esplaobs: August 2017

Thursday, August 31, 2017

C/2017 O1 ASSASN1 Taken by Adriano Valvasori on August 18, 2017 @ Mayhill (New Mexico)

Planewave 17 CDK
FLI-PL6303E
L10x60s bin2
RGB1x60s bin2

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE Taken by Antonio Finazzi on August 21, 2017 @ Riverton, Wyoming, USA

Different images of the total solar eclipse.
Details: Nikon D500, Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD at the focal 500mm, 100 ISO

SOLAR ECLIPSE Taken by Alberto Dalle Donne on August 21, 2017 @ Casper, Wyoming, USA

A thin cloud covered the Sun

DUMBBELL NEBULA (M27) Taken by Patrick Bosschaerts on August 19, 2017 @ Antwerp / Belgium

First picture taken with my new Starwave 102ED / f7 refractor with x0,8 reducer. Only 15 min exposure (15x1 unguided) with darks flats an biases. Camera: Canon 600D, CLS-filter (light polluted aria!). Processed in Nebulosity and PS.

ZODIACAL LIGHT WITH VENUS & M44 Taken by Monika Landy-Gyebnar on August 31, 2017 @ Hárskút, Hungary

Autumn zodiacal light is already visible at clear dawns and now Venus & M44 (Praesepe cluster) conjunction is added to the scene.

ASTROPHYSICISTS CONVERT MOONS AND RINGS OF SATURN INTO MUSIC

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-astrophysicists-moons-saturn-music.amp

LUNAR VIEW, SOLAR ECLIPSE Image Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Orbiting above the lunar nearside on August 21, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter turned to look back on a bright, Full Earth. As anticipated its Narrow Angle Camera scanned this sharp view of our fair planet, catching the shadow of the Moon racing along a path across the United States at about 1,500 miles per hour. In fact, the dark lunar shadow is centered over Hopkinsville, Kentucky at 1:25:30 Central Daylight Time. From there, the New Moon blocked the Sun high in clear skies for about 2 minutes and 40 seconds in a total solar eclipse.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE Taken by Rogelio Bernal Andreo on August 21, 2017 @ Phillips Lake, OR

Im submitting my 2017 Solar Eclipse contribution from Phillips Lake, OR. This is the only image I captured of the eclipse.

Its is not a staged picture, this is how this girl, Jessica, chose to experience the eclipse. When totality began I was hypnotized by the sight that I completely neglected the two cameras I had set beforehand. Near the end, though, I nearly improvised the shot, simply shooting at what I had in front of me. Its a 2 panes mosaic, one shot during totality, one just a couple of seconds later, the instant the sun started to reappear, which added the nice highlights and deep dynamic range to the image. The image has been edited for contrast/brightness/color saturation, but its NOT a Photoshop fabrication.

Check my page, Wikipedia, APOD, etc. if in doubt. Full story here: https://bit.ly/RBA_GreatGigInTheSky

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

THE WILD DUCK CLUSTER Taken by Wojciech Piskorz on August 29, 2017 @ Gliwice, Poland

TS APO65Q, Canon350D, ISO1600, 26 x 120 sek.

FAST MOVER FLORENCE Taken by michael jäger on August 29, 2017 @ Weißenkirchen Austria

What a fast mover. Minor planet Florence is now near earth and around 8-9mag bright. If you do not want star trails you need short exposure times.
Image taken on August 29
UT 20.15 50x15sec 12/4 Newton and CCD

TOP OF THE WORLD TOP OF SATURN

These turbulent clouds are on top of the world at Saturn. NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's north pole on April 26, 2017 - the day it began its Grand Finale -- as it approached the planet for its first daring dive through the gap between the planet and its rings.

Although the pole is still bathed in sunlight at present, northern summer solstice on Saturn occurred on May 24, 2017, bringing the maximum solar illumination to the north polar region. Now the Sun begins its slow descent in the northern sky, which eventually will plunge the north pole into Earth-years of darkness. Cassini's long mission at Saturn enabled the spacecraft to see the Sun rise over the north, revealing that region in great detail for the first time.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 44 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 166,000 miles (267,000 kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

PANORAMIC ECLIPSE COMPOSITE WITH STAR TRAILS Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees, TWAN)

What was happening in the sky during last week's total solar eclipse? This featured little-planet, all-sky, double time-lapse, digitally-fused composite captured celestial action during both night and day from a single location. In this 360x180 panorama, north and south are at the image bottom and top, while east and west are at the left and right edges, respectively. During four hours the night before the eclipse, star trails were captured circling the north celestial pole (bottom) as the Earth spun. During the day of the total eclipse, the Sun was captured every fifteen minutes from sunrise to sunset (top), sometimes in partial eclipse. All of these images were then digitally merged onto a single image taken exactly during the total solar eclipse. Then, the Sun's bright corona could be seen flaring around the dark new Moon (upper left), while Venus simultaneously became easily visible (top). The tree in the middle, below the camera, is a Douglas fir. The images were taken with care and planning at Magone Lake in Oregon, USA.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE Taken by Jonathan Sabin on August 21, 2017 @ Lake Barkley State Park, Cadiz, KY

We were treated to gorgeous clear skies in western Kentucky at Lake Barkley State Park for the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse!

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST

Connoisseurs of total eclipses don't always agree on what is the best part. Some prefer the beginning, when the sun's corona suddenly appears attended by the startled gasps of onlookers. Others prefer the middle, when the starry-dark core of the Moon's shadow turns the landscape into an alien wonderland. After looking at this picture, however, you might be inclined to cast a vote in favor of the end

Photographer John Chumack took the picture Aug. 21st during the Great American Solar Eclpse just as the disk of the Moon was uncovering the sun. Piercing beams of sunlight shot through gaps in lunar mountains creating a dazzling "Diamond Ring" effect.

"The Diamond Ring was so beautiful, plus the large pink prominences were amazing to see," says Chumack. "I was so fortunate to have decent clear weather at my friends' home in Hopkinsville, KY."

ECLIPSE Taken by Lenny Angello on August 21, 2017 @ Woodburn, Oregon USA

An amazing experience. Prepared for four months with three full frame cameras, tracking heads, camera control software scripts, and research. The results were 131 virtually perfect images. Canon EOS 6Ds, 800mm lens,Seymore filters, iOptron tracking heads, Manfrotto tripods all under computer control. Artistic license applied to images.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE Taken by Jay Edwards on August 21, 2017 @ Snake River Plain, Idaho

Using a script to control the timing and length of exposures during the eclipse, I was fortunate to capture several Baileys Beads, prominences and a portion of the chromosphere.