Daily Archives: December 2, 2013

Comet Lovejoy before Galaxy M63

lovejoy1_peach_1943
Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach

Comet Lovejoy was captured last week passing well in front of spiral galaxy M63. Discovered only three months ago and currently near its maximum brightness, Comet Lovejoy can be seen near the Big Dipper from dark northerly locations before dawn with the unaided eye. An unexpected rival to Comet ISON, C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy), pictured above, is currently sporting a large green coma and a beautifully textured ion tail. Comet Lovejoy is now headed back to the outer Solar System but should remain a good site in binoculars for another few weeks. Conversely, spiral galaxy M63, lies far in the distance and is expected to remain stationary on the sky and hold its relative brightness for at least the next few million years.
APOD

Related posts:

  1. Comet Lovejoy through Mörby Castle Ruins
  2. Comet ISON Rising
  3. Andromeda Galaxy
  4. Comet Hale-Bopp, 1995

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 2, 2013

Flaring activity was yesterday, December 1 and up to this moment today, December 2 limited to the C-level. The probability for C-flares is around 60%, for M-flares around 10% and almost no chance for X-flares. The candidates to populate the flare-club are NOAA AR 1907, 1908 and 1909. Geomagnetic conditions were quiet: K<3. This was due to a positive z-component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The IMF has although a relatively high value around 10nT. If the z-component turns
negative, unsettled conditions are possible. The solar wind speed is decreasing. A coronal hole will approach the central meridian tomorrow.

INFO FROM SIDC
Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 12/02/13
Time UT: 15:300
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

  

Related posts:

  1. The Sun Online and solar activity. December 1, 2013
  2. The Sun Online and solar activity. November 30, 2013
  3. The Sun Online and solar activity. November 3, 2013
  4. The Sun Online and solar activity. September 25, 2013

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 1, 2013

NOAA AR 1907 was responsible for the several B-flares and the 1 C-flare on November 30. We expect that the flaring situation stays as it is: a chance of 50% for C-flares, 20% for an isolated M-flare and almost zero chance for X-flares.

A partial halo CME was detected on November 30 coming into the field of view of SOHO/LASCO C2 around 14:00 UT in the SE. No on disk signature could be linked to this event. STEREO B EUI 195 indicates some flaring activity and a mass ejection around that time from a region near the centre
of the STEREO B solar images. This CME is determined as back-sided.The solar wind speed has reached 500 km/s since late November 30. The z-component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was mainly negative resulting in a planetary and local (Dourbes) K-index of 4 late November 30.
We expect the solar wind speed to decrease gradually. We expect quiet geomagnetic conditions with possible unsettled conditions (K=3) for the remaining part of December 1.

INFO FROM SIDC
Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 12/01/13
Time UT: 14:30
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

  

Related posts:

  1. Sun online. Solar activity. 2nd of September 2013
  2. Sun online. Solar activity. 3 September 2013
  3. Sun online. Solar activity. 06 September 2013
  4. The Sun Online and solar activity. November 3, 2013

Great Orion Nebula

M 42
Located in the constellation of Orion.
This image was taken with the technique of emission line filters.
The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky.

Telescope: Orion 190mm Maksutov Newtonian
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Camera: QHY9
Filters: Astrodon emission lines Ha, OIII, SII
Exposure time: 6 hours
Autor: project participant Maurice De Castro (Dominican Republic)

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
December 02, 2013

We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.

Related posts:

  1. Lagoon nebula in Sagittarius
  2. Rosette Nebula
  3. Omega Centauri
  4. NGC 2174: Monkey Head Nebula in Orion