Monday, April 30, 2018
ENHANCED POWERDOME SOFTWARE FOR ZEISS PLANETARIUMS THE ZEISS PLANETARIUM DIVISION PRESENTS THE NEW SOFTWARE PACKAGE "POWERDOME IV" AT THE MEETING OF THE GERMAN SPEAKING PLANETARIUM ASSOCIATION
With the enhanced "powerdome IV" software version, ZEISS offers its customers far-reaching presentations from the brilliant night sky on Earth to journeys through the solar system and the Milky Way to the limits of the observable universe. ZEISS presented the software for the first time at this year's meeting of the German Speaking Planetarium Association in Laupheim.
ZEISS has been investing in digital projection solutions for star theatres since the turn of the millennium. ZEISS is the only supplier to offer its customers complete solutions combining optical-mechanical planetarium projectors and digital fulldome systems from one hand. For these systems, known as Hybrid Planetariums, the software for synchronous control and common optical and digital representation plays a special role. While the starry sky shines in lifelike beauty by means of the planetarium projector, video projectors take over the exact superimposition of constellation figures, astronomical objects and the visualization of the universe as a whole, to name a few. Part of the new software is a 3D planetarium with numerous astronomical databases, which serves to visualize the observable universe.
With the latest HEVC video codec and the extended color depth, powerdome IV also ensures improved image quality. The software components enable the simulation of atmospheric effects such as clouds, rain, northern lights and rainbows. The software recognizes images of celestial objects with astronomical metadata and automatically places them in the correct position in the starry sky. With the telescope function, planetarium visitors can view these objects enlarged, so to speak at close range.
For particularly demanding installations, powerdome IV also enables stereo projection with a particularly high resolution of more than 50 million pixels (8k).
The Science City planetarium in Kolkata, India, will be one of the first facilities to work with powerdome IV. This year, the planetarium will commission a ZEISS fulldome system with 8k stereo projection.
RISING MOON Taken by Yasushi Aoshima on April 29, 2018 @ Toyama, JAPAN
Rising Moon from Mt. Tsurugidake.
Data: EF300mmF2.8L USM (at F5.6), CanonEOS6D, 100 ISO, 1/90 sec each,
1) 104 frames GIF (09:40:05-46:57 UT),
2) 09:41:35 UT
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Friday, April 27, 2018
VENUS Taken by Gianluca Masi on April 25, 2018 @ Rome, Italy
I spotted the superb Venus-Pleiades conjunction from Rome, what I show! Aldebaran and the Hyades joined the party, too!
I captured a few images, hoping to bring to you the feeling and the atmosphere of the sight.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
FOUND IN JAPAN. THE HIGH APPRECIATION FOR PLANETARIUMS IN JAPAN IS WELL KNOWN. JAPAN HAS THE HIGHEST DENSITY OF PLANETARIUMS. YOU CAN EVEN SEE THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANETARIUMS BY THE MANHOLE COVERS. THIS ONE IS LOCATED AT 135 DEGREES EAST AND SHOWS THE AKASHI MUNICIPAL PLANETARIUM. HERE A JENA MADE LARGE SIZE PLANETARIUM PROJECTOR FROM 1960 IS STILL AT WORK!
" SIRIUS IN CLOUDS " DESDE ROSARIO - ARGENTINA /// FOTOS: ESMERALDA SOSA
.. 11pm ..
.. mucha humedad ..
RADIO STORM ON JUPITER
Yesterday, a radio storm happened on Jupiter. Astronomers have known since 1954 that the giant planet sometimes produces powerful bursts of shortwave static. Thomas Ashcraft recorded such a burst on April 24th using his amateur radio telescope in New Mexico. Click to hear the crackling "swooshes" that filled his observatory during the 2 hour storm:
"It was one of the better storms of the year so far," says Ashcraft. "In the audio specimen you can hear the emissions on two of my shortwave radios. One radio is tuned to 21.1 MHz and the other at 18.9 MHz." (Plug stereo headphones into your computer; they will separate the two frequencies into left and right ears.)
Radio storms on Jupiter come from natural radio lasers in the giant planet's magnetosphere. Electrical currents flowing between Jupiter's upper atmosphere and the volcanic moon Io can boost these emissions to power levels easily detected by ham radio antennas on Earth.
Jupiter's outbursts could become more intense in the weeks ahead. Why? Because the distance between Jupiter and Earth is shrinking to a minimum on May 10th. "As Jupiter passes closer to Earth in our orbits, the periodic Io-induced radio storms should get stronger," notes Ashcraft.
To learn more about radio storms on Jupiter, and how you can observe them yourself, visit NASA's RadioJove web site.
"It was one of the better storms of the year so far," says Ashcraft. "In the audio specimen you can hear the emissions on two of my shortwave radios. One radio is tuned to 21.1 MHz and the other at 18.9 MHz." (Plug stereo headphones into your computer; they will separate the two frequencies into left and right ears.)
Radio storms on Jupiter come from natural radio lasers in the giant planet's magnetosphere. Electrical currents flowing between Jupiter's upper atmosphere and the volcanic moon Io can boost these emissions to power levels easily detected by ham radio antennas on Earth.
Jupiter's outbursts could become more intense in the weeks ahead. Why? Because the distance between Jupiter and Earth is shrinking to a minimum on May 10th. "As Jupiter passes closer to Earth in our orbits, the periodic Io-induced radio storms should get stronger," notes Ashcraft.
To learn more about radio storms on Jupiter, and how you can observe them yourself, visit NASA's RadioJove web site.
HUBBLE'S JUPITER AND THE SHRINKING GREAT RED SPOT Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, OPAL Program, STScI; Processing: Karol Masztalerz
What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. Jupiter is home to one of the largest and longest lasting storm systems known, the Great Red Spot (GRS), visible to the left. The GRS is so large it could swallow Earth, although it has been shrinking. Comparison with historical notes indicate that the storm spans only about one third of the surface area it had 150 years ago. NASA's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program has been monitoring the storm more recently using the Hubble Space Telescope. The featured Hubble OPAL image shows Jupiter as it appeared in 2016, processed in a way that makes red hues appear quite vibrant. Modern GRS data indicate that the storm continues to constrict its surface area, but is also becoming slightly taller, vertically. No one knows the future of the GRS, including the possibility that if the shrinking trend continues, the GRS might one day even do what smaller spots on Jupiter have done -- disappear completely.
WEST OF THE WINTER CONSTELLATIONS Taken by Piotr Wieczorek on April 7, 2018 @ Rogalin, Poland
Syriusz, Orion & Plejads
Nikon 24mm
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
MILKYWAYS RISING Taken by Mohammad Soltani on April 21, 2018 @ Daran, Esfahan, Iran
Few days ago some where on my way to Daran (Esfahan, Iran) I decided to take some photos from milky way. After some shots I was intrested to take a photo with my own gesture!
ZODIACAL LIGHTS Taken by Chirag Upreti on March 19, 2018 @ Big Bend National Park, USA
The ethereal zodiacal light, crescent moonset and the Milky Way seen over the rock canyon called The Window that cuts through the Chisos Mountains rim in Big Bend National Park. Facing West, this view offers a site for spectacular sunsets and moonsets with the silhouettes of the classic v-shaped Window between towering mountain walls. Being a true dark sky the Zodiacal lights were truly beautiful to witness.
Sony A7RIII, 15mm, f/2.8 8 sec at ISO 10,000
COMET PANSTARRS (C/2015 O1) NEAR M101 Taken by Yasushi Aoshima on April 20, 2018 @ Ishikawa, JAPAN
Comet PANSTARRS (C/2015 O1) is on the right of the orange star on the top of this image.
Data: EF300mmF2.8L USM, CanonEOS6D, 12800 ISO, 65x60sec stacked (15:14-17:18 UT), North: right, FOV: 4.7 x 7°
MOON Taken by Luca Savorani on April 20, 2018 @ Sormano, Como, Italy
Lunar mosaic with craters Atlas and Hercules.
April 20 - 2018 (19:15 UT), Sormano - (CO) - Italy, Schmidt-Cassegrain C8- Camera ASI290mm (IR)
Monday, April 23, 2018
JUPITER’S GREAT RED SPOT, SPOTTED
This image of Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot and surrounding turbulent zones was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
The color-enhanced image is a combination of three separate images taken on April 1 between 3:09 a.m. PDT (6:09 a.m. EDT) and 3:24 a.m. PDT (6:24 a.m. EDT), as Juno performed its 12th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was 15,379 miles (24,749 kilometers) to 30,633 miles (49,299 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a southern latitude spanning 43.2 to 62.1 degrees.
Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager.
JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at:
www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam
More information about Juno is at:
https://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/ Gerald Eichstädt /Seán Doran
THE BLUE HORSEHEAD NEBULA IN INFRARED Image Credit: WISE, IRSA, NASA; Processing & Copyright : Francesco Antonucci
The Blue Horsehead Nebula looks quite different in infrared light. In visible light, the reflecting dust of the nebula appears blue and shaped like a horse's head. In infrared light, however, a complex labyrinth of filaments, caverns, and cocoons of glowing dust and gas emerges, making it hard to even identify the equine icon. The featured image of the nebula was created in three infrared colors (R=22, G=12, B=4.6 microns) from data taken by NASA's orbiting Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. The nebula is cataloged as IC 4592 and spans about 40 light years, lying about 400 light years away toward the constellation Scorpius along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. IC 4592 is fainter but covers an angularly greater region than the better known Horsehead Nebula of Orion. The star that predominantly illuminates and heats the dust is Nu Scorpii, visible as the yellow star left of center.