Daily Archives: December 11, 2013

The Coldest Place on Earth

Image Credit: Ted Scambos (National Snow and Ice Data Center) et al., Landsat 8, USGS, NASA

How cold can it get on Earth? In the interior of the Antarctica, a record low temperature of -93.2 °C (-135.8 °F) has been recorded. This is about 25 °C (45 °F) colder than the coldest lows noted for any place humans live permanently. The record temperature occurred in 2010 August — winter in Antarctica — and was found by scientists sifting through decades of climate data taken by Earth-orbiting satellites. The coldest spots were found near peaks because higher air is generally colder, although specifically in depressions near these peaks because relatively dense cold air settled there and was further cooled by the frozen ground. Summeris a much better time to visit Antarctica, as some regions will warm up as high as 15 °C (59 °F).
NASA APOD, 11-DEC-13

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 11, 2013

The Sun is still in a C-flaring mood. It is almost sure that more C-flares will happen. The probability for M-flaring activity is estimated around 40%. There are 9 active regions on the solar disk. Several of them are magnetically connected. NOAA AR 1922 (Catania 74) has grown from nothing to
a beta-gamma configuration.
A partial halo CME was detected on Dec 9, around 21UT. The source region was located in the North-East. We don’t expect this CME to be geoeffective.
A recurrent large coronal hole in the northern hemisphere reached thecentral meridian. It caused previous rotation a Kp of 4. Geomagnetic disturbances are excepted on December 14.
INFO FROM SIDC

Shooting conditions: high clouds

Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 12/11/13
Time UT: 04:30
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

NGC 1491

NGC 1491 (also known as SH2-206 and LBN 704) is a bright emission nebula and HII region, located on the edge of a vast cloud region of neutral gas, about 10,700 light-years away in the Perseus arm of our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation Perseus.

HII regions are well known for being places where new stars are born, and are created when ultraviolet radiation from hot stars ionizes the surrounding gas, causing it to glow in visible light. The surrounding dust is also heated by this radiation, so we also see it glow in infrared light.

The blue 11.22 magnitude star, BD +50 ° 886, is illuminating the nebula while its strong stellar wind is “blowing” a bubble in the gas that immediately surrounds it. The intense radiation from the star is also eroding the gas clouds surrounding it.

The entire nebula is quite irregular with a subtle bite cut out of the nebulosity from the east side that creates a darker hollow, and a high surface brightness region — as seen in this image — preceding the star. A faint, elongated haze extends from this patch to the northeast past the star giving an elongated appearance.

Mount: NEQ6 Pro SynScan
Equipment: Skywatcher Black Diamond ED120 APO
Type of camera: ALccd6c Pro
Moravian G2 8300
Exposure time: ALccd6c Pro 54 x 10 min.
Moravian Ha 760 min., OIII 580 min.
Total: 31h20min.
Focal Length 765 mm with Skywatcher
Flattener/0,85 Reducer

Distance 10.700Ly.

© Dieter Beer
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
08 December 2013
We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.

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