Daily Archives: December 23, 2013

The Sun Online and solar activity. December 23, 2013

There were five M flares and thirteen C flares on the Sun during the past 24 hours, the large majority being released by NOAA AR 11928. The brightest one was an M3.3 flare from NOAA AR 11928 peaking at 15:12 UT on December 22. In the next 48 hours, the probability for C flares is very high (over
90%) and for M flares around 75%, mainly from beta-gamma regions NOAA AR 11928 and NOAA 11934. An X flare is possible but unlikely. A warning condition for proton storms is issued in view of the high flaring rate of NOAA AR 11928 near the West limb.In the past 24 hours, solar wind speed
decreased from around 340 km/s to around 310 km/s and the magnitude of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field was around 3 nT, as observed by ACE. Current geomagnetic conditions are quiet (K Dourbes between 0 and 2; NOAA Kp between 0 and 1) and are expected to remain so on December 23 and 24. On December 25, geomagnetic conditions might become active (K Dourbes = 4) due to the effects of a northern coronal hole (25-55N), which has passed the central meridian yesterday.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 12/23/13
Time UT: 01:00
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

Geminid Meteors over Chile

Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution)
From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on planet Earth over the past few weeks. Recorded near the shower’s peak over the night of December 13 and 14, the above skyscape captures Gemini’s shooting stars in a four-hour composite from the dark skies of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. In the foreground the 2.5-meter du Pont Telescope is visible as well as the 1-meter SWOPE telescope. The skies beyond the meteors are highlighted by Jupiter, seen as the bright spot near the image center, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, seen vertically on the image left, and the pinkish Orion Nebula on the far left. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini’s meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.
NASA APOD 23-dec-13

The Sculptor Galaxy

The Sculptor Galaxy, also known as the Silver Coin or Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.

As one of the brightest galaxies in the sky, the Sculptor Galaxy can be seen through binoculars and is near the star Beta Ceti. It is considered one of the most easily viewed galaxies in the sky after the Andromeda Galaxy.

The Sculptor Galaxy is a good target for observation with a telescope with a 300 mm diameter or larger. In such telescopes, it appears as a galaxy with a long, oval bulge and a mottled disc. Although the bulge appears only slightly brighter than the rest of the galaxy, it is fairly extended compared to the disk. In 400 mm scopes and larger, a dark dust lane northwest of the nucleus is visible, and over a dozen faint stars can be seen superimposed on the bulge.

Total Exposure Time : 7 hours (frames 600 seconds)
Camera : Apn 1000D modified
Telescope:Triplet Astrotech ed80mm

Autor: Alberto Barreiro Garcia

23 December 2013

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

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