass is the highest pub in Africa, at 3,000 meters above sea level. Something for everyone!
Here’s the specs:
Canon 5D Mark III
24-70mm LII f/2.8
Shot at 24mm, F/3.2
20sec single exposures
10x image panorama
Processed in LightRoom & Photoshop.
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Ever seen a flash in the night sky and wondered if you were seeing things? Iridium flares are often mistaken for meteors because of their notable bright flashes of light in the night sky but they are actually caused by a specific group of satellites that orbit our planet. The Iridium communication satellites are just in the right orbit that when sunlight reflects on their antennas, a flash — or flare — is visible down on Earth. There are currently about 66 Iridium satellites in orbit, so flares are a rather common occurrence.
This image from photographer Mike Taylor is one frame from a timelapse of the Milky Way and other features of the night sky in motion against a silhouetted foreground. “Photographed from western Maine, this shot includes quite a bit of light pollution and some fast moving cloud cover,” Mike told Universe Today via email. “Most of the light pollution in this image is coming from Farmington, Maine which is about 35 miles from this location.”
Mike added the footage from this timelapse will be featured in his upcoming short film “Shot In The Dark.”
He also provided this info about Iridium flares:
Iridium satellites are in near-polar orbits at an altitude of 485 miles. Their orbital period is approximately 100 minutes with a velocity of 16,800 miles per hour. The uniqueness of Iridium flares is that the spacecraft emits ‘flashes’ of very bright reflected light that sweep in narrow focused paths across the surface of the Earth. An Iridium communication satellite’s Main Mission Antenna is a silver-coated Teflon antenna array that mimics near-perfect mirrors and are angled at 40-degrees away from the axis of the body of the satellites. This can provide a specular reflection of the Sun’s disk, periodically causing a dazzling glint of reflected sunlight. At the Earth’s surface, the specular reflection is probably less than 50 miles wide, so each flare can only be viewed from a fairly small area. The flare duration can last from anywhere between 5 to 20 seconds and can easily be seen by the naked eye.
If you want to try and see an Iridum flare for yourself, check out Heavens Above for your location.
For this image Mike used:
Nikon D600 & 14-24 @ 14mm
f/2.8 – 30 secs – ISO 3200 – WB Kelvin 3570
06/23/14 – 11:07PM
Processed via Lightroom 5 & Photoshop CS5
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