Daily Archives: December 17, 2013

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 17, 2013

The strongest solar flare was a C3.1 long-duration flare peaking on December 16 at 21h33 UTC originating from new active region NOAA AR 1927, located at the west limb. The flare was associated with a CME, observed in LASCO/C2 (first measurement on December 16 at 21h27 UTC) and STEREO A coronagraphic data (at 21h39 UTC). The CME is travelling to the west with an estimated speed of 650 km/s (estimated via Stereo CAT), with possible arrival of a glancing blow late December 19 (UTC time). The probability for C-flares is around 70%, M-flares around 30%, with NOAA ARs 1917 and 1927 as
main source candidates. The chances for an X-flare are low. The proton flux measured by GOES, is below threshold levels. We are currently inside a slow solar wind stream with a solar wind speed of 400 km/s, as observed by ACE. The interplanetary magnetic field currently is weak with a maximum magnitude of 5 nT.
Geomagnetic conditions are quiet (K<3) to unsettled (K=3) and are expected to remain so for the next 48 hours.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 12/17/13
Time UT: 19:00
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

Geminid Meteors over Teide Volcano

Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (TWAN, Earth and Stars)

On some nights it rains meteors. Peaking two nights ago, asteroid dust streaked through the dark skies of Earth, showering down during the annual Geminids meteor shower. Astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado captured the space weather event, as pictured above, in a series of exposures spanning about 2.3 hours using a wide angle lens. The snowcapped Teide volcano of the Canary Islands of Spain towers in the foreground, while the picturesque constellation of Orion highlights the background. The star appearing just near the top of the volcano is Rigel. Although the asteroid dust particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting meteor streaks appear to radiate from a single point on the sky, in this case in the constellation of Gemini, off the top of the image. Like train tracks appearing to converge in the distance, the meteor radiant effect is due to perspective. The astrophotographer has estimated that there are about 50 Geminids visible in the above composite image – how many do you see?

Eagle nebula

The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745-46. Its name derives from its shape that is thought to resemble an eagle. It contains several active star-forming gas and dust regions.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Celestron C8 SCT
Imaging cameras: QHYCCD QHY5L-II Mono, Nikon D5000
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Goto
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion ShortTube 80
Guiding cameras: QHYCCD QHY5L-II Mono
Focal reducers: Celestron f/6.3 Focal Reducer/Corrector, GSO 1.25″ 0.5x Focal Reducer
Software: DeepSkyStacker, PHD guiding, Leandro Fornaziero Pardal Astronomy controls
Resolution: 2532×1588
Dates: July 3, 2013
Locations: Home
Frames: 1×3000″

Autor: Leandro Fornaziero

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
17 December 2013

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

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